The Shadow of the Moon

The Shadow of the Moon

Act 1: Drifting

Chapter 13: The Trap Snaps Shut

I look at the ponies in front of me. Each one had a role to play tomorrow, either in the field, or in the command room.

I begin to speak, “I thank each and every one of you here today. Over the past few months, we have experienced great highs and extreme lows. Tomorrow is the day that we have been working towards all that time. Every late hour spent reading, every sleepless night, everything we have done has led us here. Tomorrow we seek vengeance and stop a killer. Hopefully then after tomorrow, we may never have to meet again to discuss the Seen or the Watcher or any of the things they have done. Now over these last two days since we discovered their location, we have put in a tremendous amount of work and I feel that we are ready. Tomorrow we end this.”

I clear my throat, “As you all know, this is our target,” I point at a picture behind me. “Calls herself ‘the Watcher,’ but our research teams dug deeper and know differently. This is Amethyst. She is wanted for extortion, conspiracy to commit murder, four counts of murder,  terrorism, vandalism, and the list goes on. Our surveillance teams snapped this picture of her earlier this morning. She is as big as an earth pony and has small nubs where wings should be. The most dangerous part is her horn and powers as a unicorn. She has been using ancient and dark magic to absorb to powers of other ponies. This makes her extremely dangerous and our primary target.”

I move to point at a picture of the warehouse taken from above and continue, “Each of you on the strike teams have your orders for how we approach the warehouse. We will use these crates surrounding the structure as cover when approaching. We don’t want to be seen until the second we bust down the front door. We will be moving in on the structure just before sunrise. The reports from surveillance indicate that this is the time that the fewest number of hostiles can be seen active and we hope to catch them unaware and sleeping. ”

I look around the room seeing ponies writing down last bits of information or staring up at me, “We get one shot at this tomorrow, so let’s do it right. At this point I’d like to ask if anypony has anything new to add.” Nopony stood up to say anything. “In that case, you are dismissed. Get a good night’s rest and I’ll see you on the field tomorrow.”

The ponies all stood up and filed out the door. I instead sat there and looked over the plans. I review the pictures of the warehouse; of Amethyst; of the evidence from the past crime scenes.

“This is it. Everything we have. We are so close to ending this. I just hope everything goes according to plan.”

A tap on the shoulder drew me out of my thoughts. Buck, one of the team leaders, was standing behind me.

“What can I do for you?” I ask him.

“Sir,” he starts, “Are you sure you should be out in the field tomorrow? Something about this whole thing has me worried. It could be nerves, but I don’t know. If she is as dangerous as I think she is, are you sure that being at the warehouse is the best place for you?”

I put the file down on the table, “I appreciate your concern, Buck, but I can’t sit here behind the scenes all the time. I also don’t want to be perceived as hiding behind my troops either. Plus, I want to see the pony that has the focus of my attention since I practically joined this unit with my own two eyes. I want to meet the monster that has been hiding under my bed.”

“Yes sir,” he says, “I understand. In that case, I’ll see you in the morning. Right now, I’m going to go home and tell my wife I love her like I always do before a raid. You never know when those might be the last words you ever say. You should do the same too sir. ”

“I don’t like your wife would like that,” I remark.

He laughs as he leaves the room, “Your special somepony, not mine. You stay away.”

I gave the file one last glance and closed it. No amount of staring was going to change anything. I turn off the lights and walk to the locker room.

“Buck has a point. Maybe we missed something, or are being too hasty. However, I’ve seen the material and so have the analysts. If there was something we should have noticed, surely somepony would have found it.

I open my locker and look at my vest inside. It had been repaired and reinforced at Luna’s request two days ago.

I had balked when I heard her put in the request to have it reinforced, knowing she was playing favorites because of our relationship. She stuck her tongue out at me and then told the armorer that since I was the commander and going to be out in the field, I needed extra protection.

I began to laugh at her craftiness when making that order. She sure did keep things interesting for me. I take out a foreleg blade and check it ensuring that they didn’t have any problems. As I go to put it back, I see a scroll lying on the floor of my locker. On the outside was the royal seal. Curious, I pick it up and open it.

Midnight Shadow,

You have made my sister happier than I have ever seen her before. She practically prances around in circles when she tells me what happens between the two of you. Don’t worry, she glosses over the good bits. Now I know she told you the truth about her banishment, about my fiancé, and our strange family tree. Now I want to tell you something. Don’t do to her what happened to me. Don’t leave her alone, left to pick up the pieces of a broken heart. Do not go out there and be a hero Midnight. Heroes die. They may die doing something brave and selfless but they die nonetheless and what you have with her is worth more than any legacy you can make for yourself. Death is a journey that she and I cannot take naturally, and because of that we can’t just hope to see you again in twenty years. We are forced to carry that pain for eons. This pain I carry, she does not deserve. She needs you Midnight and because of that, you aren’t allowed to die. So when you go out tomorrow, and you fulfill your duty, you remember that your first priority is to come back alive. Nothing else matters except that.

-Celestia

I set the scroll back down. Now even the goddess of the sun of leaving me notes in my locker telling me to be careful. If that was the case, I wasn’t sure what to expect when I saw Luna tonight. No doubt she would probably be pacing on her balcony or staring at her stars. I noticed she did that when something was bothering her. I place the scroll next to by my weaponized foreleg armor and close my locker. I was tired and needed sleep. Tomorrow morning wasn’t going to wait for nopony. Feeling as prepared as I could be for the dawn, I left the locker room. It was time to go see my lovely Luna.

