Under the Cover of the Sun

by Fallen Stars

Rating: teen
Tags: Changelings, Original Character, Bat Pony, Non-consensual, Adventure, Violence, Death, Twilight Sparkle, Gore, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Alternate Universe
Length: 2156

What makes a monster? Who are they? Twilight Sparkle could have answered that question easily once. Now she's not so sure.

Monsters don't cry. The only time they do is when they fail. Right?
When Princess Celestia sent Twilight and her friends to apprehend a murderous, thieving draconequus, they thought it was clear cut. A heathen, brute, menace to society. Whatever they chose to call it, it was evil. So what happens when Twilight is separated from her friends by the monster?

Some creatures can't cry because they are mentally ill, or take pleasure in it. Others can't cry because they have no tears left to shed.

Set shortly after season 4, right before season five.

Published 2021-02-12 18:10:00 UTC
Last updated 2021-02-12 18:10:00 UTC

Prequel

All was as quiet as a Manehattan street could be. Blue and silver eyes peered carefully from the shadows of an alleyway, tucked up underneath a balcony of the neighboring building. Watching the front door of the police department across the street. What the owner of those eyes was waiting for soon became clear. Two ponies exited the building. They were different folks from the blue-wearing police officers that normally frequented the streets. For starters, they were a unicorn and a pegasus, which was unusual since all of the police were earth ponies, with a couple of pegasi mixed in. Secondly was the golden armor they were wearing, which automatically identified them as royal guards. Even without the armor, their disciplined walk and the way they held their spears spoke of a life guarding doors. The guards advanced toward the alleyway, unaware of the blue and silver eyes that tracked their movement. They stopped. The pegasus began sifting around the dumpsters, heading further into the alleyway. The unicorn leaned back at the entrance, wrinkling his muzzle in distaste.

"I don't see why we're looking here, Shock. For the matter, I don't see why we even need to be here. A string of thefts is hardly worth our attention," the unicorn stated.

"Quiet Light Spell," snapped Shock, rifling around the dumpsters, checking in the shadows.

"That doesn't answer my question," Light Spell muttered, slinging his helmet off to polish it. He shifted his weight to more comfortably lean against the wall, grabbed a rag from the slit in his chest plate, and proceeded to scrub off some offending stains. Light Spell's natural colors came through the instant he took of the helmet, the glamour dispelling with the disruption of its magical frequencies. He had a white-gold coat with a honey brown mane. Shock snorted in disgust.

"The string of thefts is underneath us, huh? Well murder certainly isn't."

"W-what?!" Light Spell sputtered, almost falling forward, his nonchalant posture disintegrating. "Murder?!"

"Were you not paying attention to the report, recruit?" demanded Shock. "And for the record, you address me as Private Shock Shield or sir. You don't have seniority and you certainly aren't above me. Do your job and cast a life detection spell."

"You do know it won't tell me how big it is, right? Or if it's even a pony?" Light Spell questioned, moving into a more stable stance. Shock Shield turned around and glared at him.

"Sir," Light Spell muttered. Shock Shield headed back toward him.

"'Course I do, colt. But it'll tell us where to start looking," Shock Shield replied briskly. "Cast it."
Grumbling, Light Spell complied. Light Spell's horn sparked, and a wave of gold yellow magic swept through the air. Light Spell's eyes landed on the back of the alleyway. He started forward, growing closer to the end dumpster. When he was opening the lid of the dumpster to peer inside, Light Spell heard a guttural scream along with the sickening sound of claws meeting flesh. He whipped around, letting the top clang shut. No pony was there. He sighed in relief, starting to turn back around. Then he stopped. Wait. No pony was there. That meant...

