“It’s the reason I married your mother, you know. Kissed by the sun and blessed to work the fields under its light.” The wrinkled pale red face of her father smiled at her, his mouth obscured by the golden beard that sprung from his face. The smile lines and permanently raised bushy eyebrows didn’t betray his typical demeanor. He always seemed to be happy, always finding a reason to smile through it all. “We’re lucky to be able to fly, to soar above the clouds and get closer to her grace than anypony else. The ponies who work the fields know the harsh truth of the light, though. It cares not how hard they labor, it still beats down all the same.”

“No use complaining about it.” A mare said with a grunt as she moved behind the stallion. She was a solid yet stout earth pony, her coat the color of freshly tilled soil and her eyes golden like the morning light. “It makes you sweat, but it makes the plants grow too. You can’t have one without the other.”

“It’s part of the world, little sunbeam. It has many facets which must be understood” Her father nodded at the mare’s words. “The sun is a great and terrible thing. It loves, it nourishes, but it can also burn and sting. It doesn’t discriminate and the only remedy to avoid its wrath is the shade, something which is only possible through its light.”

The face of the stallion began to fade, swirling into a messy mix of colors like fresh watercolors. His words became a garbled mess that blended into the background and warped into static. One word pierced the veil, repeated over and over.

“Rose.”

“Rose.”

“Rose!”

She jolted upright and looked around, suddenly alert and ready. Her wide golden eyes met Parade’s pink irises and the two mares locked gazes for a few moments before Rose finally relented and looked around the room. They were back in the barracks and the late afternoon sun cascaded through the dusty windows. The murmurs of off-duty guards filled the space by the dull roar of the monsters outside of the castle walls still filled the background.

“Finally.” Parade sighed and gave a small smile, her hoof patted Rose on the shoulder. “I was beginning to think you weren’t going to wake up today.” The other mare’s helmet was off and her red and yellow striped mane fell around her head in curls. It almost looked like streamers were sprouting from her head and hanging around her face. “You good?”

“Yeah, I think so.” Rose could still feel her thoughts swimming around her brain in an unfocused tizzy. It wasn’t easy to focus and her stomach was turning constantly, but she was alive and that’s what really mattered. “What happened? I tackled that unicorn and…”

“And you got your flank kicked.” Parade couldn’t help but grin. “It’s not every day you get to see a Royal Guard get roundhouse kicked down a corridor, in fact it might be a first. So congratulations on making history.” The pale yellow pegasus offered a hoof, Rose took it and was pulled to her hooves. She hadn’t realized it until now, but she was out of her armor once again.

“Thanks…” The armor was quickly located, sitting right next to her bed. “Did she get away?”

“Pfft. No.” Parade rolled her eyes and a smug grin replaced the cheeky one. “I’ll have you know my marks in accuracy paid off. Pegged her in the leg with my spear from thirty yards.” Rose couldn’t help but roll her eyes as her companion’s chest puffed up and her wings ruffled. “She got patched up and she’s in the dungeon now but she won’t be running away any time soon.”

“Do we know who she is? Why was she there?” The additional question of ‘how did she kill one of those things?’ was also there, but after being on the receiving end of some of those moves there wasn’t much left to that question. Rose picked up her breastplate and slipped it on. “I doubt she was some lost castle servant.”

“She wouldn’t even tell us her name.” Parade sighed again. “Princess Celestia and Luna both tried and couldn’t get anything out of her. All we know is she’s not a changeling.” There was a pause. “Bulwark and I think she’s a spy.”

“She’s a pony, who would she even be spying for?” Rose scooped up her helmet and put it on. She wasn’t careful and her damaged ear caught on the hole it was supposed to go through, causing her to wince and recoil.

“Got me.” Parade shrugged. “Oh by the way, they’re already rationing food. The LT gave me an extra so you wouldn’t go hungry.” A small brown paper bag was produced from inside of the other mare’s breastplate and she tossed it over to Rose with a wing. “You’re supposed to come to the front gate when you’re done.” Parade then promptly turned around and left the barracks.

