The Devil You Know

The moon slowly clawed its way into the clear night sky, its normally pleasant silver now a bloody iridescent red.

“Hmm, how apt,” Sunset commented, gazing upwards from atop Malice as he lumbered forward. She had never put much credence in the myth of the Nightmare, dismissing it as an old mare’s tale meant to frighten foals into behaving. Looking up into the Mare in the Moon, she still found it hard to believe that this creature could soon be walking amongst them. The thought disgusted her. To think they would have to stoop so low.

A soft wind whipped through her mane, making her shiver in her armour. She was somewhat glad to be out in the field once more, away from the squalor of Canterlot and its deluded peasantry.

The insipid sermons of Cadenza M’Amore of Celestia’s Mercy Chapel were beginning to chip away at her patience. This was not the time for the kind words of naive priests. This was a time for action. The war was not going to be won by singing songs and holding hooves.

“We have arrived,” Malice rumbled, coming to rest atop a small rise. There was a clatter of metal behind them as the column of her knights came to a halt.

Ahead lay the ruins of Ponyville.

The fires had burnt themselves out by now, leaving only blackened frames and scorched earth in their wake. The scent of burnt wood and ash still lingered in the air around them. Sunset was glad that they were attacking by night; seeing the destruction in daylight would have been too much to bear.

“What a dump,” Malice sneered.

“Ponies recently died here—you should show more respect,” she said.

“Dead is dead. The crows care not who you were when they pick your bones,” Malice retorted, shaking his head.

“We are feeling optimistic tonight, aren’t we?” she asked.

“I should have stayed in my gem pile.”

With a gesture of her hoof, the column wordlessly began to form its battleline. A wedge of a thousand armoured knights took shape with her and Malice at its tip. They all waited anxiously for the order to advance.

“Let’s wake our foe up, shall we?” she said with a grim smile. Her horn lit up, enveloping her in a crimson aura and lifting her into the air above Malice’s head.

“Oh blessed mother, daughter of the sun, hear my prayer,” she began, power coursing through her body as arcane circles appeared before her horn. “I, your chosen, call upon your might. Let your cleansing light burn your enemies to dust! Solis Incendium!”

A beam of searing sunlight pierced the gloom of night as it burst forth from her horn, the backblast knocking her backwards with its force. The beam lanced across the buildings, causing the whole outskirts of Ponyville to explode in a maelstrom of dirt and flame. The ground shook and Malice planted himself as a shockwave raced across the land. The roar of the fire was deafening, and a harsh wind swept through her knights’ ranks as the fire drew more air into itself.

A cheer rose from the gathered ranks as she landed back onto her saddle. Hooves stomped and whinnies rippled through the multitude of knights.

“Show off,” Malice muttered as chunks of charred earth began to fall all around them.

“Oh hush,” she smirked, before looking back to her soldiers.

“Come! Let us drive these beasts back to the shadow! For the glory of the Sun Princess!” She drew Lightbringer from its sheath, pointing forward.

“For the Sun Princess! Helios Aeternum!” came the cry of a thousand voices in response.

Malice let out a bellowing roar and lunged forward, ripping wads of earth from the ground with his claws. Behind him, her knights began to move in a slow trot, which quickly sped up into a full blown gallop. The ground shook and a deep rumble thundered across the field under thousands of armoured hoof falls.

She did not need some monster from story books or a peasant runt to win this war. She would win it with her own strength and that of her knights.

By night’s end, she would make sure that her mentor got the message.