The Guardian (K)Night

Chapters

The Turning
Interlude - Slender...
Promises & Burnt Hoofs
Secrets & Specimens Revealed
Blood & Wine
Interlude - A Family Stallion
Ambushes & Anger
Sickness & Sadness
Realizations & Rage
Feeding & Fear
Interlude - Things That go Bump in the Night
Interlude - Prophecies Predicted

The Turning

The world was cold and still and dark, and the full moon hung as silent sentinel to a young but desperately determined pony unknowingly running head long to her destiny. A single pony, with talent, will, and courage, in the right place at the right time. Holding a heart righteous and pure, unable to stand aside and do nothing when she had the power and knowledge to make a difference, no matter the risk or hardship that threatens her. A story as old as time, told time and time again in the tales of countless heroes throughout the world. The birth of an unwilling and unwitting legend. Without looking back, she galloped towards the dreaded Everfree Forest and what was sure to be life-threatening danger.

Twilight Sparkle suffered no delusions about what she was doing – she knew full well that this was most definitely not a good idea. The Everfree Forest was dangerous and fraught with peril even at the best of times, let alone at such a late hour when all of the nocturnal hunters emerged from their lairs to hunt and feed. She knew that this whole endeavor was quite frankly insane. Despite that small voice in the back of her head called common sense telling her this was a Bad Idea, she continued on anyways, instead of immediately turning around and fleeing back home – no matter how much she desperately wanted to. She did her best to justify and reassure herself of the necessity of her actions, reminding herself that she was doing it to keep everypony safe, that there was no time to lose, that the letter she sent to the princess would have arrived by now, and million other excuses rushed through her mind as she ran. But the point remained - this entire venture was crazy.

Though, as insane as the whole thing was, no matter how much her knees trembled with nervous fear and her breath hitched with trepidation, she couldn’t actually bring herself to turn away from her current path. Her excuses may have been razor thin, but they were still true nonetheless. Something had to be done, and she was perhaps the only one that could really do anything. Not only was she one of the most magically gifted and powerful unicorns born in the past millennium, but she most likely knew more about the fanatical cult calling themselves “The Will of the Eclipse” then anypony alive other than its current leader.

Ever since the princess had come to her in secret in the dead of night those many months ago to ask a favor, she had spent a vast amount of her time researching them. Their history, their rituals, their practices, their beliefs, their purpose, absolutely everything. Many a night had been spent in the cramped confines of her hidden study in the basement; slaving away over rolls and rolls of parchment and thick, musty tomes under the light of a single candle burned down to just a stub, and with only dust and eye-strain for company. All just to find out who they really were and what they wanted. And learn about them she did. She really wished she hadn’t.

She had discovered a great many things. Terrible, horrifying, evil things. Blackest of magics so foul and twisted that they should have never seen the light of day. The insane minds that created them were summarily executed without exception. Dark and horrible secrets that would be better off left and forgotten in the more gruesome annals of Equestria’s history. Dark and bloody rites and rituals that made a perverse mockery of everything she loved and held dear about magic that made her stomach twist in knots just to read about. Equestria was not the happy paradise it appeared to be on the surface, it had a dark underside that a select rare few knew about - and Twilight Sparkle suddenly found herself regretfully among their number. But if anypony could have handled this information in stride it was the studious unicorn herself.

She had searched long and hard for the mysterious ‘Will of the Eclipse’. She followed their trail through the printed word, asking carefully planned questions of suspicious ponies, even spending many nights essentially moonlighting as private investigator, all in order to find the strange cult. And finally, on this very night she had found them.

It was far worse than she could have ever imagined.

Hastily, she wrote a note to the princess detailing her horrid and dire findings and requesting assistance. Briefly she woke Spike to send it, before galloping from her home and charging headlong into the depths of the Everfree Forest. Now here she was, running down the same familiar path she had traversed once upon a time on a night not quite unlike this one, back when she had first come to Ponyville and met the ponies that would change her entire life. Like then, there was a gathering sense of tension and urgency that hung thick in the air. The forest was eerily calm and silent, the usual baying and howling calls of its inhabitants were absent and the sky was utterly clear of any clouds. Despite how reassuring this would normally be, it only served to give credence to Twilight’s fear that she may already be too late. Offering a quick and desperate prayer to the full moon visible directly overhead, she spurred herself to move ever faster.

*~-/^-~*

Thankfully, the path seemed much shorter than she remembered. That, and without a malevolent night goddess doing everything in its power to hinder her at every turn, Twilight quickly made it to her destination: The Ancient Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters.

It hadn’t really fared well since she’d seen it last. Once looming and imposing towers, stalwart gates, and immutable stone walls all crumbled in the face of the ravages of time. The rampart overgrowth of the Everfree Forest had mostly reclaimed the majority of the stone work over the years, as the various spells that once held back the forest’s encroachment failed one by one. Most of the small sections of wall still left standing only did so with the aid of a thick net of ivy and vines. Only an old stone sundial in the center of what was once the courtyard stood free of foliage, the carpet of moss, lichen and dead leaves stopping a full foot away from it, creating a perfectly circular island of stone amidst the sea of verdant green and brown.

The heavy gathering of fell magics in the air was obvious, already beginning to seep into and affect the surroundings. Dark and heavy storm clouds began to fill the skies above the ancient castle, roiling through the air and thickly pregnant will the promise of gale winds and torrential downpours. A tingling charge filled the air, causing the fur on the back of Twilight’s neck to stand on end and she could swear she smelt a faint scent of ozone somewhere nearby. The skin of her back crawled, and she felt as if countless unseen eyes boring into the back of her head with their hateful gazes from the shadows. Suppressing a frightened shiver, she hurried down the obvious path of disturbed leaves and crushed grass the cultists had left as they passed through earlier.

Passing beneath a miraculously still standing arch of stone she crossed the threshold of the castle proper. Hurrying through the ancient stone corridors, Twilight found that fresh torches filled the sconces along the walls, throwing the crumbling stonework all around into sharp, flickering shadows. The ponies she sought had not anticipated their potential discovery, and as such made no effort to hide their tracks in the thick dust and debris that coated nearly every surface. Twilight followed the trail to a small side corridor, half hidden behind a rather large pile of fallen stones. Taking a moment to gather herself, she took in a deep breath and let it out before plunging into the darkness.

No bright torches adorned the walls, nor did she dare light her horn for fear of revealing herself to those she followed. Staying close to the wall so as not to become lost, she pressed further into the oppressive gloom. The darkness became even thicker and more oppressive the further she went, pressing against her sharply as if the smother her. Soon it was joined by a cloying, sickening scent that pervaded the air. The reek only got worse the further she went, until it began to burn her nostrils and rake at the inside of her throat as she was forced to breathe it in. Not much later an eerie and off-putting chanting kept in an almost palpably hateful cadence began to suffuse the air, causing her ears to twitch and her fur to bristle along her neck and withers. Thankfully the pressing darkness slowly began to abate as the faint flickering of firelight slowly became visible around a bend in the corridor ahead. Unconsciously picking up the pace in a deeply instinctive effort to flee the dark, she hastened towards it.

She turned around the corner — before quickly ducking back into the darkness and losing the contents of her stomach against the wall, the bile burning her throat as it came up. She’d found the cultist ponies – and what was making the smell.

Even with the brief glimpse, Twilight’s sharp and analytic mind picked up nearly every detail. It wasn’t a very large room, perhaps serving as some sort of storeroom when the castle was still inhabited. There were a good many hooded and cloaked ponies, at least a dozen of them. They were all standing in a ring of swirling and intricate runes that glowed and flickered in a luminescence like a bright candle, and chanting in a strange and unknown language that grated against her ears.

In the center of the concentric rings of looping runes was a small filly, barely old enough to earn her cutie mark, long dead and impaled onto the floor with a beautiful and ornate gold and silver spear. Great tracks of tears fell from her eyes and blood spilling from her mouth. The wound opened in her chest had long since pooled into the grooves of the stone floor, tinting the glowing runes an eerie blue where it touched. The look on her face though, said it all. She was conscious when they did this to her.

Fighting hard to hold back her growing rage and rising bile at the sight, Twilight took deep and calming breaths – through her mouth, in a futile effort to avoid the smell – and tried her best to clear her head and think logically.

There were at least twelve ponies here. With her prodigious magical strength combined with the self-defense classes her brother made her take (which she was now very grateful for) she might just be able to subdue them. Even so, there was still a factor of the unknown here. This was a very important and powerful ritual, and she wouldn’t be surprised if they had taken some sort of precautionary measure to insure its safety and prevent tampering. In addition, Twilight would have to be careful about destabilizing the ritual’s rune structure; there was no real telling what would happen if this one was interrupted or completed incorrectly. It could do anything from fizzle out and fade away, to suddenly and violently release all the pent up energy being used in harsh whiplash of concussive magical force; bringing what was left of the castle down on top of them. At least the cultists had yet to see her; so Twilight still had the element of surprise on her side. As Twilight stood thinking, the light of the runes turned to a harsh and pulsating, almost ultra-violet blue incandescence and the voices rose to a tumultuous and fevered pitch.

Cringing, she cursed silently – the ritual was nearly complete, and it seemed that she had run out of time and options. The best she could do to stop them now was to rush in there and disrupt the ring of glyphs; thus destroying the ritual components and ritual in turn. It wasn’t a great option, but it was the best she had. Barring that, all that was left was to go for broke and charge in, horn blazing and consequences be damned. She desperately wished she wouldn’t have to do the later. There was the danger to herself, sure, but the danger to others was even greater. Even if they were evil, foal-murdering monsters they were still ponies; everything she’d ever been taught about magic and even her very nature rebelled at the thought of using her greatest gift to harm another.

She needed to act fast. Judging by the cultists’ fevered tempo and the rapid pulsing of the lights, the ceremony would be complete any moment now. After that, there would be nothing she could do to stop anypony else from ending up like the poor filly in the center of the chamber or worse.

She began channeling as much magic as she dared into her horn and held it there without shaping it. Hopefully this could all be over before it even began, all it would take was one well-placed burst of energy to gouge out the stone and utterly ruin the carefully carved sigils in the floor. Taking a moment to dampen the light of her horn and utter a silent prayer, she took a deep breath, steeled herself, and turned the corner, stalking silently towards the group of insidious ponies…

… and promptly stepped on a thin and unseen wire strung across the doorway, activating some unseen mechanism with a jingle of bells and a sharp crack.

Every head in the room immediately snapped to her as she held utterly still in stunned surprise. For a single moment all was quiet and utterly motionless, and even her heart held still as she frantically cursed her abominable luck.

And then everything seemed to happen at once. All together, the dozen or so cultists charged her in a single furious rush, as a larger hooded figure in the back of the room shouted, “Get her!”

Four pegasi barely managed to take wing in the cramped space of the stone room while four more earth ponies blitzed towards her as yet another four unicorns began to channel their magic into their horns in preparation to cast some sort of spell. Twilight immediately loosened the stored magical energy in her horn at the circle, hoping to destroy it early so she could take care of the cultist ponies at her own pace without having to worry about the ritual as well. She failed however, as a pegasus that was either particularly brave or just plain stupid dove into the path of the beam, taking the full hit and sparing the ring of runes. She was hurled backwards from the force of the hit, colliding with a charging earth pony and sending them both across the room to crash into the far wall with a loud and meaty thud. Judging by the unnatural angle at which their entangled limbs were bent, Twilight felt it safe to assume that they weren’t going to rejoin the fight, even as she fought down her gorge at the sight. Despite knowing their nefarious purpose she hoped that she hadn’t done any permanent damage. Unfortunately, there were still at least ten other ponies in the fray who were all hell-bent on stopping her. And most likely inflicting violent bodily harm upon her.

The four unicorns chose that moment to unleash the spells they had charged, sending various blasts of energy and force streaking towards her and forcing her to snap out of her thoughts of concern towards the two downed cultists and concentrate on stopping the rest of them. Focus, Twilight, she thought to herself. Despite how much the sudden burst of magic use had winded her, she still managed to conjure up a transparent wall of lavender energy in front of herself on near reflex just as the hostile spells and nearest of the earth ponies reached her. The spells simply bounced off, ricocheting wildly into the walls and ceiling, while the earth pony crashed into the magically solid wall with a heavy thud. He rebounded off of it and stumbled about dazedly, tripping up a second pony that was hot on his heels. Rapidly backpedaling away from the two of them, Twilight slammed the magic barrier down on top of them both before they had a chance to recover and quickly sealed its edges to the floor, trapping the two ponies in a small dome of her magical energy.

The remaining pegasi all began to dive-bomb her continuously, forcing her to pay attention to them and focus her concentration and spells upward as the unicorns charged up their horns again for a second barrage. She managed to keep them away from her sides with several waves of magical energy, which forced them to attack her head on and gave her enough time to form small shields to meet their steel-shod hooves. She couldn’t keep it up indefinitely though, the massive amounts of magic and concentration she’d already used in such a quick time was beginning to take its toll faster than she’d ever experienced before, her horn burning hot and her eyes beginning to cross. As focused as she was on fending of the miniature aerial assault, Twilight didn’t notice the final earth pony mare sneaking up behind her until the mare had pounced onto her back and tried to pin her in place as the cultist unicorns released another volley of magic.

Thinking quickly, Twilight tore the pony from her back with her telekinesis and heaved her into the path of the unicorns’ spells. They blasted full-force into the impromptu projectile, causing the pony’s body to spasm and lock up and utter an agonized squawk through the clenched muscles of her throat. Twilight couldn’t help but cringe at the sight but didn’t think on it for long as two of the pegasi swooped down to catch her before she could land in the center of the room to disrupt the circle. Twilight fired a magical bolt of her own at one of them, only for him to quickly dodge out of the way. She tried again and again, only for him to prove increasingly more nimble and dexterous as he dodged each and every bolt, until Twilight became desperate enough to simply swat him out of the air with a massive wall of telekinetic force, using perhaps more strength than was necessary as he hit the wall with a loud crunch and fell to the floor in a still heap. Twilight swallowed thickly and quickly turned away from the sight.

Meanwhile, the unicorns seemed to have wizened up and had been busy pooling their power together into a single massive charge. The two pegasi that were left swooped in on either side of her to try and catch her in a pincer-style attack. She waited until they were a scant few inches away from her and quickly teleported a few feet backwards, causing the both of them to collide head-on, rendering them both unconscious in what would have been a rather comical display in any other circumstances.

The unicorns finally unleashed their conjoined energy, sending a massive blast of energy hurtling towards her. Knowing she wouldn’t be able to block such a large burst of magic effectively, she instead gripped it in her own magic field. With a pained gasp and a burning horn, she flung the malevolent energy aside, where it blasted a hole in the stone wall at least a foot wide and twice as deep.

Knowing that every moment was precious, Twilight gripped all of their horns in her own magic field, and violently forced her own magic into them. For the several seconds Twilight locked her power with their own, she battled her opponents for hours across their mindscapes. One by one they fell, overwhelmed by the foreign magic Twilight pumped into them. Finally they all lie on the ground with bleeding eyes and ears, and with purple sparks dancing over their skin.

Twilight briefly joined them on the ground as the strength left her legs, her panting breaths sharp in her lungs, the rancid air clawing at her parched throat. Her entire body started trembling and a single runnel of blood leaked from her left nostril. She could see the small amount of light emitting from her horn as it glowed cherry red from the heat, and smell the acrid stench as its tip smoked and burned. This wasn’t good, she had used up just about all of the magic she had left with that last gambit and was in the latter stage of Magical Fatigue. After several moments to catch her breath, she shakily rose to her hooves again, wiping the bit of blood from her muzzle and panting deeply.

Having finally dealt with everypony else, she at last turned to the figure at the far end of the room. His hood was thrown back, revealing wild eyes dilated to pinpricks darting madly back and forth and an utterly psychotic grin stretching from ear to ear and almost splitting his face in two. His features were thrown into twisted and demonic relief in the strange and alien glow of the runes before him. He held one erratically twitching hoof above the glyphs in front of him as spoke. “You… you’re one of them aren’t you?! Huh, well?! Don’t lie to me!” he called to her, one corner of his eye rapidly twitching as he spoke. Caught off guard, Twilight said nothing, a bit disturbed by just how insane the pony seemed to be. “No, yes, no? Oh… well, it doesn’t matter anymore, nothing does, hehe. Yes, yes, you’re too late now, far, far too late! The heavens shall fall, desecrator! The heavens shall fall!” Stomping his hoof down the sigils flashed once on contact and a great shockwave rumbled around the stone chamber.

With a rush of air and a peal of steel on steel, a blaze as black as midnight grew up the cultist’s leg and engulfed him in almost less time than it took for Twilight to blink. The fire branched out, clawing through the air and along the floors and walls, ensnaring the other cultists and the young filly’s body where they lay as well. The dark flames consumed them voraciously; in mere moments leaving nothing but ashes and a faint echo of mad laughter. The ash scattered on an invisible wind as the ground began to shake and the stone beneath Twilight’s hooves began to split and crack. Screeching, she leapt to the relative safety of one of the room’s corners and watched helplessly horror as the ponies died all around her and everything fell apart.

Slowly the ultraviolet luminescence of the runes faded away to emerald flames as a demonic miasma began to seep through the cracks in the floor, filling the room with fell black mists. The air was filled with a horrific cacophony, as if some great beast were ripping apart a mountain as the very space itself above the runic circle was rent in twain. Gnashing fangs, crooked claws, and lashing tentacles all reached through the tear in space before dissolving away into shadows, filling the air with their tortured baying and furious howling.

Eyes wide with horrid realization and panicked fear, Twilight leapt from her small corner in the room towards the portal, acting on pure adrenaline and instinct. Landing just before it, she immediately turned and lashed out with her magic, pushing with everything she had. Heaving and straining with the last scraps of her strength and magic she had left, she tried desperately to force shut the dimensional doorway – only to fail. It was a futile effort, for no matter hard she struggled she could barely slow its advance, let alone force it to recede. Shedding helpless tears she continued anyways, casting spell after spell, blowing through her Magical Fatigue and even blitzing right into Magical Exhaustion. The drops of crimson from her nose became a stream and blood began to join the tears running down her face. Even her ears and horn began to seep blood as her body began to fail her. Her knees began to tremble and shake as the strength left them, leaving her standing only through sheer force of will. Her breath came in sharp gasps, her head felt light but pounded and throbbed painfully in time with the beating of her heart, and her vision began to fade and blacken at the corners. Despite all of this she continued struggling – she couldn’t afford to stop or give up, for if she failed here then all of Equestria could be in danger.

Finally, Twilight simply could struggle no more, her magic had run out utterly and completely. Collapsing to her knees as her will began to falter she looked to the portal in dismay. It swelled and throbbed, pulsing with the press of alien and demonic bodies as they pushed and fought to escape and invade. More bloody tears fell as she looked upon it in dismay. She was tired, so very tired. She wanted nothing more than to just go home, crawl into bed and sleep for the next three days straight. She never wanted this. She never wanted to skulk through the night, suspecting her friends and neighbors of being part of some cultist conspiracy. She never wanted to sneak about in a forest and fighting evil ponies. She missed being able to sleep at night without waking up screaming in a cold sweat as she dreamed of dark and horrible things.

But mostly – she missed her friends.

Twilight's mind began to wander as it started to shut down. Hazy memories of happier times appeared in her mind along with visions of things she wished to have done. As her fading consciousness played out her wants, another image came to the forefront. A small filly, laying in the center of a circle of runes and run through with a large spear as she bled onto the cold stone. More images soon followed it. Monsters running rampant in the streets. Sweet Apple Acres ablaze. Carousel Boutique crushed and in ruins. Her friends living on the streets. Ponyville cold, lonely and abandoned. Her imagination tortured her with visions of the nameless filly, but replaced her face with that of Apple Bloom or Sweetie Belle. Or Spike.

Gritting her teeth, Twilight steeled herself and shakily struggled to her hooves once again. And then she broke one of the first and foremost rules of magic: Never cast in Magical Depletion.

Closing her eyes, she began to focus and reached deep within herself, deeper than she ever had before. It took her a moment but she soon found what she was looking for: the source of all her magic – her soul. Slowly, carefully, she called upon it, drawing on its strength and letting it flow into her. Drawing her life-force into her horn to substitute for her spent magic, it began to glow. Instead of the usual lavender aura, the light was deeper somehow, richer and fuller with a shiny pearlescence. It waxed and waned with her heartbeat. It shone from the inside of her horn instead of the usual covering aura and filled her with a welcome warmth. Channeling as much of her life essence as she dared, she cast one final desperate spell. Immediately the soothing warmth of her soul receded and left her in a rush, leaving her trembling in cold and a horrible empty hollowness. She collapsed onto her side, her strength gone, even as the strange soul-light still filled her horn and her spell streaked towards the portal. The spell-bolt struck the rent in space and the room was filled with pearly light as massive chains of solid energy lashed out and snaked around it until it was completely ensnared. After a few tense moments, the portal’s writhing and heaving motions began to slow and, after a moment, ceased altogether. After several seconds of stillness and silence, Twilight allowed herself a small and tentative but hopeful smile…

… only for the chains to shatter. The portal surged explosively outwards in every direction, filling the room with a tremor of dark energy. Horrid and monstrous shadows and incorporeal forms leapt from its depths and passed through the stone walls like so many ghosts, fleeing to roam and stalk Equestria as they saw fit. Not having the strength to do much more, Twilight could only lift her head and stare in horror and despair at her greatest failure.

After several long minutes that lasted an eternity the flow of the countless shadowy creatures began to slow and cease, and the portal receded as well, but not before two final figures emerged as well.

They were huge and grotesque, tall enough to tower over even Princess Celestia, their forms twisted and freakish mockeries of both life and physiology. One was almost normal, its body like that of a chestnut coated pony, bigger than anypony she’d ever seen, with hooves the almost the size of her head and an ebon colored tail. All of this served only to make its lack of a proper neck and head even more freakish. Where such features would normally be found on any other pony was the beginnings of another body entirely. It reminded Twilight of nothing more than the upper half of a deformed minotaur; with its sparse and patchy coat of hair, bulging and rippling musculature, flattened and muzzle-less face, sharpened teeth and hornless head. The portal finally closed completely as the two hideous monstrosities stepped out to it and took their first breaths of Equestrian air.

The second beast was even more hideous, standing tall and slender on its hind legs. Its fore-limbs looked long, thin and powerful; hanging down to its knees and each ending in several talon-tip digits. Its face was as flat as its companion’s, with a sharp chin and large maw lined with several teeth and serrated fangs alike, a large upturned nose, and a pair of large and pointed dagger-like ears on either side of its head. A pair of massive, leathery, membranous wings lay draped around its body, covering it like a cloak. Its flesh was pale as the moon and utterly hairless, stretched taut against its frame and bearing the sickly white pallor of a corpse.

Their claws and hooves both scraped against the stone floor as they walked forward and took in the sight before them. Bright and intelligent green eyes darted back and forth from beneath a shaggy mop of thick hair atop the head of the pony/minotaur hybrid as it absentmindedly rubbed the haft of the small stone throwing-ax slung through the thick leather belt around its waist. The two-legged one just stalked over to her and lifted her part way off the ground by a fistful of her mane. It spoke with a wheezy and rasping voice that made Twilight think of sandpaper and dust as it licked off some of the blood and tears on her cheek with a long, black, forked tongue, and said, “Well just look at what we have here, they left us an offering.” It smiled, its fangs glinting slightly in the emerald firelight and a trace amount of Twilight’s blood hanging in the corner of its mouth. It proceeded to lick away any of her blood where it found it, its cold and rasping tongue dancing across her suddenly burning flesh, calling to mind countless unwanted images of all manner of things that wiggled and squirmed under-hoof in the dead of night, making her tremble in fear and disgust. As Twilight was busy trying keep her heart from leaping into her throat, the hybrid spoke a few words in a language she didn’t recognize in a voice that was surprisingly pleasant, sounding like the chirping of birds and the soft crunching of gravel under-hoof.

The pale monster finished licking away the blood from her face before turning to look at the hybrid. “I understand your caution but it is misplaced. Yes, I’ve already felt it, and besides, there’s no one around besides us and the little toy here,” it said, shaking her slightly in emphasis. She began to tremble even harder, shivering uncontrollably. The hybrid thing just frowned, crossing its arms and stomping a fore hoof twice. The pale one rolled its eyes before turning back to her and smiling even wider. It leaned into her, pressing its black lips against the nape of her neck, its rotted smelling breath ruffling the fine hairs of her coat, and slowly it started to add pressure and open its mouth. Twilight’s eyes grew even wider, and she began to thrash in terror, and in a near instinctual knee-jerk reaction she tried to force magic through her still-glowing horn to push it off of her. Instead of any sort of helpful spell or telekinetic force, her utter lack of magical reserves caused several pearlescent sparks of life energy to sputter from her horn. Each of the sparks fluttered and danced through the air like the embers of a dying fire cast adrift on the wind. Instead of simply fading and guttering out like simple motes of light, they fell on the pale creature, burning and scalding its flesh like a hot iron wherever they touched. The monster gave a tinny shriek of agony and tossed her bodily across the room and into the far wall by her hair with a flick of its wrist.

She hit the wall forcefully and there was a dull crack somewhere inside her body, adding to her already numerous aches and pains. She lay on the ground in a broken and battered heap for several moments. Slowly and carefully, the pale creature stalked over to her once more, its face held in a tight grimace of contained rage. It gripped her around her throat and lifted her off the ground entirely, bringing her face-to-face with itself and boring into her with its own slit and predatory eyes. “You,” it hissed from between teeth grit in pain and anger, “have just made a very grave mistake. Your last mistake.”

Throwing her to the stone floor it fell atop her, pinning her to the ground with its arms and surprisingly heavy body weight. It opened its mouth unnaturally wide, distending its jaw until its maw seemed open wide enough to swallow her head whole. Its jutting fangs elongated even further, daggers of bone growing and twisting from its maw. Saliva dripped from their gleaming tips as it stared at her with a hungry glint in its eyes. Then, quicker than her eye could follow, its head whipped forward, its fangs sinking deeply into her soft and tender flesh where her leg and shoulder met.

Twilight screamed. Loudly. The pain was incredible and indescribable, shooting through her body in burning lances of hot agony. Gratuitous amounts of blood welled and poured from the wound, pooling thickly on the ground in seconds. She could feel every bit of it as her nerves screamed at her and her muscle and flesh separated from her body as the pale monster slowly brought its jaws together. With a twist of its head and a sharp jerk the beast tore away its mouthful of her meat, causing her to instantly lose all feeling in her leg and harsh lines of scarlet to shoot all over the walls. The monster swallowed audibly, its body giving a pleasant shudder as the hunk of her flesh slid down its throat. It turned to her and smiled, a glazed look in its eyes and her blood painting the lower half of its face crimson. Twilight trembled and shook even harder, beginning her screaming anew. The monster just gave a hollow laugh before pressing its mouth against her gaping wound, completely ignoring her fervent struggles and panicked thrashing as it ecstatically guzzled her life’s blood.

Twilight pushed and groaned and heaved, thrashing wildly and desperately doing everything should the get the terrifying monster off of her. However, even with her consuming terror and panicked strength, the creature held fast, its tight grip like iron. She even tried desperately to use magic to force it off of her, forcing and channeling so much of her life energy that almost her entire essence resided in her horn, but the constant and mind-numbing agony drove out any thought or concentration she might have had and she could no more cast a spell than force the thing off her with her own limbs. Her limbs began to grow cold, her screams petering out and her vision going black.

Twilight’s panic surged, and she tried one final, desperate act. Grunting and straining, she channeled as much of her life-force into her horn as she could, pushing until it felt as if her very soul itself was inside the spiraled edifice. Her horn shone with a pearlescent light so bright it hurt to gaze upon and burned like somepony was shoving spikes of glowing coals into her skull. Ignoring her, the monstrosity pulled back for another bite. Acting quickly, she twisted her neck around and managed to gore the pale monster though the chest, entering right through its heart and exiting next to its spine. For a single, eternally long moment – time seemed to stop.

And then the world exploded.

There was a great flash of blinding light and a rush of heat, as a sound not unlike the chiming of an enormous bell filled the air. For a moment the entire chamber was brightly illuminated, revealing a scene held in stunned silence. The light slowly faded, and the world seemed to rush in once more. The pale monster took its mouth off of her wound, leaving it to drip and spill blood intermittently, and with shaking and trembling hands it carefully removed itself from her horn. As soon as it was free it stumbled several large strides backwards and fell to its knees, clutching tightly at the mortal wound. Pulling its hands away, it just starred confusedly at the thick black blood staining them, as well as the pulsating and shifting multifaceted orb of pearly light that lingered in the wound, connected to Twilight’s horn by faded, wispy threads of energy. Twilight had collapsed completely as soon as she had thrust her horn, her heart and lungs ceasing. The last thing she saw as her world faded to cold and black was the creature looking at her, its questioning gaze full of confusion and fear.

*~-/^-~*

The creature watched as the strange little thing that was supposed to be its meal sank into its deathly sleep. The monster’s face bore an expression of fear and confusion, and it opened its mouth to speak, but instead of words only a large gush of its own semi-congealed black blood flowed out its throat and dribbled down its chin.

Slowly, it reached a trembling and questioning hand towards her as its legs blackened and turned to ash beneath it. It kept reaching for her, and fell forward with a soft thud, disturbing the ash that was its legs and causing them to lose their shape and scatter across the floor. The creature used its arms to pull itself along and crawl across the floor towards her, the blackness spreading and turning its body to ash as it did. Soon, the ashen corruption reached the creature’s shoulders, and it could go no further. Reaching for her with its right arm one last time, the creature’s expression slowly shifting from confused horror to comprehension and panic.

Its raised arm fell to the floor one last time as the rest of its body returned to the dust and ash of whence it came.

The ashes and dust that was once the pale creature stirred, and from them rose wisps of ghostly sanguine light. Some began to dissipate, but most coiled and coalesced within and around the pearlescent trails of lavender light that was already there. They intermingled, until they merged completely, leaving only wisp and fragments of pearlescent crimson. The light slowly receded into Twilight’s horn, causing her whole body to tremble as she drew in a large gasp of air.

And then, she began to change.

Mouth stretched in a silent scream, her body twitched and jerked, scarlet sparks dancing across her skin as loud cracks and pops resounded through the stone room. The shifting of bones, muscle and sinew was clearly visible beneath her flesh, writhing as if thousands small crawling things were wriggling just beneath the surface of her flesh. Her ribcage briefly collapsed, before expanding larger than it was before, the organs beneath it shifting and changing, some growing and others shrinking, some disappearing all together and new ones growing in to take their place. Her heart grew to almost twice its original size, growing new ventricles, and her lungs shrank. All the blood in her veins boiled, before being replenished and boiled away again, over and over. Her joints ripped themselves out of their sockets, twisting and turning, growing newer, stronger, more elastic sinews before violently popping back into place. Her bones expanded, growing longer, grinding themselves to dust as they broke and shattered and formed and reformed, growing denser and stronger. The edges of the gaping wound in her shoulder wriggled and writhed, shifting and bulging, growing together until there wasn’t a trace of it left. All the muscles in her body trembled as they grew and ripped and stretched, folding in on themselves over and over, growing denser and denser. Her skin began to bubble and boil, burning and sloughing off her frame in great liquid sheets as new, thicker, stronger flesh and veins, lustrous fur and gossamer hair grew over her muscle and bone. Her horn cracked and splintered and shattered, the slivers of bone and blood being pushed out as new, longer, sharper horn thrust its way out of her skull in its place. Her teeth cracked and ground to dust, falling out of her mouth as new, stronger, sharper ones took their place, with the addition of new fangs hanging from her upper jaw. Her muzzle extended to accommodate its new occupants, as did her torso and limbs. Slowly, the many loud and grotesque noises of Twilight’s body ripping itself apart and putting itself back together again abated, leaving the room in silence.

With a shuddering gasp, her new, sharper ears twitched to and fro, as eyes blearily opened, revealing that they too had been changed. The irises had greatly darkened and the pupils were no more than vertical slits. For a moment, everything was silent. Slowly, the creature that was once Twilight rose to her hooves with sharp, jerky, methodical motions. With careful movements, she turned to the hybrid creature across the room, who eyed her with a mask of disgust, curiosity and terror. Swiftly, it dropped to its knees, bowing its head to her and uttering several lyrical words that were neither heeded nor understood. She just stared on impassively, uncaring and uncomprehending. Shifting into a crouch, her eyes began to glow faintly red. Any manner of logic or reason was long since gone, leaving only sharp, all-consuming hunger in its wake. Opening her jaw incredibly wide until it almost came unhinged, she let out a wailing shriek of an unnatural pitch that should never have come from any sort of equine throat.

Pushing against the ground she pounced, leaping through the air and clearing the distance of the entire room in a single bound. The hybrid gave a startled yelp, shooting to its hooves and swung at her with a massive fist, connecting and sending her flying. She hit the wall with enough force to crack the stone, and fell dazedly to the ground, a little hurt but undeterred. Staying low to the ground, she rushed it again, only for it to swing wildly at her with its small stone ax, interrupting her wild charge. She bobbed and weaved, avoiding most of the panicked swings, but the beast managed to get lucky and the tip of the stone blade caught her skull, opening a furrow of flesh right above her eyes that instantly began to weep blood.

She rushed it again, sliding under its reach with her belly against the floor and coming up beneath the hybrid’s body. Snarling, she jabbed her sharpened horn upwards, tearing easily through the beast’s flesh. She was however stopped shy of eviscerating it by a near solid wall of muscle. Yowling in pain, the hybrid leapt backwards, reaching down and grabbing her by the waist and lifting her up. Twilight lashed out and easily sank her fangs into the soft flesh of its wrist. As she suckled greedily at the crimson rush that flowed from the wound, the beast howled in both pain and fear, flinging her away against the far wall. Before she could recover from her daze, the beast desperately hurled its stone ax at her.

Barely managing to avoid dismemberment, the ax still hit her in the side, carving a deep and jagged trench in her flesh, muscle and bone. Enraged at the sight of her grievous wound, she charged towards the lumbering giant. Finally having stopped panicking, it anticipated this and reached out with its arm in an attempt to grab her, only for her to leap on top of the appendage. Using her momentum, she craned her head forward, and drove her horn straight into its eye. Howling in agony, it reached up to clutch at the now ruined socket, just as Twilight used the momentary distraction to jump onto the beasts back. As it bellowed and trashed about, she reached up and sank her fangs deeply into the side of its neck. Clamping down tightly, she gave a single sharp twist, and completely tore the beast’s throat out. Blood sprayed everywhere, coating the stone walls, floor and even roof in a thick crimson flood. Giving a final pained, panicked, and rasping gurgle, the monster collapsed to its knees, clutching the mortal wound in a vain and instinctive attempt to stem the flow of precious fluid.

Not even waiting for the beast to finish dying, Twilight immediately set her muzzle against what was once the monster’s throat and began to guzzle down the flow like a sweet nectar. She devoured her hard won prize violently and greedily, and so entrapped was she in doing so that she did not notice at first that she was no longer alone.

*~-/^-~*

Standing in the doorway on the other side of the room was none other than the Princess of the Night herself, flanked on either side by a pair of her bat-winged personal nocturnal guard. Casting her gaze about the room, Princess Luna surveyed the blood and carnage with a growing sense of horror, her expression mirrored and magnified by her entourage. Swallowing several times to get the taste of rising bile out of her mouth, she spoke in a quivering voice, “Twilight Sparkle, we came as soon as we received thy letter of summons. Please, tell us just what in the Pit’s name… has... happened…”

The lunar princess trailed off into silence as she spied the state of the pony she spoke to, with her blood-stained muzzle and feral, predatory eyes. Staring in shock, the princess worked her mouth open and closed several times before she could properly articulate her thoughts. Blinking owlishly and holding back a dry heave, she quietly asked, “What has happened here, young Twi—“

Before she could finish her sentence however, she was interrupted by Twilight leaping through the air towards her. Her fangs were bared in an animalistic snarl as she loosed an utterly terrifying screech of a volume that had no right coming from such a small pony.

Luna reflexively up a shield of magic energy which Twilight collided with head-first, rebounding off of it. Both of the nocturnal guards surged forward and pinned her to the ground with their full weight, along with Luna’s telekinetic assistance. Twilight thrashed and struggled futilely against her bonds, snapping at Luna with her sharp fangs.

The princess could only stare at her sister’s beloved student in disbelief. Her disbelief lasted only momentarily though, as a sudden realization struck her. She lowered her horn and touched it against Twilight’s, desperately using her magic to search and look through her, hoping and praying that she didn’t find what she was looking for. Her hopes were dashed and crushed almost instantly. Tears of pity and self-loathing filled her eyes, and after a moment she blinked them away and spoke softly to the struggling pony. “Oh, Twilight… We are sorry. So very, very sorry. We should have left sooner, should have flown faster, should have… have…” Tears threatened to spill from Luna’s eyes as she spoke, and she had to struggle to swallow the lump in her throat. “Thou doth not deserve… deserve this…” Gently, Luna cast a simple clarity spell on Twilight, straining to provide enough power to break through to her.

Slowly, the all-consuming hunger and instinct that drove Twilight began to recede, leaving her mind a confused and clouded mess as her eyes began to lighten and dilate to a more rounded state, her body shrinking and rounding out. Disorientated, she began to struggle weakly, letting out plantative and unintelligible mewls and grunts.

“Hush now, Twilight. It is time for you to rest. You will need it for what is to come,” Luna whispered soothingly, her face bearing a look full of compassion.

Twilight tried to reach out to her and respond, but whatever dregs of adrenaline that had been fueling her body finally gave out. Blackness crept around the corners of her vision, and she felt herself begin to drift away, her mind filled with images of fangs and splashes of crimson.

Interlude - Slender...

There was a noise at the window. It was something like a rock or a tree branch, somewhere between a pitter-patter and scritch-scratch and just barely too loud to be ignored. It was loud enough to wake a sleeping pony, even in the dead of night.

Throwing off her covers, Apple Bloom climbed down from her bed and made her way to the window, blearily rubbing her eyes as she walked. She cast her half-lidded gaze into the moonlit yard in an attempt to locate the source of the noise as she swung open the glass panes, ignoring the creak of old hinges and the way the wind tousled her bedraggled hair. Her eyes quickly swept across the comfortably familiar scene from her window. When nothing was immediately apparent, she pulled her head back inside to close and latch the window, only to stop half-way as she noticed something out of the corner of her eye.

