Chapter 1 - Blood Moon -
Eight hundred and ninety six. She remembered every tally, every brick, and every mark that she has made. Some days have blended together. Some she was too sick to put on the ever growing display in her cell. Each and every one now shows she’s been her for over two years now. Two years of wasting away in the Canterlot Dungeons, with her and her conspirators.
Her sisters have never let her out then, thinking that her actions are even too bright for them. But she and her companions have made the move to not let the Followers of the Night prevail. The Advent of the Sonic Rainboom showed the colors of Twilight, as prophesied in the Long Nights and Short Days. The Endings of Equus, the scriptures of the Everlasting Sun. The Days grow short as the Nights grow long, the Stars will aid in her escape and bring Everlasting Night and Darkness upon all Ponykind.
The Twilight brings tidings of Fortune and Friendship upon the Ponies but will unwittingly bring ruin upon Equestria. When the Sun relinquishes control of the nation and the Moon will capitulate, the disaster will spill across the land, ending the magic upon it and bringing an era of darkness to reign among the fractured nation.
The bombing upon the classroom of the School of Gifted Unicorns that house the Twilight One shows success and the blood the spawn now shows bear upon the world. Years of planning and the deed done. They were soon captured as their conspirators had predicted. Many think that they would live in exile and would once come back as heroines to the country as the Nightmare returns.
Princess Celestia should have none of that, that evidence was clear and their plan foiled. The Star of Twilight lives but is broken, its brightness not as bright in the evening as it once shone. Shaking and afraid as it should be, the deed should’ve been placed, but it lives among them, alive and breathing as it shouldn’t. The spies and allies found and executed, the Church ransacked.
The Princess slowly changed, but she changed as prophesied. Hopefully bringing light upon the Principality for millenia more, and may her brazen sun illuminate, bring the Empire upon the less desirables.
Sounds of metal clash between the darkness and dampness of the dungeon. Loud clanks, and a unique sound filled the silent halls. The moon was high, and illuminating, through the bar windows off the cliff. She walks away from the illuminating light that slowly turns red. She looks out of the bars into the illuminating red light of the dungeon that she sees.
The Thestral Night Guard were few and in between once but now started to swell. She started hearing yells in the distance. Questions… confused yelling, a sound of the wet squish… her eyes widened, as she heard the tell tale sound of a thump hit the floor. Other ponies started becoming more vocal in the dungeon.
“I won’t make this difficult, but if you would. You’ll be meeting your friend.” she heard a stallion’s voice, calm, and calculating. It had an edge to it…
“You working with the Night Rats traitor?” She heard the voice of Heart Song. Her long companion has joined her to the Church of Sol. She has been Sunnydew’s right hoof in matters of their operations.
“Night Rats… Sunkiss, it doesn’t matter. What matters to me was the fact that your ilk has threatened the matters of the crown, and even tried to kill a child.” The cold calming voice called from the hall, the eeriness of the blood moon unyielding her nerves. Feeling silent shakes in her head as she turns to the prisoner across from her.
Dusty Shores, she has a foal with her stallion now for two years and yet to consummate their herd. The tell tale sign of the door opening and a whimper was heard from the cell.
“Just tell me why, and you’ll be okay…”
There was silence, before smacks rang inside the cell. A whimper was heard from the pony as she was dragged across the dungeon. Her eyes widened as the large stallion came into view, dragging the mare with an invisible grip, looking closely to the bruises and cuts. With the clinking of keys, the door opens, dragging the small mare with him. Dusty Shores ate alone, and mostly slept alone. But others in that kind of work would recognize the signs of panic before the silence. A new wave of fear has formed, one that they fully understood.
“What are you? Sunnydew asked, the stallion looked at her with a cold stare, then down at the small mare he dragged out.
“As I said, who I am doesn’t matter. The information you mares will give me do.” The stallion said back, looking at her shaking companion that is Heart Song. She could see that her face was starting to bruise up and swollen. “Now as I said: I want names, numbers, locations. I’ll get them in due time.” One of the thestrals came up to him and whispered something into his ear. His eyes widened and looked back at the bat pony. “Already? She’s stepping up her game. Good. Let’s get the rest of them then. We can’t do this here, I’ve already called in our ride.” The bat pony nodded and walked over to her cell. Keys clattering and moving into the key slot, opening the metal door.
“What about the body?” She heard another Night Guard ask.
“Leave it. It’ll send a message to their little church.” he said and started dragging Dusty out of her cell. The Night Guard got into her room and started with her chains, unlocking as they did so.
Now was her chance.
She sprung up with her hind legs bucking the Night Rat, sending the Guard to the entrance of the cell, and with her freed limbs removed the accursed ring from her horn. Sending magic to ignite, a slight pain from the mare. Two more guards come in to their companion’s aide. The Stallion stares her down in the entrance of the cell across from them, Dusty and Heart in his own magic.
“I’ll make sure to send you and the Night Rats to Tartarus for what you’ve done here tonight.” Sunnydew proclaimed, a smirk forms on the stallion, accepting her challenge.
“Nero, the Day Guard and the Princess are upon us.” They can all hear the clanking of armor coming from the stairs. Light upon the bottom of the door, fiery and orange.
