The Knight Shift

Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you.

Boredom was a predator. It stalks its prey, creeping in the dark and dull, given power by the monotonous and the empty. It was patient, cunning and smart in all meanings of the words it used. When boredom sunk its fangs into its prey, it took its senses, it's smarts, it dulled the mind to something that couldn't focus.

So, as a guard, one could see why Mythic Aurora detested boredom.

She wasn’t assigned to a patrol tonight. She couldn’t walk down halls, admire the paintings and art she had seen four million times. She was stuck guarding the doorway to the library of all places. The damned library. Why? She couldn’t tell you. To her, books were books. Disposable if they had enough copies. And she knew for a fact that Equestria had enough copies of the books in the library behind her to fill it even if it burned down ten times and took everything with it. At least she wasn’t alone.

She stole a glance at the unicorn mare who stood (not sat on the floor like Mythic) on the opposite of the large double doors. A seafoam green mane, dark purple coat that severely contrasted with her mane. Mythic didn’t even think it matched, but she wasn’t sure, she wasn’t an artist. The unicorn stood at attention, unmoving with a face devoid of emotion and full of the bright dreams of a new recruit. “New around here?” Mythic asked.

The unicorn’s ear twitched, turning itself toward the thestral as her eye glanced over. After a moment, she responded with a curt nod.

“Well,” Mythic began, “take it from someone who’s been here a few years, alright? Don’t stand like that for too long. No ones going to walk by who's going to yell at you for sitting on your flank. They will if you’re asleep though, so don’t do that.”

The mare raised an eyebrow and she finally moved her head to face Mythic Aurora. “But… what if one of the princesses-”

“One, the only Princess that's awake is Princess Luna. Two, she hardly ever comes out of her room. In fact, I don’t think I’ve seen her out on a leisurely stroll in months at best, a year at worst.” Mythic rested her back on the wall, crossing her lower legs and putting her upper behind her head for support. “Kick back, relax, read a book, write a book, hell, I don’t even care if you go and play with yourself, just don’t be a prude.” She opened an eye to see the other mare’s reaction.

She got what she wanted, the mare’s eyes grew two times their original size and she gasped with a blush. “I—I cannot believe you even suggested that!” She went off on a tangent about ‘proper military behavior’ and ‘when you don the armor of the Sisters you denounce yourself to those kinds of bodily urges.’ It was all Mythic could do to not burst out in laughter.

When she finally stopped her tirade, Mythic looked like she was about to explode. Her hoof was squarely planted in her mouth with her cheeks puffed out, tears formed at the corners of her eyes. The unicorn lifted and set her hoof down before sighing and hanging her head. “You were joking weren't you?”

The dam broke. Mythic Aurora slid down the wall onto her side, laughing like there was no tomorrow. “BWAHAHAHA!” She continued like that for a minute. The other guard's expression turned from embarrassed, to shameful, and then to just annoyed.

“Okay okay! You don’t have to rub it in, jeez!”

“Ooohhhhh, I’m sorry, it was just too good!” Mythic sighed, clutching her stomach for a moment before rolling to get up. “See? It worked, you’re no longer a statue!” She poked the other mare in the chest with her hoof. “Plus it was kinda funny, admit it.”

“Psh, I will do no such thing.” She huffed and turned away. But after a moment she smirked. “Fine.. it was a little funny.”

It walked.

It hunted.

It lurked as the tunnels turned into ancient halls. Ancient turned to new and recent. It knew what new and recent brought. It had a job, He commanded. It was all it knew. Be the arm, the force, the army.

Right now, He was hungry. Meat would not suffice, they had plenty of that. It hungered for intelligence, for life, for minions.

And for them, it searched.

It need not search far.

Princess Luna was not blind.

Live for thousands of years and one will be able to recognize powerful magic. Sure, what she felt was magic, but it was an abomination. It was dark, hungry, unchecked and loose in her castle. It nipped at her, not its conscious form, but an excess of its magic filled the air around her. If she closed her eyes, she could almost see it. She could see hints of spells known to her. Some were from a levitation spell, one a teleportation, a good chunk of it was filled with the remnants of a spell that parents would use to put their routy foals to bed.

Yet they were amplified a hundredfold. The more she looked, the more there was. It seeped through every crack, every hole, every crevice that existed in the walls of this ancient place. What she noticed, however, was that it ignored her completely. The magic—or rather the spell—was going out of its way to avoid her. She would step forward and it would bend around her. It went between her legs, around her hair, everywhere where there wasn't a physical limb of hers. She walked up to the wall and found a place where it flowed in from. She quickly plugged it with her hole, giving it no chance of escape.

Only a wisp touched her hoof, but it was enough.