Opening it even wider, Apple Bloom leaned out of the window, placing her fore-hooves on the sill for better support. Squinting to focus her still sleep blurred vision, she gazed fixedly at the trunk of a particular tree, only to find noth– no, wait, there it was again! A small flash of white against black quickly disappearing behind the tree just as she saw it.

Growing curious, Apple Bloomed closed the window and grabbed her bow from her bed-side table. Tying her mane up, she headed downstairs, and out the door. She shivered slightly as the chill of the midnight air brushed against her coat after having become used to the comfortable warmth of her bed. Treading lightly on the wet grass, Apple Bloom hurried to the edge of the orchard, eager to find whatever it was she had seen and then return to her bed and sleep again, this time uninterrupted by strange noises.

Looking around, she saw not much of anything. There was plenty of wood, leaves, and apples, just as there always was, but not much more. Despite this, she kept looking anyway, her curiosity having been piqued. Turning around one of the trees she caught sight of it once more, dashing silently through the rows of apple trees. Darting off after it, she found herself heading deeper and deeper into the Acres.

Apple Bloom didn’t quite notice it at first, but everything was silent, unnaturally so. Even the ever present nocturnal sounds of crickets, toads and owls had stopped. The only sound to be heard was her own breathing and the beating of her hooves against the earth. Piling on a little extra speed, she pushed forward, turning around a bend in the trees quickly enough to catch better sight of what she was following. It looked almost like a tall pony, wearing a suit and moving quickly on long legs.

“Hey! Hey, wait up!” she called, only to receive silence in response. Furrowing her brow, she began running ever faster in an attempt to catch up with her query, only for it to remain just out of her reach and always just around the bend. Had she been paying attention to her surroundings instead of focusing single-mindedly on her chase, Apple Bloom would have noticed that she was getting closer and closer to the edge of the Everfree Forest.

As such, when she finally did make it to the border between her farm and the dreaded wood, she halted abruptly, falling on her face. Picking herself up, she faced the shaded copse of trees that marked the edge of the Everfree. There she saw the pony she had been chasing, standing just far away enough to be obscured by shadow, leaving only his white hooves and black suit visible.

“Hello? Mister? Are ya’ll alright? What’chya doin’ ‘round here, don’t ya know it’s dangerous to be near the Everfree forest? And what were you doin’ on mah farm anyway?” she questioned, only for him to stand stoically just beyond her sight. Angry at being ignored and frustrated from the chase, Apple Bloom huffed and opened her mouth scold him for his silence when being questioned, but stopped when she heard something. Tilting her head, her ears flicking towards the forest, she could just barely make out faint whispers carried on the wind.

They lingered on the edge of her hearing, just loud enough to be heard at all but still too quiet to make out what was being said. Turning her head towards the noise, she unconsciously took a step closer to the forest in an attempt to hear it better. It was still just barely audible, and she walked ever closer, eventually stopping half-way between the trees of the apple orchard and those of the Everfree. Slowly the whispers gained a vague semblance of clarity, and she could barely make out a single word, spoken in a voice as light and substantial as the wind,

‘…..coMe…..’

As soon as the single word registered in her mind, Apple Bloom froze dead in her track, eyes flying wide and a cold tremor of fear crawling its way along her spine. She turned her head to face the forest with deliberate slowness, afraid of what she might see.

In the brief, split-second moment it had taken her to turn her head, he had somehow moved from his spot in the shadows of the forest to be right in front of her, close enough that she was almost touching him, all in complete and utter silence. His pure white coat shone palely in the moonlight, even as his jet black suit and blood red tie clashed with it in a stark contrast. The impossible silent grace with which he moved on his overly long limbs was frightening… but that wasn’t the worst of it, not by a long shot. There was one thing in particular about him, one thing just so incredibly wrong about him that it froze her to the spot in abject terror.

He had no face.

Apple Bloom’s cry of confusion and terror was cut short before it could even begin.

*~-/^-~*

Sweetie Belle was awoken by a scratching at her door. She rolled over in her bed, hoping that it would just go away. Instead the scratching only louder. Grabbing one of her pillows, she pressed it against her ears in an attempt to block out the noise. Much to her annoyance however, it only seemed to get even louder, until it grated on her ear-drums and drove any hope of falling back to sleep away.

Grumbling, she tossed aside her bedding and clambered down onto the cold wooden floor, irritably making her way to the door. She opened it with a huff, expecting to find Opalescence sharpening her claws on the door frame or some such, but was instead met with only the empty darkness of the second story hallway of Carousel Boutique. She peered down either side of the hallway, only to find nothing. Retreating back into her room, she was shutting the door behind her when she heard the noise again, this time coming from the hallway.

With a curious frown she stepped out of her room, walking through the darkness and looking for the noise’s source. After several minutes of searching during which the noise did not repeat itself she was about to go back to bed when she noticed something near the wall. Stooping low to look closely, she saw a thin scratch in the otherwise immaculate varnish of the Boutique’s floor. It started against the molding where the wall met the floor and trailed off into the darkness somewhere near the stairs leading to the first floor, growing larger as it went until it became a large gouge in the wood.

Such a mark was unheard of in the Boutique. Rarity was meticulous, almost to the point of obsession, about keeping everything under her roof as clean and presentable as possible. She would have been driven up the wall had she seen ugly blemish on her beautiful floors. Curiosity piqued, Sweetie Belle decided to follow the mark and perhaps find out what caused it and be of whatever use she could to her beloved older sister and satisfy her own piqued morbid curiosity.

Treading lightly to minimize the clip-clop of her hooves, she followed the offending mark down the hallway and to the stairs, where it continued onto the first floor, never once letting up from its single unbroken line. Noting the strange and unwavering constancy of the mark, Sweetie Belle never the less followed down the stairs. Her head close to the ground like a blood-hound on a scent trail, she followed the winding and curving path of the mark all through-out the Boutique’s first floor. She was so focused on it, that she did not notice that she had walked all the way to the front door until she bumped into it with her head.

Falling back onto her haunches and rubbing the new bump on her head, she ineffectually glared daggers at the offending wooden portal. She crossly opened the door to step outside and quickly closed it with perhaps a little more force than necessary. Bending down to continue following the strange mark, she found that for some reason it had stopped at the doorway.

Irritated that her searching and the bump on her head had been for naught, she huffily turned to return inside when she heard a soft voice. Stopping, she turned around and gazed down the street, looking for whoever might have spoken. Strangely enough though, the streets were completely empty, save for her. Shrugging, she turned again to go back inside when she heard the whisper-quiet voice yet again, this time a little more clearly. Pricking her ears, she could just barely make out some subtle noises issuing from the alleyway between the Boutique and the building next door.

Curious as to why anypony would be wondering an alley so late at night, she made her way to the small space between buildings. The height of the two buildings was enough to block the light of the full moon, casting the entire space into deep shadow. Despite this, Sweetie Belle could easily make out the shape of a tall white stallion in a black suit hunched over something else that was blocked from her vision.

“Hello? Mister? What are you doing here? Are you lost?” she asked him, concerned. The strange stallion stopped moving as soon as she spoke, and for a moment held perfectly and unnaturally still. Then, ever so slowly, he rose to his hooves and turned his faceless head towards Sweetie Belle.

She disappeared into the darkness of the night without a trace.

*~-/^-~*

Thu-Thump

Scootaloo was awake in an instant. She knew that sound only all too well. Wasting no time, she bolted out of bed, rushing as quickly and quietly as she could to her closet. Pulling it open, she cringed slightly as it creaked on old hinges, and grasped her trusty wooden baseball bat.

Thu-Thump

Gripping the bat tightly in her teeth, she carefully tip-hoofed her way to her bedroom door, opening it as silently as she could so as not to alert whoever was there that she was awake. Moving as stealthily as she could, she made her way to the front of her house and the source of the noise.

Thu-Thump

She gritted her teeth against the cloth wrappings of the wooden bat in an effort to control her anger. It wouldn’t help to do anything rash now. Raising her impromptu weapon high above her head, she quickly turned the corner to her living room to face whatever burglar was foolish enough to think her home was an easy mark just because it was on the outskirts of town.

Thu—

The sound suddenly and abruptly stopped the moment she turned the corner and the room fell into her sight, cutting off as sharp and jarringly as if the world had suddenly been muted. Without lowering her guard, Scootaloo looked around the room for the intruder, only to find no trace of them. In fact, not a single thing was out place. Not even the thick piles of dust were disturbed. Carefully and thoroughly checking that everything was accounted for, she let out a relieved sigh, shivering a little at the sound of her breath in the otherwise perfect silence.

Simply happy that she had not been robbed instead of being irritated that she had been woken up and put on guard by a figment of her imagination, she made her way back to her room, set her bat by the side of her door, and closed it behind her with a soft click. “I guess I’m just imagining things again,” she muttered aloud, turning to walk back to her bed. Only to walk face-first into the legs of a black suit.

She never even had a chance to scream.

Promises & Burnt Hoofs

Twilight Sparkle did not want to wake up. Even as her mind and body betrayed her and she drifted inexorably towards consciousness, she desperately clung to the last remaining vestiges of comfortable darkness and slumber that lingered at the edges of her mind. Uttering a half-hearted and half-awake moan of protest, she rolled over and pulled her blanket more tightly around her, the soft satin of the material hugging her body. Smiling in contentedness, she snuggled even further into the comfort of the bed. Why should she get up anyways? There was nothing that needed doing today. Her friendship reports had been compiled, her library re-shelved, her thesis on the application of camaraderie in academia was already sent off and awaiting approval, and the myriad of other day-to-day things that needed her attention could wait a little longer. She deserved to sleep in for once, to enjoy the soft silken sheets, the thick downy pillow, the smooth satin cover, the plush mattress, the— this wasn’t her bed.

The thought hit her like a bolt of lightning. In an instant and before she had even realized she was moving she stood beside the bedframe, on edge as the blankets lazily drifted down from the spot near the ceiling where she had thrown them in her haste. Blinking rapidly, a perplexed frown tugged at the corners of her mouth. Confusion at both the speed and ferocity of her reaction – or rather over-reaction – colored her features and thoughts as she took in her surroundings.

The room was large and spacious, as well as tastefully furnished if the many discussions about aesthetics Twilight had with Rarity were anything to go by. It was large and mostly open, with a large writing desk, an empty wardrobe, and a large canopy bed as the only furnishings other than several paintings of night-time landscapes of Canterlot and the surrounding country-side. The whole room seemed themed around a royal purple and midnight blue motif, decorated here and there with black or silver highlights. The thick drapes covering the room’s only window were a deep violet color, strikingly reminiscent of the color of her own mane, and cast the room into darkness, allowing only the most ambient of light through. The curtains and sheets on the bed were a similar color, although the blankets and pillows were a rather complimentary midnight blue. The center floor of the room was dominated by a massive rug, decorated with beautiful depictions of the night sky and intricate designs of silver filigree that caught her eye and flowed in a delicate and complex pattern that if she tried to follow the design she soon lost track of where one design started and another ended. Two thick cherry wood doors with inlaid silver trim, one placed one the wall opposite the window and the other beside the writing desk, completed the look of the room.

The whole setting was strangely familiar. She didn’t quite know where she was, but she felt a nagging sense of familiarity, the sort of feeling one got from a well visited park or store, instead of visiting someplace new for the first time. Her frown deepening, she trotted to the window and cast the drapes to the side, allowing the soft (and for some reason still quite warm) beams of the evening sun’s light into the room. Immediately, she mentally face-hoofed for not recognizing her location sooner. Below the window was the entire city of Canterlot, spread out before her. The entire city seemed to be visible from where she stood, and if she squinted she swore she could make out the various individual denizens of Equestria’s capital trotting to and fro, some locking down their businesses for the night and heading home and some in the more seedy parts of town just now leaving to begin a night of revelry in the various clubs that dotted the downtown districts. The whole sight was tinted a deep red and pale orange tint in the light of the setting sun and for a moment Twilight felt a wave of nostalgia for the city that been her home all her life until just a few years ago.

“Thou wouldst be remiss to continue standing there, young Twilight,” spoke smooth voice with a deep archaic accent from behind her.

Twilight nearly leapt out of her skin, immediately turning around to face whoever had startled her and dropping to a crouch. Much to her surprise however, the Princess of the Night stood in the far doorway, a small, tight smile on her lips morphing to an amused one as she watched her reaction. “P-princess?” Twilight stammered, swiftly dipping into a bow from her crouched position. “I-I’m sorry I didn’t—“she began to apologize, but was cut off by Luna raising a hoof.

“Do not fret over it Twilight Sparkle,” she said dismissively, still with a soft smile. “But as We said, thou should not said near yon window.”

“Huh? Why not?” Twilight inquired with a tilt of her head.

At this Luna’s smile became a little more forced. She was silent for a moment, but with a piteous and conflicted look in her eyes. After a moment she gave her head a quick shake and said, “Look at thy hoof in the sunlight, Twilight Sparkle.”

A skeptical look colored her features as Twilight tentatively lifted her hoof. For some reason the fur and skin was darker than it should have been. Turning it over she saw much of the same. Placing the limb back on the floor she turned back to the Night Princess. “Um, Princess? What about my hoof?” she asked. And when did I get a tan?

The princess grew silent. Her smile disappeared and her expression became contemplative. Her eyebrows furrowed in thought and after several seconds she changed the subject. “Tell us, Twilight Sparkle, how dost thou feel?”

A bit taken aback by the jump in conversation and sudden concern, Twilight blinked several times before answering. “Well now that you mention it, I’m kind of thirsty,” she replied, licking her lips and noticing a very odd sort of faint hungry dryness at the back of her throat now that she thought about it.

Luna’s expression fell. “We see. And thou art completely fine otherwise? There is nothing We can do to make thy stay here any more comfortable?”

“Well, it’s a bit hot in here, but yes. I’m fine,” she answered. “Um, Princess?” she ventured a bit hesitantly, “what’s going on anyway? Where are we? How did I get here? And why am I even here anyways? What exactly happened last night?”

Luna made no attempt to mask her surprise at the last question. “What!? Thou dost not remember the occurrences of last night?”

Luna’s sudden outburst startled Twilight, causing her to back pedal rapidly and press against the window sill. “I-I… n-no I… I’m sorry!”

Realizing her mistake, Luna tried to reassure Twilight, “No no, Twilight, it is alright. We are just… surprised, to say the least.” She sighed deeply, rubbing her hoof against her forehead. “This just… complicates things, Twilight Sparkle. Thou truly dost not remember anything of what occurred the night previous?” she explained, a slight tone of desperation in the question.

Twilight shrank back, folding her ears against her skull and looked down at the floor, furrowing her brow in deep concentration and scoffing a hoof on the carpet as she answered sheepishly. “I’m really sorry Princess. I remember going downstairs to read over some books for that project you gave me because I was on the verge of a big break-through, but everything after that is a bit fuzzy. I think there was something about a letter, and running around outside and I remember looking at the moon but that’s about it. Why does it matter? What happened anyways?” she responded, raising her gaze from near her hooves to meet the princess’s as she spoke.

Upon hearing Twilight’s words, Luna’s expression grew pained. She turned her head away, not willing to meet the unicorn’s eyes. “We… see,” she said after a while, her voice tense. Evidence of some sort of internal debate or conflict was etched clearly on her face. After several moments longer of silence, she seemed to have come to a conclusion. Turning to face Twilight, she spoke, “We see. If that is truly the case then there is much We must discuss with thee.” She turned to leave the room, Twilight starting to following, but stopped part way out through the doorway and raised a wing. “Wait, Twilight. Before we go… look at thy hoof in the light once more.” Had Luna been facing her, Twilight would have been able to see the expression of deep guilt and pity on her face.

Tilting her head quizzically, she shrugged her shoulders and decided to just play along. She held up her hoof to the light of the window again, turning to look at it closely, but after only a single glimpse she froze in place. In just the short time she had spent talking with the Princess, her flesh and fur had darkened even further. Starting at her fetlocks, the skin and coat of her leg was becoming a dark, almost scorched-looking black and ashen gray respectively. Now that she was consciously thinking about it, she realized she no longer had any feeling near the hoof on that limb. Her eyes wide and breathing becoming faster, she tentatively reached out with her other leg and delicately touched it. On contact the skin and fur around her hoof cracked and crumbled to ash, drifting to the carpeted floor and a lance of accompanying burning pain shot up her leg.

Twilight’s scream was loud enough to shake the glass of the window in its pane.

*~-/^-~*

Celestia levitated the delicate porcelain cup into the air, closing her eyes and deeply inhaling the rich aroma of the masterfully prepared tea it held. A ghost of a smile tugged at the corners of her lips and for just a moment, she allowed the small piece of life’s pleasures in front of her to invade all of her senses, and drive away the constant worry of recent events from her mind, even if only for just a moment. With a soft and appreciative sigh, she decided to forgo formality in light of her present company and swallowed the entire contents of the small cup in a single gulp. As the expertly crafted blend of flavors hit her tongue, her smile grew even wider.

Opening her eyes, she met the gaze of the earth pony across the table form her, and the only occupant of her private study besides herself. His smile was small, but no less genuine because of it. “I take it you like it than, your majesty?” he asked with a raised eyebrow.

Celestia gave a slight, mirthful chuckle, sounding like ringing of crystal bells, and responded, “Of course. Your brew is exquisite as always.”

At this his small smile grew into a full-fledged grin. “You’re too kind, but I’m glad you like it. You seemed like you use it anyways. I like to think I know you well enough to be able to tell when something is bothering you.”

Celestia’s smile fell slightly, and for a moment she was silent. But then, with a soft sigh she said, “Ever observant as always. But I guess I should know better than to try to hide something from you of all ponies, shouldn’t I?” She smiled again, but it didn’t quite reach her eyes.

His smile fell as well. “It’s not that I’m observant. I just don’t like to see anypony hurting. Especially my friends,” he said, offering soft gaze with brilliant sapphire-colored eyes and an encouraging smile.

At his words, the white mare’s unintentionally dark expression softened. “Thank you, Morning Star,” she said, laying a hoof on his shoulder and giving a light, fillyish giggle. “You can always say just the right thing to cheer me up.”

“You’re welcome Princess, I do my best,” he said, patting her hoof with his own before she pulled it away. “Now why don’t we get to the matter at hoof? As much as we both enjoy it, I’m sure you didn’t invite little old me here just to drink tea.”

Celestia gave a small chuckle, shaking her head. “As forward as ever I see,” she said, a look of benevolence on her face. Her expression fell as she continued however, “But you are right, as usual. Last night, despite the best efforts of both my sister and myself, something terrible occurred. I will spare you the horrid details, but suffice it to say dark shadows now roam Equestria freely, and strange and unexplained happenings have begun across the kingdom because of it.”

“So the rumors I’ve heard of foals disappearing around Ponyville and the like are true then?”

For a moment she stared evenly at him, before remarking dryly, “I don’t know whether to be impressed that you’ve heard that, or concerned that there are already rumors. I always forget just how well connected you are.” After a moment longer she nodded, her expression dark. “But yes, I’m afraid they are. What’s worse, I’m certain that this is only the beginning.” She closed her eyes, inhaling deeply and trying to exhale her some of her stress and tension. She was only marginally successful. She looked him in the eyes and continued, “But that’s not why I called you here. I need your help.”

Morning Star nodded once, indicating that he was still listening.

Celestia continued. “Somepony rather close to me, one I care about dearly, was caught up in the whole mess. This has created all sorts of… problems… for her. Unfortunately, due to the nature of her predicament, I cannot help her directly. That is where you come in.” She looked him in the eyes as she finished speaking, the look of hope and desperation clear on her face.

Morning Star looked down at the cup of now lukewarm tea in between his hooves, silent for a few moments as he formulated a response. Finally, he looked back up at the princess and spoke, “What is it that you want me to do, Princess?”

Celestia made no attempt to hide the look of relief that rushed across her face. “It is nothing much, really. I would just like you to keep an eye on her, and help her when she needs it, and if I am correct, she will definitely need you before everything is done and over with.” Her smile had once again left her face as she spoke the last sentence.

Morning Star lifted the small tea cup to his lips, knocking it back and gulping the contents down before setting it delicately back on the accompanying saucer. “Alright. I’ll do it.” A frown tugged at the corners of his mouth as he looked over Celestia taking in her downcast expression and various tells he had learned over the years of knowing her. He hated seeing the solar mare in such a sad state, and he got a contemplative look in his eye as he thought about how to remedy the situation. Suddenly, an idea came to him, one he wouldn’t dare if it weren’t for the fact that he and Celestia were already so familiar with each other.

A wide and mischievous grin spread across his face as he spoke, “I’ll do it, but what’s in it for me?”

Celestia raised a delicate, inquisitive eyebrow. “What do you mean?” she asked.

His grin only grew wider, and he began to trace small circles on the wooden table with the tip of his hoof. “Well here I am, sitting before the single most beautiful, powerful, perfect mare in all of Equestria, the very pony responsible for the sun each and every day, and she is asking me for help with something even she cannot do.”

The princess’s eyebrow only rose further. She was well used to such praise and flattery from the pompous and foppish nobles in her court but not from the stallion in front of her. “Yes, I am. What is the point you are trying to make?”

His grin grew from ear to ear. “Well, I was just wondering, what could the prettiest, cutest, most beautiful, most shapely mare in all of Equestria possible offer me in return for my… services?”

Celestia recoiled slightly, a hot blush rising in her cheeks as she sputtered a response, completely caught off-guard for once, “A-are you… are you insinuating something, mister Star?”

“Why?” he asked, rising and leaning towards the princess while bracing his forelegs against the table, waggling his eyebrows in a suggestive and most definitely insinuating manner, “Are you offering?”

Celestia simply sputtered in response, her face feeling as hot as her sun. She opened and closed her mouth repeatedly, trying to formulate a proper response, only to end up resembling a fish.

One look at the expression on the solar diarch’s face and Morning Star couldn’t help it any more. He fell to the floor, clutching his side and bellowing barely contained boisterous guffaws, striking the floor once or twice with his hooves.

Celestia stared at him, aghast, before she finally realized what he had done. In only a few sentences he had completely dispelled any dark and negative feelings she had been carrying and utterly clearing the air of the thick tension that had seeped into since they began talking about the current predicament, allowing her to take her mind off of the situation, albeit however briefly, for the first time since the whole thing began (not to mention giving a great boost to her mareish self-esteem). A genuine smile spread across her face, before becoming mischievous in turn. Going over to where he still lay, she gracefully walked by, casually draping her flowing tail across him as she went. “Well… it has been quite a while. Especially with a stallion quite as handsome and… virile as you. I suppose that if you do this well…” she explained, trailing off at the last sentence, casually brushing a wing and a leg against him as she walked, gazing over her shoulder and blinking coquettishly.

This time it was Morning Star’s turn to be embarrassed. The hot red blush spread across his face rapidly, causing him to resemble an over-ripe tomato. He began to sputter in a remarkably similar manner, before turning and catching the mischievous glint in Celestia’s eyes.

For a moment, everything was silent. Neither of them moved, save for the ever-flowing nature of Celestia’s mane and tail, the latter of which was still draped across Morning Star’s face, neck and withers. And then, as suddenly as if somepony had flipped a switch, they both broke out into simultaneous but uproarious laughter. For a while both of them just laughed, enjoying each other’s company, and for the first time since hearing the dreaded news of the occult ritual Celestia truly felt relaxed. Everything seemed alright, as long as she had good friends and good ponies like Morning Star to call on then everything would be fine.

As their laughter gradually died down, they both returned to their respective seats across from each other at the table. However, instead of sitting down, Morning Star stared at his seat with a thoughtful expression for a moment, before his face brightened as he had an idea. Gently, he grabbed the plush red cushion in his teeth, carried it around the table, and set it down next to Celestia’s. Taking her tea cup from her, he gingerly lifted the tea pot from the middle of the table, refilled it, and set it before her, doing the same for himself. Then he sidled up against the feathery side of the white mare as if he wasn’t invading the privacy of the most important mare in all of Equestria. Celestia just shook her head at his antics, a content smile on her face to match his own. Lifting up her cup in her golden aura she gently sipped at its contents, trying to simply enjoy good drink and better company.

A single shriek, full of pain, fear, and confusion tore through the castle, instantly shattering the calm mood.

Celestia’s face and heart fell immediately, a deep, overwhelming sadness filling her eyes along with the beginnings of piteous tears. Oh Twilight, she thought to herself, shutting her eyes tightly to hold back her tears, you do not deserve this. Not you. Never to even feel the warmth of my sun, never to… Her thoughts were interrupted by the pony beside her stirring.

Slowly, Morning Star turned her face him as he gingerly wrapped his forelegs around her neck. He looked her dead in the eyes, his expression incredibly soft and yet still completely serious. “Don’t,” he said, his own voice touched with sadness that echoed her own. “It doesn’t suit you to cry. Ever. Your face was never meant to be marred by tears. There’s no need for it anyways, not now and not ever,” he said, giving her a soft squeeze. His smile was gentle and genuine, the look in his eyes softer than clouds. “I promise that no matter what, I will do everything I possibly can to make sure she is alright. You’ll get through this, and so will she. Everything will be fine in the end, I promise,” he soothed, ever so gently rubbing along the back of her neck. “So please… no more crying. Alright… Celestia?”

Celestia sniffed lightly, running her hoof across her muzzle. Slowly, a small but hopeful smile tugged at the corners of her porcelain lips, and she wrapped him in her wings, encircling the smaller pony. “I promise,” she said, laying her head across his withers. “And thank you. You always know just what to say.”

They stayed that way for a while, and not for the first time, Celestia felt grateful to have a friend like Morning Star in her life.

*~-/^-~*

Twilight was – understandably – freaking the buck out. Upon discovering the damaged state of her leg in the sunlight she had immediately leapt to the side with a surprisingly cat-like hiss, out of the now harmful rays of sunlight. Fear and confusion had taken hold of her, and she was uselessly flailing on the ground, desperately scrabbling at her injured foreleg in a futile and instinctive attempt to dislodge whatever it was that had caused her pain.

Luna leapt into action immediately, grabbing Twilight in her magic and lifting her off of the floor, swiftly closing the curtains over the window. Twilight still struggled, desperately scratching at her wound, only succeeding in making it worse. “Stop that!” Luna yelled desperately, a hint of panic in her voice as she pried Twilight’s legs apart with a surprising amount of difficulty. The panicking unicorn continued to trash desperately, tugging against her bonds and wailing in fear. “Twilight! Snap out of it!” Luna screamed, lightly slapping her across the cheek in desperation.

Twilight stopped struggling and turned to the princess, her eyes blood-shot and her face stained with tears. Luna’s heart couldn’t help but break at the sight. This wasn’t her sister’s faithful student, element of magic, savior of Equestria twice over, and most magical unicorn born in the last millennium before her. This was a frightened filly, scared and in pain and not undestanding why.

“What’s happening to me-hehehehe!?” she managed to choke out before breaking down into sobs.

The lunar diarch gently set down the sobbing and frightened unicorn, walked over to her, and wrapped her in a feathery and comforting hug. Twilight instinctively leaned into the embrace, crying into the princess’s dark blue coat. “Hush, hush, Twilight, everything is alright,” Luna whispered, her maternal instincts taking over, and her horn beginning to glow a light blue. The panicking pony’s cries petered out as the sleep spell caught her unawares, and lulled her into a calm slumber. Lifting her gently, Luna whipped her tear streaked face off with a wing before levitating her back into the bed of her personal guest room. “Drahcir,” she called softly.

The named bat-winged pegasus was at her side in an instant. “Yes, my liege?” he asked from a deep bow.

She turned her head to regard him with an unreadable neutral expression as he rose from his bow. “Thou hast a filly of thy own, dost thee not?” she inquired in an even tone, her expression flat.

“Y-yes ma’am. Two of them actually,” he responded a bit nervously, not entirely sure what his princess was getting at.

Luna’s expression softened immediately, a gentle smile on her lips. “Good. Please, wouldst thou do us a favor?”

“Of course, Your Highness,” he replied immediately, dropping to his knees and hiding the relieved look on his face.

“Please, wouldst thou watch over Miss Sparkle whilst she slumbers? Her sleep should be restful, but We cannot help but fear that recent events may have been… a bit overmuch for her,” Luna explained, somehow looking both sheepish and guilty at the same time.

One look and Drahcir saw the genuine concern on her face too, and his expression softened as well. “Don’t worry, Princess. I’ve comforted my fair share of scared fillies in my time. Besides, you have things to attend to now, the night is just about to begin,” he said, the gruff but fatherly aura he always seemed to exude coming into light.

Luna smiled softly, nodding her head appreciatively at his understanding. “Our thanks. We knew that We could count on thee.”

“Of course Princess, I’m always happy to help,” he responded, puffing his chest a little at having his pride stoked.

Luna turned to leave, and said over her shoulder, “Please, when she wakes, send a messenger to let us know.”

“I will,” Drahcir said, saluting as he watched the lunar princess leave to begin her duties. Shutting the door softly, he silently trotted over to Twilight’s bedside and looked down at her, a gentle fatherly smile on his face. Years of fatherly instinct getting the better of him, he reached out and brushed a loose strand of her mane out of her gently sleeping face with a dark gray hoof and pulled the blanket up to her withers. “You know,” he whispered softly, his voice light and careful, “you’re pretty lucky to have ponies like that who really care about you.”

Even though Twilight couldn’t hear him, the pinched expression she wore in her troubled sleep began to ease. Indeed she was.

Secrets & Specimens Revealed

Twilight awoke to the sound of hushed but angry voices.

“I’m sorry sir, but Princess Luna was very clear. Nopony is to disturb Twilight Sparkle until she is awake and well. She has been through a difficult ordeal lately,” The first said, his masculine voice somehow protective, defensive and consoling all at once.

“I don’t care what your orders are! I need to see her now,” said a second voice she was only all-too-familiar with.

“Shiny?” she groggily wondered aloud, sitting up in bed and blearily rubbing her eyes.

The named white stallion pushed past the bat-winged lunar guard blocking the doorway, and rushed to Twilight’s bedside, embracing his little sister. “Twily!” he exclaimed, perhaps a little too loudly if Twilight’s cringing and clutching her head was any indication. “Sorry,” he said a bit sheepishly as she glared at him.

Twilight couldn’t stay mad for long, and soon her frown turned into a grin and she returned her brother’s hug. “What are you doing here?” she inquired, breaking the embrace.

“I just heard about what happened earlier,” he said, becoming a bit more serious, but no less concerned. Placing his hoof underneath her chin, he lifted her face to make her look him in the eyes. “Are you alright?” he asked in a no nonsense tone.

Twilight looked her brother in the dead in the eyes, matching his firm and concerned gaze with a rather meek one of her own as she desperately tried to lie to him. She so badly wanted to say that everything was good, that nothing was wrong and that she was alright. That she wasn’t still incredibly scared and confused on the inside, despite her calm outward demeanor. But she couldn’t. She never was able to lie to him. With a sigh and quivering eyes, she said, “No, Shining, I’m not alright.”

He hugged her again, drawing her into a deep embrace. His grip was tight, slightly constricting her ribs in a way that was almost painful, but instead mostly just felt comforting. The brief moment of physical contact wasn’t much, but it spoke volumes in a way that words couldn’t. It was strong, comforting, and protective. She could almost feel the love and desire to help behind the gesture. She smiled. “I’m not alright, big brother. But I’ll be okay.”

Shining Armor chuckled, the deep rumbling of his chest tickling his sister’s shoulders as they embraced. “That’s my little Twily,” he said, pulling back and ruffling her mane, earning an irritated but happy and nostalgic smile, “always so big and brave.”

“Thanks BBBFF,” she spoke, trying to hide her tiny blush while she pulled the blankets to the side. Getting out of bed she stretched, sighing in relief and satisfaction as she felt several of her joints pop. “So what did you hear, anyways?” She inquired.

“You mean besides you screaming loud enough to be heard clear across the castle?” Shining Armor answered, quirking an eyebrow.

Instead of the embarrassed blush he expected, his sister’s face grew a dour frown. “Please,” she implored, her voice mostly even, but a small tremor betraying her previous fear, “don’t talk about that.”

“I’m sorry,” Shining apologized, “I didn’t mean to make you upset.”

“It’s alright,” Twilight said with a sigh, “I just… I don’t really know what to think about it.” She became somewhat silent and brooding, absent-mindedly rubbing her foreleg against the one that had been burned. At least it seemed to have healed already since yesterday.

Her brother placed his hoof on her own, stopping her idle scratching. She turned to look him in the eyes, and his gaze was firm but as comforting and compassionate as ever. Twilight smiled, happy to know that he cared.

“Ahem,” spoke another voice, startling them both. They had both forgotten that they weren’t alone. “The Princess should be here shortly,” The bat-winged stallion informed them.

“Oh! Yes. Right,” Twilight responded, a little embarrassed at having forgotten Drahcir’s presence. Shining Armor just responded with his typical stoic fashion, still not quite happy with the earlier behavior of trying to keep him from his sister, even if it had been the princess’s orders. Twilight giggled slightly at her brother, somewhat amused at the fact that he was still tended to be kind of cold at first towards anyone but family and friends. At least he eased up when he heard his sister laughing.

He turned to his sister then, and asked her, “Is there anything else you’d like to talk about?” His tone was tense, but the care behind it was clear.

Twilight nuzzled him. “No, not really. There’s nothing that needs to be said that hasn’t already,” she responded, pressing herself against his broad shoulder. The thick muscle structure, attained from constant training and drills as the captain of the royal guard, were easily felt through his coat. It only served to make Twilight feel even more comforted, like her brother could live up to his name-sake and protect her from anything and everything. For a moment, she felt a wave of nostalgia, harkening back to the days when she was just a filly and had a bad dream. She would crawl into her brother’s room in the dead of night, dragging her smarty-pants doll with her and explaining with teary eyes. Without fail, each and every time Shining would welcome her into his bed for the night with open hooves, stoking her mane and assuring her everything was alright until she fell asleep to the sound of his voice and strong, powerful heartbeat. Wordlessly understanding the sentiment, he held her.

She unconsciously pressed her ear against his chest, searching for the source of her foal-hood lullaby. She found it without much difficulty, its deep bass soon covering every other sound. Thu-thump. She smiled. Such a comforting sound… Thu-thump. She leaned further into his barrel chest, the rhythmic sound lulling her into a half-awake state. Thu-thump. She closed her eyes, allowing herself to drift off. Thu-thump. The rhythm was beginning to entrance her, she lost all real thought and just the image of the strong, powerful organ pumping its charge throughout her brother’s body filled her head. Thu-thump. Twilight opened her mouth slightly, breathing into her brother’s coat and inhaling his scent. The ever-present tang of sweat mingled with the nostalgic haze of musk Twilight was still familiar with from her youth. He smelt so… delicious… Thu-thump. Without thinking, she opened her mouth further, reaching up towards his neck and licking her lips. Thu-thump. She could smell it there, just beneath the skin. She leaned ever further, her hitched breathe ruffling the fine hairs over his throbbing jugular--

She snapped to her senses, blinking rapidly as he unexpectedly pulled away, and kissed her on the forehead, just below her horn. “I’m sorry Twily, but I have to go now. I’m still on duty after all,” he explained, offering her a reassuring smile. Shaking her head to clear her suddenly and strangely clouded mind, she never the less nodded understandingly and nuzzled him once again as he rose to leave.

“While We find thy commitment to duty to be commendable, We believe that thou should stay,” said an archaic voice from the doorway, surprising both of the unicorn siblings. Twilight jumped nearly a foot into the air before whirling around to face the intruder, her heart hammering. Shining in contrast instantly snapped to an attentive salute, the result of years of training and drills. The Lunar Alicorn just chuckled amusedly at their reactions before waving a dismissive hoof and putting the guard captain at ease. The elder sibling visibly relaxed, but still held himself stiffly, the constant drills about propriety around either of the princesses refusing to be stifled. Luna then turned to Twilight and asked, “How art thou feeling, Twilight? Thou seemed rather… upset… when last we spoke.”

The named unicorn blanched, scratching at the carpet absentmindedly with her previously injured hoof. “I… I’ll be fine, Princess,” she answered with a sigh, “I just really, really need some answers.”

“That is understandable,” Luna responded, nodding, “fortunately, answers are exactly what We have come to give.” At this, Twilight immediately perked up, staring inquisitively at the lunar diarch with a rather endearing expression, waiting expectantly for her to go on.

“Shining Armor,” Luna inquired, turning to face the elder of the two unicorns as he snapped to attention under her gaze, “dost thou know of Vault 214?”

“Of course, Princess,” he responded immediately, “something of scientific interest was recovered the other night and deemed top-secret. It is currently being stored in Vault 214 and only the chief of the Science Division and his assistants are allowed access. Four of my best stallions are currently guarding the entrance to the Vault itself.”

Luna nodded, satisfied with his response. “Good. Then We shan’t need to explain the situation to thee.” She turned to leave the room, calling back to the two unicorn siblings. “Come along, both of thee. Shining Armor, due to thy position as captain of the Royal Guard and thy relation to Twilight Sparkle thou hast a right to this knowledge as well.”

Luna started down the hall with Shining right beside her, forcing Twilight to canter slightly in an effort to keep up with them both on their longer legs. “Drahcir,” Luna called out lightly without so much as turning her head.

The bat-winged stallion was at her side in an instant, startling Twilight with the suddenness of his appearance. She hadn’t even seen him nearby. “Yes, my liege?” he inquired to Luna, bending his head low and easily keeping pace with her.

“Make certain that we are not followed,” was the simple response.

“At once,” he said with a salute, before speeding up and turning into the shadows around a stone column just ahead. When they passed the column, Twilight couldn’t help but feel a small sense of unease. There were no windows or hallways nearby, and the shadow was only a foot and a half wide at best. Despite this, within the small space of shadow, the lunar stallion had disappeared completely.

“Um… Princess?” She said, edging further away from the walls, “where are we going exactly?”

Without breaking pace, Luna turned her head to look her in the eyes. “Thou claimed that thee desired answers, correct?” she asked softly. Twilight nodded. “Well, it would be difficult indeed to simplify the complex nature of thy predicament with words alone, and while we will do our best to anyways, we have doubts that thou wouldst believe us anyways. So instead, We are going to show thee.”

*~-/^-~*

Twilight was lost in thought. Her legs ran on auto-pilot, continuing to move even without her conscious direction. Her head was cast downwards, her expression silent and contemplative. For a long while she had been quiet, carefully considering the long-winded and rather… far-fetched… explanation of the other night’s events and her earlier injury. Twilight was anything if not skeptical of what had been said whilst they walked. At last, she looked up to Luna and met her anxious gaze with her own. “You were right,” she said to the princess.