Rose sat back on her bed and opened the bag. Inside was just some bread, dried apples, and a single haycake. How long had it even been since she had her last meal? It had to have been over twenty-four hours at this point. A long low growl from her stomach let her know that the time didn’t matter and that it needed to be filled.

As she ate, her eyes wandered around the barracks. Other ponies were in there, all of them on their cots. Not all of them were sleeping, though. Some of them were simply staring up at the ceiling while others were shifting around and trying to lay down in a way that didn’t disturb new wounds. Then there were the others, souls who were sitting on the edges of their beds and staring into space. One of them was facing her, and she could see a bit of blood splattered across his armor.

He had taken a life. It was easy to see the thoughts of ‘what have I done’ spilling out of his ears. It was understandable, ponies were a peaceful bunch. Violence was a rarity and killing another living thing was nearly unheard of unless you lived on the fringes of society and needed to.

The first time Rose had needed to snuff the fire of life from something else was shortly after she had gotten her cutie mark. The memory of the wolf’s breath pouring over her face, the hot stench of meat still made her stomach turn. The feeling of something in her hooves, a rock in that case, striking flesh and digging in never left. It was something that could always be recalled and something that could never be truly buried. That had been her first, and her second had been that beast at the gate the other day. Could she count the one in the boutique? She had caused the misfire that led to its death, but she hadn’t directly killed it.

“Why do I even care?” She asked herself. It wasn’t like she was some griffon who was liable to etch tally marks in her armor for every kill she scored. ‘Because the light of the sun shines favorably on those that know their sins.’ the little voice in her head answered with one of her father’s favorite sayings from his little book. With a deep sigh, she conceded to the nagging voice.

Two. The wolf and the first unicorn. Both of them she had meant to do mortal harm to. The unicorn in Canterlot Carousel didn’t count because she had aimed for the leg. It was nothing but a random chance that had caused its death, not her directly. She could be at peace with two.

There were those that could never be at peace with even one, not even with the sight of violent death. That only raised the question of what those types of ponies were doing in the Royal Guard. They had armor and weapons, which they trained with to even become certified for the job. It was explicit in the charter of the Royal Guard that they were to use all possible methods to protect the royal family. Canterlot had already been attacked by an invading army once, and she knew that there had been fighting in the streets on that day.

Had the hooves of so many guards frozen then too? Is that why Princess Celestia was attacked and hurt by the bug queen? They had expected peace for so long that violence was abhorrent, even for the ponies meant to be the shield for such violence. That made Rose’s stomach turn more than any amount of death.

They had categorically failed to keep Canterlot, and by extension the Princesses, safe because they weren’t prepared. After all of this was over, they needed a reorganization. They needed something to be in line with the threats that continually came knocking. Maybe this would be enough to make them more proactive and more attuned to violence.

Fire gave light, it gave life, and it provided the crucible through which steel was forged. Right now they were all stuck in the roaring fire that tempered the best and made ash of the rest. On the other side of this, whatever it was and however long it took to get resolved, they would all either be charred remnants of themselves or finely honed weapons for the crown. Expect the former, but act and prepare for the latter.

Rose knew she would keep doing what was necessary for not only her survival, but for the lives of the alicorns she served as well. She only hoped that the other guards would as well. Judging from the stallion sitting across from her and mumbling incoherent thoughts, that hope seemed distant.

Rose finished her rations and left the barracks in short order. Once the door had opened and she stepped outside, she was greeted with more of reality's little cruelties. It was supposed to be a nice day out, cool with a stiff breeze. The skies were supposed to be clear and beautiful. That wasn’t the case. Acrid black smoke poured into the sky above Canterlot and obscured the sun, while fires still leapt into the air from beyond the walls and made the whole place feel like a desert with the amount of heat the blaze put out. If the sights and smells weren’t bad enough, the sounds were worse. Those creatures were still howling, and there were still ponies beyond the wall screaming.

The courtyard belonging to the royal guard was bustling with activity. Tents were now set up everywhere with guards, most of them severely injured from the looks of things, inside of them. There were the lucky few who were off-duty and attempting to relax in their off time while they dug into their rations. Usually there would be smiles and laughter as they traded stories from their shift, now there were only solemn frowns and sighs.