It was then that the Dungeon fell into chaos, Sunnydew flew forward and attacked two of the guards with a spray of magical bolts. A loud explosion was sounded on the other of the cells and a cloud of dust sprung out blinding Sunnydew. Screams were heard, “Take flight, I’ll deal with her!”
Sunnydew barrages another wave of bolts at her attackers. The three Night Rats retreat as the large Stallion sprung forward with a large wave of magic shields the Guards, gaining ground upon her, she backs up to buck him once more but he drops down and sweeps his legs under her forelegs.
She felt a magical grip around her neck and pulled her up. “What have you done with those plans!” she heard the menacing cold sound of his voice. “You will tell me what I know, or I will get them myself!” Sunnydew felt a crack from her horn, trying to look at the Stallion from her view. Darkness at the edges of her vision, but Nero’s eyes glow bright as well as his horn in the red light of the moon.
A silent blood curdling scream rang in Sunnydew’s mouth, but no sound came out. The iron hot magic cracking through her horn and into her mind. She saw the memories of the plan go down, her conspirators, the Prince, and his noble companions. The silver sun necklace they all wore. The crystal bombs that were planted in multiple desks around the Princess’ Student, the Twilight thought to be executed but light bubbles sprung around the children of the class. Not the teacher though as the mare was nothing more than a charred cinder.
Plans and meeting of another attack… then the swarm of Day Guards and the Princess’ transformation. Her time behind bars as the days turned to weeks. Weeks turned to Months, and soon, a portion of the wall had tally marks. Now and then, she would get messages, their next target is the filly in Cloudsdale.
The pain started to dull as she was suddenly released hitting the floor hard, the white magic that invaded her mind started to disappear as she started smelling ozone. Darkness once again filled the edges of her vision, and her eyes grew heavy. The Stallion turned around and started speaking out of her vision. Ringing was heard and nothing else as everything turned to black.
The Princess came upon a blood soaked room, under the illuminating red light of the moon. More Illusion magic, the traitorous guards and the unknown pony that was with them. A prisoner of that accursed church lays dead in one of the cells. Were they out for revenge for her student? That would make no sense, no, there has to be more going on here.
No amount of peace talks came between the thestrals and the Church of Sol as the two are not fighting among each other. This has been going on for years now, silently behind her back. Shadow and daggers, blood in alleyways once thought to be muggings that were happening in the Capitol, her Capitol.
But everything got worse after Sunset Shimmer’s betrayal, and the mirror was stolen from its room. The war between the thestrals and the church are now more open in the street and no peace in sight.
But this is new…
The Night Guard abandoning their post and an attack in the dungeons. “Your Highness!” She looks over at one of the guards pointing to a cell on the right. She walks over and stops, her eyes widen at the sight before her.
There lay Sunnydew, horn shattered, burned webs of magic around her horn and eyes and across her scalp. A brutal memory retrieving spell, a barbaric one at that too from the lines and burn runes that lay across her scalp. Magical effigies seen around the base of her horn. She looked back over at the hole out towards the cliff. She was surprised yet again as a large object leaves her Capitol.
It leaves more questions she has to the thestrals and on what is going on… for the matter is getting out of hoof.
She’ll get her questions in the morning, right now they all need to investigate the cells and find out what has happened.
Prologue - Veni Vidi Vici -
The night has been long for Princess Celestia, as many astronomers, professional and amatuer alike have been looking at the night sky keeping track of the new objects now polluting her sister’s night sky. A note hoofed to her earlier that morning as news spread like wildfire about the objects that sprung out in the Badlands. Tensions in Klugetown heightening as the creatures there are tight lipped of what happened south of the “Barbarous City.”
The Equestrian Royal Navy have parked themselves outside Basalt Beach looking leagues into the southern territories and into the Wicked Woods and the Pine Needle Barrens. She fears the rising Tensions of the Thestrals, as the three shamans claim new beginnings of the stars, and the Duchesses become less and less cordial with her.
Five more years, five more years before seeing her sister again. She had endured the countless centuries of her patience, planning and strategizing ways to get her sister back. This reckless farce of the unknown has put decades if not centuries of planning into the providable toilet as she scrambles on what has happened.
These were plans executed in the making.
A means of challenge, as the note proves just that.
Three words: Veni, Vidi, Vici.
And she does not know the meaning of these words…
Though the words sound ancient, almost that of Minotaur. But the Isles of Minos haven’t shown any form of aggression or communication for the past 220 years. Nopony has been able to communicate with them over the past few days. As the rumors throughout that of Canterlot and Equestria itself are saying that an enemy worse than that of Discord has finally came and delivered their judgment upon them all.
She remembers the flashes, breaking off of the ascent, small bright flashes behind the ascending objects. Data suggest that it was not magical in origin but that of chemical composition.
Explosives… To use, and send the objects that now float over her sister’s sky…
She must remain vigilant, she must remain stoic, and most of all: She must know what those objects are in the sky. For they are the key to the growing tensions throughout all that of Equus.
Author's Note
This is a Prologue, and hope to catch the attention to dear viewers here. I hope you like what's to come. Also if you like to help with editing, one mind can't find all the mistakes. Until the next one, enjoy this small slice before the coming feast.