Flashes of images: meat, teeth, claws that were all covered in deep red blood that didn't belong to the being it covered. She felt immense hunger, not for food, but for beings. Bodies that were sufficient for the Master of the being. It was not picky. It would take anyone it could. She saw it walk. It walked through the halls of the castle, different halls and different tunnels in the Catacombs. She then realized that there wasn’t just one, but many. Numerous beasts crafted of dark and abominable magic. She saw one of them kill, playing with the pony it attacked. It ripped him to shreds, flailing him about by his entrails. Once the life was gone and the soul of the pony departed from this mortal realm, it just left. It did not feast, did not take it to the Master. It wasn’t worthy, it wasn’t ready. It was of the few that was not a candidate.

She saw another clambering down the hall and finding a pair of guards, both of whom had fallen asleep at their posts. She expected it to do the same as the other and brutally kill like a mindless beast. But no, it took them delicately by the hooves and began to drag them back to the darkness. They, the sleeping, were worthy.

The vision ended and the pain began.

A roar tore through her mind, furious and guttural. It tore through her mind, seeking something. It gripped her throat, tugging and choking. She gasped for air. Her hooves tore at the invisible force that threatened to kill you by methods of asphyxia. She knew no happiness, no love. Only pain. Pain and hopelessness. Anger, hatred, and darkness clouded her mind. It was her world.

A bright light washed over her. It burned her. No, it burned him. It screamed and it screamed through her. Demonic and deep, her body writhed in pain. The light grew brighter and brighter. The magic was being pulled away and it gripped her mind with it's dark claws to take her with it, back to the void. But with the darkness fading and the light retaking, she felt strong. Gathering all the strength she could muster, she expelled him.

LEAVE.

And it was gone. She opened her eyes and stared up at the tall ceiling of her room. She heard huffing to her left and turned her head slowly.

Sitting right next to her, horn light in use of telekinesis, which held both a torch and a giant ball of fire, was a red unicorn with fire-yellow hair. A sword was on the floor next to him, caked in blood and gore.

“Princess,” he spoke through exasperated breaths. “Princess, we need to leave.”

Luna began to rise. She felt better than she did before the vision, before the pain. “Who are you?” she asked.

“Fury Shield, Your Highness.”

Fury Shield was the only pony left awake. No matter how many sheep he counted, no matter how many chapters out of various books he read, he would not fall asleep.

At first he thought it was a good thing! He wrote letters to friends and family from all over the country that he needed to get out, caught up on his journal (he was three days behind, can you believe that?!) and even organized his laundry. And now he just layed in his bunk, staring at the ceiling.

The door creaked open.

And then something came in.

Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
He sat up, trying to peer through the darkness to see who had come in. He wasn’t a bat though, he had no superior night vision, just vision like anyone else would have. A large, looming figure stood in front of the door, hunched over as it surveyed the sleeping guardponies. Its head scanned the room and began to walk the rows of bunks. Fury could hear its claws scraping against the stone-tile floor with every step. He couldn’t look away.

His eyes shifted to where he knew his desk was, right beside his bed. Front and center was his sabre, handed down in his family for generations, built with the finest magic enhanced steel, an ancient technique that was barely practiced these days. He couldn’t grab it with magic, it would be too dark and he would stick out like… well like a light in pitch black.

He slowly began to shift, scooching inch after inch to the side of the bed. His eyes never left the beast. It continued to prowl, almost as if it was guarding. It stopped occasionally to inspect a guard, putting its face right against them, running its claws down their bodies until it abruptly moved on.

It was six rows away now.

He glanced over to his desk, which he now could see the vague shape of. He lifted his hoof reaching to where his sabre was.

He forgot he put a glass of water there. His hoof nudged it.

It didn't fall and shatter, but it did produce a sound, small as it was, that echoed through the still room.

TINK.
In an instant the beast snapped its head toward Fury Shield, its mouth opened wide, impossibly wide with razor sharp teeth that he really didn't want to be at the end of.

Figuring he was already found out, he reached out and grabbed his sword with magic, a soft green glow emanating around both his horn and the hilt of his blade.

A shrill, guttural screech tore through the air. It pierced Fury’s ears and he almost lost concentration. The thing lunged, caring not for any of the sleeping ponies as it dug its claws into beds and ponies, making a beeline straight for Fury Shield. He yanked his sword out of its sheath, rolling to the opposite side of the bed as the beast dived down onto it.

Its claws sunk deep into the bed like a mole diving into the dirt to dig. It swung it's arms outward, completely destroying both the mattress and the simple wooden bed frame. Fury Shield was hit with the shrapnel, bracing himself against the bed next to him. How come nopony had woken up? Before he could even recover the thing lifted its arm high and brought it down at incredible speed. Fury dove between its legs, sending a buck up between its legs.