Everypony just looked tired.

The thought of going through the castle was not one that stuck in Rose’s mind for long. It would take too much time and she had been out of the fight for long enough already. So instead she took to the skies. It would be faster and help her loosen up a bit before going to her post. Luckily the wind was blowing the smoke north rather than east, which meant she could take off without being consumed in thick black clouds.

When in the air, she got her first proper view of the city since the night had passed. Most of the buildings in Canterlot were made of stone, so they wouldn’t actually burn down like wooden buildings put up elsewhere. The interiors would burn though, the ponies and things in them would as well. That’s exactly what had happened since it all went to Tartarus. There wasn’t exactly a clear cause of why everything was burning either, unicorn magic didn’t set fires by default. Maybe one of those things had hit a gas main, or there were a lot of panicked ponies that knocked over lanterns. Whatever had caused it, the results were the same and the city was being consumed by blood and fire.

Even if you could look past the colossal flames that kissed the sky, you couldn’t ignore the monsters. There were some that were still roaming the streets, still searching for elusive ponies that had somehow escaped the jaws of death for a while. Then there were the rest. They were gathered around the castle walls, their hooves scrabbling at the smooth stone and their magic trying to blast through.

There had to be over ten thousand of those things amassed at the walls, all of them growling and howling and itching for more blood. The throngs of multicolored monsters stretched out into the streets beyond as they all just sort of stood and waited for the ones at the front to do something. The carnage had not stopped in over twelve hours at this point and it didn’t seem like the mass was even tired, they still looked as eager as they had at the beginning.

Her hooves touched down at the front gate, where an exhausted Golden Star stood. Rose’s hooves immediately came together and she saluted her superior with a crisp movement. The barrel chested earth pony looked her over with bleary eyes then nodded softly at which point she relaxed a little.

“Good to see you, Corporal.” The Lieutenant grunted. “I was told to pass along a message from Princess Celestia herself: ‘Good job.’” He rubbed his chin, where a healthy five o’clock shadow had already formed. “I don’t think anypony was expecting you to capture an honest to goodness spy in there.”

“We were just as surprised as anypony, sir.” Rose responded. “Parade said we still don’t know who she is yet, is that true?” It wasn’t that she didn’t trust Parade, it was just that some things could get lost in the grapevine or muddled by a tired mind. It was just better to go to the source, or at least a main tributary of a source in this case, when in doubt.

“Whoever she is, she’s not from Canterlot. That’s for certain.” Golden tried to stifle a yawn but failed. “Wouldn’t say a thing either, not a word. She even refused to talk to the doctor while he patched her up.” Come to think of it, the supposed spy hadn’t even said anything while Rose chased her. The only words that anypony had heard her utter were the various swears after the spear hit her. “That’s not why I wanted to talk to you, though.” He reached one of his wide yellow hooves into his armor and pulled out a purple crystal in the shape of the crescent moon.

“What…” Rose couldn’t even formulate words as she stared at the insignia. “A promotion? Now?” It hardly seemed appropriate with everything going on, and the Captain of the Royal Guard herself was incapacitated if not dead somewhere in the depths of the mountain.

“A lot of our best ponies were out there and they…” The sentence was left hanging but they both knew what was meant. “...you survived. You’ve dealt with those things, you accomplished Princess Celestia’s mission, and you’ve caught what seems to be a spy or intruder or…something. So you’ve earned it.” There was no waiting for Rose to respond or properly accept it, instead it was snapped onto the front of her armor. “Congratulations, Sergeant Rose Wreath. Now go join Parade on the wall above the gate. Dismissed.” Every word from his mouth was drawn out and sluggish. He gave a half–hearted salute and trudged off. “I’m going to get some sleep…”

Rose looked down and studied the gem now pinned to her chest. A hoof traced around the edges and pressed gently on the center. She wished it was a sun, but the moon would do for now. Maybe someday she could reach the higher ranks and earn that sun on her chest, maybe if she proved herself during this crisis. As Golden Star had said, they had lost a lot of ponies so far. There would be opportunities to climb after this was over.