“Right?” Luna inquired. “About what, exactly?” she asked, tilting her head to the side slightly.

“You were right,” the unicorn repeated, a rather un-amused frown on her face, “I don’t believe you.”

Luna sighed. “We anticipated that thou might have such a reaction,” she responded, stopping before a massive circular stone door, painted with the symbol of the equestrian flag and guarded on either side by two golden armored stallions, “that is why we have come to this place.” Turning to the guards, she nodded once. They responded in kind, before turning in place and banging on the door with their spears in a long and complex pattern. The noise of large steel mechanisms shifting around could be heard, as well as the sound of stone sliding against stone as the massive round door receded several inches before rolling to the side, into the wall.

Luna wasted no time in crossing the threshold, Twilight and Shining close behind. With a dim blue flash of her horn, the massive door rolled shut once again, sliding into place with a loud boom and resounding click of locks sliding home. The room they now found themselves in was a bit larger then it looked from the outside, but with the amount of ponies and equipment it was currently housing it still felt rather cramped.

There were all sorts of Magi-Technological instruments scattered about, all of them whirring or beeping or glowing or otherwise giving some sort of indication that they were taking some sort of measurement or computing some sort of result. Several of them had a studious and scholarly looking pony tending to them, writing down prudent readings as they came, though quite a few of the ponies had turned to look at the new arrivals when the door opened. In the center of the room was a metallic dais, on top of which was a misshapen mound of flesh, cloaked in a glowing golden-orange field of strange particles and coated in all sorts of needles and wires and tubes leading to several of the more medical looking machines scattered about the room.

Upon sighting the princess, a single unicorn stallion of a light-brown coloration and contrastingly stark white mane broke away from his fellows and approached them. “Princess!” he exclaimed excitedly, adjusting the large spectacles that had slid down his muzzle back into place with a hoof. “I’m so glad you could finally make it,” he said, taking her hoof and shaking it perhaps a little too eagerly. Turning and pointing a hoof to indicate Twilight, he asked, “Tell me, is she the one who did this?” His excited smile never faltered, and he began to strongly remind Twilight of a giddy schoolcolt.

“Indeed she is Dr. Medic,” Luna responded, nodding.

The doctor scowled at Luna slightly, “I’ve told you before, I don’t like it when you call me that, my name is Dr. Prototype, not Dr. Medic. Honestly, I have no idea where that nickname even comes from. I’ve never even worked in a hospital before! Ever since that speed freak and the big guy started calling me that nopony will stop.” Shaking his head exasperatedly, he then turned to Twilight, a huge grin on his face. “But I really can’t stay mad, at least not now that you’re here! Oh this is just excellent! You simply must tell me all about it!” he gushed, rushing over to Twilight in a manner completely devoid of any respect for her personal space.

She could see her brother beginning to bristle defensively at the obvious signs of her discomfort, and she gently pushed the over-excited scientist away before things got ugly. “Uh, what exactly did I do?” she asked with genuine curiosity, holding him away at hoof’s length.

The stallion visibly deflated. “Oh,” he said, shoulders sagging, “you don’t know? That’s… disappointing.” His chipper demeanor was gone instantly, and he turned around and began walking back to a group of instruments across the room before Luna stopped him by placing a hoof on his withers.

“Doctor, We believe some of the events of the night previous may have altered her memory. In addition, she has been through a traumatic ordeal, and may be suppressing something,” she explained, doing her best to appease the suddenly sulking pony. “Mayhap if thou were to show her what it is thou art doing here it might help her remember?” she offered, trying to coax him back into a jovial mood.

“Of course!” he exclaimed, his mood turning completely around so fast Twilight was surprised he didn’t get emotional whiplash. “Please, come over here,” he commanded eagerly, excited to show them all what he was working on as he pushed and prodded the group towards the dais in the center of the room.

As they approached, Twilight for the first time got a good look at the twisted black mess of warped flesh that lay on dais. The glowing field of strange particles wasn’t something she was familiar with, but if she were to warrant a guess it seemed to be an altered form of an Ori-Stasis Accelerated Healing Field devised from Bright Mind’s theory of N-th Dimensional Proto-Thaumatic Decay. Twilight furrowed her brow, unsatisfied with her initial assessment. That couldn’t be right, Ori-Stasis Accelerated Healing Fields were still only theoretical, and Bright Mind’s theorem papers still hadn’t been officially recognized by The Royal Equestrian Board of Magical and Scientific Advancement and had been published in only a sparse few reputable scientific journals. When Twilight voiced her thoughts and confusion over the nature of the glowing field, Dr. Prototype recoiled in shock so strongly that it almost looked as if he had been struck across the face, before his entire expression lit up like Hearth’s Warming Eve in excitement and he almost began to bounce in place.

“That’s right, you’re Princess Celestia’s personal protégé, aren’t you?” he asked rhetorically, an impossibly large grin. “If anypony can understand the concept behind my little Extra Tempra-Spatial Anchor Stasis Field here, it would be you,” he said proudly, tapping the dais near where the magic and metal met. “You see, when we first got this specimen here,” he began, indicating the mass of twisted flesh beneath the magic and wires, “everything seemed fine. Everything about it was completely normal, at least in terms of physiological and thaumatical make-up anyways, save for faint traces of lingering foreign enchantments. And then after about an hour or so after recovery, the whole thing just up and suddenly started to decay extra-dimensionally in real-time! Honestly, none of us know what to make of it, but if we didn’t act fast then there wasn’t going to be anything left to study. So naturally, I put to work a theory I’ve been working on in my personal time. Needless to say, it worked like a charm!” The stallion grinned widely, puffing his chest out with pride and thumping it with a hoof.

Twilight lifted a hoof to her chin, a thoughtful expression on her face contrasting the blank look shared by both Luna and Shining on either side of her. “An Extra Tempra-Spatial Anchor Stasis Field? What exactly could you need something like that for?” she inquired.

“Well, originally I had developed the idea to make way-points in a mock-up of an Equestria-wide teleportation network idea I’ve been playing with for a few years, but once I realized that the specimen was decaying in a manner strikingly similar to an Adamantite-17 isotope I surmised that it wasn’t actually decaying naturally, but actually in N-th dimensional proto-thaumatic manner! Once I knew that it was a simple matter to adjust a few variables from the base design and bam, situation resolved,” the doctor explained long-windedly. Twilight simply nodded every now and again, while Luna and Shining looked at each other, sharing similar perplexed expressions.

“But the whole thing’s based off an Ori-Stasis Accelerated Healing Field, isn’t it? What exactly gave the idea for this? How did you manage to modify it in such a drastic manner? And for that matter how did you even get the whole thing past the theoretical stage?” Twilight continued to grill him, true to her studious nature and trying to get as much information as possible.

“Oh it wasn’t that difficult,” he responded, scoffing. “Once I solved the problem of crippling Thaumatic storage back-lash, it was pretty easy to reverse the charge and polarity of the 5th-layer sub-magnetic enchantment to expel excess thermal energy in a safe manner that at the same time wouldn’t compromise the 8th-layer superlative hyper-field compression. From there it was a simple matter to—“

Dr. Prototype was cut off rather abruptly and perhaps a little bit rudely, but a very exasperated Shining Armor. “Stop!” he exclaimed, rubbing one of his temples with a hoof in an attempt to mitigate an oncoming headache. “Just… just stop. As much as I’d love to sit here and listen to you two talk about your Special Extra Spatial Stasa-whatists, can we please just get back to the matter at hoof? What is that thing there anyways?”

“Ah, yes, of course. Sorry about that, it’s just that I don’t get to talk to anypony who can understand all of this stuff very often and I can get a little carried away,” Dr. Prototype apologized, sheepishly rubbing the back of his head with a hoof. “Anyways, this” he said, gesturing with a hoof towards the blackened remains, “is our specimen. Because of the proto-thaumatical decay I mentioned it is now in this mummified like state.”

“Is that what it is?” Shining blurted out. “I thought it was just burnt.”

“That’s actually not far off,” Dr. Prototype continued without missing a beat. “Just like how a fire breaks down and converts the chemical and atomic structure of its kindling down to its basic structure, proto-thaumatic decay has forced the specimen to go through an incredibly similar process. All of the basic elements comprising the mass of the specimen have been altered and converted primarily in several dozen elements that we’ve never even theorized about, let alone openly discover, especially in such a stable isotope. And the elements that we do recognize are all incredibly unusual, we only barely know about them, and there is absolutely no known way for them to occur naturally. For example, after running several tests we’ve discovered that the entire skeletal structure is now comprised of pure Iridium!” The scientist had become more and more animated as he spoke, until by the time he finished he was practically bouncing in place with excitement.

In contrast to the doctor’s excitement, Shining Armor simply stood there, confusedly scratching his head with a hoof and wearing an utterly perplexed expression. “Um….. what?”

Twilight Sparkle just face-hoofed, a light blush of embarrassment on her cheeks from her brother’s blatant display of ignorance about even basic molecular super-science. “Basically it is burnt, just instead of a fire turning it into ash, it became something all modern science says is physically impossible,” she simplified for her brother.

“Oh,” he said, blinking several times and suddenly understanding. “But if a fire didn’t do it then what did?”

“That’s just it!” Dr. Prototype exclaimed, beaming. “I have no idea!”

There was a collective face-hoof from all three of the gathered ponies.

“No no no,” he said quickly, realizing how that had sounded. “What I mean is that none of us know. It’s a completely new and unheard of phenomenon.”

“Do you know what caused it in the first place?” Twilight asked.

“No, but if what Princess Luna told me is true then I might have a few ideas. Nothing conclusive yet though,” he told her, turning to face the specimen in question as he spoke. Twilight followed his gaze, and for the first time actually took the chance to get a good look at the mass of flesh beneath the glowing field and bundle of wires.

Despite being blackened and shriveled in what could have easily been mistaken as a classic case of mummification, it was still surprisingly large. For the most part it had the basic equine shape shared by most of the world’s known inhabitants, despite being almost twice as large as anypony she knew, but that stopped at the neck. Instead of the head and throat of a normal looking pony it almost looked like the upper half of a minotaur, sans the horns, had been seamlessly merged with the pony body. She noticed a couple of details about it as well, judging by the severe damage to the right eye-socket and lack of corresponding eyelid it seemed that its eye had been violently gouged out. Her assumption was backed up by the fact the its entire throat seemed to have been torn off completely, leaving only the all-too-visible blackened spinal column to keep the head attached.

“This thing came from beneath the Ancient Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters, right? What is it, anyways?” Twilight asked, not taking her eyes off of the remains.

“It did, but I’m not sure what it is. I was actually hoping that you might know what it is,” Dr. Prototype answered, also not taking his eyes off of the object in question.

“Fair enough,” she said, nodding. “But what happened to it?” she inquired further, indicating its neck with her hoof.

“Thee art what happened to it, Twilight Sparkle,” Luna said solemnly, speaking up for the first time since introducing the unicorn scientist.

“Me?” Twilight repeated, surprised and confused by the princess’s sudden answer.

“Indeed,” The princess confirmed, nodding. “Whilst We did not witness the entire ordeal ourselves, We did however happen upon thee in the after-math,” she elaborated, pointing a hoof at the remains. “We saw that thou hast torn out the throat of yon beast with thy own hoof, and were gorging thyself on its life-blood as if it were the sweetest of nectar.”

Twilight blanched, backing away from the blackened flesh, fighting not to become violently ill at the thought. “That’s disgusting! Not to mention impossible!”

“None the less, it is true,” Luna maintained, her expression patiently neutral.

“But… but how?” she asked. “That just can’t be right. How could I even do such a thing? I don’t have claws or fangs or any way to even do that. Why can’t I remember then? It’s just impossible,” she reasoned, her tone still unconvinced and disgusted.

“We are not entirely certain of the nature of thy curse, but if We had any doubts the event thou experienced in the light of the sun has dispelled them. Thou hast most definitely been Afflicted, whether thou likes it or not,” Luna retorted, her face serious and grim.

“That can’t be right. It just can’t,” Twilight repeated, turning to look back at the specimen on the metal dais. Suddenly, she was feeling much less comfortable in its presence. “Can we go now? I think I’ve seen enough,” she said, wishing rather badly to leave.

Luna sighed deeply. “Very well. We shall go then,” she responded. Complying, she encased a metallic mechanism on the room’s only door with the light blue aura of her magic as they walked towards it, not even bother to say goodbye to Dr. Prototype who was once again enthralled in his work. With a resounding click it activated, and the massive stone door once more rolled to the side, permitting passage. Twilight, Luna, and Shining all left through the open doorway, the door closing behind them as they left.

They began walking back down the hallway in the direction in which they had originally come in silence, or at least most of them did. The two mares made it a good fifty feet before they realized that Shining Armor had stopped outside the stone door to the vault. “Shining?” Twilight inquired, turning back. “Are you coming?”

“No, I don’t think I will,” he responded, not bothering to look at her, opting instead to blearily rub his eyes with a hoof. “It’s getting pretty late. I can tell you’re mostly doing all right, and doubt the Princess has anything else she needs of me,” he explained, turning to both of them in turn to get confirmation of what he was saying. When they gave it he continued, “All of this… ‘excitement’… has made me pretty tired.” He smirked. “And besides, all that techno mumbo-jumbo gave me a head-ache. I think I’ll just take an aspirin and turn in for the night, okay?”

Twilight nodded in understanding, walking back to her brother and giving him a gentle nuzzle. “Alright. Good night then.”

Shining smiled and kissed her on the forehead, earning a similar smile from her as well. “Good night,” he said softly, before turning around and heading down the hallway in the opposite direction as Twilight and the princess.

Twilight joined the princess and they both began to once more walk down the halls side by side, a thick silence between them. After many uncomfortably silent minutes and two flights of stairs, Twilight spoke up. “So are you really trying to say I’m some kind of monster or something now?”

Luna looked like she had bitten into a lemon, and was silent for a moment longer, planning her words carefully. “Though We wouldst not quite use such words, and as much as it pains Us to say it, yes. Whilst We rushed to thy aid in the castle last night We could feel the disturbance in Equestria’s magic, and knew that thou had failed to completely stop the ponies of The Will of the Eclipse as thou had obviously meant to. We believe that because of their efforts, thou hast been changed,” she explained, speaking with a calculated and deliberate slowness.

Twilight just sighed. “As much, and at the same time as little, sense as that makes, I still don’t quite believe you. I mean, there’s just no such thing as monsters.”

“We are afraid that it may not matter,” Luna said in a surprisingly solemn tone. “Thou may not believe in monsters,

but they most certainly believe in thee.”

*~-/^-~*

Somewhere far away, beneath depths of rotting stone and lost away from sight, a small fissure in the very fabric of reality slowly shifted and grew, enlarging to almost the size of a small stone plucked from the bed of a river.

Something from far beyond its reaches took notice, and for the first time in many millennia its horrid, eldritch laughter echoed through Equestrian air.

Blood & Wine

The luxurious carpets covering the sprawling hallways of Canterlot Castle muffled the clip-clop of the hooves of both Princess Luna and Twilight Sparkle, allowing the still silence of the night to go uninterrupted. As was to be expected of the lateness of the hour, the two mares where alone in the halls, and not a single other pony had been seen by either of them since they had left Vault 214 in the castle’s below-ground levels several minutes ago.

Conversation had been sparse, if not entirely non-existent. Only a few words had passed between them both, each of them perfectly content to brood over what little had already been said instead of trying to fruitlessly fill the silence with meaningless chatter. Indeed, the conversations had been brief, but the subjects that filled them were not the type to be taken lightly and merited such contemplation.

It was one thing to accuse somepony of killing, of taking another life, even if it wasn’t an intelligent one, but to accuse them of being some sort of monster? Not only that, but mean it as well, not just using it as a general insult towards a lack of morality and mercy, but honestly intend it in the most literal of senses? That was another thing entirely. Although… there wasn’t exactly any proof to the contrary, was there? There was the whole… incident… in the sunlight to think about as well. Twilight couldn’t suppress her shudder at the unpleasant and all-too-recent memory. On top of that, she still couldn’t quite recall anything about what happened the other night, and it did sound like something that The Will of the Eclipse might do…

Twilight shook her head violently, berating her foolishness and scoffing at her naivety for starting to think like that. After all, these were monsters she was talking about. Monsters! The kind of scary stories ponies would tell around a campfire or parents would tell their foals to keep them from getting into trouble. If she were to start believing that kind of stuff now, next thing she knew she would start believing every crazy pony on a street corner who claimed to have seen a giraffe or a rhinoceros even an armadillo. Scoffing again, she rolled her eyes at just how ridiculous that sounded.

Taking a moment away from her inner contemplations, Twilight looked up from the ground that had held monopoly on her gaze for a good while now and took in her surroundings, realizing something rather important. She had no idea where they were headed. She mentally face-hoofed at not having noticed such an obvious detail earlier. “Um, Princess?” She spoke up, breaking the long silence. “Where exactly are we going?”

“Actually, we art already there,” was the only reply she got from the princess as she stopped in front of a door that was still familiar to Twilight from her time spent at the palace.

“The infirmary? What are we doing here?” Twilight inquired, as she too stopped in front of the large door emblazoned with a red cross.

“There is a matter We must discuss with the good doctor,” Luna replied, opening the large wooden door with a light brush of her magic, walking through it and speaking over her shoulder, “We shan’t be long. Please, wait out here.”

Still somewhat upset over Luna’s accusations, Twilight huffed imperiously at the command. Regardless, she did as her princess asked, turning in place and sitting down on her haunches in an irritated manner. Luna could see the lingering resentment in her actions, and couldn’t help but cringe a little. Maybe it would have been best to break it to Twilight a little more slowly? With a sigh, Luna shut the door behind her, leaving the distraught unicorn alone in the hallway.

Twilight sat in the middle of the hallway, gazing down either of its ends, doing her best to wait patiently, despite her feelings of creeping anxiety. However, it wasn’t long before boredom began to creep up on her, filling her with a desire to move and forcing her to struggle to keep still and silently wish for Luna to hurry up. After several minutes, she was no longer able to contain herself and she rose to her hooves and began pacing in front of the door, her mind drifting through thoughts of her current predicament.

She was not a monster, she couldn’t be. There were no such things as monsters. Right? Twilight shook her head, trying to clear away her doubts. Of course there was no such thing as monsters. Whether she had been feeling a bit strange lately or not, that didn’t mean anything was wrong with her, and it certainly didn’t mean that she was a monster. But then again, there was that whole… incident… in the sunlight.

Twilight groaned exasperatedly. If only she could remember what The Will of the Eclipse had done! At least then she could perhaps piece together and deduce what was going on. Luna had already told her that she had failed to prevent them from succeeding, and that at least she believed. After all, she doubted that she would have forgotten what happened if everything had gone according to plan. So maybe the cultist ponies had caught her, and done something with her? Used her in one of their rituals perhaps? But that wouldn’t turn her into a monster… would it? Twilight stopped her pacing, standing still for a moment and biting her bottom lip. Why was this bothering her so much anyways?

With an irritated sigh, she shook her head and walked up to the infirmary door, suddenly rather impatient with Luna and raising her hoof to knock, when she heard faint voices from the other side of the door. Curiosity taking over, Twilight put her hoof back on the floor, instead pressing her ear against the door to try and hear the snippets of conversation on the other side of the thick wood more clearly.

“…can’t, I’d lose…license! This is highly… anyways. Besides, what… you possibly… it for?” the first voice seemed to say in an even yet obviously irritated way. Whatever was going on, they didn’t seem happy about it.

“… thou, Cross Stitch… only need it… important matters… mean… untoward. Please, just let … have it,” argued a second voice, easily identified as Princess Luna.

“… you sure?” replied the pony Twilight assumed was Cross Stitch, Canterlot Castle Infirmary’s chief of staff.

“We are,” Luna answered simply. There was sound like a sigh of acceptance, before a metallic tinkling noise was heard, along with the opening and closing of a door. “You have our thanks,” Luna said, before the sound of hooves on marble became pronounced and louder, and Twilight realized she was headed for the door.

Twilight managed to move away from the door just before it opened, striking a disinterested pose as Luna exited. The princess looked at raising a slight eyebrow but said nothing to indicate she had noticed Twilight eavesdropping. Turning around, she began to head down the hallway once more, calling over her shoulder “Come along, Twilight Sparkle.”

Twilight did so, cantering slightly to keep pace with the princess’s longer legs. “Where are we going now, Princess?” Twilight inquired as they walked.

Luna turned her head to face her, not breaking stride as they turned a corner and she spoke, “Twilight, dost thou remember when last thou had a meal?”

Twilight grew silent as she thought back. From what she remembered of the other night, she had spent most of her time pouring over old tomes, trying to decipher the enigmatic goals of The Will of the Eclipse, and had most likely forgotten to eat as she usually did when she was absorbed in some project or another. And before that, she had skipped lunch in favor of running several errands around town, which would make breakfast that day her most recent meal. Strange, Twilight thought herself, furrowing her brow, I don’t really feel all that hungry.

When she told the princess that she hadn’t eaten for at least a day or two, Luna only smiled. “We assumed as much,” she said, “Which is why we are going to dining hall.”

*~-/^-~*

Twilight wasn’t used to seeing the dining hall quite so empty. On the many occasions during which she had eaten within its walls, sitting in her special reserved seat next to Princess Celestia herself, the enormous mahogany table was utterly filled with all sorts of succulent greens and aromatic vegetables as light conversation from the countless nobles of Canterlot permeated the air. But then again, she wasn’t exactly used to eating around four thirty in the morning either.

Twilight and Luna sat across from each other at one end of the enormous hundred and fifty foot long table, neither of them saying a word as several of the castle’s servants brought in a late – or early, depending on one’s perspective – meal for the two mares. Several silver platters topped with all sorts of incredibly enticing looking and deliciously aromatic foods were placed before both of them, even as Luna did her best to look anywhere but into Twilight’s disgruntled gaze.

The final smartly dressed stallion shuffled out of the hall after setting a pair of crystal goblets and a large bottle of wine in the center of the table between them, bowing to them both as he shut the doorway behind himself. Twilight raised a questioning eyebrow at the alcoholic beverage, but Luna pretended not to notice as she took the two goblets and wine bottle in her magic, pouring a glass for both herself and Twilight, floating the second glass over to the unicorn and setting it next to her plate.

Deciding to pay it no more mind Twilight simply began to eat, ignoring the usual decorum that stated one was not to begin eating before the princess in her still simmering irritation. Wrapping several pieces of romaine lettuce and expertly cut tomatoes in her telekinetic field at once, she levitated them into her open mouth, taking the time to savor and enjoy the rich palate of flavors the royal chief always seemed to manage to extract from such simple dish with only a few added seasonings. She couldn’t help but smile slightly as the familiar taste and texture of ground peppers and parsley assailed her tongue, reminding her of some of the many times she had sat beside Princess Celestia and eaten this very dish. However, her smile quickly faltered as the nostalgic taste disappeared almost immediately, becoming bland and almost bitter in an instant. Scowling at the yet one more thing to irritate her, she took the salt shaker and added a rather generous helping to the dish in an attempt to both season it and perhaps help her mood.

As Twilight was busy smothering her food in slightly intoxicating substances, Luna ushered one of the hoof maidens attending to the room to her side with a small come hither gesture of her hoof. When she came near, Luna whispered into her ear, holding up a hoof to hide her lips. When she was finished, the hoof maiden gave a small curtsy and quickly left the room to complete whatever task she had been given. “And please, do not tarry!” Luna called after her as she passed through the massive double-door entrance.

Twilight looked up from her food to give the princess a questioning glare, but Luna simply averted her gaze, lifting her goblet of wine and taking a delicate sip. After several seconds of holding the glare and being summarily ignored, Twilight gave up and went back to angrily spearing bits of her food with miniature lances of condensed telekinesis and shoveling it into her mouth, hoping that the food would miraculously start to taste better.

Once Twilight’s gaze was no longer uncomfortably on her Luna began to eat as well, gingerly lifting the meal to her lips piece by piece and savoring its delectable succulence. Each bite was a masterfully mixed blend of herbs with a subtle hint of the perfect spices, all of it coming together to create a perfect blend of exquisite flavors the almost seemed impossible to have come from something as simple as a salad. A smile spread across her face as she enjoyed the dish in front of her. The palace chef did indeed live up to what was expected of one in his position if he could make a meal fit for a princess out of something so simple.

Quite in contrast to the pony sitting across from her, Twilight’s dining experience was instead becoming less and less pleasurable as it progressed. With a growing frown, she slowly realized the meal was getting even less delectable the more she ate. In all honesty it was rather perplexing. She’d had this very dish on several occasions before, and she had always loved it. There wasn’t anything wrong with the ingredients, she could distinctly make out the crisp and wet crunch of the lettuce, the soft and succulent taste of tomatoes, the myriad of peppers tingled on her tongue just like they always did, and everything else about the dish seemed to be the same as it always was as well. So why did it taste so… muted? The normal taste was there, sure, but it was so bland and thin, like it was buried under a much larger and tasteless substance. In fact it was almost bitter even, and a bit grainy, sort of like what she imagined ashes would taste like. With a sigh and an even deeper scowl, she reached out and took a rather hearty swig of wine from her crystal goblet, and almost tossed it against a wall in ever deeper irritation when she realized that the flavor even the wine seemed muted and bland.

Noticing Twilight’s distress and the look of anger that flashed across her face, Luna spoke up, “Twilight? What is wrong?”

After the last several hours of increasing irritation and mounting aggressiveness, Twilight finally snapped at the slightest provocation. “Everything!” she shouted loudly enough to make the princess cringe and throwing her hooves up in the air. “Everything is wrong!” she repeated loudly, starting to rant. “The whole situation is wrong! My hoof is wrong, my memory is wrong, you insulting me is wrong, I feel wrong, and even the bucking food is wrong!” she exclaimed, pounding on the table with a hoof in emphasis at her last statement. Panting slightly after her short rant, she grasped her wine glass in the glow of her magic, brought it against her lips, and upended it in a single motion, before becoming even angrier when the wrongness of the taste hit her tongue. This time however she really did becoming angry enough to hurl it against the far wall with a wordless screech of rage, where it shattered and fell to the floor in a tinkling shower of broken crystal. Both ponies stared at the spot on the wall where the goblet shattered for several seconds in utter silence, both of them a bit surprised she had actually done that. After a few tense moments however, Twilight collapsed in an exasperated heap, burying her face against the table and loosening a shuddering sigh. “Why won’t anything just make sense anymore?” she desperately and rhetorically asked, feeling strangely empty.

Princess Luna simply stared at Twilight with a somewhat guilty and piteous expression, letting the silence that filled the room after her outburst drag on for several minutes. She wished she could ease her pain, to say that everything was fine, that it was all going to go away and to take back what she had already said, but she couldn’t. Honesty was a virtue after all. She reached out with a hoof, stopping part way and biting her lip in indecision. She wanted to reach out and give her a comforting touch, give her a shoulder to lean on quite badly, but Twilight seemed to just want be alone. Sighing, she put her hoof back down and called over one of the servants after they had finished cleaning up the remnants of the broken goblet. “Would that thou could bring us another wine glass?” she asked with a bit of a pained smile. “T’would seem that one has broken.” The servant gave her an incredulous look, but never the less trotted off to comply. Luna turned back to Twilight, who was morosely pushing her salad around inside of its bowl, occasionally lifting a singular piece and ripping it several times and placing each piece in her mouth with a subdued grimace. Luna frowned as she watched the distraught unicorn for a few minutes before the servant returned with another goblet of crystal. With soft thanks, she took the glass and dismissed the servant.

Wrapping both the goblet and still mostly full bottle of wine in the indigo glow of her magic, she filled it part way before stopping. Looking at Twilight out of the corner of her eye and waiting until she wasn’t looking, Luna quickly and subtly pulled out a small white plastic bag from beneath her wing, topped of the glass with its contents, and stowed it away again, careful not to let the acrid scent of its contents permeate the air. Giving the glass a soft shake to make sure the two liquids mixed properly, she spoke. “Twilight? Thou felt that there was something wrong with the wine, correct?” she asked, eyeing the crystal glass with a downcast expression and avoiding Twilight’s scathing glare. “Well then, wouldst thou try this glass instead then?” she asked, holding the glass out to Twilight. “Perchance this one shall please thy palette better?”

Twilight stared harshly at the offending glass for several seconds before sighing deeply and shrugging her shoulders a universal gesture of ‘why not?’. It couldn’t be any worse than the last glass. Taking the goblet in her own telekinetic field, she floated it against her lips and took a small sip.

Immediately her eyes flew open, even as Luna’s stomach fell.

It wasn’t muted or bland like everything else she had thus far, far from it in fact. It was rich and powerful, bold almost to the point of being over-powering yet not quite, overall it was actually rather spicy, not unlike aged cinnamon, more robust instead, but also slightly sweet. It was utterly delectable, the best wine she had ever tasted. She was acutely aware of every drop of the ruby liquid as it poured down her throat, filling her body with heat and energy and a sense of power, it made her anxious and filled her with the need to move. The wine was amazing, it was perfect; she needed more, and she needed it now.

She tried to upend the goblet in one mighty gulp, but Luna placed a hoof against it and lowered it away from her lips before she could take more than a few sips. “Please,” she said, “do not drink it all at once.” She wore a small smile on her face, but even a passing glance could tell it was incredibly forced. “Perhaps it would not be remiss of thee to use it to season thy meal?” she offered.

Gasping at the sudden idea, Twilight poured almost half of her glass into her bowl before diving face first into the salad. She ate ravenously, relieved that the meal was finally not only palatable but actually enjoyable. Whilst she was preoccupied with greedily devouring her salad, she did not notice as the hoof maiden Luna had sent out at the beginning of the meal returned, carrying a large book and a silver hoof mirror. Princess Luna took the two items from her with a thank you, before dismissing both her and all of the other servants and attendants in the room.

They all left, shutting the doors behind them at about the same time Twilight looked up from her bowl, having already consumed the entire salad and even licking the bowl clean. Looking to the side, she found the wine again and finished off the amazing ruby liquid in a single long drink. Carefully, she set the empty crystal goblet on the table and sighed deeply in contentment. It didn’t last long however, as she almost immediately rose to her hooves and started pacing back and forth. “Sweet Celestia, Princess, just what kind of wine was that? That was amazing!”

The princess’s smile faltered a bit, but she answered without missing a beat. “It was the same wine as earlier, We simply added something that We believed thou might enjoy,” she replied, placing the thick tome the hoof maiden fetched for her on the table.

Even as excited as she was at the moment, Twilight’s natural love of books caused her to pause mid-step as she took in the books appearance. Wrapped around the edges was all sorts of gold and silver leaf, adorned and festooned with small red crystals and rubies in a seemingly random pattern, the spine was comprised of some strange sort of metal she didn’t recognize, fastened into hinges and inscribed with symbols she had no idea the meaning to. It was closed with a latch of the same sort of strange metal, shaped into a strange clockwork and festooned with more rubies and red crystals, as well as several more of the unusual symbols. Both the front and back cover were comprised of something that looked suspiciously like red dragon scales. But perhaps the most disturbing feature of all was what looked like dragon’s eye set in the center of the front cover, amidst an inverted pentagon of gold and silver with inlaid rubies. The eye swiveled in its socket, scanning the room before its gaze fell on the face of the princess. She held eye contact with it for several seconds without blinking. The inlaid eye closed once in recognition, the clockwork mechanisms in the latch activating and the strange book popped open, revealing aged and yellowing parchment.

“Um, Princess?” Twilight inquired, indicating the incredibly unusual tome with a hoof. “Just what is that?”

“This,” Luna answered, gently stroking her hoof once along the book’s spine, “is our Monster Manual.” The perfectly serious face she wore as she spoke only served to make Twilight even angrier.

“So you’re still saying I’m some kind of monster then?” Twilight nearly shouted as she resumed pacing.

“Would thou like to know what it is We put in thy drink?” Luna asked, changing the subject suddenly and she began flipping through the massive tome.

Caught off-guard by the sudden subject change, Twilight nearly stumbled, but none the less managed to stammer, “Y-yes please.”

With a deep sigh, scowl, and grimace, Luna placed the small, liquid-filled, un-marked white bag on the table. “What is it?” Twilight asked as she reached out with her magic to flip the bag over.

She immediately screamed almost as loud as she could and leapt away as if the bag had suddenly become possessed and transformed into a mass of writhing snakes. Heart hammering rapidly, she tried desperately to deny what she just saw. Gulping, she reached out again with her magic, only to confirm that she had indeed seen what she thought she saw.

Her magic was different.

Instead of the soft lavender glow that she had used her entire life enveloping the little white bag, a harsh crimson aura wreathed around it. Scared and with wide eyes, she turned to Luna for assurance. Without meeting her gaze, the lunar princess reached out and turned the little white bag over, revealing a small label that read: {Type = A neg}. This only frightened Twilight even further and she turned to Luna again, nearly hysterical and almost begging for her to take it back, to say it wasn’t true.

Luna only stared back with deep, saturating sympathy and empathy. Looking down at her tome, she read aloud the title of the chapter she had turned to. “Sangue Trinknia: The curse of the Vampony.”

Twilight stared Luna slack jawed. “No,” she said, her tone almost begging. “No, that can’t be right. I’m not a monster. Please tell me you’re joking. There’s no such thing as monsters. Right? Right!?” she demanded, hysterically.

Luna turned away, unable to meet Twilight’s eye. Instead, she levitated the enchanted silver hand mirror over to the panicking unicorn.

Twilight looked into its reflective surface, and immediately wished she hadn’t. Her eyes, usually so warm and cheerful, were cold and sharp, the pupils thin and slit, like a cat’s or a dragon’s. Like a predators. But that wasn’t the worst of it, not by a long shot. At the front of her muzzle, extending just past her lips, were two wickedly sharp and gleaming white fangs.

For the second time since Twilight had come to the castle after the night of her great failure, its halls echoed with the blood-curdling scream of a frightened mare.

Interlude - A Family Stallion

The streets were silent at the early hour, but would not remain that way for long. Even now the sun was cresting the horizon in the east, spilling the dawn light onto the cobbled roadways of Equestria’s capital. The shafts of golden light fell at a sharp angle, casting many of the surrounding eaves and archways of the city’s famous and slanting architecture still in deep shadow, even while the streets themselves were cast in bright amber. The effect was both strange and beautiful, throwing everything into something that wasn’t quite night or day but somewhere in between instead, a special kind of twilight that could only be seen in rare moments like this. Speaking of Twilight…

Drahcir stopped walking, the silence of the streets becoming absolute as the clip-clop of his hooves against the cobblestones ceased. His face fell and he felt a swell of pity rise up within him for the poor filly. He knew that he was probably going to have to stay at the castle full time just to help handle the situation, but he didn’t mind, nor did he blame her. She definitely didn’t deserve what she had gotten. Poor thing looked like she had just about had a seizure when she got the news. If it wasn’t for the fact that her coat hadn’t turned grey he would have sworn she’d turned to stone from how stiff she’d frozen up. Not to mention the set of pipes that little thing had. She could put his old drill instructor to shame. Although, it was admittedly kind of funny when one of the servants poked her in the side after a few minutes of her catatonic unresponsiveness. She’d simply fallen over onto her side without moving a muscle, holding her pose perfectly as she clattered onto the stone floor. Princess Luna had just thrown her hooves up, shaken her head and huffed, “Oh great. We have broken her.”

The door to a building not too far down the road on which Drahcir stood opened and closed, a pony emerging and setting off down the opposite street. No doubt making her early morning commute, and snapping Drahcir out of his thoughts. He quickly started walking again, this time with a slightly quickened step. Thankfully he had been standing in one of the many long shadows cast by the surrounding buildings and she hadn’t seen him.

He hated being seen in his armor. It wasn’t that he hated actually wearing the armor or even the armor itself, far from it in fact. He loved his Lunar Armor, and everything it represented, his county and his princess, his duty and the fellowship of the guards. He was both proud and honored to serve. Not everypony saw it that way, though.

Throughout his entire extensive career as a Royal Guard he was used to being looked up to. He graduated top of his class and climbed through the ranks quickly, all the while never losing that amiable and noble air that served to make him so likeable as a pony. All of his subordinates looked up to him as an excellent leader and exemplary role model, and even his superiors admired and respected him. Sure, nopony could that gain that kind of respect and climb the ranks so quickly without drawing the wrath and ire of others with their own schemes and ambitions, but he always dealt with such rivals in stride and come out on top. Still, nopony had ever really openly hated and loathed him. That all changed though, just a few years ago.

Luna had returned after a millennium of banishment. She was frightful and shy, not so much as talking to anyone but her sister. But being the kind and older stallion he was, he easily saw past her scared and timid exterior and right to the deep hurt she hid. He never saw the dark and estranged princess everyone else did, all he ever saw was a pony, lost and in need of some friends and a shoulder to lean on. Needless to say, when the Lunar Guard program was announced he was the first in line to join - literally in fact. That’s when things changed.

The moment he donned the Lunar Armor and the enchantments that went with it, ponies started looking at him differently. Some were simply curious. After all, he was something that hadn’t been seen in hundreds of years, and thus was a bit of an oddity. Those he could stand. Others weren’t so kind. Most saw him as a monster, or even worse - an abomination. To them he was something to be afraid of, or to despise. They looked upon him with open and unmasked fear and hate. He loathed it. Yet still…

He thought of Luna. He thought of his new friends in the Lunar Guard. Of the pride in his wife’s eyes as he stood steadfast against the prejudice coming from every side. Of the adoring smiles of his children when they listened to the stories he had to tell. It wasn’t the first time he thought of these things and it wouldn’t be the last, and just like every other time he smiled. As bad as it could be at times, if he could do it all over again he wouldn’t change a thing.

As caught up in his ruminations as he was, Drahcir didn’t notice where he was until he nearly dented his helmet on the door frame. Looking up he was pleasantly surprised to see that his hooves had taken him all the way home while he was lost in his own thoughts. Taking a deep breath to brace himself, he opened the door and stepped inside.

Before he even had a chance to close the door behind him, he immediately felt something soft impact his chest hard enough to drive the air from his lungs and clutch his neck tightly. “Daddy’s home!” came the accompanying filly-ish squeal.