No matter what state of distress I found Luna in upstairs, I wanted to be near her right now. If things went south tomorrow, then I wanted tonight to be a good one. I pressed my hoof to the teleportation stone and appeared in the hallway outside the door. Out of curiosity I opened the door that was there only to discover it was a water closet. I begin to laugh.

“I wonder if any of the staff ever wonder why so many ponies come to use this toilet in particular.

I trot off down the hall and work my way to Luna’s room. Tug and Whoops stop me.

“So I hear you have a huge bust going down tomorrow,” Tug says, “I just wanted to wish you good luck.”

“Yeah,” Whoops speaks up, “Tug here stills wants to face you in the ring and doesn’t feel like waiting until the afterlife for a rematch.”

Tug just smiles.

I laugh, “I appreciate the sentiment, but if you two don’t mind, I think there is somepony I need the see.”

They part ways and let me through. I open the door and shut it.

“Midnight? Is that you,” Luna’s voice calls from outside.

“Hoooney, I’m hoooome,” I shout softly and walk out to meet her.

As soon as I stick my head out, she practically tackles me in a hug. I grab the back of her head and pull her face to mine and kiss her passionately. We pull apart to catch a breath.

“I’m worried about tomorrow Midnight. I’m less and less comfortable letting you go out there,” she says.

I look into her beautiful eyes and see the concern and worry that had plagued her mind for the last few hours, “Luna, if this is the last night we get to spend together, then let’s make it a good one. I don’t want to spoil it with thoughts of tomorrow when we have all of tonight left. Okay?”

She began to cry a little.

“I’m not going to die tomorrow Luna,” I tell her as I hold her close, “Celestia says that I’m not allowed to, and I, quite frankly, don’t want to go. Not as long as you’re around.” I kiss her right behind her, “I love you too much to let go.”

She gives a soft sob, “I love you too.”

We walk back to her bed and crawl in. She snuggles up to me and I wrap my forelegs around her and whisper, “I will never let go.”

Tomorrow came too soon. I stood with a pair of binoculars staring at the face of the warehouse my squad was going to attack.

“Is everypony ready to do this?” I ask over the mic.

“Sir, your Shadow’s are ready.”

“Then move in,” I order.

Swiftly and silently we file through the piled crates working our way to the doors. We made it as did the other teams.

I whisper over the com-link, “On my mark breach. One, two, three, mark!”

The sound of multiple doors being burst open could be heard along with the shouts of my soldiers taking the building. My squad and I head to the office upstairs. We kick down the door and there sat the pony that I had come to loathe so much covered in chains.

“What the…,” I say.

Amethyst begins to laugh. The sound grates my ears, “I prepared for this,” she turned around and shows us the several locks that bound her chains to the ground, “I have this place wired with explosives and there’s only forty-five seconds until they detonate. So unless you can get these locks off of me and get out of her in that time, you’d better run because I’m going nowhere.”

I stare at her angrily. Despite everything that had happened, she was going to kill herself before I could bring her in and take as many of us with her. Thinking quickly, I turn to the unicorn next me, “Can you blast apart those chains?”

He aims his horn and lets a spell loose. The chains stood resilient against the magic.

Amethyst began to laugh even more, “Thirty seconds.”

“EVERYPONY GET OUT OF HERE,” I yell over the radio, “THIS PLACE IS GOING TO BLOW!”

I hear my ponies start running away. I walk into the room and stand in front of Amethyst.

She smiles. I can see the insanity in her eyes. “Aren’t you going to run?” she asks.

“I can make it in ten seconds flat,” I growl, “You however have less time.”

Her eyes grow wide and her horn starts to glow. Before she had a chance to do something, I flick out my sword and ram it through her throat. I hear a clunk as something falls to the floor behind me.

She coughs and sputters up crimson blood.

“Hey Amethyst,” I say.

She looks me in the eyes. I can see the pain clearly in hers.

“Watch this,” I whisper. I rip the blade back out through the side of her neck, splattering the wall in her blood. Her eyes go dim. Her head loses balance on it precarious perch and flops to one side, while the smell of copper fills the room. I retract the blood soaked blade and turn around. Behind me on the ground is a large double bladed knife covered in runes with an amethyst stone in the center. I grab it for examination and run for the exit.

“What’s taking you so long sir?” Buck asks over the radio, “There’s only twenty seconds left.”

“Tying up some loose ends, that’s all,” I answer.

“What do you mean?” Buck asks.

“Amethyst is dead,” I clarify while running, “I didn’t want to worry about whether she threw up a force field to protect herself from the explosion.”

“Do you think she’s powerful enough for that?”

I ran out the door and into the crates. Five seconds left by my count, “I didn’t want to leave it to chance.”

I kick off the ground and take flight. I found my team huddling behind some crates in the back. I dive and land next to them.

“Everypony made it out okay?” I ask.

The one closest me replies, “Yes sir. It’s been longer than forty-five seconds sir. Do you think she could have been bluffing or-”

BOOOOM!

The world went black. I barely felt a thing.