After a moment of absorbing her new promotion, she made her way to her post atop the wall overlooking the gate. Parade was there, a shield strapped to one of her wings and slightly crouched behind the crenelations. The sounds from the monsters on the other side crawled up the wall and assaulted the ponies that stood along it.

“Don’t get too close!” Parade held a hoof out to stop Rose from trotting much closer to the edge of the wall. “And try to stay low!” Rose opened her mouth to ask why, but Parade cut her off with the same raised hoof as before. The pale yellow pegasus grabbed her spear and scooped up a spare helmet beside her with it. She then raised the helmet aloft over the wall and waited.

It wasn’t more than a few seconds before several bolts of magic came from the blob below and turned the piece of armor into very expensive swiss cheese. Rose then immediately understood that being that helmet had already happened to more than one pony up on the wall, and she definitely didn’t want to add to those numbers. So she crouched down next to her fellow guard.

“Oh hey, Sergeant Rose now, huh?” Parade gave a little grin then nodded. “If I was promoted every time I got my flank kicked by a bigger mare I’d be captain by now. But hey, I do it for the love of the sport not the recognition.” Her smile cracked and she broke down into a fit of giggles. “I-I’m sorry, I couldn’t resist.”

Rose couldn’t stop herself from laughing either. It felt good to let it out, to just smile and laugh at something for the first time in what felt like eternity. “Well thank you anyway. I wasn’t planning on getting promoted, but if all it takes is bodily harm then I think we’re all in line for several.” A collective howl from the unicorns below punctuated the statement. “So…we’re just keeping a lookout?”

“It’s busywork.” Parade said with a sigh. “Those things are trying to break through the wall, but at the rate they’re going it’s going to take weeks. I guess we’re up here in case they try to climb it, but I don’t think they’re smart enough to do that.”

They had been smart enough to get onto the tops of buildings to get better shots at fleeing pegasi the other day, though. So why had that ingenuity faded when faced with a wall? There were buildings around that were taller than the walls, and there was no doubt in Rose’s mind that there were some floors where those things could get some shots in on the guards stationed on the walls if they wanted to. So why weren’t they taking advantage?

“Weird…” Rose mumbled, concluding the thought. “How long is the shift for anyway? Are we still pulling doubles?” Parade just stared at her. “Triples…?” A shake of the head was the response she received. “Until we’re relieved, then?” A nod. “Great…”

“Sleeping in shifts is the way it goes for now.” The other mare shrugged. “They have ponies in pairs stationed everywhere inside and outside of the castle doing the same.” Parade pursed her lips for a moment and her eyes focused on Rose. “We might as well get to know each other, right?”

“I guess?” Rose wasn’t much of a talker. The only reason Picket had been somepony she had considered a friend was because he had forced himself into that position by making her talk, by always being around and becoming a friend by default.

“Well I’ve seen you around for basically my whole career, but I don’t think we’ve said two words to each other since today. It’s more than a little weird, right?” Parade sat on her haunches but slouched to keep her head below the firing line. Rose joined her in a similar position but kept her eyes focused on the edge of the wall as if one of the creatures would poke their malformed head up over the side at any moment.

“Not really.” She had to raise her voice a little more than she was used to while patrolling outside. The large walls and solid surfaces let voices bounce usually, meaning something a guard said on the wall could find its way to the city center if it was said loud enough on a calm day. Now it was the din of growls and magic blasts that bounced at them from the other side of the wall. “I’ve always tried to keep a low profile. It’s still a job so I’ve always been more focused on doing it than mingling…no offense to anypony else.”

“But…just Picket?” Parade raised an eyebrow. “How long have you even been in?”

“Eleven years.” Rose answered flatly. “Twenty-sixth day of the third moon of the year nine-hundred and ninety-eight. That’s when I was officially accepted.” The day was ingrained on her brain like a brand. How could she ever forget it?