Falling to his haunches with a light huff, Drahcir reached up with his forelegs and gave his youngest daughter tight but gentle squeeze. After holding the embrace for a few moments, he carefully set her down on the floor in front of him, kissing her softly on the forehead just below her scruffy blonde mane and earning a (rather adorable if you asked him) giggle in return. “Rosewood, what are you doing up? You don’t have to get ready for school for another half hour,” he asked, standing up and closing the door behind him with his hind leg.

“I was waiting for you, silly!” she respond, her eager little smile never leaving her face. Despite the number of times he had heard that exact response, and no matter how many times he swore he would eventually harden himself to it, he couldn’t help but feel his heart swell a little at her words. He playfully rustled her mane to try and distract her from just how much her comment made his smile grow. She tried to shoot him an angry look with her brilliant green eyes from beneath his large grey hoof, but the effect was rather diminished since her smile never faltered. “And besides,” she continued, beginning to bounce in place a little, “mama’s making pancakes!”

“Is she now?” he responded, lifting his head to peer past the banister and into the kitchen. The sight that greeted his eyes was definitely more delicious than just simple pancakes. His wife had her back turned to him, her shapely golden-brown flank raised into the air and swaying slightly side-to-side to a nonsensical tune she hummed as she bent over to pull a tray of fresh muffins out of the oven. Taking out the tray and setting it on the table next to a large plate filled with a small tower of pancakes and called over her shoulder, “Rosewood, sweetie, stop pestering your father, he just got home from work. Why don’t you go wake up your sister and tell her breakfast is ready?”

“Okay mama!” the young filly called as she eagerly scampered off to rouse her older sibling.

Stepping away from the front doorway and into the dining room, Drahcir walked up to his wife as she was busy setting out the plate and utensils for breakfast (or dinner, in his case). Carefully, and mindful of the armor he still wore, he reached up and embraced her, burying his muzzle in her flowing chocolate-brown mane and kissing her in that sensitive spot just behind her ear that she had, making it twitch and smack him in the snout. She leaned into his embrace, turning her head to face him. He stared into her piercing emerald eyes for a few moments before leaning forward and kissing her, careful of his fangs. They stayed that way for a few seconds, lips pressed together as he held her. When he pulled away he saw a smile that mirrored his own on her face. Looking into her eyes he told her, “I love you.”

She leaned in and nuzzled him, saying “I love you too,” before kissing him again.

A pair of simultaneous ‘eww’s coming from the hallway caused them to break the kiss for a second time. Turning to the hallway they saw the both of their daughters standing side-by-side, a shared look of distaste on their faces. Chuckling, Drahcir released his wife and made his way towards the hallway himself, giving his older daughter a hug as he stepped past.

Making his way towards the master bedroom at the back of the house, he began unclasping his armor as he walked. By the time he had walked into the bedroom the armor was fully undone, and he was able to shrug most of it off with a roll of his shoulders. It fell to the ground with a metallic clatter, spilling around him in a gleaming semi-circle of metal links. Turning in place, he opened the specially made wardrobe designed just to house his particular uniform. All along the sides and roof of the exquisite piece of craftsmanship were clasps and pegs of silver, and on those went the most numerous part of the armor: the various metal scales that flowed along his neck and back, all the way down to his haunches. Towards the floor, recessed into the back was a molded alcove and in that went his armored saddle, along with his hoof-guards. Just below the roof of it was a sort of rounded shelf, shaped vaguely like a pony’s head. He carefully placed his spined helm on it. Finally, standing proudly in the center of all of it, was the most important fixture of all. A beautifully carved bust of a pony’s chest and broad shoulders, intricately shaped and inlaid with inserts and trimmings of ebony and silver. This aptly located centerpiece was meant to hold the most important piece of all, the section of the Lunar Armor that was more valuable and more precious than all the rest of the ensemble all together, despite the fact that the suit was made entirely of Night Steel. This was where the ornate chest piece was to rest.

Carefully, he pulled on the chest piece. At first there was the usual resistance, like pulling apart a pair of magnets, but after a moment the final piece of Lunar Armor separated from him with a soft hiss of rushing air as the seal was broken. The myriad of enchantments receded as he placed the final piece on its resting place. His fangs dulled to ordinary teeth. The ash grey of his coat dulled its natural icy white-blue, and the long and smooth two-tone purple of his mane and tail lightened and reverted to its normal trimmed cerulean. The bat like wings that the Lunar Guard were famous for changed back into regular feathered pegasus wings all at once with a loud and sudden rush of air as the feathers exploded outward and down the length of his wings. As usual, his eyes were the last to change back to normal. Blinking a few times, they reverted from the intimidating golden irises and slit pupils, back into his familiar soothing magentas. He shifted a bit from hoof to hoof, rolling his shoulders and stretching his neck as he was finally free of the heavy burden of his armor and enchantments. He fanned his wings out behind himself and gave them a few light flaps, relishing in the feeling of air between his feathers after a long night spent in uniform. Taking one last look at himself in the mirrors built into the inside of the wardrobe doors to make sure everything was as it should be, he closed it and headed back towards the dining room so that he could enjoy a morning meal with his family.

They were all already seated around the table when he walked into the dining room. He took his usual seat across from his wife and piled his plate high with pancakes and muffins. For a while they all ate in relative silence, the lethargy common in the early mornings taking hold in the children as he and his wife were momentarily content with just each other’s company. However, being that it was one of the few times throughout the day when he was together with his family because of his profession, it was not long before somepony decided to do something to start conversation. As his wife finished her own plate of pancakes and began to eat her muffins at a leisurely pace she pulled out a small scroll, sealed with the small green ribbon of the equestrian mail system. Wordlessly, she slid it across the table to her husband, a smug and excited smile on her face. Drahcir picked up and unrolled it, noting that both of his daughters seemed rather excited as well.

One thing was immediately noticeable about the document: the large violet seal of the Lunar Guard that took up most of the upper portion of the scroll. That second thing Drahcir noticed about it was that despite the obvious initial assumption, it was not addressed to him. Immediately once he noticed these two things a second conclusion was not far behind, and he felt a twinge of excitement and anticipation swell up within him. If his family was this excited about it, there was only one thing the scroll could be. Quickly, he skimmed over the small, precise lettering, his smile growing as he read several words here and there out loud.

“After careful review… at this time seems prudent… applicant Aloer… top scores and head of his class… we are happy to inform you… accepted into the Equestrian Lunar Guard Academy!” Drachir spoke out loud, his voice gradually increasing in volume and his smile growing wider as he made his way further down the letter. He looked to his wife, his grin wide and his eyes silently asking an unspoken question. His wife on smiled wider, nodding in the affirmative. His spirits lifted enough that he gave a brief laugh, asking aloud, “When did we get this?”

“It just came in yesterday evening,” his wife responded, a giddy giggle layered just beneath her voice as she spoke. “Can you believe it? Our little Aloer is going to be a Lunar Guard, just like his father!” Her excitement was nearly palpable, and she let out a soft squeal of joy and pride at her eldest son’s accomplishment.

Drahcir couldn’t help but grin like an idiot. It had been far too long since the apple of his eye had left home in search of a future for himself, but now he was coming home! Not only that, but he would even be following in his poppa’s hoofsteps, and joining the elite and coveted ranks of the Lunar Guard as well! This was all the more exciting to Drahcir, because as captain of the Lunar Guard it was his job to oversee all of the new recruits, and he just couldn’t wait to see how much more proud his son was going to make him. Additionally, with registration at the Academy only a week away, it wouldn’t be long before he finally saw his son’s face again and got a good look at the fine young stallion he had no doubt become.

As focused as he was on the great news, he didn’t even notice he continued to munch on his muffins and pancakes and by the time he realized he had been eating absentmindedly, all that was left on his plate was the last few bites of a rather large muffin. Scarfing it down, he finished his meal at the same time as the rest of his family.

Leaning back in his seat, he patted his belly contentedly, asking in a jovial tone, “Is there any other news?”

His wife gathered up the used plates and utensils, bringing them back into the kitchen to wash them as she said, “I think there’s something Rosewood would like to tell you.”

“Oh? And what would that be?” he asked, turning to face his youngest with a smile.

“My school’s having a play!” she squealed with obvious excitement. “And I’m going to try out for it.”

“Oh really now? What’s it about?”

“Um,” she began, a childish look of thoughtfulness spreading across her face. After a moment of thought, her eyes widened and she exclaimed, “I don’t know!”

This only earned her a boisterous laugh and a ruffled mane from her father. With a childish squeak, she pulled away from him and started to furiously pat down her mane in an effort to return it to its normal style. With a slight tap of his hoof, he ushered her towards her room, shooing her along and saying, “Go get ready now, you’ll have to leave for school soon.” His smile never left his face. She complied quickly, nearly knocking down her sister as she zipped past in the narrow hallway on the way towards their shared room.

It didn’t take long at all for either of the sisters to finish their school day preparations, and only a few minutes later they both stood before the front door, saddlebags full of notebooks and quills and various other instruments of learning. With a brief hug from both of their parents each, and quickly uttered goodbye they stepped through the open doorway, joining their friends and the other children of the neighborhood on the daily commute towards the school house. Both Drahcir and his wife stood in the doorway, smiles on their faces as they joined all the other parents along the street and silently watched the small group of foals walk down the sunlit streets, the younger among them rushing to and fro, laughing and squealing as they immersed themselves in their foalish games. Only once the procession of school-foals turned the corner and was out of sight did they both turn away, retreating back inside and shutting the door behind them.

Side by side, they both walked towards the foyer, where Drahcir stopped and wrapped his wings around his wife, forcing her to stop as well. When she turned to look him in the eye and saw the slowly forming frown on his face, her own smile began to falter as well. He pulled her into a soft kiss, and when he pulled away the corners of her mouth had fallen even further. Worried that he may have been overly-concerning his wife, he quickly started speaking, “I didn’t want to say anything in front of the kids, but there’s something I have to tell you.” At this her face fell completely, and he quickly nuzzled her before continuing, “Now now, it’s nothing like that. Something’s happened at the castle is all.” She perked up a bit at that, and the look in her eyes said for him to continue, so he did. “The other night, a special guest arrived at the castle, but in rather dire straits. She’s not exactly in critical condition, but she’s very close to the princess and I’ve already been called in to watch over her once before, and based on the way things are going right now it probably won’t be the last time either. The whole castle’s been pretty busy lately with what’s happening because of it, and I’ll probably be called in on a full time basis. I don’t think I’ll be able to come home for a few days after this.”

Predictably, and understandably, a look of disappointment came across her face as he relayed this news, and she embraced him harder, burying herself in his chest. After a while she sighed, and said, “I understand. You’re a big important guard and Princess Luna trusts you most of all.” With a grumble, she added, “Doesn’t mean I have to like it though,” under her breath. After a moment though, her expression turned from a disappointed frown to a mischievous grin. She trailed a hoof lightly in circles across his chest, before giving him a soft nip just where his shoulder met his neck and leading him down the hallway.

“Um, what are you doing?” he asked as he followed her.

“Well, if this is your last day home for a while we should make it count, shouldn’t we?” she explained, fluttering her eyelashes flirtatiously and swaying her flank provocatively as she walked towards their bedroom at the back of the house, flicking him on the nose with the tip of her tail.

Immediately, Drachir’s eyes flew wide and his wings stood immediately at attention. “Yes ma’am!” he complied, following after with a wide grin and a canter in his step.

Ambushes & Anger

The early morning sunlight beamed with all of the intensity it could muster, yet for the most part even it was still powerless to penetrate the thick canopy of foliage of the Everfree Forest. What little of the light that actually did make it through was dim and weak, tinted a sickly emerald from the choking canopy and falling in sharp slants against the forest floor in a harsh way that still somehow managed to make the forest intimidating despite the daylight hour. It did at the very least serve its ultimate purpose however, and the woods were lit to the point of visibility for the relatively small amount of diurnal creatures that stalked its leafy boughs in an endless game of hunt or be hunted. Even so, the light was faint, reminiscent more of a never-ending twilight than the bright early morning that shone just beyond its borders.

A single, relatively well-worn path cut through the dense trees and ever-present foliage, thinning out the thick canopy and casting the solitary trail into a light more like that of dawn rather than dusk, allowing two creatures foreign to these woods to walk side by side through the towering wooded copses in relative safety, and with only a modicum of justified fear.

“Thank you once again for helping me, darling,” the first said to her companion, casting a weary glance at her surroundings. “I feel so much more comfortable walking through the Everfree Forest with you instead of by myself.”

“Oh, it’s no problem, Rarity,” the timid pegasus replied, her tone quiet and demure. “I’m always happy to help.” Despite her amiable response and actions, the frightful pony couldn’t help but cast a fearful glance around and wish that she was just about anywhere but where she was at the moment. “But, um, are you certain that we should be out here? I mean, what if they’re not even out here? Are you sure they’re at Zecora’s?”

Instead of an immediate response Rarity sighed in a deep and shuddering manner, revealing for a brief moment the sort of stress gnawing at her. After a moment of silence between the two of them, she rubbed the space between her eyes in a futile attempt to alleviate the mounting headache she gotten over the last few days or so, and spoke, “No, Fluttershy, I’m not. I don’t know if they’re at Zecora’s or not. I didn’t know if they were at the schoolhouse, Ghastly Gorge, their little clubhouse or at the last seven other places I checked either. I don’t know if they’re lost in some cave somewhere in this Celestia forsaken forest or if they simply decided to go camping without telling anypony. All I know is that nopony’s seen Sweetie Belle or her friends since the day before yesterday and Zecora’s is the only place we haven’t checked yet.” She turned to face Fluttershy, bags visible beneath her eyes and several errant curls spiraling out of her otherwise immaculate mane. “So can we please just get to Zecora’s house and pray to Celestia that I finally find my sister?” she asked, desperation visible in her eyes.

Fluttershy could only take a single look at the silent pleading behind her friends gaze before her more empathetic and compassionate nature got the better of her and she closed the distance between them with a flap of her wings. Stopping the distraught unicorn in the middle of them path, she hugged her tightly, allowing Rarity to rest her head on her shoulder. “Oh, Rarity,” she crooned, stroking her friends violet mane, “I’m so sorry. You’ve got to be so worried right now. I can’t imagine what you and Applejack are going through.” She could feel Rarity’s shoulders beginning to shudder with suppressed sobs and cooed, “It’s Okay, Rarity. It’ll all be Okay, you’ll see.”

For a brief moment Rarity struggled, giving a half-hearted effort to pull away from her friend’s embrace and trying her best to maintain her composure. Fluttershy held her tight anyways, soothing her with kind words and gentle reassurances until the mounting stress of the last 48 hours finally got to the frazzled unicorn, and her composed façade faltered. Unable to hold it in any longer, Rarity slowly wrapped her forelegs around her friend and began to sob openly. “I’m just so scared! What if something happened to them?!” she wailed, tears running down her cheeks and ruining the makeup she painstakingly applied every morning.

“Shh, shh, it’ll be Okay, everything will be alright,” Fluttershy assured the sobbing unicorn, still stroking her mane with a butter-yellow hoof.

They sat like that for several minutes; neither of them moving save for the deep shuddering of unrestrained sobs or the gentle stroking of a comforting hoof. Eventually though, Rarity calmed down and the stream of tears dried up, much to Fluttershy’s relief. Sniffling a bit, Rarity pulled her face out of Fluttershy’s shoulder and whipped the few remaining tears off of her face, smearing her running mascara slightly. “Sorry about that, darling,” she apologized, her words punctuated with a sniff. “It’s not very lady-like to break down like that. Oh, I must look a mess, I’m terribly sorry,” she said, a small smile beginning to show itself on her face. “But… thank you. For being there I mean. It means a lot to me.”

“Of course,” Fluttershy responded, giving her friend a comforting nuzzle as she too began to smile softly. “That’s what friends are for. I’ll always have a shoulder for you to cry on if you need it.”

“Oh, Fluttershy,” Rarity said, leaning into and returning the nuzzles. “You are nicest friend a pony could ask for.” She held the embrace for a moment before breaking away, her mood lightened considerably. “Come on, let’s go to Zecora’s and find my sister.”

“Of course,” was Fluttershy’s simple response as she turned and they both began to walk side by side down the path once again.

For a while they both walked in silence, content to say nothing after the outpouring of emotions. Just each other’s company was enough. However, the silence between the two of them only called to attention the strange and alien nature of the birdsong and other sounds of the early morning in their wild location, which only served to remind them of where they were. The menacing growls, harsh cawing and distant roars soon became oppressive. Their ears would swivel towards the light scraping or rustling of the bushes, and a thick tension began to fill the air. Both of them felt almost ready to jump out of their skin and bolt at the slightest sign of danger, imagined or not. So when a rather large and unidentifiable fruit fell to the ground between them, splattering against the ground and coating their hooves in its sickly sweet juices, it wasn’t very surprising that Rarity nearly jumped out of her skin with a loud yelp and Fluttershy dove into the nearest bush. “Oh my,” Rarity said out loud, holding a hoof over her chest to still her rapidly beating heart. “I do think this dreadful forest is starting to get to me.”

“Um, yes,” Fluttershy agreed, stepping out from her hiding place, still trembling on her hooves. “Um, maybe we should hurry? I-I don’t really like it here.”

“You and I both, Fluttershy,” Rarity responded, looking around for anything that might suddenly leap from the bushes and scare them. “You’re right. Let’s hurry so that we don’t have to spend a moment longer in this dreadful place then need be.”

They both began to walk again, though the constant air of tension remained. Constantly looking over their shoulders as they walked, flinching at the slightest sound, they both began to slowly and unconsciously pick up speed until they were both at a light trot. Finally it became too much for Fluttershy, and she spoke up in an attempt to break the over bearing and suffocating silence. “So, um, have you talked to Applejack?” she asked, desperately casting around for a topic of conversation.

Rarity was only too happy to breaking to oppressive sense of foreboding in the air, and eagerly latched on to any sort of conversation to break the over powering silence. “Why yes, I did indeed, and Big Macintosh as well. I must say, I’m not sure which of their reactions frightens me more.”

Fluttershy nodded in agreement. “I know what you mean. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Applejack quite so quiet and, um… distant.”

“Yes, it is indeed unlike like her. As for Big Macintosh though…” Rarity trailed off and shook her head with a sigh before completing her sentence. “I’ll admit that I’m not very well acquainted with him, but he always did seem rather strong and stoic. But I haven’t seen a stallion quite so nervous and anxious since the time Caramel finally got up the nerve to ask me to lunch. Honestly, I feel a little concerned for him.”

“I do too, but I’m not all that surprised,” Fluttershy said, causing Rarity to give her a questioning glance. Fluttershy explained, “Sure, he might seem all big and tough, and he definitely is, with being tall and all those giant muscles and not talking much, but that’s just how he is. Deep down though, he has a really sweet and soft heart.” She dropped her gaze slightly and a small smile formed on her face as she went on, “I remember one evening I saw him in the park. He was sitting beneath that one weeping willow on the top of the hill, and a little squirrel came up to him while he was eating his lunch. At first I thought he was just going to shoo it off, but then he broke off a piece of his apple and gave it to the little guy.” Fluttershy gave a soft giggle at the memory.

Rarity simply stared at Fluttershy while she spoke, listening to her warm and admiring tone just as much as her actual words. When she finished, Rarity took one look at her face and let out a rather giddy giggle. “Oh my, Fluttershy! Big Macintosh? I wouldn’t have guessed. But I suppose you would go for the strong and silent type, wouldn’t you?”

Immediately, the timid mare grew a fierce crimson blush across her entire face. “N-no! I-it’s not like that a-at all! I like him and everything, b-but only as a friend! I-I only meant that he was sweet and kind and- and- eep!” she embarrassedly stammered, desperate to dispel such a notion, before becoming too self-conscious and hiding behind her mane with a squeak.

“Really? So you’re not with him then?” Rarity inquired, actually sounding kind of disappointed. Fluttershy murmured her affirmative. “Well that’s actually somewhat disappointing. You two would make an incredibly cute couple.” Fluttershy’s blush somehow got even fiercer behind her curtain of pink mane.

Though neither of them had noticed it over their own speaking, the various ever-present background noises of the forest had ceased. The cawing of birds in the trees had stopped, the soft patter of paws through the brush had gone silent, and not even the buzzing of insectile wings was not to be heard. Though the conversation the two mares had struck up had done its job admirably, and dispelled the tension they both felt, the woods around them were a different story all together. The air was thick and tense, and utterly silent. It was as if the very forest itself were holding its breath in fear, and palpable anticipation. Neither of the two ponies noticed the rustling bushes and pair of glowing eyes until it was far, far too late.

The monstrously fast mass of scales and muscle erupted from its hiding place, slamming into the unaware unicorn with enough momentum to dash her against a far tree with a large crash, dropping her into unconsciousness before she even realized something was amiss. With one of its two items of prey dealt with, the beast turned to coil its long, scaly, serpentine body around the remaining pony, wrapping around her at least three times over and glaring contemptibly down at her with beady eyes sunk deep within its scaly triangular head.

Its grip constricted around her, threatening to squeeze the very life from her frail body as her breath was forced out in a ragged wheeze. She tried to scream, to vocalize her primal terror at the situation, but was unable to muster anything more than a faint gasp as she stared into the beady-eyed gaze of the powerful predator, her own eyes wide in breathless pain and panic. The serpentine monstrosity grinned wickedly at her, baring its rows and rows of needle-like fangs in a smug glare, confident in the face the success of its hunt. Out of the corner of her eye Fluttershy caught a blur of movement, and in an instant she felt a lance of agony flare along her right side as something plunged deep into the soft and sensitive flesh and muscle just below her wing, though the white-hot pain was soon replaced with a cold numbness that spread from that point outwards, creeping along her body like ice through her veins.

It was only a moment before she almost could no longer feel anything at all. All of the usual sensations of her body were either gone or muted and distant, replaced by an icy hollowness. Her thoughts began to slow as well, her mind suddenly feeling as if it had been stuffed full of cotton and clouds. Even the life-chokingly tight grip of the beast seemed lessened, as if she were experiencing the sensation through a layer of water, and she only even felt it in the first place because her mind reminded her body that it was slowly being squeezed to death. She glimpsed the same flicker of movement again, and swiveling her eyes this time she managed to see the creature’s tail moving away from her, withdrawing the 6-inch long barb at its end from the flesh just below her right wing and dripping crimson rivulets of her life-blood. One look at the small amount of gore made her suddenly queasy, and she was glad that her stomach felt disconnected from her just like the rest of her body lest she become sick.

Confident in its venom’s effects, the beast released her, dropping her to the forest floor with a muted thump that she heard rather than felt. Reacting on instinct rather than conscious thought in her dazed and languid state, Fluttershy attempted to rise to her hooves and flee, only to discover in addition to the numbness of her body, all her limps were completely still in the face of her feeble attempts. Panicking even further, she began to trash about, but met with the same results. For all her struggles she could do little more than lightly flutter her wings or twitch her hooves. Upon noticing her futile attempts at movement and escape the creature began to utter a strange noise, like a hiccupping hiss, stopping and starting again with great bout of rattling air. After a moment Fluttershy realized it was laughing. Laughing at her. Involuntarily, and unknown to her, Fluttershy began to tremble, her body shaking and shivering in fright.

This only caused it to laugh even harder as it laid its two previously hidden scrawny clawed arms on her, one on her head and to other on her withers. Without any sort of care or grace, it shoved her roughly onto her side into the dirt, its claws digging into her flesh with enough force to draw blood as it splayed her neck wide. Slowly, deliberately, the creature lowered its head towards her exposed jugular, carefully drawing out and exaggerating each movement until its dagger-like fangs hung in the bare centimeters above her delicate and vulnerable flesh, where it waited. She stared at it in wide-eyed horror as it held itself there unmoving and forcing her to experience mind-numbing terror as she continued to wait for the final swift movement that would end her life. She could see the single drop of venom clinging to the tip of the waiting fang, glinting prismaticly in the faint sunlight as the facial muscles of the predatory beast pulled into she assumed to be its twisted version of a smile. Distantly, she became aware of a dull thudding sound, a faint ringing in her ears as she stared her ultimate fate in the face. A sudden pressure against the suddenly hyper-sensitive flesh of her neck startled her enough that she would have jumped had she been able to, and the dull thudding increased in tempo with her panicked heartbeat, before she realized that her tender neck had not been pierced. Instead, the sadistic beast had laid its forked tongue against her in an effort to draw out every ounce of pure terror it could for its own sick pleasure before finally finishing its meal. It gave out another of its gasping hiss like laugh at her reaction and began drawing its forked tongue across her sensitive flesh, taking delight as the force of her trembling increased. Distantly, the dull thudding in her ears grew ever louder.

At that moment the monster must have decided that it had played with its food enough, laying the tips of its fangs against the thin flesh of her jugular, and pressing. Had she been in control of her voice at that moment Fluttershy would have cried out in mortal terror and agony. The beast was slow, meticulous, burying its fangs inside of her soft and tender body inch by agonizing inch. She could feel it, all of it, every last bit as it penetrated the delicate flesh of her neck, twin rivulets of blood weeping from the wound as a counter point to the tears that flowed freely from her eyes. After a few agonizing seconds that seemed to drag onto eternity the slow advance of the fangs finally stopped as the beast’s upper jaw met the tender flesh of her neck. Then came the worst of it yet, as the fangs released their payload of venom, injecting it inside of her. It was hot, far too hot, she felt like it was burning her form the inside out as it spread through veins. It pulled away, leaving behind only the venom, the wound and a sense of violation. The poison in her veins spread, creeping through her and leaving nothing it touched untainted. Slowly, her vision began to blur and dim, her left eye fading to black. Realizing there was no hope left, that the monster had killed her, that this was it, this was the end, Fluttershy stopped her ceaseless struggles. She let go of herself, and for a moment she knew peace. The thudding in her ears stopped.

Suddenly, the bushes across from her exploded. A large grey mass of fur and fangs flew through the air and collided with the scaled form of the predator that had felled her, a guttural and savage roar tearing its way out of the newcomer’s open maw. Instantly upon seeing it come to what she assumed was her rescue a flame of hope roared to life within her bosom once again and a rush of adrenaline shot along her spine as she began her struggles to live anew.

The snake monster began to fight back immediately, throwing off the hairy beast and flaring its stubby and useless vestigial feathered wings in a threating display. As it tumbled through the air, her savior landed directly in front of Fluttershy’s face, allowing her to get a good look at it. The first thing to go through her head was surprise as it seemed that somepony had somehow found her in the middle of the woods and deigned to fight against a predator on her behalf, but that was dispelled instantly with another cursory glance. For one, he (and from this angle she could tell it most definitely was a he) was far too furry, and the only pony she knew who came close to that size was Big Macintosh. In addition, instead of hooves its limbs ended in massive paws tipped with large claws, and despite his large pony-like eyes his muzzle was much too long and filled with sharp fangs. Plus, the dark black mane he had was more lion-like than pony-like, and despite his tail being nearly all hair she could clearly see the bone running through it. As the final nail in the coffin the lack of a mark on his haunches gave it away if nothing else could. It looked more like a vaguely equine wolf than anything else.

He rose to his paws and turned to face the serpentine monster, crouching into an aggressively defensive stance, lowering his front and tightening the muscles in his rear legs to pounce as he stood between the Snake and her. From her vantage she did her best to follow the action even as it became a struggle to draw breath.

The Snake drew up to a massive height, standing on its tail alone as it ruffled the feathers of its wings and hissed menacingly in an effort to seem as large and imposing as possible. The furred beast was unimpressed and only growled in a deep baritone in his own threatening display. Angered, the serpentine creature dropped to the ground and lashed out in an effort to sink its venous fangs into his furry body, but the Wolf was just as quick, swiping with a lightning quick paw and catching the predator across the face and opening several shallow but bloody furrows between its scales. Hissing in pain, the Snake reflexively pulled its head away, lasing out with its barbed tail in a blind swing. The Wolf ducked beneath the sweeping appendage easily, releasing the pent up tension in his hind legs and pouncing through the air and landing on the creature, and immediately began to maul it. Sinking his teeth deep into the softer flesh at the base of the Snake’s wing he held on tightly and raked at any spot he could reach with his large claws, opening many large and bloody scratches and wounds as they managed to slip between its protective scales. As he began gnawing at the soft and tender flesh that joined the stubby wing to the rest of the creature’s body it let out a wailing shriek and began to thrash violently.

The Wolf continued to hold on tightly however, causing the creature constant agony and inflicting a great many grievous wounds. In its blind pain the serpentine monster lashed to and fro, desperate to dislodge the Wolf by any means, flattening bushes and cutting through thick foliage in its wild flailing, even cutting through several small saplings with its muscular tail. Finally the Snake managed to rear up into the air and fall backwards, landing heavily on the Wolf with its full weight, driving the breath out of his lungs and loosening his grip enough that the Snake could wriggle its way free, the copious amount of slick blood easing the process. Once it was free, it immediately moved out of the range of the Wolf’s fangs and claws, hissing loudly in pain and rage as it bloody and tattered wing hung limply to its side. Lunging forward, venomous fangs bared, it attempted to bite him back, only to graze his front left leg as he barely managed to roll to the side and back to his paws once again. The venom was potent however, and the shallow wound began to steam and sizzle as the blood boiled as it wept from the open flesh. He yelped from the sudden pain, jumping and scratching furiously in an attempt to dislodge the source of the pain. Thankfully the cut was shallow, and the poison was easily wiped away, but the damage was done and the tissue around it was already beginning to swell and redden, and any pressure on the limb caused intense burning agony, forcing a large limp.

They both began to circle one another, as two fighting predators were wont to do, each eyeing the other warily and waiting for an opening to attack. For several moments they paced, until the furry lupine stumbled, and almost faster than Fluttershy’s eyes could follow the scaly serpent lashed out with its tail, poisonous barb glinting in the light as the Wolf leapt to the side in an effort to dodge the strike. Unfortunately, he wasn’t quite quick enough, and the tip managed to find purchase in the flesh of his right hind leg, injecting what amount of the paralyzing poison it could. He let out a startled yelp, backing away as he sported another limp in his newly numbed leg. Hiss-laughing madly at its hard won victory, the serpentine monster lunged, fangs bared, attempting sink them deep into his soft flesh and finally be done the troublesome pest that had caused it such pain and kept it from its meal.

Almost faster than Fluttershy’s eyes could follow though, the Wolf smiled. Just as the Snake was about to finish him he leapt into the air, revealing the limp in his back leg to be fake, and landed on the head and neck of the Snake as it caught a mouthful of dirt and loam. Before it could even react, the Wolf sank his teeth deeply into the base of its neck, just below the skull, with a feral snarl. For the first time since the fight began, the serpent creature’s eyes flew wide in an expression of genuine fear, and it thrashed and flailed with all its strength in a desperate and last ditch effort to throw the Wolf and forestall its own doom. Unfortunately for it, the muscles of it neck just weren’t strong enough to escape the full bulk of its opponent, and as its tail and body writhed violently he clenched his jaws tightly. A loud crunch echoed through the small path with a sense and tone of utter finality. The serpent creature’s body gave one last shudder before falling totally still.

The Wolf released the severed spine of his opponent from his jaws and stood hunched over its still body, eyes diluted and glinting ferally and blood dripping freely from his fanged maw. After several shuddering breaths, he turned his muzzle skyward and loudly howled his victory into the Everfree air for all to hear. The loud, haunting note hung for several moments until his lungs were expended, and he lowered his head again. Blinking several time, the look in his eyes turned form feral bloodlust to a calm, cold intelligence. Shaking his head side to side, he finally turned to Fluttershy.

She began to tremble all over again, once more horrified and frightened by the display of ruthless and violent wild fighting and dominance that was prevalent in the Everfree Forest. Slowly, he padded over to her, standing over her prone and helpless body. She looked him in the eyes, beholding the cold, cunning, predatory intelligence in his glowing red gaze. Her vision was blurring once more, the left eye completely dark and the burning within her body had returned. The adrenaline from watching the fight had helped drive off the venom for a while, but it had faded now, and she was still in just as much danger as when he had appeared. Looking deep within his golden eyes, she called upon every ounce of experience, familiarity and friendship she had with the animals of Equestria in an effort to a single plea.

“…He… lp…,” she managed to barely gurgle past her burning and numb throat, before the last dregs of adrenaline were depleted and she fell into deep, black unconsciousness.

*~-/^-~*

Empty. That described it best. This strange alien place Twilight found herself in was… empty. There was no light, no shadows, no walls, nothing. Just a plain, sheer whiteness in every direction. No matter which way which way she looked a stark and imposing expanse of white skies, white floors and white mist stretched out to the unidentifiable horizon. Rising slowly to her hooves she tried her best to pierce the veil of blankness that surrounded her, but such a task was hopelessly impossible. Confused, she attempted to call out, to try and find something that might explain her sudden predicament, only for her breath to escape soundlessly. Startled, she tried again, only to meet with the same results as the endless expanse around her remained resolutely silent. Suppressing a shiver, she decided that she didn’t want to be in this place any longer then she had to be. Picking a random direction, she began walking. The fact that the sound of her hoof falls reached her ears just fine while she remained voiceless only served to unsettle her further.

The amount of time she spent walking was hard to determine, the distance she had traveled even more so. With absolutely no landmarks and the surroundings completely uniform in all directions it felt like even after what must been hours (or could have just as easily been only a few minutes) she had not moved from the very spot she been in when she had made her first step. Not even the endless mists and fog seemed to react to her passing, increasing the feeling of helpless motionlessness. Vague thoughts and foggy memories of long ago nightmares rose to the forefront of her thoughts unbidden; images of running down corridors towards doors that never seemed to get any closer and oppressive senses of danger and hopelessness weighing down on her suddenly panicked mind. Almost subconsciously she began to trot faster, faster, and faster still until she was soon galloping full tilt, the white expanse around her still and unchanging as always.

Fear well and truly took hold then, fear of the nothing around her and of the absence of an escape. Fear that she was utterly alone it the blank and silent void. As the frightened tears leapt unbidden to her eyes she tried to cry out for somepony, anypony, only for her voice to remain resolute in its silent absence. It hit her then, an overpowering sense of loss and hopelessness, laying on her like a weight between her shoulders that threatened to drive the breath from her lungs and her body into the ground. Gradually her steps begin to slow, from a gallop to a trot to a canter until finally she stopped. Falling to her haunches, her head drooped and she began to weep in silence, the empty despair pressing against her from all sides like the blank fog and mists that brushed against her coat.

A sharp noise, soft and faded in the distance traveled to her through the still air, cutting through her sadness. Lifting her head with a soundless gasp, she trained her vision into the distance just in time to see a dark figure disappear further into the fog. Without a second thought, she immediately leapt once more to her hooves and charged after it.

Following the figure through the oppressing mists proved difficult, but Twilight didn’t let that deter her. There was nothing else for her in this place. Every time she lost sight of it, she only ran faster, eventually forcing it to come into sight once again, often off to her left or right and changing her course to accommodate. So caught up in the chase was she, that as the ever-present fog and mist begins to thin out it went completely unnoticed by her. Eventually though, her wild flight and chase led her to a strange sight, an anomaly in the endless uniformity around her. Most all of the fog around her seemed to have coalesced into a single neatly structured shape, a large wall-like expanse of thick and opaque mists. Out of the corner of her eye she spied the figure disappearing into the white wall. Without a moment’s hesitation she charged in after it.

What she found on the other side was the most surprising thing she had seen since she had found herself in the strange white expanse in the first place. As usual, the mist was completely unresponsive to her, remaining solidly in place despite her passing through it. In fact, from this side it actually did look like a solid wall. A gentle touch with her hoof produced a dull clop and proved that was indeed the case. Turning away from the fog-wall turned solid-wall, she took in the rest of the sights. She appeared to be in some sort of… she hesitated to call it a ‘clearing’ but there really wasn’t any other word for it. The solid wall behind her stretched off into the distance, coming around and joining together again to fully encircle the space she stood in. In the middle of the circular ‘clearing’ was a large dais, in the center of which stood an elegant body-sized mirror. Its frame was delicately wrought of fine silver and immaculate gold, inlaid with over a dozen stunning rubies. Its surface was pure and unblemished, so utterly clear it was as if it wasn’t even there at all and she was just looking through empty space between a silver and golden door-frame. The only thing that gave it away as a mirror was her own movements being reflected in its depths. There was just one thing wrong with it though.

The reflection wasn’t her. At least not all of her. All that stood on the other side of the mirror was a black silhouette. She could tell that it was supposed to be her, there was a horn jutting prominently from its forehead and her mane was pretty distinctive and easily recognized on it. Walking up to the mirror, the silhouette on the other side did the same, mimicking her movements perfectly. When she was a hoof’s reach from the immaculate glass she sat on her haunches. The silhouette did the same. Lifting her left hoof, she touched it to her snout. Her movements were reflected right back at her. She leapt back to hooves, the black figure on the other side of the glass following along effortlessly. Frowning, she decided to take it further. Crouching down, she began to lightly bounce in place, singing a foal-hood mantra in her head. ‘Sunshine, sunshine.’ Lowering further, she covered her eyes, and when she opened them it had done the same. ‘Ladybugs awake.’ Sitting down again, she clapped her hooves together before knocking them against the air in front of her, the silhouette following the movements perfectly. ‘Clap your hooves.’ Turning around quickly, she waved her flank back and forth. ‘And do a little shake.’ Peering over shoulder, she saw the blank image in the same position. Turning to face the mirror once more, the frown she wore was now one of confusion rather than suspicion.

Raising her right hoof she slowly reached out towards the silhouette. Sudden foreign movement from the dark doppelganger caused her to freeze up in surprise however, and she drew a sharp and soundless gasp as it somehow opened its eyes. They were deep and sanguine red, the red of life’s-blood, and slit like a demon. The demonic shadow smiled then, revealing two large fangs hanging from its upper jaw. Before Twilight could even draw breath to scream, it leapt at her, mouth open wide and somehow swallowed her whole. As it did so the first word she had heard since she found herself in the strange place ripped its way from the dark shadow’s throat, reverberating through the space with a hellish cadence.

“Twilight!”

*~-/^-~*

The first thing Twilight was immediately aware of was screaming. The second was something heavy lying on top of her as she flailed madly. No conscious thought ran through her head, instead all that lay in her mind was a deep and primordial terror, overwhelming and all-consuming. For a moment she struggled violently, trying desperately to escape from the danger she was only instinctually aware of, before a modicum of rationality began to make itself known. She became aware that screaming was coming from her, and slowly she began to calm down. Her struggles lost their fervor, her cries quieted, and she began take in her surroundings.

