Remnants

Luna gazed at the sky. The stars, which usually brought her joy, now only filled her with sadness.

The night was supposed to be perfect. Her Thestrals were finally going to be accepted among the other pony tribes. Her dress was perfect, the court was cleaned to perfection, the moonlight illuminated the hall just right, and when the courts finally settled.

Luna exhaled, it only went downhill from there.

The words were lost to her now, a pompous fat pony started shouting about the necessity of the court in the first place, his fellow nobles joining him in the effort, Count Moondancer, bless his soul, began to shout back to defend me, and also attack back in a physical manner.

Luna winced at the image, the old count's cane flying towards the instigator, his magic did not even have the chance to intercept the object before it knocked him out.

Luna shook her head to stop the images of the vicious fight that came after.

She closed her wings around her, her sister's shout, the chandelier falling, the glowing.....

The Chariot bumped throwing Luna off her thought.

Luna raised her ear, her charioteer's curses told her that the wheel broke, Luna hummed, a good time to ease her mind.

She opened the door. Torch Heart did not notice her as he struggled to remove the cracked wheel. Her guard, Wind Whisper, followed her closely with Loud Trot, her maid, as she fussed over Luna.

Luna smiled at them and shook her head, as she made her way into the clearing, Whisper started to protest before nodding, Loud Trot ever so 'even-tempered' started to chide Whisper about her decision.

Luna ignored the pair, making her way toward the path's clearing.

She listened to the wind, the rustle of the leaves, and the sound of the dirt as she headed to her favorite spot. She needed to relax and let her feelings calm down, she could not be a princess with her mind as clouded as it was.

The large open clearing shone brightly under the moon, white lilies covered the circular shape of the place, and a large slab of rock sat in the middle, Luna climbed it and stared at the stars her thoughts drifting to nothing particular, she lay on the stone, closing her eyes and taking in the world around her.

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The sounds of hooves awoke her, she looked up, her eyes bleary, and she examined the figures, wondering if the ponies were her escort.

The dark cloaks told her they were not, she lifted herself and prepared to fly, but she couldn't, one of them a unicorn bounded her wings with magic, they drew their weapons and began to approach her, and Luna knew it would be her last night in Equus.

The sound of twigs breaking distracted the group and one of the trees shook violently leaves and broken twigs dropped from it.

Luna squinted her eyes a dark shape stood there red eyes staring from its hidden spot.

A Wendigo?

Another sound drew her away from the creature, one just below her.

A large creature stood on all fours in the grass. It was draped in a black garment around its torso, with a mop of grey mane on its head. It was furless and its skin was a light tan. It had beady, piercing eyes with a small nose beneath them and stared at her with a flat mouth. One of its arms was on the ground, supporting its body, while the other was in the air, a long silver blade slick with blood strapped along its arm. Two long legs lay in the grass, with their feet planted firmly on the ground.

The unicorn assailant screamed in fear, her magic faltering, allowing Luna to fly away from the creature that caused her senses to scream danger.

The being pounced, its body tackling the unicorn mare in a shower of blood as her head was separated from the rest of her body, another of the assailants rose into the air towards her, wing blades gleaming in the night, a whistle whizzed past her and towards the pegasus, whatever it was it opened a hole in the stallion's face and the blew away his hood, a river of blood traveled through his features as he still stared at her with determined eyes before his body fell to the ground with a thump.

A Stallion's scream made her focus on a young well-cared earth pony before it was suddenly muffled by a wet crack, the creature's fist connected with his head, making it bend backward and up at her with fear-fueled eyes before his body stumbled into the ground.

A unicorn aimed its bow at the blood-soaked creature's head and fired it, the being snapped at the arrow, Luna barely saw it grab the thing before the creature threw it back at the unicorn with a loud whip-like sound, the arrow hit the unicorn in the eye throwing her assailant several meters backward before skidding to a halt.

An earth pony mare screamed at the creature and charged at it, her hooves making a clicking sound before she reared to strike at the creature, wicked looking hoof-blades gleamed in her vision, it rolled away from her strike and jumped to her side, throwing one of its legs at the mare's torso, Luna heard the sound of cracking bones, the mare to let out a terrible shriek of pain as she collapsed to the ground in a vomit of blood.

A pegasus darted toward the treelines, while a unicorn charged the tall creature, the pegasus barely got close to the trees, Luna saw a glint of metal dart from the dark before the pegasus was cut in half by a disc, causing a cascade of blood to shower the ground, it flew in arch across the clearing.

The unicorn swung its axe at the creature, it jumped over his attacker and grabbed at his nape, throwing the unicorn into the air and the path of the arching disc, Luna looked away from the scene, she barely saw the surprisingly clean disc make its way towards the treeline.

Luna stared at the last member of the group of attackers, a golden magic aura surrounded the mace close to the unicorn, it threw their mace at the distracted creature before it charged it with its horn, the mace impacted with the creature's head, and the unicorn shoved its horn on the the beings torso.

Luna winced, too disgusted by the bloodshed to look at the death of the strange being, she closed her eyes....., She heard choking sounds.

Luna opened her eyes, and the first thing she saw was the creature's anger filled with visage, its arm holding the fat body of its unicorn attacker by the neck, the unicorn stallion choked in panic, his hooves striking uselessly at its arm.

Baron Golden Treasure situation aside, she looked at the assailant's weapon, the mace was broken, shards of it were scattered to the ground, the main part of its design gone as if something took a bite of it leaving only half its main piece remaining.

The creature huffed as it stared at the Baron's eyes, and then it snapped its attacked neck, letting his body fall into the dirt.

Luna did not know how to react, did she run, did she stay, either way, she knew it would end with her death, and the feeling of dread at her back grew with every beat of her heart.

The Creature stared at her, beady eyes, which she noted were of a beautiful dark blue shade, and studied her closely, and then stared at the sky, and then at her again.

"Neja" it shouted, it was both masculine and feminine sounding at the same time, leaving her wondering about the creature's gender.

It shook its head towards the trees, and Luna felt the feeling of dread disappear, being replaced by fear.

The creature bowed its head at her, and darted off into the grass, leaving Luna searching for it.

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Wind whisper busted from the trees her wing blades raised into combat, her two remaining assistants followed close behind brandishing two wooden clubs, Whisper shouted something at her, Torch used his light to illuminate her, and Trot fussed over her.

Meanwhile, Luna was left wondering who were her mysterious Guardians.