“Do you have a place in the city?” Rose finally turned to face her conversation partner at the question and she cocked her head to the side. “Y’know, for leave and stuff? Mine’s in an apartment building by Pony Joe’s.”

“No.” Rose shook her head. “I usually just go back home when I get some time off.”

“Every time? For eleven years?” Rose nodded in the affirmative. It caused Parade’s jaw to hang open before she could find words again. “But…why? No offense Rose, but it kinda seems like you don’t have a life.”

“What?” Rose couldn’t help but scoff. It was a ridiculous assertion. Of course she had a life! “I do. It’s right here, being a Royal Guard. It’s been my life since I decided to join.” Once again she was met with an agape mouth and a bewildered stare. “What?”

“And you’re just now making sergeant…?”

“Like I said, I like to keep a low profile.” Rose tightened her jaw and she had to keep her wings still lest they betray her feelings and begin to ruffle. “I’m not here to get promoted, Parade. I’m here to serve the crown and do my best to keep the princesses safe. No matter what job I do, I’ve always done it to the best of my ability and never complained. I’m not a rabble rouser and I’m not here to play politics.”

“I mean…” Parade searched for words, even waving her hoof around as if it would conjure them from the ether. “...I guess. Okay. But would it kill you to live a little outside of all of this?” She motioned towards the castle with the hoof. Her head followed the hoof and her eyes fell on something and stayed glued to it. “What in the world…is that a ballista?”

Rose’s head followed her compatriot and landed on one of the towers that seemed to sprout from the castle like a hydra’s head. This was one of the few flat topped towers and on top of it, barely visible from this angle, were the front of the frame and two giant wooden arms poking out from the sides. It was something she had seen in books before, but never before in reality. She didn’t even know the castle had one.

“I think it is.” Rose rose to her hooves, only to be forced back down as several lances of pure magic whizzed over her head. A few strands of her mane from the plume that sprouted from her helmet fell down onto her muzzle. “What are they doing with it?”

“Maybe thinning the herd?” The answer provided by the other mare was better than any one that Rose had. “No, the angle isn’t right…” Both of their eyes followed the probable line of sight for the giant siege weapon and both determined that it couldn’t hit the street even if it wanted to. Well, it couldn’t hit the streets around the castle. Maybe the ones on the other side of the city.

A projectile was loaded with the glow of blue magic, Luna’s. Of course she would be the one to pull out a weapon of that caliber. The projectile had to be thrice the length of Rose, and the metal tip attached to it was a big metal sphere instead of an arrowhead. All of the onlookers in the castle courtyard and up on the wall murmured as they saw it.

“AIM!” Luna’s voice boomed from atop the parapet. The ballista swiveled a bit until it was pointed into the city. There was a beat and everypony held their collective breath. “FIRE!”

The catch holding back the giant bolt was loosened and the projectile launched from the ballista at blinding speeds. Dozens of heads tried to track the missile as it sailed through the air, but all of them were slightly behind. It struck one of the buildings near the castle, one of the tall ones whose upper floors could see over the walls that Rose had noticed earlier. The stonework buckled under the impact of the makeshift wrecking ball and one corner of the top few floors crumbled and collapsed.

“Just in case they’re smarter than they look…” Rose mused. Her appreciation for the princess of the night was growing with each passing moment. She was proactive and tactical and thought like a protector. “In another life where she wasn’t an alicorn, Princess Luna would’ve made a perfect guard.”

“Oh yeah. Not a shred of politics in her. Just all action.” Parade looked directly at Rose as she spoke. “You two must be kindred souls or something, all you’re really missing is a spell on the moon.”

Rose declined to refute that or offer a rebuttal. She really didn’t want to get into her personal beliefs or how if her father had heard somepony compare her to the scion of the moon he would’ve laid his hoof across their face. Instead they just watched on as yet another projectile was loaded into the weapon and was fired off into the city in short order.

“How long do you think they’ll keep this up for?” Parade wondered aloud.

Day Five

Six hours and counting. That’s how long that ballista had been lobbing what equated to battering rams disguised as arrows into the city. So many buildings had their top floors lopped off, and even more had just straight up collapsed from the floors pancaking on top of one another from the top.