"Shock Shield!" Light Spell cried, looking for any sign of his comrade. Just then, he heard a rustle from the dumpster behind him. Turning around ever so slowly, he stared into blue and silver eyes. Light Spell readied a spell, hoping against hope it would give him enough time to escape. A clawed limb crashed into his horn. Whimpering, Light Spell drew back, the pain bringing tears to his eyes. The creature started forward, advancing on him. He scrambled back with his hooves, not willing to risk getting on his legs and turning his back to the creature. With a muffled thunk of metal on stone, Light Spell realized his back was to the wall. There was nowhere left to run. The creature stopped, a mere six inches away from him. Then, it brought it's clawed talon up. Light Spell feably tried to cast a spark, or a light spell. Seeing this, the creature's talon came crashing down.

His horn held firm for a moment, but the force behind the talon was too much. Light Spell's horn separated from his skull, causing immense pain to the unicorn. Briefly, his vision flashed a bright white, red bleeding in around the edges. Light Spell fought to stay conscious, but he could feel himself slipping into the darkness of unconsciousness. He heard shouting, the flap of wings as his attacker took off. He felt a pony's hooves, grabbing him. And in his core, Light Spell sensed there was now something fundamentally wrong with him. As if summoned, a crackling bolt of electricity sprang forth unbidden, and he jerked weakly, the pain too much.

"By Celestia, what was that?!" somepony shouted. Said sompony was lying on the ground. They were a blur, of a lot of light green and a smaller dark brown blur on top of the light green. On their chest was a blackened area. It didn't seem too serious a burn, as they quickly got up and shook it off.

"Never mind, just load him onto the stretcher," ordered a brisk voice. Light Spell felt the familiar sensation of magic surround him, lifting him up onto a cot. His limbs didn't like that much, thrashing around as if they had a mind of their own. His horn sparked. Suddenly, there was a clamp over his horn, conducting the brimming electricity into harmless static. Somepony restrained his hooves, keeping him tied down. He fought against the blackness encroaching on his vision. What if they were his attacker's accomplices, coming to take him away?
"Shh, it's okay. You're in the care of Manehattan Medical. You're safe."
Light Spell distantly registered in some part of his brain that Manehattan Medical was a public hospital. He was safe. He was going to be fine. Blue wings. His attacker had steel-blue wings. With that last thought, he surrendered himself to the realm of dreams.

Royal Summons

Twilight was a mess. This humongous castle was tripping her up. Not for the first time, she wished that her Golden Oaks Library had survived. The Harmony Castle was aggravating! Racing through the numerous hallways, she called,

"SPIKE! Spike, where are you?!"

"Right here Twilight," the exasperated baby dragon responded. Twilight darted around a corner, and swept into the library. Errr, one of them. Honestly, even she had loss count by the time they discovered the 25th. What she did not account for was the fact that Spike was just coming out the door. Twilight slammed into him, knocking the books from his arms. Spike was tossed back into one of the tables. Groaning, he sat up, rubbing his head with his claws.

"Twilight!" he yelped, getting up to gather the books again. Twilight got more slowly to her hooves.

"Sorry, Spike! I just realized that today was your day off." Twilight sheepishly rubbed the back of her head with her wing.

"Really?" Spike asked, hardly believing his luck.

"Yep!" Twilight beamed. They had worked out a contract around a week before, after Spike had confessed to feeling like a slave and tried to run off.

"Swe--" Spike was cut off as he belched. A scroll came out, wreathed in the neon green flames. Twilight levitated it before it hit the ground, surprise clearly showing on her face. Quickly, she scanned it, then gasped.

"Uh, Twilight? What's it say?" Spike asked, standing up on his toes to peer at the scroll.

"Quick, there's no time!" Twilight yelped, grabbing Spike in her magic. She put him on her back, then raced out the door. Skidding around the corner, she leapt off the nearest balcony.

"Twilight!" Spike yelled as she stabilized in the air. When she looked back, she saw him crossing his arms, an unamused expression on his face.

"Sorry Spike," Twilight said. "but there's no time! The Princess needs all 7 of us!"

Spike rolled his eyes. "Don't you mean all 6 of us? Last I checked, I'm not in the Rainbow Laser group."