The first thing she noticed was that she seemed to be lying in a bed. The second was the Shining Armor was lying atop her in an effort to restrain her wild thrashing. His expressive blue eyes betrayed his overwhelming concern for her at a simple glance, despite his often times stoic nature. One look into her older brother’s eyes and the love visible in his gaze and it all came crashing down on Twilight. She threw her forelegs around him and embraced him tightly, letting out all fears and confusion as twin trails of tears into his broad chest.

Brotherly instincts taking over immediately, he gathered her up, depositing her in his lap and holding her close, stroking her mane and whispering gentle reassurances in her ear, just as he used to do when she was a foal. For several minutes neither of them moved from the spot, both of them wrapped in each other’s comforting embrace as Twilight’s shudders and sobs slowly petered out to nothingness. Pulling away slightly, he kissed her on the forehead, just below her horn, and brushed a few errant bangs out of her face before looking into her eyes and asking, “Are you alright, Twily?”

She gave a soft sigh, punctuated by a sniffle, before answering, “I… I’ll be alright. I-It was just a dream. Just a bad dream.” She repeated the words silently to herself, hoping to try and force herself to believe them while she looked anywhere but into Shining’s eyes.

Shining hooked a hoof under her chin and lifted her gaze to his, easily reading the torn emotions on her face. After a moment he asked, “Do you want to talk about it?”

Unbidden, her thoughts turned to the white place, with its painful empty loneliness and the demon in the mirror. She tore her gaze away, trying and failing to suppress the shudder that ran through her body. Seeing the hurt in his sister’s eyes, Shining gave her a soft squeeze and rubbed her back comfortingly, doing his best to assure her fears with his immutable presence.

After a moment he spoke again, “I heard about what happened last night.”

Immediately Twilight tensed, a heavy weight of dread hanging thick on her like a chocking blanket. Her fear welled up again, thick and cloying, forcing out any sort of comfort and warmth she might have gleaned from her brother’s presence as the reality of her situation was suddenly recalled. Silently, tears began to leak again from her large, frightened eyes.

Sensing her distress, Shining began stroking her again, speaking in a soft and gentle tone, “It’s alright Twily, it’s alright. Everything’s going to be Okay, you’ll see. You’ll get through this. You always do. And I’ll be right here for you every step of the way.”

Regardless, she began to shudder, shaking uncontrollably as her thoughts raced far and fast, her rationality struggling to keep pace. What was she going to do? She was a monster now, there was no going back for her, no matter how much she desperately wanted to. What would her friends think? Or worse yet, Princess Celestia?! What would they say? Would they be disgusted? Horrified? They would certainly be shocked at least, that much was a given. But what would they do once they had gotten over their initial surprise? Would they hate her? Would they stop being her friends? She hoped not, she really, really hoped not. She couldn’t stand the thought of losing them, of all of them simply no longer being there for her, coming to her when they needed her. Not constantly inviting her to parties or offer to show her new tricks or asking her opinion on a new dress design or sharing some of the best apple pie she had ever tasted or sitting in the park feeding the ducks or—

She was abruptly snapped out of her quickly degrading thoughts as Shining suddenly shook her, her wide and vacant eyes along with her near hyper-ventilation giving clear evidence to her inner turmoil. “Twilight, everything’s going to be alright. You’ll see,” he reassured, starring into her eyes and trying his best to convey a sense of comfort and support through his gaze alone. “No matter what happens, I’m here for you, you’ll see.”

For a moment she was still, utterly so. Then she embraced him yet again, holding him as tightly as she could, so tightly her legs almost began to hurt from the strain. He just held her back in silence, stroking her comfortingl. He was right. He had always been there before now, and no matter what happened he would always be there in the future too. No matter what he would always be there, her very own knight in shining armor. For a while longer she just let him hold her, taking comfort in his steadfast presence, when a voice spoke from the doorway.

“We are not interrupting anything, are We?”

Both unicorns turned the see Princess Luna standing in the doorway, one hoof raised indecisively weather or not to come or go and a sheepish and guilt laden look on her face. She looked between the both of them for answer in the face of their silence, her ears lying flat and winces slightly when she seeing the harsh glare Shining Armor shoots her for causing such distress for his little sister.

Sighing, Twilight gently extracted herself from the grip of her brother’s forelegs, climbing down from the elegant bedspread and stretching. After a few satisfying pops from her vertebrae, she answered, “No, Princess Luna. Shining and I were just talking.” The mentioned stallion dismounted from the bed as well, standing protectively next to her and continuing to shoot the princess a silent, angry glare.

“Oh, We see,” Princess Luna responded amicably, visibly relaxing slightly when she saw that Twilight wasn’t quite so angry at her as the mare’s brother. Nervousness was still plain on her features though, and she timidly glanced everywhere but Twilight’s eyes as she asked, “Art thou well? After the events of the early morn We were worried that thee may have suffered some ill effects.”

Twilight visibly tensed as the subject was brought up and Luna silently chastised herself for her continued lack of tact. Twilight was silent for a moment longer before speaking again, “I’m… just fine, Princess.”

Luna stepped a little closer, raising a hoof slightly, halfway to offering it in a placating and sympathetic gesture before thinking better of it and asked, “Art thou certain? If thou art feeling unwell We can—“

“I said I’m fine!” Twilight interrupted snappishly, causing the princess to wince from the bite in her tone. Seeing the guilt plain on her face Twilight looked away, taking a deep breath to calm herself. Without looking at her she spoke again, more levelly this time, “I’m fine Princess. I just don’t really want to talk about it.”

Taking a step backwards to but a little more distance between herself and Twilight, Luna continued, “Very well, We shan’t discuss the topic further. Just know that shouldst thou ever want for anything We shall do all in our power to aid thee. We cannot help but feel that it is partially Our fault that this has happened to thee. If We had not asked thou to pursue the cult or perhaps if We had been swifter that night then—“

“Don’t.” Twilight cut her off, giving her a stern glare. “Just… don’t, Princess. I don’t want to talk about what-ifs. No matter how desperately I wish otherwise what happened, happened. No amount of your pity or self-guilt is going to change that,” she finished, throwing an almost accusatory hoof at Luna.

Luna recoiled, wincing repeatedly as Twilight spoke, as if each word were a hammer blow. Her ears laid flat against her skull and a small amount of guilty tears began to form at the corners of her eyes in the face of Twilight’s sudden anger and accusations. With an almost pleading tone she said, “Twilight, We are sorry, We only meant—“

“No, don’t even start!” Twilight interrupted yet again, her temper finally getting the better of her. “I don’t want to hear anymore empty comforts and hollow consolations, so don’t even start Princess! My life has been ruined because of this! I’m some sort of bucking monster now! I can’t even go outside in the middle of the day without bursting into flames! Everything I’ve ever known, all my dreams and aspirations, all my life goals and everything I’ve ever wanted to do in life has gone up in smoke in the space of a single night. What are my friends going to think? Stars above, what’s Princess Celestia going to think?! So unless you’ve got some miraculous cure-all or secret technique that can actually help me hidden up your sleeve or you can turn back time then I don’t want to hear it!” Luna’s continued silence and misty eyes only served to enrage her even further for some reason and she continued, “Well? I’m listening! Let’s hear it! Oh, that’s right, you don’t! So I’m stuck like this, as a freak! And it’s all. Your. Bucking! Fault!”

For a moment everyone was still as the angered mare’s words sank into everyone present. The stillness was abruptly broken when Luna finally bolted from the room, a few tears finally managing to escape from her eyes. All was silent, save for Twilight’s angry panting, as the two unicorns simply stood there, Shining’s jaw agape at his little sister’s outburst and flagrant disrespect and anger towards one of the princesses. For almost a minute Twilight just stood there, hot and satisfying anger coursing through her as her breathing and heart rate slowly returned to normal.

Then quite suddenly, as if someone had thrown a switch, her eyes flew wide and her jaw dropped as she realized what she had just done. A combination of guilt and regret hit her like a hoof to the gut. Without much further thought she galloped from the room, intent on catching the fleeing princess and apologizing.

As her clattering hoof falls faded down the corridor Shining Armor rose to follow after his sister and keep her from doing anything rash. Well, anything else rash. However, before he could exit the doorway of the room he was stopped by a large bat-like wing. Looking to the side, he saw Princess Luna’s captain of the Lunar Guard standing almost completely hidden in the shadows of the columns by the doorway. He looked dead into Shining’s eyes, and with a firm expression, shook his head ‘no’, silently conveying that this was something Twilight should do alone. Perplexed, Shining none-the-less complied, trusting the Lunar Guard’s wisdom and experience when it came to his Mistress.

Satisfied that Shining was being compliant, he lowered his wing, turning to face the corridor both Twilight and Luna had fled down. Neither the princess nor either of the unicorn siblings had noticed, but Drahcir had seen the small slits that replaced the unicorn’s pupils for just a moment as she gave her rant as clear as the full moon on a cloudless night.

*~-/^-~*

Carefully, he checked his reflection in the ancient suit of pony armor on display one final time. Mane? Check. Tail? Check. Coat brushed and straight? Check. Any food stuck in teeth? Negative.

As he gave himself a last minute cursory once-over, the massive doors at the end of the hallway opened, and an older stallion with a greying coat and black bow-tie stepped out. “Master Spell Matrix will see you now,” the butler called to him, causing him to twitch with a small start.

“Ah, yes. Of course.” he responded, straightening up and trying to hide the small blush at being startled so easily. With head held high and poise in his step he trotted towards the open doors.

As he passed by, the butler allowed himself a small smile and said, “And I must say, it’s nice to see you again young Star.”

As he passed by he returned the butler’s smile and said, “Thank you, Chimes. It’s good to see you again as well. And please, I’ve told you before; just call me Morning. I’m not quite so young anymore.”

Chimes only smiled harder. “Of course, young Morning Star.” Morning just let out a chuckle at the older stallion’s antics.

As Morning crossed the threshold, the doors closed behind him with a boom that was disproportionately loud in the otherwise quiet study, causing him to give a slight jump. Calming himself, he gulped audibly, swallowing his trepidation, and turned to face the desk at the other end of the room.

Directly behind it was a massive window that took up the entire wall, through which the setting sun could be seen, throwing the entire room into a sharp contrast of golden light and long shadows. Towering bookshelves lined both walls, drawing to a point directly to the window and forcing the eye towards the massive mahogany desk that sat as the room’s centerpiece. Countless papers lined the desk, along with a great many quills and ink wells, some stacked into high towers and others having fallen and beginning to coat the floor nearby. However, the most impressive feature had to be the large stallion sitting behind it all, hunched over his copious amount of work and working at a swift pace with a stern look of concentration and a trace of ever present arrogance. The sun sat directly behind him, just past the wall-wide window, and cast him into a fierce silhouette, drawing attention to his large and well-built frame as well as the great spiraled edifice that sat upon his brow. Without looking up from his work or in any other way acknowledging Morning Star’s presence, he spoke, his baritone voice authoritative and commanding. “Approach.” Morning did.

He stood in front of the desk for what must have been several minutes in silence, allowing the broad stallion to finish the paper on which he worked. He continued to work, fastidiously ignoring Morning until he signed at the bottom of the page with an elegant flourish. As soon as he did another paper floated down from the nearest stack to replace it, wrapped in an amber glow, and he finally spoke again. “Why are you here?” he asked, his tone all business.

Clearing his throat, Morning answered, “I came here with news that I thought might interest you.” When Spell was silent Morning took it as a sign to continue. “Recently, Princess Celestia contacted me.” The scratching of his quill stopped for a brief moment. Morning allowed himself a small smile at the minute reaction and continued. “She informed me that there are strange goings on in Equestria as of late, and personally asked for my individual assistance. She stressed the importance of my help and asked me to travel to Ponyville to aid her. I will be leaving in the morning.” For a moment they were both silent, and Morning wore a small but hopefully smile.

His good cheer was instantly smashed as soon as Spell spoke next. “Is that it?”

Morning’s heart fell. He cast about his mind desperately, trying in vain to come up with something else to share and help his case. Coming up with nothing he just hung his head and dejectedly answered, “Yes, sir.”

Silence reigned for a moment longer, broken only by the ever-present scratching of a quill before Spell spoke again, his words laced with a hint of anger, “Did you really think that would impress me? Did you honestly think that it was worth my time? That I would care?” Morning wisely stayed silent in the face of the rhetoric question. “I am a very busy stallion, and I do not need to be interrupted over something so petty. I thought you knew better than this, but I suppose I was just over-estimating you again. Go on, get out of here, before your mud-pony stench starts to linger.” Eager to escape the stallion’s wrath, Morning hurried to comply, nearly galloping in his haste to leave the room. As he left he could hear Spell Matrix call one last thing after him, “Come back when you have something that’s actually worth my time!”

Hurriedly, Morning shut the massive study doors behind himself, letting out a deep and shuddering disappointed sigh. Speaking more to himself than anypony he answered Spell Matrix’s last command.

“Yes, Father.”

Author's Note

Well, thanks to the new comment formatting it looks like I'm going to have to put my Author's Notes here from now on.

First thing's first: Long chapter is long! Seriously, I have entire finished stories that I've written that aren't as long as this one chapter.

I know I promised you all longer chapters, and I guess I delivered on that, but the wait for this was absolutely atrocious. I mean, a month? Seriously!? I would have gotten it to you all sooner, but as always, RL really f*cking hates me.

In this chapter I finally got things moving forward a little. We see a glimpse of the mane six, get a little more back story on OCs, see what Twilight's up to and learn some of the minor consequences of Twilight's failure to close the portal way back in chapter one. This is also the chapter that finally convinced me that Shining Armor should get his own character tag. This chapter also made me realize something else....

Let's face it. This story is going to be long. REALLY long. With this chapter we're already 30,000 words in and we haven't even gotten to the main plot yet. This is without a doubt going to be the biggest literary undertaking I've ever done. And to be honest, that's pretty intimidating. It's a big responsibility, and I want to do this right. After all, if the trend continues, and this becomes as big as I think is possible, this could become what I'm known for, my magnum opus, the Past Sins to my Pen Stroke, the Sweetie Chronicles to my Wanderer D, the 27 Ounces to my Chatoyance. This could be what makes me known. In all honesty, that scares the sh*t out of me. So I've made a decision.

It's nothing major, but it's something I feel I have to do. After this chapter is published, I'm going on a small hiatus. As in I straight up won't be writing any more, instead of just wait several weeks to publish what I already had. The reason for this is re-writes. I want this story to be the best it can be. I'm going to get it reviewed (hopefully by multiple people) and tweak a few scenes, touch up some dialogue, fill in some plot holes (not that kind you pervert!), and just sit down and plan out just what the hell I'm going to do with this and where to take it. I really just want this to be the best it can be. Maybe if everything goes right, I'll even be able to make it onto Equestria Daily for the first time ever. If any of you reading this think you can help point me in the right direction for this, please let me know.

And know with all the heavy stuff out of the way, I guess I should give my token referral to another fic. One of the fics currently topping my "Eagerly awaiting each update" list is a fic called Myths and Bithrights. I've always been a bit partial to Alicorn Twilight stories, and this one is done particularly well. The chapters are large, the pacing is great, the flow is smooth and the plot is incredibly engaging. I'm constantly left wanting more and wonder what happens next and just what hidden motivations and secrets the characters have. If Alicorn Twilight is your thing, you could definitely do worse.

~Signed, InfiniteBrony

Sickness & Sadness

Rainbow Dash paced restlessly back and forth, constantly looking over her shoulder at the only clock to be found, hanging just above the door. The constant ticking it produced filled the room, the subtle clinking of its internal mechanisms sounding like the tolling of the bells in the otherwise silent and tense atmosphere of the hospital waiting room. The seconds ticked by like hours, time seeming to drag on and on as if only to torture the room’s occupants by extending the simple despair of waiting around helplessly for as long as it could. It felt as if they had all been waiting for a small eternity already, yet the insidious clock insisted that it been hardly even an hour yet. Rainbow Dash looked up to the clock once more, scuffing a hoof against the floor and almost screaming in frustration at seeing that not even thirty seconds had passed since the last she had done so.

Pinkie Pie watched on helplessly as Dash continued to try and wear a groove into the floor. She did not like hospitals, not one bit. Almost nopony ever smiled, and there was hardly any color anywhere, everything painted a sterile white. She wanted to go right up to Dash and cheer her up herself, she really did, but Dash looked like she was lost in her own little world as she walked back and forth. Her whole body looked tense, coiled tight like a spring and ready to fly apart at the slightest prodding. With a frown tugging at her lips, Pinkie turned away from Dash to look at the young drake sitting at her side.

He looked a mess. His spines were bent and crooked, his scales dull and listless. His normally bright eyes were dull and bloodshot, drooping lower and lower as he strained to keep them open, succeeding only because of the huge amount of worry and stress sustaining and motivating him. He had hardly gotten any sleep the night before, worried about Twilight – wherever she was – and now with Rarity in the hospital… Pinkie was starting to become concerned for him. He’d hardly spoken a word or eaten anything since she picked him from the empty library. It was a good thing he was a dragon, otherwise he might have made himself sick by now. Quietly, she nudged him with a fore hoof, offering him a hopeful grin, doing her best to comfort and assure him without breaking the near oppressive silence. He simply matched her gaze with empty, expressionless eyes until Pinkie looked away, her smile forgotten. He just clutched his tail tighter to his chest, curling into to a small ball as he lay down on his side. Sighing, Pinkie slipped out of her seat and rose to her hooves, stretched a bit to work out the kinks in her muscles she always got from sitting still for so long (meaning any amount of time longer than a few minutes), and walked across the room towards the other row of waiting seats and the room’s last occupant.

His piercing viridian eyes looked away from Rainbow Dash’s relentless pacing and snapped to her as soon as she started moving in his direction, tracking and following her every movement with the sort of sharp observation and harsh awareness that was only obtained by constantly being in danger or extreme paranoia. Possibly both. He was a large earth pony stallion, his massive physique and harsh musculature betraying an incredibly active lifestyle and nearly dwarfing the smaller pink pony as she sat beside him. They stared at each for a moment before Pinkie Pie did her best to sweep him into a hug, her fore legs only wrapping three-fourths the way around at best. She sunk a little into his slightly shaggy grey coat, his scruffy black mane as well as his ever-present scent of pine and some sort of dog-smell tickling her nose. While he didn’t quite return the hug, he didn’t reject it either, his unintentionally harsh glare softening a bit.

“I know I’ve said it already,” Pinkie almost whispered, her voice uncharacteristically subdued and quiet, “but thank you, Soft Paw.”

His expression remained stoically neutral, but he still seemed to smile with his eyes alone. Lifting a hoof, he patted her on her puffy mane a few times before wrapping it around her shoulder in a comforting gesture. “It is Okay, Little Pinks, I only did what I could. I was not about to allow such a tragedy to occur so close to my own doorstep. Besides, word of Little Shy’s reputation has reached even me. It is a sad day indeed when such a thing happens to one as sweet and kind as her,” his deep baritone voice rumbled, his faint stalliongrad accent as almost undetectable as ever and tickling Pinkie’s check as his broad chest vibrated with his powerful voice, which still somehow managed to maintain the near reverent hush in the room.

Pinkie’s fore legs squeezed even tighter. “Still, if it wasn’t for you, they’d both be… they’d already…” Her voice began to waver, and she stopped before she could complete the thought. Out of courtesy, he pretended not to notice the way her legs began to tremble slightly or the tiny points of moisture that stained his coat where she buried her face.

“Hush, hush now Little Pinks, do not fret and worry yourself over what might have been,” he said, calmly and comfortingly stroking her back. “It only causes greater grief and hurt where there need be none, and helps nobody.”

Taking deep breaths to steady herself, Pinkie cast about for something to change the subject to. “How did you know?” she asked, blurting out the first thing to come to mind. “I mean, how did you know they were hurt? How did you know where to find them?”

He was silent a moment, and with her face buried in his coat Pinkie did not see him quickly glance to the side as he answered. “Hünd found me and led me to them.”

“Who’s Hünd?” Pinkie asked, looking up from his chest.

“Hünd is a Dire Wolf.”

“Oh!” Pinkie quietly exclaimed with a squeak of recognition as spied the silhouette of a canine paw print on his flanks. “I forgot, you like to help all the dogs and wolves and stuff, don’t you?” He gave an affirmative grunt, nodding his head. Pinkie laid her head on his shoulder, taking what comfort she could from the half-returned hug. “I’m a little surprised you and Fluttershy haven’t met already. It seems like you two would have a lot to talk about.”

Soft Paw was quiet for a minute before responding. When he spoke, his voice was hushed, and tinged with a hint of an emotion Pinkie couldn’t quite place. “Maybe it is for the best that we have not. Not many know me, and I am not much one for company. Besides, if what I have heard about Little Shy is true then I think it most likely that she would be frightened of me,” he said, indicating with a sweeping gesture the motley assortment of scars that decorated his form, gained over the years as a consequence of his particular choice of homestead. “I fear she would not be alone, either. I am well aware of what many think of the Everfree Forest, and by extension all that dwells within it.”

Slowly, Pinkie Pie finally released Soft Paw from her embrace, carefully looking up and down his frame, a small frown on her face. Her ears flattened against her skull, and the hurt of an old guilt briefly passed through her eyes. “It’s not fair,” she said, speaking slowly and with a faint air of disappointment coloring her words. “Ponies shouldn’t be afraid of you like that just because you’re a little different and look a little scary. You should be able to come around and hang out with us, and I should be able to throw you a party without everypony staring at you or running away or hiding or-“

Pinkie was abruptly cut off as Soft Paw put a hoof in her mouth, the corners of his lips tugging into a frown as his expression changed for the first time since she sat next to him. “Do not start with this Little Pinks, I know what it is that you really regret. I have said it before and I will say it again: it was not your fault. You did not know, and it is only natural for the unknown to be feared. That you got over your fear and even managed to introduce her to the whole town after she helped the little filly shows that you wanted to make right of your mistakes, and you have done so amply thus far.” He stared into her eyes as he spoke, trying to drive his message home. After a moment of his stern glare, Pinkie looked away with a small sigh and shook her head in acknowledgement. Satisfied, he removed his hoof from her mouth with a nod of his own and continued. “Besides, I have told you many times that I would rather not have a party in the first place. Far too many ponies for my taste. And before you insist otherwise, do not worry, the visits of you and Zecora keep me company enough. And besides, my canine friends keep me from getting lonely.”

“I still wish you’d at least let me introduce you to some new friends,” Pinkie mumbled dejectedly.

Soft Paw just rolled his eyes and ruffled her mane with a massive hoof. “You are friend enough for me already, Little Pinks,” he said with a smirk.

Pinkie regained her usual smile and wrapped her forelegs around him in a quick embrace before rising to her hooves again, walking back to the other side of the room, and sitting down next to Spike again. He did nothing to acknowledge her presence, only curling into a tighter ball. Pinkie sighed, settling down and lowering her head onto her fore legs and preparing herself to wait a while longer yet in silence.

Several more minutes passed that way, with the only sounds in the room being the constant ticking of the clock and the unending clip-clopping of Rainbow Dash’s hooves as she paced back and forth. The tense atmosphere steadily increased, draping across everyone in the room like a thick blanket. Rainbow became increasingly agitated as time crawled by, her constant drive and need to actually do something driving her crazy as she was forced to sit back and do nothing while her oldest friend could very well be dying just down the hall. Finally, enough was enough for the impatient mare, and she was just about to storm out of the room, march down the hall, and demand that she be allowed to see Fluttershy, or at least be told the situation, when the door opened and another pony walked in.

Rainbow Dash immediately recognized him from her own various stays in the hospital, his white lab coat, tan fur, brown mane and tail, and ever present clipboard and stethoscope marking him as rather distinctive. Upon sighting him, all the pent up tension she had broke, causing her to immediately fly up to him and get in his face before he could even finish coming into the room, her desperate expression and pleading eyes asking the question her voice couldn’t.

She took one look at his deep frown and grim expression and felt her stomach drop into her hooves and her heart nearly stop beating. Her ears started ringing and tears began to gather at the corners of her eyes. She shook her head side to side, repeatedly mouthing the word ‘no’ as her voice failed her and she desperately willed it not to be true. After a moment she simply couldn’t take it. She brushed past the doctor in the hallway and flew out of the hospital and away into the wild blue yonder, going somewhere, anywhere other than that horrible place.

Pinkie watched Rainbow’s reaction, all two seconds of it, and felt her heart plummet as well. Tears immediately began to spill from her eyes, and she tried desperately not to break into open sobs, despite the trembling and shaking of her shoulders. Soft Paw rose from his seat and walked over to her, a slight limp in his front left leg, and wrapped a leg around her shoulders. She immediately buried her face into his chest. He did not comment on the wet spots that began to form there. Turning to the doctor, he asked, “Tell us, what happened exactly?”

The doctor watched all of this transpire, his depressed and tired look traded for one of bewilderment and calmly stated, “Well she’s not dead, if that’s what you’re all going on about.”

Pinkie instantly emitted a choked gasp and lifted her head out of Soft Paw’s chest and looked to the doctor, her expression full of hope and begging an explanation. Soft Paw stared at him a bit more calmly, but with a similar expression.

The doctor took their glazes in stride though and began to explain. “Well she’s not dead, but she’s definitely not exactly in good shape either,“ he said, glancing at his clipboard as he spoke. He looked up from his paper and stared them in the eyes, his expression serious and all business as he continued to speak. “Look, I’m going to be blunt here. We’ve managed to stabilize her, but she’s in bad shape. Really bad shape. In fact she may very well be the worst case this hospital has ever seen. Frankly, it’s a miracle that she even survived long enough to make it here and then live through the emergency care she had to receive, even with that best healing spells we have in our arsenal. Even so, she definitely isn’t coming out of this unscathed. She’s gone blind in her left eye, and it’s amazing that she didn’t lose it all together. There’s a one in five chance that she’ll ever be able to fly again, but I wouldn’t count on it. She’s got internal hemorrhaging on half of her major organs and tissue damage ranging from minor to severe all along her right side. She’s got three broken ribs and two more of them are cracked as well as a hairline fracture on her right wing. Whatever attacked her used some sort of toxin that we’ve never even heard of before, and honestly it’s done quite a bit of damage. A lot of her nerve endings are fried, a good amount of her blood has practically turned into toxic sludge, and far more tissue than I’m comfortable with has even gone under minor necrosis.”

He looked both Pinkie Pie and Soft Paw in the eyes with a serious expression as he spoke, trying to drive home the gravity of the situation. As he saw the tears in Pinkie’s eyes and the hard and stoic look in Soft’s eyes he felt he was getting through to them. With a nod, he continued. “We’ve currently got her pumped full of enough painkillers to pacify a small hydra, so she’s not hurting at least. But I’m afraid the worst of the news is this: she’s in a coma, and we have no idea when she’ll wake up, if ever.”

Pinkie pulled away from Soft Paw, steeling her expression and placing Spike onto her back. “Well, at least she’s alive,” she said, her voice soft with worry but laced with an edge of optimism.

Soft Paw rose to his hooves alongside Pinkie, nodding his head to her statement. “That, at least, is better than how things could have been. If she managed to survive all of that than it definitely seems that she is a fighter, I am sure she will pull through this as well,” he said, more to Pinkie than anypony else. When he saw that the pink mare had her emotions mostly under control he turned back to the doctor and asked, “May we see her?”

The doctor looked between the two ponies and his clipboard for several seconds before asking, “Are you sure you want to see her right at the moment? I’ll tell you now, it’s not exactly a pretty sight.”

Soft paw just gave a slight nod, the faint twinkle of determination in his eye not fading in the slightest.

With a small sigh, the doctor turned around and motioned for them to follow him as he stepped out into the hall to lead them to where Fluttershy was currently being kept.

As they started walking though, a small voice spoke up, slightly hoarse from disuse. “What about Rarity?” Spike asked, looking at the doctor with his empty eyes.

The doctor didn’t quite meet the young drake’s gaze, somewhat perturbed by off-putting look in his eyes. “The unicorn you brought in along with Ms. Fluttershy?” he rhetorically asked for clarification as he checked his clipboard. “It seems that she had a cracked rib and a minor concussion. A few days of abstaining from strenuous activity and she should be right as rain. She’s currently sleeping most of it off in one of our recovery rooms.”

Spike nodded, some of the faint tension that not even he realized was there disappearing as his body relaxed against Pinkie Pie’s back and shoulders.

Seeing that he’d apparently answered to the small dragon’s satisfaction the doctor gave a small nod and gestured for Pinkie and Soft Paw to follow him once more as he started to make his way down the hallway. “Come along now, she’s just down this way”

The doctor lead them down several hallways, one after another, and even up two separate stairwells until they were on the third and final floor of the hospital. Threading through passing hoof traffic he lead them to a separate wing that the various signs on the walls and hanging from the ceilings labeled as the Intensive Care Unit. As they walked, several of the ponies they passed, mostly nurses and doctors and others of the hospital staff, glanced at them with knowing expressions and looks of sympathy and condolences. After several minutes of walking they stopped outside a single innocuous door labeled ‘Room 214’. Turning to face the two ponies and young dragon, the doctor spoke. “Now I’ll only ask this once: are sure you want to see her right now? It’s not exactly a pretty sight, and once you see her like this you’ll never exactly be able to un-see it.” He stared at them with a grave expression, doing his best to convey the seriousness of his message. Pinkie and Soft Paw meet his gaze solidly, and nodded stiffly. Seeing their resolve, the doctor nodded once, and opened the door. Without another word, they all stepped inside.

The first thing they noticed was that just like the rest of the hospital, the sheer amount of sterile white in the room was almost overwhelming. White walls, white floors, white roof, white machines, white everything dominated the ponies’ sight. Only the sickly light green of the bedspreads and drapes seemed to break up the monotonous whiteness. The second thing they noticed was the smell. The harsh and near acrid rank of antiseptics pervaded the air, thick and cloying as it almost burned the inside of everypony’s nostrils, even while it was laced with undertones of the horrid stench of semi-rotted flesh. Next they noticed the noise, the constant whirring and beeping of machinery as the best of what modern medicine could offer did its best to ensure Fluttershy’s continued survival. At last though, they saw Fluttershy herself.

The good doctor had not been lying when he said it wasn’t a pretty sight. In fact, he may have even been understating it slightly. At least half of her body was entirely covered in various layers of bandages, including her left eye, for which everypony was rather grateful, even if several of them were already stained a dark rusty brown from seeping blood and other fluids that everypony did their best not to think too hard about. A great many tubes and needles and hoses covered the majority of whatever wasn’t insulated by medical gauze. One tube could be seen running down her throat and connecting it to a machine that looked like an oversized pair of double-bellows, forcing her chest to gently rise and fall as they worked in sync to force fresh air into her otherwise static and unresponsive lungs. Most of the fur around her neck had been shaved off and all around where her neck met her right shoulder the skin was swollen and tainted a sickening mottled brown like over-ripe fruit, and a single massive needle connected to a pump via a large tube was sunk deep into the rotted flesh. It was constantly siphoning out a thick, viscous black substance that vaguely reminded Pinkie Pie of grape jelly, causing her to give a dry heave and swear off peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, feeling bit green. Several bunches of feathers had fallen out of her wings, the right one especially, and all over her fur had completely lost its luster, patches of it fading to a pale grey or sickly brown. Her whole body looked gaunt and somehow almost emaciated, her skin stretched tight over her frame and several places on her body dipping just a little too deeply beneath the covers as if the muscles had simply faded away. Worst of all was perhaps the smell – no matter how much the hospital staff filtered the air or how much air fresheners or incense they used the air around her was heavy and rank with a scent not unlike rotting fruit and the horrid stench of decaying flesh.

Pinkie Pie took one look at Fluttershy lying unmoving and in such bad shape on the bed and immediately broke into tears at the sight of it. She wanted desperately to run up to her and give her a great big hug, but various machines and the stench made her hang back. “Oh, Shy…” she whispered, holding a hoof to her mouth.

Soft Paw stared on stoically as his legs began to tremble and shake, from anger or disgust he could not tell. That question was answered for him as something snapped briefly inside of him, his face erupting into a furious scowl and his hoof stomping down with a massive bang. The loud noise startled everyone, and they all looked at him, Pinkie’s expression surprised and slightly startled as opposed to the doctor’s surprised and slightly upset look. Glancing down, Soft Paw saw that he had accidentally cracked the tile on which he stood. He looked away with an irritated snort muttered, “I am sorry.” Turning to Pinkie he said, “Come, and let us go. It does neither us nor her any good to see her like this.” Pinkie only too happily agreed, and promptly turned around, heading through the door, the doctor walking behind her.

Soft Paw followed behind them, but just before he stepped out of the room he looked over his shoulder, gazing towards Fluttershy with an unreadable expression on his face and spoke. “Iem sorre, Kaein Shy. Veac meghte.”

*~-/^-~*

Twilight Sparkle was getting rather anxious. She had been pacing back and forth for what felt like hours now, filled with energy and a need to move, eagerly waiting for Dr. Prototype to return with the results of her blood work. She frowned as a wave of hot irritation washed through her. What was taking him so long, anyways? Just how difficult could it be to run a few tests on a little vial of blood? Was he really that incompetent? Just how big of an idiot was he? It was just some simple tests! What in Equestria could he have done to make them take so long? Twilight sat down on her haunches with a sigh, berating herself and suddenly feeling rather bad for him. Of course he wasn’t incompetent, he was the head of the princess’ science department, and he was probably one of the smartest and most capable ponies in Canterlot. A sudden spike of cold fear lanced up her spine and she began nervously chewing on her bottom lip. What if something was wrong? What if their machines broke? What if there was something wrong with the sample? What if they had to draw it again? Twilight shuddered a bit at the thought of the first time they had done so.

It was a few hours ago, just before the sun had rose and after the castle staff had moved her from Luna’s guest room to another room further inside the castle, one completely devoid of windows. While they had assured her that it was for her own protection she had clearly seen the looks of fear and anger on their faces, and not for the first time a pang of regret for shouting at Luna shot through her. She desperately wished she could have caught up to her afterwards and apologized, but she seemed to have disappeared and nopony in the castle had seen her since. Shortly after she had settled into the windowless stone room Dr. Prototype had come in with a hoof-full of medical instruments and a syringe. After listening to her heartbeat and checking her blood pressure, he stuck the syringe in the crook of her foreleg and began to draw blood. At first Twilight thought nothing of it. In fact, she probably wouldn’t have even noticed at all if she hadn’t been looking. As the doctor began to draw up her blood however, she immediately noticed something was wrong. Something about seeing her blood there, outside of her body just made her angry. Really angry. Angry in a way she’d never quite felt before. The hot flash of rage was so sudden and intense she’d actually lashed out and struck Dr. Prototype before she realized what she was doing. She’d immediately snapped out of it and apologized profusely, but the fact remained: she’d gotten angry enough to hit another pony. She’d never been that angry before. The worst part was that she had no idea why. She shivered slightly at the memory of the hot and invasive anger. She stood up and shook her head as if to dislodge the thought and began pacing once again in an effort to ease the tingling energy in her limbs.

Twilight continued pacing like that for what felt like several more hours before she finally heard a knock at the door. She hadn’t heard any approaching hoofsteps, and the suddenness of it was enough to nearly make jump out of her skin with a start. Holding a hoof to her chest to calm her rapidly beating heart, she eagerly hurried to open the door. Her face fell as, instead of the pony she had been wait all day for, the door swung open to reveal none other than Shining Armor. The stallion caught the look of disappointment that flashed across his sister’s face and asked, ”Is now not a good time? I could just leave if you want.”

Twilight just quickly shook her head as if to dislodge the offending expression and stepped back from the doorway, motioning with a beckoning hoof. “No, it’s fine, I was just expecting somepony else is all. Come on in.”

Shining took a few steps into the room and stopped, blinking rapidly at the sudden and drastic decrease in lighting as Twilight shut the door behind him. After giving his eyes a moment to adjust he quickly took stock of the small stone room. It was rather small compared to most of the other rooms in the massive castle, and it was actually rather chilly due in part to stone walls and the crisp air that always pervaded the mountaintop city around this season. The accommodations sparse and spartan, especially for a place like Canterlot. The only pieces of furniture in the entire room were a small four-drawer dresser, a medium sized bed, a desk-slash-vanity with a large mirror, and a single lit candle that provided the entirety of the room’s light. The walls themselves were bare, and only a few plain rough-spun rugs laid about prevented bare hooves from stepping on chill stone. “It’s kind of gloomy in here, isn’t it?” he mused out loud.

“Oh, is it?” Twilight answered disinterred, already resuming her pacing in front of the room’s vanity, not even bothering to look up from her hooves. “I hadn’t really noticed. I’ve been a bit distracted.”

Shining Armor followed her restless back and forth motion with his eyes from across the room as she spoke and responded obliquely. “Yeah, I noticed.”

His tone caused Twilight to look up and catch the slight frown and questioningly raised eyebrow on his face. Her ears folded down against her head and a tiny sheepish blush spread across her face and she gave a small abashed smile. “Sorry, it’s just… there’s been a lot on my mind lately is all.”

Shining held his expression as Twilight spoke and lightly scuffed her hoof against the rug beneath her. After a moment he nodded, accepting her words. “I can only imagine,” he said with a somber expression, walking over to her and sitting beside her. He wrapped his forelegs around her and pulled her into a one-sided hug, speaking softly into her ear. “I know you have a lot to be upset over, but running yourself into the ground with worry like this won’t do anyone any good, least of all yourself.”

Twilight just accepted him, his powerful but gentle limbs wrapped tightly around her withers, and leaned into his chest taking a deep comfort in his presence. If there was a constant at all in all the craziness of the last several days, or even the general craziness of her life before that, it was Shining Armor. He was solid, stoic, unshakable, and the rock she desperately needed right now. Turning towards him she wrapped her forelegs around him as well, deepening the embrace and taking as much comfort as she could, feeling all her worries and anxieties just melt away as her older brother sat there and held her like the small, helpless foal she was beginning to feel like these days. For several long minutes she just sat there, enjoying the feeling of being held and cared about, taking in the small moment of peace.

All too soon the moment was over. As she pulled away she was slightly surprised to see a twin pair of wet spots on her brother’s coat where she had buried her face in his chest. Either Shining Armor hadn’t noticed either, or, more likely, he simply pretended that he didn’t out of courtesy. Twilight nuzzled his cheek in an unspoken ‘thank you’. He nuzzled her back with a small, self-contented smile on his face.