At some point in the last few hours Princess Luna had left the parapet after crying out in what sounded like pain. Parade thought she had just stubbed her hoof, but Rose had her money on her mane or tail getting caught in the ballista. Now there was a group of three ponies up there loading and firing the thing without the aid of magic. It was much slower without an alicorn’s assistance.

The upside was that ever since they started leveling buildings around the castle, the monsters had gotten a lot more quiet. Whether that was because the siege weapon had struck some semblance of the fear of god into them or if it was just because the sounds of buildings collapsing was loud in comparison to the constant droning growls and howls? Who could say.

The sun had set shortly after the ballista had started its work and now the moon was left hanging in the sky. The only way to tell that any time had passed since Luna had raised the moon was the distant sound of a clocktower bell at the top of every hour. Without that, it was almost as if the moon was staying still among the inky blackness of the night.

“Can they please stop…” Parade groaned and let her armored head hit the ground in front of them. “There’s not a building around that’s higher than the wall now! They can’t level the whole city!”

The two mares, and most of the guards on the wall now, were laying down with their hooves tucked under their bodies. This wasn’t because they were lazy or bored, but bored did cover a lot of the emotions, it was because some of the closer buildings had sent debris up and a few guards now had brand new dents in their armor.

“Maybe this is for more than just safety.” Rose offered. “Think about it, Princess Luna was out there last night attacking those things. Now if she does it again, they can’t go scurrying into the buildings to hide.” The theory had come to her as she watched some of the placement of some of the shots and the pancaking of them from the top down. It was all very deliberate. Yes, they had failed to collapse some of the buildings, but they had gotten the vast majority. “So the next time she goes out and tries to clear a path for a breakout, she can just open fire.”

“You do know you’re still talking about ponies down there, right?” Parade tilted her head towards the monsters. “Picket is still out there, our fellow guards are down there. Innocent ponies are down there.”

“Maybe.” Rose answered quietly as she thought about Picket. “Some of them, a lot of them, killed ponies. We saw them kill our fellow guards and innocent ponies all the same.” She looked up at the moon that was still visible even through the thick layer of smoke in the sky. “If this is the only way out, the only way to save the ponies trapped in here, can we really let what they used to be get in the way of our duty?”

“As long as I don’t have to kill any more of them…” Parade refused to meet Rose’s eyes and instead turned away. “...what if they’re still in there though?”

“The light always shines through the darkness.” Rose responded immediately with an old saying from her father. “Even through the thick veil of night, the light finds us and guides us.” When Parade gave her a very confused look, Rose cleared her throat and simplified. “If they were, they wouldn’t be doing this. Anypony should be able to overcome a darkness that overcomes them as long as the light of who they truly are stays lit.”

“You sound like a preacher on a street corner.” There was a bitter laugh that followed and a side eyed glance. “You’re a very weird pony, you know that?”

“It’s why I keep to myself.”

So they returned to the blessed silence that had flourished between them over the last few hours, punctuated only by the sound of the ballista firing and striking yet another building. A liberal estimate of the damage would be about a fifth of the city either damaged or reduced to rubble, while the remaining bits were still on fire.

“They’re leaving!” The cry came from somewhere down the wall. “The monsters are leaving!”

Everypony got to their hooves at once and the guards already on the wall quickly crowded the edge while the ponies on the ground quickly got up there and joined them. Sure enough, the mass of mutated monsters were mobilized and were moving away from the fortified walls of the castle. Cheers went up all around as the beasts retreated into the rubble of the nearby buildings. Guards hugged each other and celebrated as they finally had peace for the first time in nearly a full day.

The peace didn’t last

AAAAAAAUUUUOOOOOOOO!

A feral cry from the direction of one of the castle’s towers broke through the cheers and drew dozens of pairs of panicked pony eyes and ears. Nopony seemed to breathe as the sound faded. The wind didn’t blow, the retreating monsters made no sounds and it even seemed like the fires in the city stopped crackling for a moment.