It yowled in shock and pain as it was pushed into the next bunk.

Fury may not be an earth pony, but it seemed these things were weaker than they seemed to be. His horn flashed and his sabre flew from up above and sunk right into the side of its head as it turned to face him. It dropped instantly, a literal sack of meat.

The unicorn tried to steady his breathing. His wide eyes were only focused on the beast. He had since let go of his sword just letting it rest in the things head like a sheath. He slowly began to get up—and that was when the real silence hit him.

Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

None of his fellow guards had woken up from the commotion and upon inspection of his neighbor, he was cut right in half yet he was still breathing.

That was when Fury Shield finally threw up.

It took a while, but he went up to everypony in the large bunkroom, doing anything he could to wake them up. Shock spells, slaps, turning them over and dumping them on the cold hard floor, nothing worked. Several were bleeding through nasty gashes from the path the creature took. He would have to find a doctor. One of the night guards should have one.

After recovering his sword he slowly stepped out of the room. He glanced in both directions and threw a piece of wood from his bed down both. Nothing came. He closed the door behind him and set off, not toward the medical wing, but toward Princess Luna’s chambers.

Fury Shield hoped the guards were competent enough to protect her—but then again, he would have been torn to shreds if he hadn’t been paying attention. If one got the drop on patrolling guards, it would be over for them in a second.

His theory was correct. He passed a patrol of two guards, innards and blood splayed across the wall. One was sitting against the wall, a whole side of her head mangled and missing.Their eyes stared blankly but Fury could still see the leftover fear that gripped them in their final moments.

He closed both of their eyes with a hoof and moved on.

Questions buzzed in his head, and honestly he was surprised he hadn’t gone into shock. Or thrown up. Or passed out.

And he still wasn’t tired.

He didn’t see any more bodies while he cautiously trotted to Princess Luna’s bedroom. No guards either. None in the halls and none outside of her door. There were signs of guards once being outside her door however. A spear laid against the wall on one side of the door and a purple guard helmet sat on the floor on the other side. No blood. For a moment Fury Shield thought they had just wandered off to check on something, but that didn’t make sense, one of them had left a weapon.

He heard a pained cry come from inside. Without thinking he burst through the door and came face to face with a shadow.

It stood there on two legs. Staring at Fury Shield. The room was filled with pitch black smog that flowed out into the hallway, consuming every ounce of light that it touched. The shadow figure took a step toward a frozen Fury Shield, the smog crept up his legs, pulling him down. He struggled to keep up, using all his physical strength to keep his legs straight, refusing to crumble into the dark.

The shadow stopped, almost as if it was surprised that Fury had put up a fight at all. Fury Shield didn’t take its moment of hesitation lightly. He darted his eyes down the hallway to a distant torch, flaring his magic and enveloping it in levitation. The shadow turned, but it was too late. The flame of the torch was practically the sun as it fell between Fury and the figure. The smog retreated and Fury Shield could have sworn he heard it scream. The figure seemed to glare at Fury as he retreated back into the room. As soon as his legs were free, Fury kicked the torch into the room, glancing back at another and pulling it toward him as well.

The torch on the ground bounced into the room and the smog retreated momentarily before it poured onto it with full force, snuffing out the flame. He heard a chuckle. A dark and deep chuckle.

Keeping the torch in the middle of the doorway, Fury Shield searched the halls for anything he could use. This thing hated light, but too little light and it could be smothered by the smog that most certainly wasn't just smog. He needed to make a bigger source of light by lighting something big on fire.

Like this tapestry that depicted the Elements of Harmony defeating Discord.

He tore it off the wall. No time for reverence and pleasantries but he did wince. He’ll be discharged for this.

He brought it over to the torch, floating the tapestry over so that the flame was licking the middle of the cloth. It took a moment, but soon enough he had a very big ball of burning cloth held within his magic. He smirked into the darkness.

“Sun’s up,” he said, before floating the fireball right into the middle of the room. Now he could hear the scream. Not one, but multiple. The dark smog, with nowhere to run, fizzled and turned to ash as it was exposed to the light. The dark figure, now illuminated from the fire, harrumphed and raised his hand. The smog began to twist, contorting all that it was into a ball in his hand. It was like pulling a very big blanket off a covered table. Once it was all retreated into the ball, the figure itself retreated into it, and then it was gone. He waited a moment before stepping into the room.

Princess Luna laid in a heap on the ground, staring up at the ceiling. She slowly turned to look at him and he became vastly aware of his appearance. Blood caked his sabre, he was sweaty (and probably smelled terrible) from stress and the fight with the beast and he was panting from over exerting himself with his levitation. Despite all this, he mustered up and spoke. “Princess,” he croaked out. He swallowed to wet his throat. “Princess, we need to leave.”