As he stood back, Shining Armor took the chance to take a good look at his younger sister. It was immediately obvious that he didn’t need to know her as well as he did to be able to tell that she was currently a bundle of frayed nerves. Her ratty mane, matted coat, and the dark bags underneath her eyes were evidence enough. What really tipped him off to her real condition though were all the little things, the sort of things nopony else would have noticed but stood out as bright as day to someone who knew her as well as Shining Armor. The faint tilt at the corners of her lips and subtle sag around her eyes. The way the usual bright and inquisitive light that always colored her expression and glinted from deep within her eyes seem to fade away to a dull ghost of itself. The subtle scent of lilac and lavender soaps and perfumes she preferred having almost faded away beneath her natural scent after several worried and stressful days. He frowned as he looked her over, and after a moment he spoke. “I’d ask you how you’re doing, but even I’m not that blind.”

Twilight looked away, not wanting to meet his eyes and sighed, shoulders sagging as the weight of the last few day’s worries were remembered. She closed her eyes tightly, doing her best to suppress a shudder that rippled up her spine, and only just barely succeeding. “Yeah, the last few days have been…“ Twilight said, casting around for a fit descriptor for her recent tribulations. “Difficult,” she said after a moment’s thought, “definitely difficult.”

Shining nodded, resting a comforting hoof on her withers. “I can imagine so. Do you want to talk about it?”

Twilight unconsciously leaned slightly into his hoof, this time failing to suppress a small shudder. Shaking her head quickly side to side, she said, “No, not really. There’s nothing to talk about. You already know everything that’s happened, hay, you were there for most of it.” She lowered her head, and her body simply slumping as if suddenly burdened with a great weight. “Most of all I just feel… worn out.”

Shining Armor didn’t say anything more, he just pulled her into another hug, rubbing a comforting hoof between her shoulder blades and resting his large head on top of hers. Twilight accepted the contact gratefully, leaning against his solid mass and resting her own head on his broad shoulder. For a long while, they just sat there in silence, not a word passing between them. They didn’t need words, they knew each other well enough to convey everything they wanted to way without them. The subtle increase in pressure and speed as Shining rubbed her back, the soft nuzzling as she rubbed her cheek against his thick neck, the soft tickling on the nape of her neck as he breathed into her messy mane. It all spoke the words of ‘love’, ‘comfort’, ‘solace’, and ‘gratitude’ in the subtle language of loving brothers and sisters without ever uttering a single sound.

After an indeterminable amount of time, a soft knock sounded at the door, startling the unicorn siblings and causing both of them to suddenly disentangle with embarrassed blushes. With a small cough, Twilight quickly went and opened the door. As the wooden door swung open, it revealed a unicorn with stark white hair and a clipboard standing in the doorway: Dr. Prototype. Twilight’s eyes widened and she gave a small gasp – she had completely forgotten she was waiting for the doctor just before Shining Armor showed up. She quickly stepped aside and gestured for him to come inside with a hoof. He gave her a brief nod and walked inside.

If he was surprised to see Shining Armor as he walked in he didn’t show it, instead greeting the other stallion with a nod of his head, receiving a nod in return. Twilight shut the door behind him and walked to sit beside her brother. Dr. Prototype gave her a questioning look and glanced at Shining. Twilight just nodded and gestured for him to read the results anyways. The doctor just shrugged and brought up his clipboard and began to read.

After reading several lines he sighed and glanced at her over the top of his papers. “I’m afraid there’s no way to sugarcoat this so I’m just going to be blunt: we aren’t sure what to make of it.”

As Twilight looked into Dr. Prototype’s eyes and listened to his cold, matter-of-fact tone, she felt her stomach drop into her hooves and a small flicker of hope she hadn’t even realized she’d still been nurturing gutter out and die. After a moment or two, she managed to blink away the moisture that threatened to spill from her eyes and nodded for him to continue.

The doctor nodded back grimly and did so. “First of all I should tell that the vast majority of the tests we ran were either utterly inconclusive or wildly and obviously inaccurate. Or you’re pregnant. And an 87 year old gryphon.” He smiled slightly as he managed to draw a weak and probably forced chuckle from Twilight. “In all seriousness though, this isn’t like anything we’ve ever seen before. In a few of the test we did manage to run successfully the readings were absolutely off the charts. I’ve seen less magical blood from fully grown dragons. One of my more sensitive assistants actually became dizzy and had to sit down when she made a mistake and mishandled the sample you gave us. Several of our machines broke when we tried to use them, and it even managed to completely dissolve the psycho-stasis field we’d initially had it stored in. We eventually had to keep it move it into a glass beaker, but as soon as it touched the atmosphere it immediately underwent majecka decay until it was as mundane as blood from a common domesticated house pet. About an hour after that it began the process of natural decomposition at an incredibly accelerated rate. After just a few hours there was nothing left but some stains.” Dr. Prototype stopped talking for a moment, taking in the shocked and slightly disturbed looks on the two unicorn’s faces. Seeing that they understood, he continued. “At this point there’s not much we can say with certainty other than this: the sample was most definitely not equine in nature.” As he finished speaking the doctor looked to the two ponies in front of him. Twilight just gazed off into the middle distance somewhere near her hooves, trying dazedly to take in everything he had said. Shining just had one fore-leg wrapped comfortingly around her, and shot him a soft look. Taking the hint, Dr. Prototype rose and left the small room, shutting the door behind himself.

After a few moments of silence, Shining asked, “Twily? Are you Okay?”

Twilight snapped out of her dazed stupor at the noise. She waited for the shock to really hit her, the rage, the anguish, the denial, the sadness, the hurt, all of it, but instead there was only… emptiness. An absence of emotion, of one kind or another. Only a deep well of hollow apathy rose up to meet her as she turned inward. “I’m fine.” She answered softly. “Just… tired, I suppose. Yeah, tired, that’s it.” It was just as well. She was fed up with feeling. She’s held on to hope for so long, even if it was subconsciously, that no that it was finally crushed, fully and completely, she didn’t really want to feel anything else now. Besides, she’d long since had her fill of anger and worry and sadness over the last few days as well. She rose to her hooves and slowly slunk her way across the room to the bed and a collapsed into it, Shining watching her the whole way.

Shining Armor gave a soft sigh and said, “Well alright then.” He walked over to her and carefully pulled the covers over her, kissing her on the forehead just below her horn. “Sleep well,” he said, turning and walking away.

As he opened the door to leave and stood in the doorway, Twilight felt something bubble up softly deep in her chest. “Shining,” she called out with a soft but pleading edge to her voice and a hoof extended towards him as he walked away. “Will you… will you hold me? Like when we were foals?”

Shining looked at his little sister and for the briefest of moments he didn’t see a full grown mare with her own life and friends and powerful magic to call her own, but instead a small and scared little filly, standing in his bedroom doorway, tightly clutching her smartypants doll with small tear stains on her cheeks as wind and thunder raged just outside. With a soft smile, he closed the door and climbed into the bed beside her, pulling her close and embracing her tightly as she buried her face in his chest.

They laid there in silence for several moments before she spoke. “I love you, BBBFF.”

He kissed the top of her head. “I love you, too.”

With her magic, she snuffed out the room’s only candle. It was easier to pretend she wasn’t crying in the dark.

\\*/

The Dream Lands were quiet and peaceful, just as they always were at this hour. It was hardly surprising, and Princess Luna had long since grown to accept this. The realm of dreams and thoughts couldn’t be full and fertile at all times after all. At this moment however, something was different from normal. In her usual and habitual strolls through the glimmering fields during the morning hours she was used to seeing only the Dreamscapes of her own Lunar Guards and the occasional pony still asleep after a long night of work or merriment, but the Dreamscape she found herself looking into was none of them, despite its familiarity.

She watched as the source of her current guilt and sorrow ran and fled soundlessly through an endless white field of mist and terror. The young unico—no, she was no longer quite just a unicorn, was she? The young monster mare thrashed and sobbed in her sleep, consumed by rage, despair and helplessness.

With a wave of her hoof, a spark of her power, and an effort of her will, Luna swept aside all the sadness, fear and endless white mist, replacing them with a starlit meadow and tranquility.

A single tear slid down her cheek, and not for the first time she wished she could change things in the waking world just as easily as she could in the land of dreams.

*~-/^-~*

“Welcome to Ponyville,” Morning Star read aloud. He adjusted the straps and rigging of his cart as he read, their weight beginning to chafe his back after the long walk. Looking down, he saw the small village sprawled out peacefully in the valley formed between the Everfree Forest and Canterlot Mountain’s foothills before him, blissfully unaware of the danger so close to them and of things yet to come. It was serene really, a rather quaint and picturesque vista, with happy little villagers going about their lives in peace, despite the fragility of such a notion, especially due to recent events. Morning frowned. No matter what, he vowed to do his best to make sure that it stayed that way, for all of them. As long as it was within his power, nothing would interrupt the peaceful lives of the ponies in the small valley just before him. With a nod to himself, he heaved against the reins of his cart to get it rolling again and headed for the village proper.

After several minutes he managed to make his way to the town square, and from there it was relatively easy to navigate the rest of the town and locate the building he had been looking for. It was kind of hard to miss a giant tree growing up in the middle of town after all. He sat in front of the massive wooden structure for several long minutes, simply gazing at it and letting his mind wonder and contemplate his latest assignment.

It was still hard to imagine Twilight Sparkle as anything other than the starry-eyed little filly with her nose always buried in a book and attached to the Princess at the hip. She was such a cute little thing too, always innocent and eager to please. He still remembered his early interactions with her, the way her eyes would light up when she learned something new, her abnormally articulate vocabulary for a filly her age, her adorable naivety. But, he thought to himself, every little filly has to grow up sooner or later I suppose.

With a sigh, he turned away from the great library and walked to an empty house just down the road and across the street, still within viewing distance. Carefully, he brought his cart around to the back of it, threw off the tarp covering it, and began to unpack his meager possessions.

It took the better part of an hour, but eventually it was done. He looked around his new home, taking everything in with a small self-satisfied smile. It was a small place, with hardly more than a kitchen, living room, bedroom, and a single bath, but it would do. He was just happy to have been able to move everything inside without breaking anything (especially when moving that heavy old oak-framed bed of his.) Wiping a small bit of sweat from his brow, he stole into the kitchen and poured himself a glass of fresh lemonade from when he had stopped to grab some groceries on the way here. Picking up the refreshing beverage, he brought it into the living room, sat on the lone rug in front of the empty fireplace, and took a deep drink. Setting the glass aside, he reached out and took down a single framed photo from on the hearth and held it close.

It showed a single pegasus mare, a beaming smile on her face and a gentle hoof laid delicately on her belly, heavy and swollen with deep pregnancy. Her coat was the gentle pure white of freshly fallen snow, and long locks of a mane as pink as the blossoms of a cherry tree in the heart of spring framed a face beautiful enough to inspire envy from even the Princess herself. A simple image of the sun rising from behind a bank of dark storm clouds adorned her flank. A small brass plaque that inlaid the simple wooden picture frame read only: “Sunny Breeze”.

Morning gently ran the tip of a hoof along the picture’s edge and did his best to blink away the tears that threatened to spill from his eyes, only succeeding in part. When he spoke, his voice was heavy and thick with emotion. “Hey, mom,” he said, almost starting to choke up before he could wrestle his emotions down. “It’s… It’s been a while since I’ve talked to you, huh? Sorry about that. I’d have said something sooner, but there’s not really been much to talk about. Dad’s still being dad, at least.” Morning Star snorted in derision. “Sometimes I really wonder what it is you saw in him. But if you loved him then I guess he must have done something right, huh?” Morning took a moment to calm the various emotions that threatened to rise up, before sighing and continuing. “Sometimes I wonder if things would be different if you were here. Maybe he wouldn’t be so angry all the time. But then again, maybe not.”

Morning shook his head side to side as if to knock away the thought. “Enough of that though. I’m sure you don’t want to hear me complain about dad. That’s not really what I wanted to talk to you about anyways.” Morning smiled. “I wanted to tell you about what happened to me. The other day Princess Celestia called me in to talk to me and asked me to do her a favor. I said yes of course, and now I’m living down in Ponyville and watching over little Twilight Sparkle.” Morning gave a brief laugh at that. “You remember her, right? That bookish little filly from around the castle that had hardly grown into her cutie mark? I guess it turns out she’s all grown up now. She’s moved into Ponyville and started running her own library. She even made a bunch of new friends and made a whole life for herself. I know, I can hardly believe it either! I still remember her as the awkward little filly that stalked me around in the castle library.” Morning Star let out a soft and nostalgic sigh as he briefly reminisced on the memory. “Sometimes I wish I could just go back to the way things were back then. Everything seemed simpler, happier even.” His expression hardened a bit, growing more somber. “But wishing won’t change anything. Bad things are coming, one way or another. If I want those days back, then I’m going to have to fight for them. It might not be much, but I’m going to do everything I can to make sure nothing terrible happens to anypony else. Too many have been hurt already.”

He sighed deeply, allowing his shoulders to sag and smiling a bitter-sweet smile. “Thanks for listening. I needed to get that off my chest.” For a moment, he hugged to small framed picture tightly, as if to reach across the ages and embrace the mare it depicted. Carefully, he placed a kiss on the glass just over the mare’s cheek and gently set it back on the hearth in its spot of honor. Turning away with the bitter-sweet smile still on his face, he made his way to his lone coach and collapsed onto it, settling down for a quick nap after the days physically strenuous activities. Just as he was about to fall asleep, he turned his head and allowed the gaze of a tired eye to fall on the framed photo, whispering a single sentence before falling asleep.

“I love you, mom.”

Author's Note

Well, well, well, would you look at that? It seems I have a new chapter, just for you. I betcha thought this story was dead, didn't ya? Ha! Fat chance. I said I was gonna finish this story, and I damn well mean I'm gonna finish this story. And if you're kind of wondering what I've been up to when I wasn't uploading new chapters, I sort of mentioned it in my latest blog post.

And now for my usual fic recommendation. I think I'll go with something a little different this time around: an HiE. Now, now, I know what you're thinking. Don't worry, it's not like that. Yes, most of the HiE cliches are there, but the author handles them the right way, and they all come across as not only engaging and enjoyable, but believable as well. That aside, this isn't your typical HiE either. This story most definitely takes on a darker tone, especially when things really get started, and yet the whole things still comes off as believable, and through out the whole thing you just can't help but root for the protagonist, stuck as he is while seemingly the whole world against him (and it just might be). This is a long story too (the longest on the site in fact, currently clocking in at over 1,000,000 words - and worth everyone of them), full of endless hours chock-filled with character and plot development, so if you start it, be prepared for the long haul. Perhaps this story's greatest merit however, is not only taking a human and dumping him in Equestria, but actually making him a real character, with honest flaws and reactions - you know, human.

And so I present one of my new favorite stories: Diares of a Madman.

Realizations & Rage

Rainbow Dash was once again pacing back and forth relentlessly, doing her best to remain calm and collected while full of nervous and frustrated energy as she was forced to wait patiently yet again. She seemed to be doing a rather poor job of it if Rarity’s continued painful wincing at every particularly loud hoofstep on the library’s hardwood floor was any indication. “Please, darling,” she begged, her voice barely above that of a groaning whisper as she clutched at her throbbing head, “Could you try to keep it down a bit? It feels as if my head is about split down the middle and you certainly aren’t helping matters any.”

Rainbow Dash turned and glared sharply at the protesting unicorn, opening her mouth to deliver a scathing sarcastic retort, before thinking better of it and simply shaking her head and snorting derisively. Turning sharply, she took off and landed on the top of a bookshelf with a few aggressive flaps of her wings, still scowling fiercely. Pinkie Pie simply watched the two of them with a soft frown. She had hoped that now of all times everypony would stop from arguing but it seemed that the whole situation had simply left tempers too high and patience too thin, and conflict and bickering of some sort was inevitable. The two of them had been had been griping back and forth since they all met up shortly after leaving the hospital. If it wasn’t for Soft Paw constantly breaking them up and maintaining a bit of decency and order after offering to walk them all to the library things would probably be even worse.

Pinkie watched Spike help Rarity onto the room’s lone couch and retrieve a few extra pillows. At least he seemed to be in better spirits, now that Rarity had woken up shortly before they had all left the hospital. Pinkie had hoped that after they had caught up to Rainbow Dash and explained the situation with Fluttershy that she would calm down and be happy, but after going back and getting a look at Fluttershy for herself she only seemed to be more upset, constantly butting heads with Rarity who lacked the strength to do much more than passively bear it.

Pinkie gave a dejected sigh as the downtrodden spirits in the room dragged her down. Soft Paw’s ear gave a soft flick as he heard the sound issue from her lips. Turning his head to look at the mare beside him he nudged her slightly. “Enough with this sadness and sighing,” He said stiffly but not unkindly, “such a happy mare should not wear such a frown, it does not suit you. Smile, your friends will live, and that is more than what could have been.”

Pinkie’s ears briefly flicked backwards to lay against her skull, a small frown tugging at her lips as the unpleasant thought of what might have been flashing across her mind, before quickly disappearing as she focused on the positive. “I know,” she said, a smile on her face again, albeit not nearly as large as her typical maniac grin. “I’m happy about that, I really am. I just wish that they would be too, instead of fighting.”

Soft Paw followed her gaze and watched as the restlessly irate pegasus continued to shoot daggers at the oblivious unicorn resting on the couch. After several seconds of staring at their silent one-sided bickering he turned away, some foreign emotion dangerously close to pity flashing across his eyes. “Yes, Little Pinks, I am sure you do, but I can see their pain. Not everyone is strong enough to be happy like you.”

Pinkie did not answer the strange statement with words, but instead a mixture of bewilderment and befuddlement warring across her face asked the question for her.

Soft Paw snorted amusedly as he caught sight of her expression, looking almost like her face had frozen in the middle of a rather violent sneeze. “They are hurting, Little Pinks, hurting badly. Their sisters and friend are missing, and now one of their own is injured badly, lying in the hospital to perhaps never awaken again. That is a deep pain, one not healed by simple balms and bandages. It is so very easy to simply wallow in their own pain or to get angry and lash out at the world and try to make it hurt like they do. To laugh, and to smile, despite all the pain and the hurt as you do though? That takes true strength, and real will, Little Pinks.” Soft Paw just explained gently as he stared at Pinkie with a rare look of something dangerously close to respect and vague admiration.

Pinkie’s expression changed as Soft Paw spoke, slowly morphing into a real smile again, even if there was still a harsh sadness vaguely visible in her deep blue eyes. Without a further word she reached out did her best to embrace his massive frame. After a few moments she let go again and said, “Thank you, Soft Paw. You really do always know just what to say.” With a small smirk a mischievous glint in her eye, she added, “You really are just a big old softy after all, aren’t you?”

Soft Paw gave a small frown and a sharp snort. “If it were anyone else, I would be rather upset to be called that. It is a horrible pun and I despise it.”

Pinkie just gave a short giggle that ended in a snort at the look of consternation on his face.

At hearing her infectious laughter, his frown disappeared and the corners of his lips slowly eased upwards, and he said, “I suppose it is lucky for you then that I cannot seem to ever remain upset with you for long, Little Pinks.”

Pinkie just laughed even more and stuck her tongue out at him.

Soft Paw only grunted in return, a ghost of a smirk touching the corner of his lips, both amused at her playful antics and happy that he managed to snap her out of her funk, no matter how slightly. He meant what he had said before; such a happy mare had no business being sad and downcast as far as he was concerned. He might not have been exactly sociable or good with others, but he’d be damned if he allowed perhaps the only pony he could call his friend to be pulled down into such sadness if he could help it, especially after how many times she had done the exact same thing for him. He hated how close to tears she looked. Never, ever make a mare cry. The words drifted unbidden across his mind, spoken by a voice full of strength and steel resolve, but tempered with an aged wisdom and gentle kindness. It was one of the many pieces of wisdom he could remember his father used to tell him when he was a colt, before-

Soft Paws train of thought was interrupted before it could finish by the sound of the library door opening and the sound of another set of hooves on hardwood. Everyone in the room turned to look as Applejack entered.

She looked bedraggled, to say the least. Her coat was dull, shaggy, and matted, and her mane and tail were ruffled, tangled, and knotted, several long strands coming loose from her usual tight ponytail to curl haphazardly from underneath her hat. It was obvious that Big Macintosh had managed to pass word onto her about Fluttershy, for the faint smell of antiseptics still clung to her. A deep frown and worry lines seemed permanently etched into her face, as well as the heavy black bags under her eyes. Her eyes though, her eyes were the worst of it. They were always filled with laughter and satisfaction, warmly welcoming and inviting with a simple gaze and almost glowing with the brilliant green of summer fields and apple leaves. Now though… it was as if they were dead. They were utterly devoid of anything even remotely similar to their normal warm shine, simply cold and lifeless. It was like looking at the eyes of a wax model, or a cadaver. They were cold, and empty. Hollow.

What little noise there was in the library ceased once she walked in the door, and calmly found her way to an empty seat and sat down. “Howdy, everypony,” she said quietly and monotonously, not really even bothering to look around.

Pinkie took one look at Applejack’s sorry state and dead eyes, immediately walked over to her, and pulled her into an embrace as she sat down. At first Applejack made no move to even acknowledge that Pinkie was even there, but Pinkie didn’t let go. After a few moments, Applejack began to slowly and almost unconsciously lean into the one-sided embrace and soon enough her muzzle was buried in Pinkie’s shoulders. Pinkie’s forelegs were wrapped around her neck and she was holding onto the physical contact like it was a life-line. Slowly, and without a word, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and even Spike all got up slowly, walked over to the two ponies and began hugging them as well.

Because of all this, Soft Paw’s reaction went unnoticed. As soon as the country mare open her mouth, all the hairs on the back of his neck and withers raised on end and a knot formed in the pit of his stomach as a thousand dark thoughts and memories streaked across his mind. Almost subconsciously, his senses went on high alert, and he was suddenly acutely aware of his surroundings. He had to force down the hot lump that threatened to rise up his throat as something harsh and primal bubbled up from deep within his chest. There was only one place he had ever heard that accent, and them memories associated with it were far, far from pleasant. He highly doubted that this mare was one of them, especially as she seemed to be one of Pinkie Pie’s good friends, but just that voice alone was enough to completely set him on edge. He needed to be wary. After all, he didn’t live for as long as he had by taking needless and stupid risks. Thankfully, he was able to get himself under control and mask his reaction before anyone else noticed him.

Slowly, the large group hug between the four ponies and dragon broke apart. They were all silent for a moment, before Applejack spoke up first, a faint light in her eyes now, along with a slightly more emotive voice. “Thank you, all a’ ya’ll. I needed that.”

“Dang, AJ. Big Macintosh said you were taking this hard when we stopped and talked to him, but I didn’t know you were that bad. Stop worrying so much, she’ll show up sooner or later. Besides, we’re all here for you, you know that right?” Rainbow Dash said, her usual tough demeanor conspicuously absent as she consoled her best friend.

Applejack just looked around, taking in the sight of her friends surrounding her, each of them offering a soft and comforting expression. Even Rarity, whom she continuously butted heads with and at this very moment had a sister of her own to worry about in addition to her current injuries was there, smiling sweetly and offering silent comfort. “Yeah,” Applejack said, “Yeah, Ah do. Thank ya, all a’ ya’ll. It means a lot ta me, more than ya know.”

Once Applejack finished speaking, Pinkie Pie reached over and pulled the corners of her lips upwards into a smile with her hooves and said, “Smile, now would you? Things could always be worse.” Pinkie sported a smile of her own in demonstration.

“Oh, Pinkie,” Applejack said, as the smile began to stay in place of its own accord, “never change.”

Pinkie just let a soft giggle and said, “Never ever.”

For several moments afterwards, nopony said anything, simply taking comfort in the presence of good friends in these trying times. Slowly though, they each began to separate and return to their respective seats around the library, giving each other some space.

For almost half an hour the library was as silent as one would expect of such a location, each of the ponies content to leave each other to their own devices and all of them somewhat reluctant to break the quiet hush and point out what they were all thinking. After a few minutes, they all ended keeping silent mostly out of simply not wanting to be the first one to talk. Eventually though, Rarity surprised them all by taking the initiative.

“I hate to be the one to point out the elephant in the room,” she began, her voice surprisingly hoarse and raspy, “but what exactly are we going to do now? Because by now, it seems as if we have simply exhausted every option.”

Her words had the same effect that one would expect, as everypony present seemed to visibly slump beneath heavier worries and downcast spirits.

“I… I don’t know, Rarity. I really don’t,” Pinkie said sadly, her face pulled into an uncharacteristic frown.

“Ugh!” Rainbow Dash wordlessly exclaimed exasperatedly. “We’ve look everywhere and done everything by now! We’ve even consulted ‘Madame Pinkie Pie’s’ crystal ball for Celestia’s sake! The only place we haven’t looked is the Everfree Forest and after what happened we’re probably just going to have to wait until Zecora comes back to town to ask her. This whole thing is just so... so… aggravating!” Rainbow Dash ranted loudly pacing back and forth fervently with an irritated scowl, kicking at the dust with her hind hooves.

Mid-way through her rant though, Soft Paw perked up from the corner he sat in. With a frown he spoke up, causing everyone to jump, most of them having forgotten he was there and Applejack not having even seen him in the first place. “Zecora?” he inquired rhetorically. “If it is with Zecora that you hope to find the small fillies than, regrettably, it seems that I must be the bearer of bad news. I visited her at her home just yesterday, not long before I found Little Shy and Lady Rarity. There were no children there.”

His words seemed to have an almost palpable impact on everyone in the room. They all seemed to slump even further, as what seemed like their last great hope was snuffed out right in front of them. Lead weights seemed to settle in the stomachs of each of them, and even Pinkie seemed to her edge of perpetual optimism. Soft Paw mentally kicked himself for his lack of tact.

“Are… are you sure?” Pinkie Pie asked him, her eyes wide and pleading with traces of tears.

Soft Paw grimaced. He really did hate being the bearer of such bad news, but it was something they deserved to know. “I am afraid so.”

They all turned away from him, not wanting to look at him or each other, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie both suddenly finding great morose interest in their own hooves. Rarity just reclined further onto the couch on which she lay, and closed her eyes. Applejack just cast her gaze about, not really looking at anything and just trying her best to not really think about just what the strange stallion’s words meant.

As she looked around though, she caught sight of something out of the corner of her eye. It was something she had seen many times before, quite often in fact, so much so that most of the time she didn’t even notice it anymore, her eyes just skipping over it and registering it as nothing more than just, ‘part of the background’. Now though, her gaze seemed to linger for reasons she couldn’t quite explain. It was a simple wooden statute, a hoof-carved unicorn bust that sat centered upon the large table that dominated the center of the room. She’d seen it more times than she could count, almost every time she’d been to the library, but now there was something about, something strange. She tried to figure out just what was so strange about it but only came up blank, the answer eluding her. The answer hung there, just out of reach, lingering on the edge of her thoughts. Just what was it? What was it that the strange wooden statue made her think of? It was almost as if it was taunting her, as it sat there innocuously and oblivious. What was it about that ordinary carved unicorn bust?

All of a sudden, it came to her in an instant. She bolted to her hooves with a loud and terrific gasp, startling nearly everyone as she realized just what it was the wooden unicorn bust reminded her of.

“Ah think Ah’ve got it!” she exclaimed, startling everyone even further with her volume as she felt a new ember of hope flare to life within her. “What if we’ve all been goin’ about this the wrong way the whole time?” she asked, frantically looking from one face to another. For the most part they had all gotten over the initial startle, and now all looked on with expressions that begged her to go on with her train of thought, her excited tone and sudden exclamation having spread the ember of hope to them as well.

“We’ve all been so wrapped up in lookin’ fer our sisters, we just about completely forgot about something else, something that might be just as important,” she said, pausing to look around and make sure she had everyone’s attention. She did. Pointing a hoof at the hoof-carved wooden unicorn bust in the middle of the table, she loudly announced her revelation, “They ain’t the only ones that disappeared that night!”

Rarity was the first one the catch her meaning, and gasped loudly and exclaimed, “Twilight!” She immediately clutched her head between her hooves, her splitting headache instantly remembered.

“Exactly!” Applejack responded, a grin now splitting her face, not quite noticing how her excess volume caused the pained unicorn to clutch her head a little tighter. “The way Ah figure it, maybe they got something to do with one another. An’ if that’s the case then Ah bet if we find out what happened ta Twilight then we find out what happened ta our sister’s too!”

Rainbow Dash practically tackled Applejack to the ground as she leaped over and wrapped her in a quick, tight hug and exclaimed, “AJ, you’re a genius!” Rarity would have been right behind her if not for her head and side.

“I must say, darling, I’m actually somewhat surprised none of us thought of it sooner,” Rarity said.

“So when was the last time any of us saw her?” Pinkie Pie asked, choosing that moment to chime in, her typical optimism restored. The library grew quiet again as everyone began to think back.

“I must say, I don’t think I’ve seen her since the last time she was at my boutique, and that was about… five days ago now,” Rarity announced, pausing briefly as she mentally calculated the days.

“I remember seeing her around town the day after that while I was hanging out with Pinkie,” Dash contributed.

Pinkie Pie just shook her head. “I haven’t seen her since then either.”

“Well don’t ya’ll look at me, Ah ain’t seen her since she stopped and bought some apples at the market last week.”

Slowly, everypony turned towards the one that probably knew best what had happened, since he lived with her. Spike held a claw to his chin as he thought back. “I don’t know,” he said tentatively. “She was downstairs in the basement studying something all day that day. She went down there that morning and I didn’t really see her again.”

Everyone nodded in understanding. They all knew how Twilight could get when she was studying something. Unfortunately, that didn’t really bring them any closer to figuring out what had happened to the studious unicorn and by extension their sisters. Silence reigned once again as everyone fell into thought, doing their best to piece together the puzzle with what little clues they had been given.

Suddenly, Spike gasped loudly and jumped to his feet, a look of remembrance flashing across his eyes. “I completely forgot!” he exclaimed, gaining everyone’s attention. “Late that night, Twilight woke me up in the middle of the night to send something to the princess before she went outside. She looked really upset about something. I thought it was a little weird, but she’s done weirder things when she gets like that so I just sort of let it go and went back to sleep.”

“The princess?” Applejack repeated, “What could have been so important she need to send it to Princess Celestia in the middle of the night?”

“That’s just it though,” Spike said, shaking his head. “She didn’t send it to Princess Celestia. She sent it to Princess Luna.”

Slowly, everypony turned to face one another, the same thought going through their heads. There was definitely something strange going on.

Applejack was the first to rise to her hooves and voice what was on all their minds. “Ah think we should go and have a look at whatever it is in the basement.” This was met with a chorus of affirmatives as the four ponies and dragon all stood up and followed her downstairs.

The subterranean laboratory was by most standards an absolute mess. Overstuffed filing cabinets lined the walls and various bundles of research notes and journals were stacked so tightly and so high that in some places they managed to touch the ceiling. Tables all around the room were full to overflowing with glass test tubes and beakers, many of which held strange and unknown liquids of various hues and scents, that all combined together to give the space strange and acrid scent of pine, pastries and faint hints of Sulphur. Various magical machines of unknown purpose and a myriad of other strange devices took up most of the space that was left, leaving only narrow walkways between everything to get around. Despite the chaotic nature of room, Spike assured everyone that it was all Okay, and that this was how it always looked. Not a thing was out of place. Everything was perfectly normal.

Too normal. If Twilight had really spent the entire night down here working on who knows what, only dash off in the middle of the night, then there should be some sort of sign of recent activity. Instead there was nothing, everything was just as it always was. Something was off here.

The next hour or so was spent searching the entire laboratory from top to bottom for anything unusual, or any signs of just what it was that Twilight had been working on the night she had disappeared. Other than Pinkie managing to find that Twilight was on the verge of inventing a formula for a soda that would never lose its fizz, there wasn’t much to find. They were all slowly shuffling towards the stairs and back up to the library proper when Soft Paw caught sight of something out of the corner of his eye. It was a small scrap of paper, crumpled and ripped around the edges, most likely torn from a larger piece of paper, stuck beneath a small gap where the wall’s molding met the floor beneath the stairs. Reaching over, he picked it up and turned it over.

Immediately, he dropped it as if it had burned him, backing up with a loud gasp, gritting his teeth and fighting the instinct to drop into an aggressive stance. His expression hardened sharply and he glared at the piece of paper as if it might rise up and attack him.

His reaction had gained the attention of the others and they all turned to him in surprise at his outburst. Pinkie especially looked at him with confusion — she had never seen him react that way before, about anything. He was always so stoic, calm and collected. For him to act this way… she didn’t want to think about what that meant.

Everyone else looked at how apprehensively Pinkie looked at Soft Paw, and how he in turn glared at the scrap of paper on the floor as if it had personally offended him. At first, none of them moved, as they weren’t entirely certain how to handle the situation. None of them knew the strange and intimidating stallion other than Pinkie Pie, and with her acting as she was they weren’t sure what to make of it. After a moment though, Spike slowly started forth, and picked the paper up off the ground and looked at it.

On it was a simple image. A pyramid with its top cut of and replaced with an eye, sitting in front of and blocking most of a large sun.

“I don’t get it,” Spike said out loud. “What does it mean?”

Soft Paw however was silent as he finally began to piece everything together. Suddenly it all made sense. Horrible, dreadful, perfect sense.

“Tell me,” he practically growled, baring his teeth in a habit he had picked up from spending far more time with wolves than with ponies. “Your friend, this ‘Twilight Sparkle’, she is a unicorn, yes? One with a purple coat and a starburst mark on her flank?” he asked, not turning to look at anyone in particular and instead simply asking them all.

Even Pinkie shivered a bit at the dangerous harshness in his voice as he spoke. This wasn’t like him at all. He was gruff, sure, but there was also a kindness to him. How he was acting now... Pinkie was starting to see why so many ponies found him so intimidating. “U-um, yeah, she is,” Pinkie managed to answer, just barely managing to control the slight tremble in her voice.

“Then I believe I may know where she has gone,” he said, his voice cold and dangerous. “On the night in question I saw a pony of just such a description running through the Everfree Forest. There is an old and ruined castle on the road she walked.”

The mares in the room exchanged questioning glances, the same thought going through their heads. There was only one old and ruined castle they knew of in the middle of the Everfree Forest. The Ancient Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters? Why would Twilight go there?

Soft Paw paid them no mind, climbed the stairs, and began heading towards the front door. He was halfway there when the girls managed to catch up and Pinkie asked, “Soft Paw, where are you going?”

“To find her,” he answered succinctly, not bothering to stop or even look at her, his voice still low and dangerous.

“We’re coming too!” Pinkie blurted out. Soft Paw paused. Pinkie continued, “She’s our friend, Soft Paw, and you’re my friend too.”

There was a beat of silence before Soft Paw made it to the front door and spoke, still without looking at them. “Come if you want. But you might not like what you see.”

Pinkie reached out and placed a hoof on his shoulder as he opened the door. “Just what’s going on, Soft Paw?” At that, Soft Paw finally turned to look at her.

She recoiled as if she had been slapped.

That was not the Soft Paw she knew. Gone was his stoic and comforting demeanor, gone were the brilliant viridian eyes full of wisdom, experience and kindness. All that remained was a harsh, simmering rage, and a primal and all-consuming terror. Those eyes were wild, untamed and powerful. All at once, Pinkie Pie was only all too aware of just how large Soft Paw was, the way his great muscles bulged and strained against his skin and all the countless scars that adorned almost every inch of his flesh. For one brief, terrible moment, there wasn’t a pony standing in front of her anymore. There was only a denizen of the dreaded Everfree Forest, a wild, savage, feral beast. For the first time since she met him all those years ago Pinkie Pie felt something about Soft Paw she swore she never would: fear.

“Agnaim neir, Kaein Pinks,” He growled from between clenched teeth, hot, angry, terrified tears just barely visible in his eyes.

“Never again.”

*~-/^-~*

The late evening sun painted the scene before Morning Star in a plethora of stunning reds and oranges, giving it a sense of surreal beauty, like something out of an artist’s imagination as they applied their brushes and paints to a blank canvas. The crumbling masonry and encroaching vegetation was like something out of an old fairy tale, or an ancient legend. He supposed that it wasn’t really that far from the truth. There actually were quite a few old tales about the Ancient Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters. After taking a few more moments to soak in the strangely beautiful sight before him, he crossed the bridge to enter the castle to begin his investigation.

When Celestia was briefing him about the situation involving Twilight and the strange happenings, she had mentioned that the whole thing had gone down at the old castle. Even if she had cautioned him against going there because of the danger, he felt he had to anyways. There was something about the place, something that was calling to him. Besides, he want to find out as much as he could, so he could better help Twilight.

Morning Star snorted loudly, half from the copious amounts of dust around the ancient abandoned structure and half from amusement. It was still kind of weird to try and reconcile the image of the small, inquisitive little filly from Celestia’s School for Magically Gifted Unicorns all those years ago with the mare he had been sent to look out for. She’s really grown up since then, he thought to himself, looking around as it suddenly dawned on him that he was standing in the same building that the same little filly from his memories had stared down and fought an ancient evil night goddess — and won. Morning just gave a soft chuckle at the thought.

Following whatever instinct it was that was drawing him to this place, he simply followed his hooves as they took him across the rickety bridge. As he was walking across the ruined courtyard to enter the castle proper though, he felt something familiar, a sudden pull from somewhere deep inside his core, and shiver that ran along his cutie mark. Stopping in place and looking around his immediate area, he noticed that he was standing next to an old stone sundial, one that was conspicuously unblemished despite the ages. All of the rampant growth and overwhelming vegetation stopped at least a full foot away in all directions, leaving the ancient timepiece within a small circular island of stone amidst a viridian sea. Its appearance did nothing to belie any sort of hidden nature, and it seemed innocuous enough, a simple piece of solid, pure white marble with twelve numbers, each connected to the center with a thick gold line.

Cautiously, he inched closer, until he stood within the small island of cleared stone. Just from standing that close he could feel it, the sheer power of magics and rites from eons long past, radiating out and washing over him like gentle breaking waves, and he could hear the whispers of times long ago, echoing across the ages. It was calming, intoxicating and invigorating, and it filled him with a deep and strange yearning for something unknown, lost in the twilights of history and years long gone.

Slowly, tentatively, he reached out with a trembling hoof, and laid it upon the enigmatic stone edifice. His eyes flew wide.

He knew.