"No, she specifically said me, the girls, and you. But just in case...," Twilight trailed off, summoning the scroll from wherever she had dropped it in her mad dash. It opened up, then hit Spike in the face.

"Sorry, sorry!" Twilight called as she turned to face forward again. Spike grabbed the scroll and rolled his eyes. Then he started to read it aloud,

"Dear Princess Twilight Sparkle.
A situation has arisen in Manehattan. You will receive a full report when you arrive in Canterlot Palace. I understand I cannot tell or order you to look into this, as I am sure you are very busy spreading friendship across the land. However, I implore you as a fellow Princess to help clear up the situation. You see, a string of thefts has been reported around the city. Normally, this would be a job for the Manehattan police department. When they sent two of their number to investigate, however, they were found with their throats ripped out. When I sent two of my Solar Guard to investigate, one ended up missing while the other was driven insane. The only information that even I can get out of him is the word 'abomination' over and over. Recently, though, Discord came to visit. While here, I asked him to take a look at the poor guard, to see if there was anything he could do. Imagine my surprise when the guard started screaming and hyperventilating. When we sedated him, the guard said something that shocked me. 'Just like the other one'. The only conclusion I can pull from this is that he encountered a draconequus, and that draconequus attacked him and his partner. The only conclusive course of action would be to use the Elements of Harmony, as the draconequus seems to be unable to listen to reason. However, perhaps Spike may be able to talk some sense into it. If you could gather the Elements, Element Bearers, and Spike and make haste to the castle, I would be greatly appreciative.
H.R.H, Princess Celestia."

Awestruck, Spike rolled the scroll back up

"Princess Celestia wants me to come along?" he asked incredulously.

"Yep," Twilight replied, her brow furrowed. "hold on, we're going into a dive."

Around half an hour later, the Mane 6 (and Spike) were at the Harmony Tree's Cave.

"So wait one sec," Applejack said, looking sideways to Twilight. "we're supposed to be taking the elements back? But won't the Tree die?"

"No, the elements were taken the first time around and were away for roughly a thousand and fifty years," Twilight corrected, her eyes focused on the elements. "what we'll be doing is asking for it to give us the elements and then putting them back after this mission."

"Like a battery!" Pinkie cried.

"...a what?" Rainbow asked, looking at Pinkie with confusion.

" A battery, silly!" Pinkie responded. "it's where something gives something else energy!"

"Err, more like we had to give the Elements back when the Tree was wrapped in those plunderseed vines." Spike explained to everypony's confused looks (minus Twilight, who was busy concentrating, and Pinkie Pie, who was, well, Pinkie Pie). "the Tree needed time to soak up the energy from the Elements. But if we make sure to put them back after we use them and give the Tree the time it needs to soak up that energy, then the Tree's natural magic will be able to keep the Everfree forest at bay."

"Oooohhhh," Rainbow, Rarity, and Applejack replied.

"Will everypony be quiet!" Twilight yelled back at them. "this is a very delicate procedure!"

As the other 6 creatures backed up to give Twilight some space, her horn started to glow. While Twilight was teasing the elements out from their set positions, Rainbow sidled over to Spike.

"How do you know all that egghead stuff?" she asked him, careful to keep her voice low.

"When you live your whole life in a library and spend most of it taking care of a unicorn who loves books and helping said unicorn study, you tend to pick up some facts," Spike whispered back. Rainbow opened her mouth to ask him something else, but their conversation was cut short by Twilight's triumphant exclamation.

"Done!" Twilight said happily, all 6 elements in her magical grasp. She sent them to each respective bearer. They formed the familiar necklaces and crown. Twilight started to trot up the stairs.

"Now come on, I'll tell you guys what the Princess wants on the train!" she called down, easily getting airborne. With a shrug, Applejack started up the stairs, followed by the others.

Author's Note

Should I continue this? One part is saying yes, the other no. Until I can make up my mind, this story will be on hiatus.