Then the tower shattered.

A beast well over twenty feet long broke through the old and regal stonework, it’s bright white coat matching the bricks it tore asunder. A mane of pure fire billowed from its head and tailed down its spine, spewing thick black smoke in its wake. A pair of blood red, almost black, eyes stared down at the gathered guards as the thing flashed a mouth with what looked to be multiple rows of razor sharp teeth down at them. A horn the length of a pony sprouted from its head and was surrounded in a golden light that turned night into day around it.

“RUN!”

Rose heard the call, and she understood it. She wanted to follow what it demanded, but her hooves refused to move. A beast straight from her deepest darkest nightmares was right before her. The wrath of the sun made manifest. Even from a hundred feet or more below it, she could feel the scorching heat coming from its body. It was angry, and it was looking to exact its vengeance upon the ponies of Equestria.

“Rose, move!” A substantial force impacted Rose and sent her falling off of the wall. That still didn’t knock her out of whatever stupor the sight of the colossal beast had sent her into. “We need to move! Now!” It was Parade yelling right into her good ear. “Get inside, come on!”

The red and yellow pegasus got to her hooves first between the two of them and tried to drag Rose to hers. As much as she wanted to join her new partner in running, her hooves felt like cement and her heart was a lead weight in her chest. Her eyes never left that thing, not even as it came around and its horn charged with the blinding light of the sun.

“MOVE IT SERGEANT!” Parade shouted as loud as she could right into Rose’s face.

That finally did it. The order activated some deep seated response and her hooves carried her into a full sprint towards the front entrance to the castle. They all looked back as they beat a panicked retreat into the safety of the castle to see a beam of shining golden light erupt from the leviathan’s horn and impact the wall that had been keeping the horde beyond at bay. The stones melted beneath the might of the sun until nothing but an inconvenience remained where a wall once stood.

They were up the stairs and beyond the threshold before the first unicorns crossed the ruins of the once mighty barrier. The door was closing even as stragglers were trying to make their way into the castle. Dozens of ponies screamed out in horror as the door slammed shut in front of them. Then the massive door bar swung down into place to make sure that it couldn’t be opened from the outside again.

“W-what do we do?” Parade’s question was echoed across the interior of the castle. “We need to…we need to regroup somewhere. Fortify or something, right? We need to do something!”

The panicked rambling meant nothing to Rose, who was once again frozen and starting at the door. Hooves were beating against it from out there and the screams of ponies, guards, filtered through the reinforced wooden doors. As did the growls from those things and the dying cries of her comrades as they succumbed to the beasts in terrible ways.

That wasn’t what had her stuck though. No, her brain was trying to work something out through a fog of horror and shock. It was something important. It was right there and it was struggling to form the idea into something solid. After a few moments of silence and her mouth silently moving as it searched for the words, she finally got it out.

“Hey Parade…” The fellow pegasus guard stopped to look at her, tears stained her pale yellow cheeks and bright red veins were creeping their way towards her pink irises. “...where’s Princess Luna…?” Those pink eyes somehow became wider as the question sank in.

The question was almost immediately answered.

A pitch black creature nearly the same size as the one outside, if not just a few feet smaller, crashed through one of the walls of the entry hall. It had leathery wings that sprouted from its back and its mane looked like somepony had just cut a section of the night sky out and glued it to the monster’s head. It didn’t roar, its mouth was too occupied with a guard already caught between its gnashing teeth. Blood ran down its chin and shreds of golden armor fell from its mouth as its victim was turned into a fine red mist in its jaws.

This time, Rose didn’t freeze. The night was something she was already plenty wary of and didn’t need any extra motivation to flee. A whole gaggle of guards fled into the next room as the thing that had once been Princess Luna was too busy turning others into paste to pursue quite yet.

A dark and treacherous thought crossed her mind, one she felt shame about immediately but at the same time she agreed with it wholeheartedly.

She hoped Princess Luna played with her food.

Author's Note

Originally I wanted this story to be a quick 20-30k jaunt about what happened in Canterlot btw.

I'm a mess lol