The knowledge crashed down upon him like an eldritch tide, knocking his hooves out from under him. Unknowable images flashed across his eyes, incomprehensible voices filled his ears and lost and ancient words danced across his tongue. He knew it all, past, present and future. Past and future came alive before his eyes, and he saw everything that was, and that would be. The voices rose to an impossible crescendo and spoke of everything that is with such a fervent beauty that it would have driven a deaf pony to weep. Morning Star knew exactly what this stone Sundial was, and what it had been.

For the briefest of moments, Morning Star gazed across infinity, and beheld only divinity itself.

And then, just as quickly as it had come, the knowledge was gone.

It all left him in a flash, all of it, making him weep at the sudden emptiness. A large crack resounded through the air, and with an unseen rush of power a large crack ran down the face of the sundial, and a large circular piece of the stone fell away, bearing the number eleven on its face. The small piece of ancient marble fell onto Morning Star’s chest and disappeared there amidst his pure white coat, sinking into his flesh.

Rising to his hooves, Morning Star groaned slightly, rubbing his hoof against his head to try and alleviate a sudden headache. He noticed there were tears on his face, but he wasn’t sure why. Wiping them away, he quickly looked around. He seemed to have slipped next to some sort of old stone sundial. Must have hit his head.

Continuing on into the castle itself, he began to search for whatever it was he was looking for, even if for some reason he couldn’t feel a subconscious tugging at his hooves anymore. He still had to find out just what had happened, so he could help Twilight.

\\*/

Thankfully, finding something of interest hadn’t been all that difficult. There were plenty of signs of recent disturbance all over the place if one knew what to look for. There were a good many locations where the dust wasn’t nearly as thick as usual, and there were recently burnt down torches in the sconces down several hallways.

At first he seemed to be chasing his own tail as he walked down all the hallways that showed signs of activity. He constantly seemed to be going in circles, passing through intersections that he was positive he’d already by before, and not really finding much of anything.

One interesting thing that he did find however, was in an old storage room. In a corner was an abandoned bedroll, no more than a few days old, and a strange book. It was rather small, with a completely black cover without any sort of title, only a weird image of a pyramid and a sun on the front. The whole thing was written in some weird language that Morning Star couldn’t read and didn’t recognize. Regardless, he grabbed it and tossed it into his saddle-bag. He might be able to go to the library and translate it later, it could have valuable information.

Continuing on, he eventually came upon what he was looking for.

It was a small dark tunnel, one that was actually rather difficult to find being half-hidden behind a large pile of rubble as it was. There was practically no dust at all just before its entrance, and he could see a tiny scrap of dark cloth caught on a jutting piece of sharp stone just within the tunnel. Something in his gut told him that whatever he was looking for, it had to be down there.

Carefully, he began to make his way down the pitch dark tunnel, sticking close to the wall so as not to get lost and tossing the small scrap of cloth from the wall in his bags along with the strange book from earlier.

As he made his way, he began to feel… off. It was like the further he got, the denser the air became and the more his gut churned. Something deep down was telling him to turn around that very instant and run away, far away, and never come back. It slowly began to get colder as well, which wasn’t entirely surprise considering his subterranean location, but it didn’t seem right for just being underground. He swore that if it wasn’t so dark he would have been able to see his own breath misting in the air before him. The hairs on the back of his neck began the stand up, and a shiver ran down his spine. There was a strange smell in the air, and the darkness almost seemed to be getting thicker, as if it were a living thing and was intent on smothering him. There was something wrong here, he could feel it, and it put him on edge. Regardless, he continued on.

It wasn’t much longer before he came to the end of the hallway and turned the corner into a small chamber. Stepping inside, he looked around.

It wasn’t very large for a castle as big as the one he was in, but it was still somewhat spacious. The chamber was illuminated in a soft blue light, by what he wasn’t quite sure as the light didn’t seem to come from any one direction, but instead from everywhere at once. The room was completely bare, save for a large ornate golden and silver spear embedded in the stone floor in the center of the room, with several cracks in the ground radiating outwards from its point of impact. There was something strange about the spear though, something that drew him to it.

Unconsciously, Morning Star walked further into the chamber, approaching the spear at its center. As he got closer, the air got heavier and heavier, even more so than in the tunnel that led here. Just as he had predicted, Morning Star could see his breath fogging the air in front of himself. The shivering down his spine grew worse than ever, and his stomach was twisting in to so many knots it felt like it was trying to crawl its way up and out of his throat. Before he even realized he had begun moving, he was standing in front of the spear, only a hooves-breadth away, shifting nervously from hoof to hoof, a tingle playing across his cutie mark. There was something odd about this ornate spear, here in a strange stone chamber beneath an ancient abandoned castle. Something about it called out to him, drawing him ever closer. Gulping nervously, he reached out with a hoof and slowly laid it upon the ceremonial spear.

He immediately leapt backwards as if burned, scraping his hoof roughly against the ground as if to rid of some toxic substance and fighting back the gorge that rose in his throat. He knew there was something wrong with that spear, he just knew it! He didn’t know what happened here, and honestly he really didn’t want to, but one thing he did know: that spear was pure Evil.

He felt as if he was suddenly coated in filth, as if some horrible, repulsive sludge had etched itself into his flesh and sunk deep into his bones. He wanted to run home as fast as his hooves would take him and throw himself into his shower and scrub himself raw, even though he knew he still wouldn’t feel clean. He felt dirty, defiled and violated. Losing the battle with his stomach, he ran to the corner and proceeded to lose his lunch all over the floor.

After waiting for a few minutes to stop tremble and for his stomach to settle, Morning wiped his mouth free of bile, and turn to face the spear. His cutie mark still tingled and burned as he thought about what to do with it.

It was dangerous, there was no doubt about that. Nothing with the sheer amount of Evil that spear exuded could ever be used for anything even remotely benevolent. This was definitely something Celestia should know about. In fact, he should probably just bring it to her himself. He definitely couldn’t leave it around here. All the signs pointed towards there being other ponies around here recently, and if someone else were to find this then there’s no telling what could happen. Deciding that personally delivering it to the safekeeping of Celestia was the best course of action, he set about doing just that.

It became immediately apparent that it was easier said than done. Thankfully, since he had already touched it once his Knowing didn’t activate again, or else he probably would have been too busy huddled in the corner voiding the contents of his stomach to wrestle with the thing. The cracks running along the floor weren’t just for show, the thing was really embedded pretty deep into the stone. For several minutes Morning Star sat there tugging on the end, or bucking it with his hooves or pulling on it with his teeth. It was stuck fast, but not impossibly so. It took almost half an hour and at least one chipped tooth, but he finally managed to loosen it up to the point of freedom. Wrapping his fore hooves around the spear’s shaft, he braced his back legs against the floor, and with one last mighty heave, tore the spear free of the stone.

He immediately wished he hadn’t.

As soon as the spear was free of its stone encasement, Morning Star could feel a burst of incredibly powerful eldritch magics rushing outwards in every direction, tearing intangibly through the walls of the chamber to rush across Equestria and spread its ill portent as it saw fit. Morning was hit point blank and launched into the far wall with bone rattling force, but not before being knocked completely unconscious by the sheer magical overload, still tightly clasping the spear in his hooves.

Slowly, the faint blue light in the chamber faded to an eerie gold, and a rift seemed to split the very space between the room’s roof and floor where the spear had sat. Through the tear in space stepped a strange creature the like of which Equestria had never before borne witness to. It was strange and unknowable, unseen and unheard, as intangible as sunlight and shadows, and as substantial as time. Finding itself for the first time upon a mortal realm, it cast its gaze about, its golden and silver eyes falling on the pony before it.

‘PERFECT’

*~-/^-~*

Pinkie Pie was uneasy, and she wasn’t the only one. Just by looking around, she could tell that Applejack, Rarity, Spike and even Rainbow Dash were rather unsettled. Looking around at the trees on all sides and the ancient stone structure just ahead, she felt a small shiver go down her spine. The setting sun cast everything in an eerie twilight, throwing an ominous bloody red glow on just about everything in sight and making the already rather intimidating surroundings and company into something worthy of fear.

Looking towards where Soft Paw walked just ahead of the rest of the group she felt a lump form in her throat. She would have been lying to herself if she said it wasn’t because of fear, but she managed to take some small comfort in the fact that it wasn’t strictly so, as she could definitely feel concern for her friend’s unusual behavior in equal amounts. Looking at the wolf beside him though, Pinkie felt another tremor run down her spine, and she didn’t even bother looking for any other emotions in her reaction this time.

Huge, was the first word that came to mind, and terrifying the second. It was hulking mass of lupine muscle, covered in lustrous fur black as night that seemed to drink in the light from all around it and great big fangs that seemed eager to sink into flesh and hung past its own jaws when its mouth was shut. Despite that fact that it was utterly massive, towering over even her and standing perhaps eye to eye with Big Macintosh himself, it moved with an uncanny grace, almost entirely silent on paws half the size of her head. It was a horrifying creature, causing her to shiver just from being too close to it, but its eyes though, its eyes were the worst of it. Just a fleeting moment of contact between her gaze and those burning red orbs, full of hate and rage and hunger, was enough to make her legs weak and her knees tremble with fear, even from all the way across the rickety old rope bridge that spanned the chasm just before the Ancient Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters.

Pinkie knew she wasn’t alone in her thoughts on the great beast. As soon as they had lost sight of Ponyville from within the boughs of the Everfree Forest Soft Paw had called them all to a halt and let out a piercing whistle, loud enough that it echoed amongst the trees and made her lay her ears flat against her skull. In its wake, the whole forest seemed to have gone silent, and not even the birds called from the trees. All was quiet for several moments before the sound of something crashing loudly through the underbrush reached them, and before any of them realized what was going on the great wolf burst through the trees, startling Rainbow Dash enough to take to the skies. Soft Paw and the hulking mass of predatory muscle exchanged a quick sniff and brief nuzzle, as if the great beast were no more than a lap dog, and he introduced it as Hünd, a Dire Wolf, and said that it would be going with them. Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and even Spike immediately began to protest most vehemently, on the ground that it was just too down right terrifying, and they didn’t want to be anywhere near it.

Soft Paw promptly and rather bluntly responded that if they were that scared, then everything else in the forest must be pissing itself by now, and if they wanted they could just stay behind and get eaten, or end up in the hospital as well.

Needless to say, there wasn’t much arguing or discussion after that, even if Rainbow Dash did want to punch him in the mouth. One look at the mass of feral muscles and teeth that bowed its head to him as he scratched behind its ears made her think better of it.

Thankfully Soft Paw’s words proved true, and by the time the sun began to set they had reached the castle unmolested by anything that dwelt within the Everfree. They all crossed the small rope bridge and began to mill about the ruined courtyard, and Pinkie finally worked up the nerve to approach Soft Paw.

“Soft Paw?” she queried tentatively, flinching slightly at the dangerous and emotionless look in his eyes as he turned to face her.

Soft Paw looked at Pinkie Pie, and saw the way she trembled in his and Hünd’s presence, the fear in her eyes and the lack of laughter in her voice. For a brief moment, he felt something like a twinge of regret. Closing his eyes and breathing deeply, he tried to rein in his turbulent emotions and frayed nerves, if only enough to not cast quite so frightening an image and scare the pony that called him friend so badly.

After a moment, he spoke. “I am sorry, Little Pinks,” he said, the faintest edge gone from his eyes. “Come, let us look for your friend. And pray we do not find her.”

Pinkie wasn’t certain what to make of his words or his attitude, but she followed him nonetheless as he strode deeper into the crumbling ruins, the rest of the girls and Spike following as well.

The late evening light cast long shadows through the good many holes in the walls and collapsed ceilings, throwing everything into contrasting areas of light and dark, and giving the castle an even more foreboding feel than it already had, causing most of the group to stick tightly together as if something were going to jump out at them from the shadows, with the exception of Soft Paw and Hünd. As they all looked around the dusty and dilapidated hallways for anything unusual, squinting in the uneven and fluctuating lighting, Rainbow Dash chose that moment to speak up. “So… what exactly are we looking for anyways?” she asked, looking around aimlessly, before looking towards where Soft Paw stood next to a small pile of stones.

Soft Paw himself was hunched over the small pile of stones, examining it closely where something seemed to have caught his eye. Carefully, he reached down and picked it up, holding it up to the light of the setting sun. It was a small bit of hair, a bit long, possibly from a mare’s mane or tail, and dark blue or deep purple in color. Taking it over to Pinkie Pie and her friends, he showed it to them and asked, “Do any of you recognize this?”

Rarity gently levitated the bit of hair out of Soft Paw’s hooves, and held it close to get a good look at it. Nodding her head, she somewhat excitedly announced, “Yes, that is most definitely from Twilight’s tail.”

The other’s all began to perk up, excited to know that Twilight had most definitely been here and that they were on the right trail, but Soft Paw simply began to scowl even more deeply. Turning around, he called out for Hünd, who was by his side in an instant, startling everypony else. “Hünd,” he said commandingly, pointing a hoof down the hallway in which they were headed and staring into the beast’s eyes, “search.” The Dire Wolf did as was commanded of it, and put its nose to the ground and began leading the way deeper into the castle.

The entire group was silent yet again as they followed the beast and Soft Paw through the twisting labyrinthine network of stone hallways, none of them wanting to call attention to themselves and draw his sudden intense focus. They were walking for a good while, and by the time Hünd lifted its head from the stones at their hooves they had arrived in a familiar chamber, and the sun was visibly kissing the horizon through the many broken stained glass windows and missing roof.

In the center of the room stood a massive stone edifice, an altar of decaying marble with five emptied radial arms that each once bore the inactive stone forms of the Elements of Harmony. Without a word, they all spread out and began to search the room for anything strange or unusual. It was long though, before Soft Paw found exactly what he was looking for and exactly what he didn’t want to find laying amidst the moss and vines at the base of the altar in the center of the chamber. He picked it up and held it to the dying rays of the sun, where they glinted off its metallic golden surface. His face twisted into a grimace of rage, and with a wordless howl of anger he threw into the far corner of the room, where it bounced off the wall and landed at the hooves of Pinkie Pie. As she picked it up and saw the image of a pyramid and a sun on its face, everyone else were all staring wide-eyed at the no doubt dangerous pony in their midst, and wondering if he was suddenly unstable. Pinkie only looked on with concern, and was about to open her mouth to ask what was the matter, when all of a sudden everything seemed to go wrong.

Three things seemed to happen all at once.

The first, was a strange sensation shooting thorough her entire body, leaving it feeling strangely tingly, and reminding her of when she would use her Pinkie Sense, and she could see out of the corner of her eyes Rarity’s horn lighting involuntarily and Rainbow Dash’s wings spreading at the same moment.

The second, was Soft Paw instantly collapsing to his knees, as his howl of anger turned to one of agony.

The third, was perhaps the most frightening, as some sort of terrible monster loosened a screech that send shivers of fear down her spine and the ground seemed to shake.

As everyone else stood stupefied, Soft Paw wasted no time, managing to barely rise to his trembling hooves, his face contorted in pain and started shambling towards the exit, yelling, “Run!”

Soft Paw’s shout and trembling visage seemed to snap everyone to their senses, as they all immediately began running for the castle’s exit with all due haste, Spike riding atop Applejack and Rainbow Dash supporting Rarity because of her limited mobility due to her cracked rib. They managed to make it out of the castle in much less time than it took them get so far inside, and by the time they had crossed the bridge and were heading back towards Ponyville the moon was only just barely peeking above the horizon though.

They didn’t make it far though, before a massive monstrosity burst from the brush, knocking full grown trees flying as if they were mere matchsticks as it strode on all eight scaly legs to block their path, its two enormous whip-like tails lashing at the air above it. It towered over them all, standing twice and half again their height, each of its many legs ending in several long, serrated claws that kneaded the loam beneath its feet, and covered from head to tails in a thick crest of spiny, scaly armor plates. It gazed malevolently at them with its six beady red eyes and gave a massive roar, loud enough cause the small stone on the dirt path they walk to shake and jump from the ground as it resonated in their bones. They all stopped dead as it began lumbering towards them, snapping at them with its great teeth and swiping at them with its tusks and forward raking horns.

Soft Paw didn’t hesitate. He charged right through the group of paralyzed mares and tackled right where the beast’s front legs met the rest of its body, even as Hünd leapt over them and began to attack and claw at the gargantuan reptile’s eyes. The girls and Spike all stood in awe as the pony they were pretty sure was at least slightly mentally disturbed and the huge lupine beast they had just spent the last couple of hours being terrified of began fighting a monster that would have surely decimated an entire platoon of Royal Guards right in front of them — and actually managed to hold it back.

Soft Paw didn’t really appreciate their gawking though, and as he bucked the monster in the side of the head and managed to chip a tusk, he shouted, “RUN!”

They didn’t need to be told twice, and promptly began to run as fast as their hooves would take them, throwing up dust in their wake.

The great bellowing of the massive beast and wolfven howls followed them all the way home, and Pinkie tried not to think about the way Soft Paw’s eyes seemed to glow golden with focus, and how she could have sworn she saw something writhing just beneath his skin.

*~-/^-~*

As the pulse of strange, eldritch magics spread its way across Equestria, Something took notice.

Far and away, beyond the space between shadows, It stirred. It heard the Call, and It knew there was not much time left.

It turned Its faceless gaze to three young fillies, deep within the cool embrace of Its own Shadows. It clutched them tightly, and whispered darkly into their dreams.

‘…SoOn…’

Author's Note

Oh hey look, a new chapter. And now you're done with it. I guess you'll just have to wait another four months for the next one. Man, it must suck to be you right now.

About this chapter...
I re-wrote this thing too many times to count, and to be honest, I still don't really like it. I've done as much as I can, but I just don't really feel like it's on the same level with the rest of the story. It might be the longest chapter to date, but to me most of it just feels forced. I guess writing about 80% of it in three days will do that. There are a few important plot points and scene transitions that just seem cringe-worthy to me, even thought I wrote them the best I could.

Now all of that's not to say that this chapter is bad, I'm just saying I'm a bit of a perfectionist prick who doesn't feel I've hit the same high note I usually do. Who knows, maybe I'm just my own worst critic and the whole thing is just fine. I'll leave that to you to decide.

Despite its length, there is still a whole lot that I had to cut from this chapter. As in about 60%-70%. So if you're wondering about the lack of a certain pretty purple pony, you can blame that. Expect the next full chapter to have more purple, and quite a bit more red.

And now for my traditional FanFic recommendation. I've learned from last time that my tastes are apparently a little more eclectic than most, so I'll try and keep that in mind from now on.
The story I bring has been among my top favorites for a very, very long time. I've only just recently noticed the sort of reception it has, and I have to say that the sort of under appreciation it has been shown is nothing short of absolutely criminal. It explores the world of Equestria in such breath-taking and original views, I have yet to see anything even come close to rivaling it. It shows the peoples and various races of Equestria in unique and engaging ways, and makes me feel for each one of them in ways no other story has even come close to since. The greater and divine beings of the Equestrian pantheon are written both powerfully and believably, and the author really manages to capture the essence and mindset of what it means to be immortal and divine, to be a living god. Their interactions feel real and organic, shaping the world around them as their schemes and machinations span the ages. The world itself is vast and flowing, ever-changing as the balance of power shifts and filled with wonderful characters and interactions that bring the whole thing to life. The titular character's plight is heartfelt, visceral and real; at times my heart for him and at times I simply want to strike him, but I can almost feel what he does, and more than once have I been forced to simply get up and walk away from my computer mid-chapter as my emotions simply ran too high. The author has created an amazing world, and though the story has finished for now, I cannot wait to return.

Without further ado, dear gentlereader, I present to you: The Great Slave King, and its sequal, The Book of Water: Marrage of the Slave King.

Feeding & Fear

Author's Note

Holy shit, all this time and I'm not dead? Six years later and I'm finally updating this story?

It's a goddamn Christmas Miracle.

Feeding & Fear

Shining Armor awoke to screams. Screams and thrashing. The first thing he became aware of upon his sudden and jarring return to consciousness was the sensation of falling, followed immediately by a heavy impact that resounded through his body. Flailing about in panic and confusion, he felt his limbs becoming more and more constricted, which caused him to become only more panicked and exacerbated the situation. After a moment he was completely encased, his movements restricted, forcing him to calm down and assess the situation. After a brief moment, all the memories of last night came rushing back and he realized where he was. Carefully, he used his magic to untangle the bed sheets from around himself, stood up and turned to his sister, lighting the room’s candle as he did. Immediately, his breath caught in his throat.

Twilight’s eyes were wide and panicked, all but glowing red and pupils dilated to razor-thin slits as they darted madly back and forth. Fangs, glistening and wickedly sharp hung from her jaw, bared for all to see as her lips were pulled back in a terrified snarl. She was thrashing about in a frenzy, her limbs caught up in the blankets as his were, her head flailing about and tearing holes in the bedding and bed-frame alike with her suddenly razor-sharp horn. She was all but howling as she shouted strange words, spittle flying from her lips. “Ignaei! Venne! VENNE!”

Shining Armor looked on in horror as his little sister struggled violently and spoke in tongues. Eyes wide with fright and worry, he leapt upon her, doing his best to use his bulk to restrain her so she couldn’t hurt herself. “Twilight, please! Calm down!” he screamed as he tried to wrap his legs around her.

Unfortunately, all he succeeded in doing was untangling her from the blankets wrapped around her limbs. With unnatural and unforeseen strength, Twilight managed to snake her legs beneath Shining’s barrel and with a shove threw him across the room. He collided with the wall just beside the doorway and fell to the ground in a heap, the breath driven from his lungs. Gasping, with trembling legs and eyes wide in surprise, he stood up again and looked at his sister. Slowly, she was lurching to a standing position on the bed, her movements disjointed and jerking, like some freakishly large insect. Her mouth hung open, saliva dripping from her fangs like venom, and with a glass rattling shriek, she began bounding for the door.

Reacting more on instinct than thought, Shining Armor jumped in front of her, blocking the doorway and containing her so that she couldn’t run about the castle in her crazed state. She barreled into him, but he had already taken into account her strange strength, and using the training he received over several years of loyal service to the Royal Guard he was able to redirect her momentum. He dug in his hooves and stood resolutely as he used his body to block the doorway, Twilight desperately trying to worm her way past him, screaming, “Loca! LOCA!”

“Twily, please, I’m begging you, calm down!” he shouted back, thrusting out his chest to try and drive her back. “Please, just tell me what’s wrong!” He pleaded, frightened tears in his eyes. After several seconds of no response Shining reached out with his forelegs and pulled her into a deep hug, gently rubbing her back as he spoke in her ear, “Please, just tell me what’s got you so scared.” It seemed to be work, Twilight was suddenly silent, and wrapped her own forelegs around him, returning the hug, her entire body trembling violently. Shining Armor let out a relieved sigh, his own body starting to tremble in response as his sister finally started to calm down.

Then suddenly, his entire world became fire and pain. Every muscle in his body contracted at once as his entire body seized, a burning agony lancing through him. It was a horrible pain unlike any he had ever felt before, cutting through all his defenses and thoughts like a knife. It transcended physical sensation and seemed to dig into his very soul, wiping all thoughts from his mind and making every moment drag on for a torturous eternity. He tried desperately to fight it, to regain his senses and push away the hurt but it was a futile effort. It quickly became all he could to even hold onto his sense of self as the overwhelming, all-consuming pain threatened to strip even that away from him. With a tremendous effort of will, he managed to turn a single eye downwards in an attempt to find the cause of his unbearable torment, and what he saw filled him with a sense of sadness and betrayal every bit as horrid as the fire that laced his body: Twilight had bitten him. She lay against him, calm and oblivious, eyes closed and fangs sunk deep into the flesh of his neck as she suckled at his lifeblood with the content expression of a foal suckling at a teat, excess of the crimson fluid staining her face and his hide.

Slowly, the tide began to turn on the ocean of agony that consumed him, the flame in his veins turning to ice. His vision began to darken, the already dimly lit room fading away, leaving only his sense of hearing to observe his situation. Soon enough, even that began to slowly fade too. He could hear his own heartbeat beginning to slow, and what few thoughts remained in his head became sluggish. It felt as if his very life was being leached away, draining away through the holes in his neck, and he worried that may very well be the case. He struggled valiantly, but it was in vain as his body refused to listen to him. He was so very cold, like all the warmth had left the world, and the only bit of it left continued to dribble down and coat his left side. He could feel the darkness reaching in to consume him, and his last thoughts as he slipped into the abyss were of Twilight.

*~-/^-~*

Twilight Sparkle had been dreaming. Once again she had been in an endless white expanse, though this time lacking in any sort of fog or mist. Instead, she had been rooted in place, unmoving and staring straight ahead. Fire danced just beyond the edges of her vision, close enough that she could feel the warmth of it and it felt like her own coat might catch alight at any moment. That wasn’t what made the dream unusual or uncomfortable though, what was unsettling about the dream wasn’t that even though she couldn’t see it, she knew that there was something behind her, something horrible, and she knew that if she turned to look or even so much as twitched it would get her. She could feel it right behind her, just standing there ominously, its immense shadow dancing in the flickering light of the flames all around her. It made the fur on the back of her neck stand up, the thing was close enough that she could hear its constant low grumbling and growling in her ear and feel its breath on her neck. It seemed like she sat there, still and unmoving, for hours before the thing just behind her spoke a single word with a reverberating voice that sounded just like her own.

“Hungry.”

Twilight awoke at that moment, though it was not an immediate or violent awakening like she had become accustomed to. Instead she awoke slowly and gradually, the soothing darkness of her closed eyes replacing the endless white landscape of her dreams. A deep content and comfortable warmth enveloped her, the kind of which brought to mind fond memories of cold winter days where the air was sharp and cold but far away as she lay in the enveloping warmth of her bed, content knowing there was no need or reason to leave it. A satisfying fullness lay in her belly, having filled an emptiness she hadn’t even been aware of. She gave a blissful sigh and snuggled deeper into the warmth, causing a wetness to spread across her muzzle and neck. Curious, she groggily blinked open her eyes with a frown, the world around her slowly swimming into focus.

It took her several moments to understand what she was seeing. She wasn’t in the bed where she had fallen asleep, but instead laying on the threadbare rug just in front of the room’s only door. She was still cuddled up to her older brother as she had been when she had fallen asleep, though there was something off about him. He was limp and still, and a little cold to the touch. He seemed a bit paler than usual, and for some reason his entire left side below the head was wet and colored varying shades of red. She furrowed her brow in puzzlement, licking her lips and tasting copper and berries. Then suddenly, it hit her.

A heart-piercing, shrieking wail tore itself from her throat, louder than any before it, as she leapt to her hooves and stared desperately down at the too-still form of her brother, many fat, burning tears streaming down her face.

The door burst open as guards rushed in at the deafening commotion, and with trained eyes immediately took in the scene before them. Twilight stood over the prone form of their Captain as he lay still, coated in his own blood as more of it dripped from her muzzle. One of them tackled her out of the way as she pawed desperately at him and babbled incoherently, the rest of them rushing to his aid. Twilight scrambled back to her hooves and tried to rush to his side but the guard who had tacked her struck her across the face with the business end of his spear, drawing a long but shallow line of blood and shocked and pained yelp from her. “Stay back, you monster!” he screamed, leveling his spear at her as she stared on in horror.

The stallions surrounding Shining Armor did their best to administer what little first aid they could, struggling and failing to find a pulse. Quickly and cautiously, they loaded him onto the back of one of them before all dashing down the halls to the infirmary, shouting for a medic all along the way. The guard pointing his spear at Twilight was the last out of the room, the look of burning hate and fear on his face the last thing she saw before he slammed the door shut, the sound of it being barred from the outside echoing through the room.

It all happened so fast Twilight barely had any time to react, the sound of wood and iron sliding home and locking her in startling her and shocking her back to her senses. She belatedly rushed to the door and began pounding on it desperately, causing it to rattle in its frame. “Please! Please, let me out!” she pleaded, trying as hard as she could to chase after her brother. All higher thought or logic was gone from her mind, replaced with desperation and fear, all her thoughts focused on her brother and a furious need to do whatever she could to try and fix what had happened. Had she been able to think objectively, she would have realized she was in shock, the reality of situation too much to understand and internalize at once.

So she pounded at the door, babbling and muttering and bargaining, struggling in a foalish effort to undo the harm and make everything alright again. To make her big brother okay. But there was nothing she could do. Slowly, the situation began to really sink in, and her furious pounding and scrambling and screaming died down as her weeping became worse, hot salty tears streaming down her face in torrents. Shining Armor was hurt, hurt badly. He could be dead. And it was all her fault. She had bitten him. She had bitten him and drained his blood and left him cold and still on the ground. The guards had attacked her, locked her in her room like a criminal. Or a caged animal.

Slowly, she slid down the door to lay on the floor, curling up in a ball as her weeping grew quieter, but no less fervent. She paid no mind to the sting on her cheek where the guard’s spear had cut her, not even noticing as it already began to close. For a long while she just laid there and cried, and even though she had just awoken her strength left her and darkness began to take hold of her. She began to fall asleep, though not before she realized something.

Princess Luna, the guards, Dr. Prototype, they were all right. She really was a monster.

*~-/^-~*

Luna stared down at the white stallion laying the bed before her, hooked up to the various machines of modern medicine, and felt a mixture of emotions roiling inside of her breast, chief among them a deep sadness and pity. She had been away for longer than usual, stalking The Dream Lands as she was wont to do when she was particularly upset, when she had felt the pulse of fel magics from the castle in the Everfree, and she had seen how it had reacted with the sleeping mind of the former unicorn that had vexed her of late. She had kept a wary eye on it fearing the worst, and when Twilight had returned to slumber not long after waking Luna had seen the troubles that plagued her and knew that her fears had been justified. She decided it was time to return to the world of the waking, stepping out of the Veil directly into the castle’s infirmary, startling the nurses and doctors on duty as she seemed to appear out of thin air.

Shining Armor was in a wretched state. His bright white coat lacked its typical lustrous sheen, and instead had the sickly pallor of a corpse. His face was gaunt, the skin especially tight around his eyes and cheeks, the shape of the bone beneath clearly visible. His chest only moved with the aid of a machine like twin bellows, and another machine Luna understood measured the beating of his heart only beeped faintly and irregularly. Though he had already been thoroughly scrubbed, his left side was still vaguely pink from his own blood, and more of the life giving fluid ran from bags through tubes into the crooks of both forelegs.

Luna was distracted from her examination by a heart-broken gasp and choked sobs coming from the doorway. Turning her head, Luna saw the pink coated figure of her niece standing there at the room’s entrance, a hoof over her mouth and tears in her eyes, her shoulders shaking with quiet sobs. After a brief moment of shock, Cadence rushed to his bedside, and had to visibly restrain herself from throwing herself across him. Instead she reached out to him, her hooves trailing up and down his body, taking in his sad state but never quite touching him, as if afraid a single touch would shatter him like glass. For several minutes all was quiet save for the beeping of machines and the soft weeping of Cadence, before she turned to Luna and with teary eyes asked, “What happened?”

Luna turned away, unable to look the other princess in the eyes lest her own sadness take hold. “That is a good question,” she responded, her face tight with a schooled lack of visible emotion, “one that We intend to seek an answer to.” Without another word, Luna walked away, leaving Cadence alone with her husband and stalked down the castle's inner corridors.

She did not pay much mind to the many guards she passed on her way, though she did note the abnormal tightness on their faces and tension in their limbs. It seemed that news traveled fast, and bad news all the faster. Word had all but certainly reached her sister by now. Luna could only imagine how she was taking it. Most likely she was devastated, for a good many number of reasons as well. The situation with Twilight was already taking its toll on her, and now that it had escalated like this... Luna didn’t even want to think on it.

It wasn’t long before the hallways she walked gradually became darker and cooler, and the shining marble was slowly replaced grayer, more mundane stone. Luna turned a corner and took note of the more than a dozen fully equipped guards standing outside an innocuous wooden door that had been barred shut. They all turned and saluted her as they noticed her approach, but she paid them little mind, continuing right up to the door. She stood there for a moment, deciding on her next move, before saying to guard stallions around her “Retain thy wary vigil, we shalt go and speak with her alone.” With that, she turned her body to smoke and stardust, flowing through the cracks in the door and rematerializing on the other side.

It was as dark as she had expected, though such a thing mattered little to one such as her nor, she suspected, the room’s only other occupant. Turning around she saw Twilight still asleep where she fell, curled in on herself in front of the door, the fur on her face wet and matted with tears. Luna stood before her, and couldn’t help but wonder how something that seemed so small could be so dangerous. Looking at her now, she just seemed so tiny and helpless, and Luna felt a sudden surge of pity. But regardless of how she may seem, she had still committed a terrible act, and that needed to be addressed. Channelling a tiny amount of dream magic into her voice, Luna spoke a single word; “Awaken.”

Immediately, Twilight’s eyes flew open wide, as if she had been conscious the entire time and merely waiting for Luna to break the silence. Slowly, she uncurled from her position on the floor and rose to her haunches, her joints popping in protest of the movement after sleeping on the hard ground. If she was surprised to suddenly awaken and find Luna before her, she showed no sign of it, and turned to look the princess in the eye. As she did, Luna took in the sight of her.

She was tense, even after just waking, her muscles coiled taught like a spring. Her fur was ruffled and matted, her mane and tail likewise unkempt and frazzled, hairs sticking every which way and forming a tangled halo around her head, making her look like some sort of wild, unwashed feral pony. Her hooves were scuffed and scratched, one even lightly bleed from where she had repeatedly clawed at the door, though it looked like she didn’t even notice or care. Her horn was likewise unsightly, the spiral grooves full of dirt and grime and a barely noticeable dent near the tip. Her eyes though, her eyes were the worst of it.

They were dry and puffy and bloodshot, as to be expected, but that wasn’t all. They were dark. Empty. Full of sorrow and hurt and defeat. Luna knew this mare before her, and though she did not like to admit it even to herself, she deeply respected her. Twilight was strong. She was smart. She loved the world, loved books, loved to learn and loved her friends most of all, and it always showed in the gleam in her eyes whenever she enjoyed those things. She was the sort to never back down and always follow through, even when all seemed lost and everything was hopeless. She had even managed to free Luna from her own darkness. There was a spark in those eyes, one that couldn’t be extinguished even by the deepest darkness.

But now that spark was gone. Those eyes were cold, and dark. Those eyes were dead. And with a surge of tumultuous emotions that caused her breath to catch, Luna realized that she recognized those eyes. How could she not. How many times now had her own failings and mistakes haunted her, how many times had she woken in the middle of the day in a cold sweat with nightmares of the moon and fighting her sister lingering on her mind. How many times would images of her own sister, broken and defeated as she proclaimed unending night crawl unbidden to her mind and she would see those same dead eyes staring back at her in the mirror.

“Luna-” Twilight croaked, her voice raspy and hoarse from crying and thick with emotion.

Before Twilight could say her piece, Luna interrupted her. “Shining Armor will live,” she spoke, saying so very much with just a few words.

With those words, it was as if a spell had been cast. Twilight stiffened in place, not a muscle so much as twitching. Then, slowly, like ice cracking in the first thaw of spring, her entire expression started to break down. Her mouth hung open and pulled down into a deep frown, her expression of exhausted apathy melting away. Her entire body went limp as all the tension left it in an instant, nearly sending her toppling over. Fresh hot tears began to roll down her cheeks anew as her eyes came alive again. With a cry full of relief and pain, she fell forward, burying herself in Luna’s breast, sobbing uncontrollably as she was overcome with emotion.

Luna looked down at her with pity, and wrapped her up in her wings in a feathery embrace, feeling quite a bit like her sister in that moment. “There there, hush now. He will live,” she soothed softly, gently running her hoof through Twilight’s frazzled mane. They stayed like that for a good long while, Twilight weeping into the princess’s fur and Luna whispering quiet comforts, and slowly the tension that neither of them had even realized hung in the air faded away. Along with it went Luna’s anger and pain at Twilight’s recent words and deeds, replaced instead with an increasingly prominent feeling of pity, as well of some guilt at indirectly causing the whole affair and a brief sparkle of kinship at the similarity between them.

Finally, Twilight could cry no more, and as the tears stopped, she pulled away, Luna opening her wings to allow her to back off and look each other in the eye. “Luna,” she barely managed to rasp out, her voice still quiet and scratchy. Swallowing, she tried again, “Luna, I’m so sorry. I’m so, so sorry, about... about everything.”

“Do not be,” Luna responded, her voice still whisper quiet and soothing. “We do not believe thy harsh words the eve before last nor the attack on thy brother to truly be any fault of thine. Tell us, what exactly happened?”

Twilight looked away, not able to meet Luna’s gaze and for several moments was silent, working up the courage to talk about it. When she did finally speak her words came at a rush, spilling out of her like she couldn’t hold them in anymore, “I... I don’t really know. I was just sleeping and having these weird dreams like usual and then I woke up and I was really comfortable but I opened my eyes and he was just lying there and I screamed and the guards came in and attacked me and they took him away and locked me in and I couldn’t get to him and I just-”

Luna silenced her rambling by laying a hoof on her shoulder, causing Twilight to fall silent mid-sentence. Twilight blinked several times, choking back the rush of words, and looked into the princess’s eyes, taking a deep and calming breath. Letting it out, she quietly and timidly asked, “Princess, what’s happening to me?”

Then it was Luna’s turned to give a deep sigh and turn her gaze. “We... cannot be certain, but We do have a theory,” she said hesitantly, choosing each word with care. “But thou wert only recently Turned. It was no doubt a most traumatic affair, and thou hast spent much time since then in deep slumber. It would be hardly surprising then, if thou were to experience the changes that Afflict thee over the course of time, rather than all within an instant as conventional wisdom - or conventional fiction as such cases similar to this may oft be - would dictate. ‘Tis Our belief that the beast within thee yet still continues to grow and awaken. And when the rush of fel magics coming from our ancient home within the Everfree reached here, we believe they called to the beast, causing it to stir, and you to lash out at thy sibling.”

Twilight listened attentively to Luna’s explanation, though her ears perked up at the last sentence. “Fel magic?” she inquired with a frown, seeking clarification.

Luna nodded, a frown coming to her face as well as she thought of it. “Aye. ‘Twas a dark and evil thing. Old and unnatural, full of hate and triumph and other unknowable things.”

Twilight gulped and nodded. “Do you... do you think it might have come from the portal?” she asked quietly, looking away and wincing, as if she were afraid of the answer.

Luna looked at her, her expression going neutral as she regarded her for a silent moment. “It would not surprise Us if it had,” she answered slowly, carefully watching Twilight as if to measure her response.

Twilight only seemed to droop further at the confirmation, like Luna’s words were physical weights upon her shoulders. “So this is my fault too,” she said softly, almost more to herself than to anyone else.

Luna frowned, expression stern and placing a hoof beneath Twilight’s chin to lift her head and force her to meet her gaze, said, “Thou mustn’t blame thyself for every travesty or ill fate that occurs around thee, it is not upon thy shoulders alone that responsibility for all of Equestria’s woes does fall.”

Twilight just shrugged of her hoof, turning away and almost seemed to close in on herself. “It is my fault. I was the only one who could have done something about it and I failed. Everything that’s happening is because I wasn’t good enough to stop it,” she responded, her tone stubborn and self-deprecating.

“Be silent,” Luna retorted, a hint of heat entering her tone as she moved over to sit beside Twilight and wrap a wing around her to pull her in close. “Thou art but one pony alone. None could shoulder the burden thou speakest of on their lonesome, not even mine sister or myself, despite the inordanitate faith the ponies of Equestria place in the crown. Thou hast proven thyself a magus and scholar most talented time and again, were it that thy efforts were not enough to forestall tragedy than it is not inconceivable that such was never fated to be prevented at all.” Luna was kind enough to pay no mind to the soft tremor that shook the little pony in her embrace.

It was silent for several minutes longer before Twilight spoke up again. “I’m scared Luna. I don’t understand what’s going on. I’m hurting the ponies close to me even when I don’t want to. In a single night my entire life has turned upside down and I don’t know what to do now or what’s happening to me.” Her shaking got worse until she was trembling as if she were sitting naked in the deepest snow drifts of winter and with a pained and horrified rasp she whispered, “I almost killed my own brother.”

Luna pulled her in tighter, wrapping her up in both forelegs and wings in a deep embrace, stroking her mane softly as if she were a frightened filly in the midst of a nightmare. A fiction not far from truth. “Hush now, Twilight Sparkle. Do not think thyself alone in thy pain. Thou art not the only one to harm thy beloved elder sibling when ensorcelled in the depths of thy inner darkness. ‘Tis no reason or excuse to lose thyself within doubt or despair. Thou are not alone.”

For a moment Twilight just sat there, before slowly leaning into Luna and raising her forelegs to return the hug. The room was filled with a soft and comforting quiet for several minutes longer before Twilight softly asked, “How do you do it?”

Luna huffed a soft breath, deciding how best to answer. When she did, she spoke slowly, as if trying to piece together her answer or struggling to find the words, but as she went on she spoke more and more confidently, become more and more sure of what she was saying. “It gets easier, day after day. Every day We learn more about Ourselves and hope to cope with the guilt of Our mistakes. Were We went wrong, and how we can learn from it. We have ponies to lead us through the dark times, and – most importantly of all – We never allow Ourselves to doubt that Our sister will always love us, no matter what.”

Twilight nodded her head a bit where it was buried in Luna’s chest to show she understood, before pulling away and wiping her eyes. “Thank you, Luna. I guess you’re right.” Twilight’s tone was sincere, but if anything her expression only continued to fall further, like situation still weighing heavily on her. Slowly she started to pace the room, becoming restless. “Still, I can’t go on like this. Constantly afraid of myself, terrified of when I might lose control again and unsure if next time some innocent bystander might not be going to the infirmary but instead to the morgue. Locked away like a beast in a cage in some dark and hidden corner of the castle by ponies just as frightened of me as I am. Cut off from everypony while Celestia only knows what happens all over Equestria because I didn’t stop that thrice-blasted ritual. Not knowing anything, kept in the dark, not sure when or if I might snap and go feral or what’s going to happen to me next.”

Luna just watched as the increasingly agitated pony tried to wear a groove in the floor, venting her mounting frustrations before the only pony that was there to listen. Quietly, Luna agreed with what she had to say. The current circumstances were no real solution, and were not exactly conducive towards finding any real answers or managing to situation and moving forward. “Perhaps…” Luna wondered aloud, stopping when she felt Twilight’s attention turn to her. Gathering her thoughts, she nodded to herself and said, “Perhaps, We might have a suggestion to make. A solution is not yet evident, due most in part to the fact that we simply know too little about either thyself or the situation at large. Moreover, it is as thou espouse, ‘twould indeed be ill thought out to keep thee locked away. A proposal then that We make; send thee away to find the answers we seek.”

“What do you mean, Princess?” Twilight asked, a look of confusion on her face.

“’Tis nothing complex. We simply meant to send thee to investigate the crux of the issue. All problems we face stem from the same source – the foul cultists’ ritual. To Our knowledge the site has remained untouched since the unfortunate incident. Due to thine own studies into the cultists’ machination at Our own behest thou art something of a leading expert in their means and motives. Would that anypony be able to find the answers we need, it would be thou and it would be there. Moreover, thou hast something of a vested interest We would assume. Thou hast forged a connection to that place several times over, and though it is but a guess on Our part, We believe it would be the best place to find answers and guidance regarding they own affliction as well.”

Twilight was silent for several moments as Luna explained, taking in all in and all but glaring at her hooves as the gears turned in her mind. Finally, she looked up, the fires of determination alit behind her eyes. “You’re right, Princess. If there’s one thing I’m good at it’s research, and there certainly nothing to be learned by sitting around here.” She turned towards the door, each step swift and purposeful. “Come on, there isn’t a moment to lose!”

She stopped when Luna put a hoof on her shoulder and pulled her short. “’Tis good to see thee in greater spirits, Twilight, but a moment if you would. We have things We must prepare, and shall me thee there later with Our own captain of the Lunar Guard. We shall send thee ahead at the stroke of midnight upon Our own personal chariot with an escort of guardsponies.” For a moment Luna bit her lip and glanced aside, as if nervous or unsure what to say next. “Whilst thou await thy departure, perhaps it would be best to see to thine own preparations,” she said, gesturing towards the room’s single mirror atop its vanity.

Twilight, suddenly nervous, approached the mirror slowly, afraid of what she might see. For the most part it was normal, albeit unkempt as she had expected. Mane a rampant mess of knots and tangles, falling every which way in a discordant mess. Fur dull and matted, flattened and crusty in some places and sticking up in others. Her horn dark and grimy, and in dire need of a good filing. Her eyes though…

They were puffy, and bloodshot, of course. After as much crying as she had done there was no way they wouldn’t be. But that wasn’t really what she noticed. Her eyes weren’t just red, they were red, almost shining a bright and vivid crimson that almost seemed to glow mesmerizingly in the dark. And even were her pupils, thin and razor sharp, seeming like they could cut through to one’s very soul and sending a shiver up even her own spine. But perhaps worst of all…

Her eyes weren’t changing back.

Interlude - Things That go Bump in the Night

The shadows writhed, twisting and squirming like something alive, their unnatural motions evocative of rot, death, decay and all the hideous things that fed on such. They curled and clawed around all they could reach, yet mindless as they were not a one dared to alit upon Its form as It strode the Shaded Path, Its very presence driving the darkness into a frenzy as if pained. A nonexistent screech reverberated through the Immaterial with Its every step, the Dark Otherside forced into intangible substance by Its unknowable will. Its presence was as unnatural here as it was on the face of Equestria, yet It payed about the same amount heed to both; that is to say, none at all. Walking, It spent a literal timeless moment traversing Its path, and arrived at the same instant the It left.

With a single immense stride, It stepped from the Unseen into the Real, the world itself parting around it like a gossamer curtain of unknowable things. It towered above the Realspawn youngling before It. Its own shadow began to stretch out before It, swallowing up the narrow pocket of Realspace It currently occupied along with the meat creature. The tiny thing began to tremble with terror as Its shadow devoured the light of the stars, sealing everything in impenetrable blackness, and slowly it turned to face It. The moment the little Brightling’s fear reached a crescendo and it beheld Its faceless form the tiny thing ceased to Exist and became an Unbirthed, allowing It to pull its animus into Its Shadow to create another Dreaming One.

It felt neither satisfaction nor frustration, as those were Mortal concepts. Its only reaction was an unuttered whisper that echoed across Nothing.

‘…moRe…’

Not enough. It need more. The Call had gone out already, and The Others would answer.

It must be prepared.

*~-/^-~*

Burning. Raging. Spreading. Devouring. It was a simple beast, and it only knew two things: Spread, and Consume. So it did. Always. Everywhere.

It was a cold, dark, and empty place this strange world was. Everything was static, unchanging. Moment after moment after moment, things were constantly the same as they were a bare instant ago. It was odd. Unnatural. Such permanency felt sicking.

So spread. And consume.

A touch here. A flicker there. Soon, things stopped being static. They changed. Broke down. Burned away.

As it should be.

Spread. Consume.

Flickering, shifting, changeing. The Blaze was growing, turning into a full inferno. Always spreading. Always consuming.

Eventually, The Enemy began to fall from the sky. Drip drip drop. The Blaze began to gutter, and dwindle. But that was alright.

It had spread. It had consumed. The Call had been right, and it was good. The Blaze had done what it was meant to do. Whatever came next, was up to its Embers.

*~-/^-~*

This was not a good day. First there had been the torrential rains making everything miserable, then there was the weirdness at the way station where he met Red Fields, and now the whole town seemed to be overrun with those things.

“Hold on!” he shouted over the winds to Red Fields where she sat in the tiny chariot he was pulling, “Things are about to get bumpy!” With that he dove, narrowly dodging the various decrepit other things that used to be pegasai swarming the sky that tumbled gracelessly after him through the air. The way they lurched through the air was stiff and unnatural, and seemed to be the flight equivalent to the shambling gait of the others on the ground.

Suddenly there was a flash of light, and the chariot was ripped away from him by a burst of raw formless magic launched by one of the more intact rotting former unicorns on the ground. His passenger screamed as she fell, and with a curse he hit the quick-release button on his harness and dove after her.

It was going be close. He had already been flying low to try and avoid the rotting pegasai and that bolt had come out of nowhere. Luckily, he did manage to catch her just in time, just scant inches from the burning roof below them. Without any room to pull up countless hours of drills and training kicked in, and almost on instinct he pulled Red Fields tight against his barrel and turned over in the air to allow the standard issue armor on his back take the brunt of the fall.

With a great crash, they smashed straight through the roof and onto the floor below, the impact jarring them loose from each other and tossing them to opposite corners of the room from each other. With a great crack, the burning thatches and timbers caved in after them, dividing the room in half and separating them. “Leo!” Red Fields called out from where she landed, winded and not much else thanks to his efforts. “Are you alright!?”

Leo stood and tried to call back that he was fine, only to be stopped short by a lance of agony on his side. Looking over, he saw his wing hanging limply and refusing to respond to his commands. “Shit”, he muttered to himself, before more loudly calling back, “My wing is broken!”

“What do we do now!?” she yelled over the roaring of the fire, the beginings of panic evident in her voice.

“I managed to get a good look at the town while we were flying over!” he responded. “If you go out the door behind you and head north you should be able to reach the guard station, it looked clear!” The groans of the rotting former ponies outside were getting loud enough to be heard over the roaring flames, reminding him of his perilous situation. Looking around, he found a busted out window he could crawl through. “I’ll met you there!” Quickly, he squeezed through the point of egress, and she left as well, both of them eager to avoid whatever fate might await them if they stayed.

Dammit, it wasn’t supposed to be like this! What the hell had happened anyways? At this point he was starting to regret ever joining the guards at all. Seriously, it was literally his first day, and already he was deep in the shit!

Whoever thought something like this could happened to Trash Panda Town?

*~-/^-~*

It swam the technicolor currents in witch it lived, its own elation and joy almost a contrast to the flows of thought and emotion it rode. It had found a perfect hunting grounds in this section of the Realm of Thoughts that overlapped with the mortal creatures’ large settlement. Wistfully, it savored the currents of emotion on which it soared. Frustration. Stress. Rage. Joy. So many powerful emanations, and all ripe for the taking.

Spotting the Thoughtform Avatar corresponding to one of the mortal creatures in the real world, it swooped down and latched on. Feeling gingerly around the back of the head for the sweet spot, it found it, and with a single strong thrust stabbed its sharp proboscis inside. Slowly, it began to sip, savoring its meal.

First were the emotions. Apathy was most prevalent, followed by a dim and aimless frustration. Anger at tiny injustices. Avarice and ambition towards minor vices and pleasures. Joy in their consumption. Sadness at their absence. A brief flare of confusion and fear as it felt its emotions being ripped away and consumed, before even that was gone too.

The thoughts were next. What the…? the mortal wondered. What’s going on? Is something there? I don’t understand. stop. pleas. cannit… i… It continued to suckle and feed. It always loved this moment best, feeling the thoughts writhe and squirm and die, even as it sucked them down.

Then were the memories, each like a gleaming crystal pebble that added a nice sort of crunch to its meal. Memories of sunlight. Of joy, of love, of family. Of triumph and terrors. All the little building blocks that constructed the mortal as it was, each being drawn away and the Thoughtform Avatar beginning to collapse like a pile of wet sand.

Lastly was the Lifeforce. It drained quickly, in moments that seemed to stretch forever. The last remains of the Thoughtform Avatar collapsed into glimmering and glowing green motes like dust or sand, spiraling upwards and being sucked in voraciously.

If it were capable of doing so, it would have let out a content sigh of satisfaction at yet another fulfilling meal. Truly, answering the Call was the best thing it ever did.

*~-/^-~*

The shadows never seemed to sit still. They twisted and churned at the edges of his vision, never leaving him alone. Constantly laughing at him, weeping for him, berating him, screaming at him, taunting him, encouraging him in their ceaseless, silent, voiceless chorus. Every time he turned his head they seemed to shift with him. Guiding him. Stalking him. Invisible eyes around every corner, staring at him. Accusing. Judging.

Some small part of him knew he was utterly mad. Another didn’t care. The rest screamed and gibbered and raged and trembled and clawed at corners of the confines of his mind.

The moon was big tonight. The eyes were staring from the insides. Frightful. Inspiring.

His hooves carried him through the dark Fillydelphia alleyways seemingly on their own. It was like his body wasn’t his own anymore.

Ah. That’s right. It wasn’t.

He was just a vessel now. He wasn’t real anymore. Nothing was.

He stopped before a wall. Blank and white and empty. Slowly, his hooves lifted as the silent and unspoken voices commanded. Thick, cloying blood began to weep from the rents and cracks where the flesh had worn away, exposing the meat and bone. Slowly, almost reverently, he started the first line.

Crack crack, chip chip, splinter splash.

Tirelessly, he set about his work. Carving out the sharp lines and twisting angles from the unyielding stone with nothing but the worn away and mangled hooves at the ends of his legs. The blood never stopped. Neither did he. Not when his bones splintered. Not when the remains of his hoof sheared off and fell away. Not even when his eyes grew dark and he could feel his flesh and slough away. None of it matted. The only thing that did, was finishing his work.

Slowly, after what must have been hours, it gradually came to fruition. It was a sharp, harsh and twisting thing, caked in blood and viscera. It almost seemed to twist and writhe as if alive, coiling and spinning and weaving in more dimensions than could been seen. It was a gut churning display, and if he’d still had eyes to see it, he might have become violently ill.

The last bits of his mind began to fade away, drawn out like guttering embers in umbral streams that were drank greedily by the abominable sigil before him. His body rotted away, and his soul grew dark.

The voices had finally stopped.

He wished he’d never heard that Call.

*~-/^-~*

All across the world, the Call was heard and answered, over and over and over again. Twisted things of darkest nightmares shifted and stirred, called to action by the greatest among them.

Things that dwelt beyond mortal reach. Beyond thought. Beyond time. Beyond comprehension.

They twisted. They yearned. The time was coming. The time was here. The time had passed.

Yes. Heed the Call. Awaken. Spread and grow and change and consume and demand and dominate.

They will fight. They will strive. The mortals will gather their champions and rail against the coming dark. They will not fade quietly into the gentle night. They will burn and rage against the dying light.

They will fail.

The mortals thought themselves safe. They thought they had nothing to fear. They thought the world was theirs.

They were wrong.

‘ThiS WoRld IS oUrs’

Author's Note

(Apologies for the brevity of this chapter, I had to write, edit and publish it all just this morning. Happy Halloween.)

Hey there. Been a while. I know I made a promise to be more active, and I wasn't really able to keep it. I'm sorry. Some of you have been worried about me (which I do appreciate) and in all honesty, you weren't wrong to do so. 2020 has been shit. I know that. You know that. We all know that. Some of us got hit a little harder then others. I was one of them.

No details, because this is the internet. Earlier this year, well, I suppose the easiest way to put would just be to say that I fell on hard times. I lost quite a lot. Up to and including nearly all of my electronics. Most damningly, my computer and hard drives, and along with it every file and bit of data I'd accrued over the last 15 years or so. And I do mean all of it. Movies, music, TV shows, books, old photos, games, everything. Even all the notes and chapters for every story I had, published or unpublished (and there were a lot.) Including this one.

After that for several months I bounced around all over the place, trying to keep a roof over my head. Things have settled down a bit for now, but nobody really knows what tomorrow will bring and these are tumultuous times to say the least.

Needless to say, all of this well and truly killed any sort of means or motivation I had to continue here. I didn't really want to, but I just couldn't bring myself to care. Lately though, I've been wondering if maybe I should anyways. It's a dark time, but to be honest, this might be just what I need. Looking back, my time on this site, in this community, in the hayday of this fandom were probably the happiest days of my life. Maybe it's time to try and recapture a little bit of that magic again. I could really use it.

Once again, I'll try and be more active here, but I can't make any real promises. Things are hectic, life is scary and I don't know what tomorrow holds. Hopefully things will get better, and I might find the part of me I left behind here, and remember why friendship really is magic.

TL;DR: 2020 is shit, I got hit, lets hope it gets better

Interlude - Prophecies Predicted

Hushed voices and fervent whispers abounded as ponies quietly murmured and conferred with their neighbors at the great stone table at which they were all seated, the council chamber’s curved stone walls amplifying the voices to an unintelligible babble that filled the room. Blue flames of a magical nature burned ceaselessly in the many braziers inset along the curving walls, casting the whole assemblage in an ominous glow and tint as the fire danced and flickered agitatedly, as if sharing the gathered ponies’ excitement. Rumors and hearsay had been abundant as of late, some of it elating, some of it horrifying, but all of it incredible in its own way, and now, in the dead of the night a Congress of the High Council had been called, and they all knew that at least some of the whispers they had heard from the mouths of their brothers had to be true: something had happened, and whatever it was, it was big. All that remained to be seen was just which rumors about what that big something were true.

Slowly, the lights began to fade away, darkening the room, and the murmur of voices began to fade with it once the many ponies in attendance noticed. The enormous insignia wrought in fine gold and silver upon the grand meeting table, a depiction of sun blocked out by a pyramid capped by a large eye, began to emit its own faint magical glow in the fading light. At the head of the table was a strange absence of light, a void of darkness that seemed to carry an almost physical presence, as intangible as a shadow and solid as a mountain, and filling anyone who made the mistake of looking upon it for too long with a strange sense of awe and dread. Slowly, the dark blot on space began to contract, collapsing in on itself, gaining definition and shape, and fading around the edges. After a brief moment the process was complete, and at the head of the High Council now sat a pony, larger than average stallion and complete enshrouded in a cloak and hood darker than the void between stars, almost giving him the appearance of a living three dimensional silhouette.

The mage flames in their braziers regained their brightness and the glowing of the grand table’s insignia faded as the pony appeared, and each of the ponies already seated rose to their hooves and fell respectfully silent. The pony gazed around the table, taking the sight of them all in, the action only visible because of the movement of his hood. With a nod, he acknowledged them, and they were all seated once again. The pony to the immediate right of the head of the table stood again, and threw back his hood, revealing a well-aged but still handsome muzzle, with a chiseled jaw line and short-cropped silver mane contrasting against a powder blue coat and horn, and spoke, “Now calling to order this Congress of the High Council of the Will of the Eclipse.”

Another pony further down the table stood and threw back his own hood, revealing yet another well-aged yet handsome face, with a deep maroon colored coat and a short, militantly styled manecut of faded chestnut-brown. “My Lord Umbrean, I do not see the Lord Magus, nor the Lady Celeste. Have they refused the summons? Even High Lord Regisolius is present; have they abandoned their duties? Shall I find them and—“ The first pony began to ask, his brazen voice filling the otherwise still and quiet chamber before being silenced by an upraised hoof from the Umbrean.

“They have been excused from this Congress due to most pressing matters and several assignments given to them by the High Lord himself. They will be informed of the results of this Congress at a later date, and I shall speak in their stead this night,” The Umbrean announced, trying to placating the Archon. The Archon merely nodded, sinking further back into his chair as he was satisfied with the answer.

Seeing the Archon was satisfied, the Umbrean spoke, “If there are no other objections to be voiced then we shall continue with the Congress.” Looking around he saw that everypony was sitting complacently, waiting for everything to start. Taking note, he continued, “Very well, we shall proceed. We shall begin with Lord Artificer. Tell us, how comes the project we all discussed during the last scheduled Congress?”

Another pony at the far end of the table stood up and threw back his own hood, revealing the youngest pony of the group, looking barely out of the university. His coat was a pale tan and his face and physique might have been less than impressive but the inquisitive lights in his eyes were challenging and belied a deep, fierce, almost predatory intelligence that nearly seemed to gleam from beneath his unkempt mop of shaggy black mane and spiraling horn. “It goes well, sir. The new assistants you’ve assigned to me are considerably more competent than the old ones. We’ve almost completely finished work in the theoretical stage. All that’s left to do now is solve the problem of crippling Thaumatic storage back-lash and we can begin with real-world testing and construction. If my calculations are correct – and they always are – then the Construct should be completed and fully functional within a month’s time,” he announced, a confident smile splitting his face, a vaguely manic gleam in his eyes.

Nervous and excited muttering filled the room at the finally words of the Artificer’s proclamation. Such skill was virtually unheard of. Everypony sitting at the table had fully expected the project the young pony had been assigned the better part of a year to complete, but to it from the horse’s mouth that it would be finished within the month? It was practically inconceivable. Many of the more senior members of the High Council turned to the pony they largely considered a young upstart in their midst with looks of surprise and more than one bore a grimace of begrudging awe and respect for the talented pony. The noise and murmuring continued on for several moments before the Umbrean brought the room to silence with a few gavel-like bangs of his hoof upon the table.

Once everyone had settled down again, he cleared his throat and spoke, “Thank you, Lord Artificer, we are all quite pleased to hear this. Please, see to it that the plan proceeds according to schedule. It is imperative that it is finished as soon as possible.” The Artificer just held his hoof to his chest and bowed his head in salute, before taking his seat again. “Good. Now, moving on: Lady Illuminate, what can you tell us about the latest group of initiates?” the Umbrean asked, turning towards one of the three mares seated around the large table.

The Lady Illuminate stood and threw back her own hood, revealing a creamy golden coat and windswept mane the blue of a summer’s sky. “Unfortunately, I don’t have anything exceedingly pleasant to report. Not much has improved since the last Congress. The influx of newbloods this cycle is horribly small, and the ones that we do have are being rather reluctant to embrace our philosophies. I’ve had multiple incidents of instigation thus far and more than once I’ve been forced to resort forceful re-integration and honestly it’s becoming more and more difficult just to avert existential panic among the more feeble minded of the newbloods let alone orientate the entire group.” Lady Illuminate looked aside briefly and gave a sad and weary sigh before continuing. “I’m scared, to be honest. Every day it looks more and more like the old ways just aren’t enough anymore. I’m still holding out hope that when Lord Vicar returns from the Griffin Aeries with news from our foreign contacts that the news will be good, but I’m not expecting much. Maybe when our plan comes to fruition things will start to look up, but that doesn’t solve our immediate problems. I’m afraid that soon, we may need to step a little further out of the shadows and work harder at spreading the word or else we might just end up with no more newbloods at all.”

Again the entire room was filled with quiet murmuring as they took in the news, though for entirely different reasons this time. Recalcitrant newbloods were nothing new, but what they had been experiencing lately was something else altogether. The amount of ponies they’d been able to find and covert to their beliefs was the lowest it had ever been since organization was founded. But what The Illuminate was suggesting? Surely there was no way the situation was that bad. To step out of the shadows now, when their plans were finally beginning to bear fruit? Such talk was madness. The old ways had served them well for many years, there was no reason to so carelessly abandon them now. But then again, if the current trend continued they may not exactly have a choice.

The room once again returned to silence with a few stomps of The Umbrean’s hoof upon the stone table. “This is distressing news indeed Lady Illuminate. However, I believe if anypony can make the best of the situation it is you. I do not believe remain a problem for much longer, for once our immediate plans come to fruition we should have ponies joining us in droves.” His words caused a brief ripple of excitement to across everypony present, their interest piqued by his words. The Umbrean ignored their perked ears and piercing stares and continued speaking, “Now for what is next on the agenda: Lord Archon, what can you tell us about the state of our militant affairs?”

The maroon coated Archon stood once again, this time with a crisp salute towards The Umbrean and the shadowed pony at the head of the table, and began to address the gathered ponies. “As per your request I have completely reviewed our entire fighting force. As always, the strength of their backs is matched only by the strength of their faith. Their resolve is unshakeable, their wills unbowed. They shall be ready for what is to come.” His voice carried well in the stone room, the pride unmistakable in his brazen tones. “I have also heard back from our search teams. We are closing in, slowly but surely. Our query is elusive, as they must be, but they have become sloppy as of late. It is only a matter of time before we catch them.”

They reaction to this was much more subdued than previous, The Archon’s fervent and zealous attitude and pride in his soldiers having long since come to be expected. However, his announcement of the search parties’ progress was well received indeed, a small smirk grin spreading across more than one face present. After a moment, The Umbrean once again called everyone’s attention, this time with a soft clearing of his throat rather than a stamping of his hoof. “Very good, Lord Archon, I expected nothing less from you and your troops. Stay vigilant, for I fear their mettle shall be tested soon. Now, for the next item to address: Lady Archive, how goes your search?”

The Lady Archive stood and lowered her hood, showing a petite muzzle upon which perched a small pair of spectacles and emerald green coat, its luster lost over the years yet still well kempt and attractive, along with a length of flowing faded brown mane interspersed with shocks of pure white, her bangs parted in two by a spiraled horn. Softly clearing her throat, she spoke to those present, “Unfortunately, my lord Umbrean, information about almost anything at all from so far into the past is almost impossible to locate, even from the old legends. Even with the recent acquisition of the Griffonian documents, information remains scarce, nearly to the point of non-existence. Even then what little I have managed to find is of little relevance, detailing false myths, and old stories. The further I dig, the more I realize just how effective the Sun Tyrant was at censoring our history. I fear that it may simply be lost to us, forgotten to history, lost amidst the chaos of discord and stamped out beneath the iron hoof of the Sun Tyrant through the ages. As far as I can discover, all that remains is what she herself recalls and what is already known to us.”

Snorts of derision and unpleasant grimaces met the Lady Archives words as she finished speaking. Although everypony present had long since come to terms with the many grave sins of the Keeper of the Solar Throne, every time they received new information about just how far her transgressions went they couldn’t help but feel disgusted and enraged, and their hate for her grow just that much more. This latest discovery just steadied their resolve even further, adding fuel to the fire that burned deep in their hearts and drove them to do all they could to topple the Celestial Scourge from her stolen throne.

The Lord Umbrean once more called attention to himself, using a gentle few words, “As disappointing as it is, I suppose it is hardly surprising. We have all known for a long time now that Celestia is willing to go to almost any length to stifle the truth. It is little wonder that all records of the true past have been destroyed.” For a moment, the Lord Umbrean was silent, his face pensive as he was lost in thought before speaking up again, “Still, no matter. We know enough to undo all that she has wrought, and that will have to be enough, as limited as our knowledge is. That said, it is time to move on. Lady Oculus, what news do you have for us?”

The Lady Oculus stood and drew back her own hood, revealing a face hardly any older then the Lord Artificer. Her coat was a dark and shadowy gray, and her wild and unkempt mane a pale violet interspersed with dark streaks of ebony, all of it coming together to make her seem like she could simply fade away if she stood still too long in a dark room. “It seems the world’s been a bit busy the last couple of days. Normally, I could go an entire month or two without hearing a word of note from anypony, but the last couple of days I’ve got reports coming in from all over the place. Strange reports. Mysterious markings carved into buildings in Fillydelphia, inexplicable fires in Hoofington, children disappearing in Ponyville, ponies just dropping dead on the streets in Manehatten. I’ve even lost communication with my Everfree contact. And that’s not even the biggest news of all. What I’ve heard from my ponies stationed in Canterlot vexes me to no end. Terrified screams heard echoing throughout the castle in the dead of the night. Guards suddenly changing their patrol routes and standing guard outside supposedly empty rooms. Celestia secretly meeting in private with a mysterious stallion. A new high priority guest that the captain of the guard himself seems to have taken a personal interest in guarding that none of my ponies have managed to discover anything about yet. Celestia behaving erratically. And Princess Luna been nowhere to be seen for over twenty-four hours,” the Lady Oculus said, exasperatedly and tiredly running her hooves through her mane, wearily scanning the room as the dark circles under her eyes became all the more apparent. After a moment she let out a deep sigh and said, “Something’s happening, something big. I have no idea what it is, but it’s bad enough to have the Sun Tyrant herself all but running scared.”

Once again everything was almost utterly silent, everyone stunned into silence by the news and more than one jaw hanging loosely hinged, before the entire chamber erupted into noise as everyone attempted to talk over one another, enraged outcries and demands for explanations filling the air. Understandably unused to being the sole focus of so much direct attention, the Lady Oculus began wilt a little under the verbal barrage. This continued for several moments until a single noise, like a peal of thunder, resounded through the room, loud enough to cut through the many voices and make everypony lay their ears against their skull. Everyone turned towards the source of the noise at the far end of the table.

The dark red hoof, its color faded with age, lifted from the table’s stone surface and reached up to pull back the hood of the final pony seated at the conference, revealing a face that seemed just as ancient as wise and venerated. His mane had long since faded to a silvery white, and from the bottom of his muzzle hung a similarly colored beard. When the stallion was sure he had everyone’s attention he spoke, his voice soft but firm, weighted with age and experience. “That is enough! You are all squabbling like foals, and in front of the High Lord Regisolius himself no less!” He said, gesturing towards the shadowy figure at the head of the table as he admonished his peers. “There are more important things we could be doing with our time than simply braying and screaming at shadows. It’s no use plying Lady Oculus so forcefully for answers, if she had them she would have given them. That aside, this news, as disturbing as it is, is not our only, or even our primary concern. We must think of our goals before all else,” he explained, looking around with a stern gaze. Seeing he had gotten his point across, he gave a sharp nod and sat back, satisfied.

Seeing that the older stallion was finished speaking, the Lord Umbrean gave an appreciative nod towards him and spoke, “Thank you, Lord Sage, that was well said indeed. Your counsel is highly appreciated as always. And Lady Oculus, your report is much appreciated as well. As strange as it is, it is not entirely unexpected, and is in fact very well-met, very well-met indeed.”

The room was once again thrown into stunned silence, though instead of simply bursting into a fit they simply waited for an explanation, many of them wearing confused frowns. Content that everyone was keeping their heads, the Lord Umbrean went on, “With that said, it is time to move onto the primary purpose of this Congress. As you have all noticed, in addition to the Lord Vicar, who is currently away on assignment in the Gryphon Aeries, neither the Lord Magus nor the Lady Celeste are present tonight. The reason for this, as I mentioned earlier, is because they have both been given new assignments by the High Lord Regisolius himself. What I did not mention however, was that these assignments came in the wake of a very recent success of great magnitude on their part. In their studies they managed to uncover some rather useful information, information detailing a ritual devised long before anypony can recall, before even the Sun Tyrant came to power. It wasn’t until after it was deciphered that it was realized just how important this information was.”

The Lord Umbrean paused for a brief moment, looking around the stone table at the ponies gathered there. Each and every one of them was gazing at him intently, hanging on his every word. He smirked slightly and continued, “As you all know, over the years we have done many things in pursuit of our goals, including experimenting with ponies and monsters and spirits and even looking towards realms and worlds beyond our own. For the most part it was all terrible failures. However… it seems we were looking in the wrong places. As of a few nights ago a small group of carefully selected disciples was sent into the heart of the Everfree Forest, into the Ancient Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters to complete the ritual. They succeeded. A portal was opened, but not to any place that we know, rather to a place we didn’t know. A portal was opened… to the Beyond. To The End. The Blind Eternities. Purgatory. The All-Realm.” By now the Lord Umbrean’s smirk had grown into a full blown maniac grin, and only grew wider as he continued. “We have managed created a portal to the space between spaces, or as it is best known… The Land of the Dead.”

There were immediately several sharp intakes of breath at his announcement. Once again everyone was silent, though this time it was due most in part to the simple fact that nopony quite knew how to react to such a claim. The Land of the Dead? How was such a thing even possible? What could this mean? Had they finally found what they were looking for?

The Lord Umbrean chose to ignore the perplexed expressions those around him wore and simply said, “Take heart, for this is a great accomplishment! We have learned much from this endeavor, and soon our goal shall be within our grasp. The heavens shall fall!”

“The heavens shall fall!” The phrase was repeated back at him from everypony else gathered.

The Lord Umbrean smiled at their enthusiasm. “Very good. And with that, this Congress of the High Council of the Will of the Eclipse is adj--“ He began, before he was interrupted by a subtle movement at the head of the stone table.

Slowly, the High Lord Regisolius was rising to his hooves, his movements utterly silent. Suddenly, the entire chamber was utterly quiet yet again, totally and absolutely so. Nopony dared to so much as even breathe loudly and even the mage flames in their braziers seemed to burn noiselessly as everyone came to a single, startling, awe-inspiring conclusion.

He was going to speak.

The Dark Lord, The Light’s Shadow, The King of the Hidden Throne himself was going to speak.

And he did.

“Listen.”

The single word rang out like a clarion bell, resounding in the silence, and carrying with it an unfathomable sense of weight, of presence, of power. There was an unbelievable depth to his voice, like there was more to it than simple noise or words, as if it were simply the mouthpiece to something greater, something far greater, something beyond them all. With a single word he floored them all, quite literally as their legs gave out beneath them and they fell roughly into their seats. In his voice they all heard something different, something more, and it made them each recall both their most treasured memories and most horrid nightmares at once. It sent chills up their spines, and caused ice to settle in their chests. Yet it was more than that. For just as much as it was cold, and intimidating, it was also warm, and comforting. It caressed their ears, and sent pleasant tremors up their spines in equal amount to the chills. The normally commanding Lord Archon and Lord Sage felt themselves subconsciously deferring to him and even the straight-laced Lady Archive felt her heart flutter and knees shake as his voice titillated her ear like a lover’s caress. While the High Lord Regisolius’s voice was many things, everyone agreed that it was one thing above all: something to be heard, and obeyed. So they did.

“Far beyond the light of the Moon and Sun,

Shall he be freed, and at last made as one,

Ascend beyond the mortal coil,

As skies burn, and seas boil,

Lord and Master of this earth,

Given praise, and glorious rebirth,

By ancient lost rites, and master plans,

The time of reckoning is soon to be at hand,

Ancient secrets and dreaded lies,

All laid bare as ages passed by,

Dark and whispered temptations,

Shall seed hidden machinations,

By fabled rites,

And tragic strife,

Shall they unseen before,

Wander the world evermore,

The greatest strike, at the very seat of power,

Shall be cast by the martyr in the eleventh hour,

By the eclipse’s will once again,

Shall the world know naught but pain,

And the herd’s will to fight,

Burn’s through the dark night,

But be warned, for all is doomed to fail,

Should the Blooded One find hope, and prevail.”

The chamber remained silent as the heavy words of prophecy settled upon them like the weight of the world. With a simple wave of his hoof, the High Lord Regisolius dismissed them, and the chamber was filled with the rush of magic as blue mage flames engulfed them all and whisked them away, leaving him alone in the grand meeting chamber.

After a moment, he seated himself, and leaned back into his chair. Softly, he spoke the prophecy’s last words to none but himself.

“By fates that are set in stone,

And what has yet been shown,

In empty night, is suffering grown,

Horror reaped, and misery sown,

Places lost and forgotten, wild worlds unknown,

All come together, beneath the shadow of a hidden throne,

Fates intertwined, and pacts sealed in blood and bone,

In the Guarded Night, the requiem’s bells shall tone.”

Ever so slowly, he began to smile… revealing two gleaming white fangs protruding from beneath his lip.

“I can’t wait.”

Author's Note

Wow, look at that. Has it been four months already? I guess so. Oh well, I guess that just means that the wait for the next chapter just starts over now. I really wouldn't want to be you right now.

As for this chapter itself, I'm not going to make any excuses. It's forced as hell, and I realize that. If you want an explanation for my reasoning though, please check out my latest blog post. It's already been several months since my last update and I knew I had to put out something even if it is just an interlude, it served to introduce the Villain of the story and as a great framing device for a plot point I've been wanting to use for a while now though, so I guess I can't complain too terribly much. Be forewarned though, after this chapter, this story is going on a temporary hiatus. For the reasons behind this, again, please refer to the aforementioned blog post.

Before I end this note as I usually do though, I'd like to advertise something here. Recently, at long last, I've begun writing the story I've always wanted to: Crescent Eclipse. It's an adventure story, to be full of long journeys, great mysteries and fun characters, all reminiscent of the sort of stories from the earlier days of this great fandom, such as Growing Pains, CRISIS:Equestria, and Off The Edge of The Map. So if adventures and grand epics are your thing, I'd love to have you along.

And now, for the Review and Recommendation:
This story is yet another example for the age old lesson of "Don't judge a book by its cover". This story hasn't many likes, views, or even favorites, yet somehow it's still managed to eke out above every other of my over eight hundred favorited stories and earn a glowing personal review by me. It's not often I take a chance on an under-rated story, but never once did I regret doing so here. The world building is absolutely amazing. The whole of Equestria and the lands surrounding it have a sense of rich history the likes of which I haven't seen since The Ambassador's Son and King of Diamonds. The character's are real and have depth and feel organic, with honest and flowing interactions that feel natural and dynamic, as well as a true sense of personal development, instead of the haphazard and ham-hand tripe I am so used to seeing nowadays. The villain actually feels dark and hateful, despite the kinder light he is first seen in. The protagonists feel visceral and real, relatable in their everyday struggles, lending them a sense of worldlyness and depth that is seldom seen outside of critically acclaimed, big budget published novels. This is an amazing story, full of key-piece moments, and colorful characters, and I can't wait to see where the series goes from here.
So without further ado, I present: Rise of the Dragon King.