Behind hallowed Eyes

The first stars twinkled high in the early-evening sky over the ancient city of Canterlot. Elegant trees and intricately-stitched banners that shivered in the warm summer breeze bordered streets of polished white stone, all around sparkling marble buildings that could only belong in the capital of all Equestria.

The royal capital was bustling with the ponies of high society, some striding in groups showing off their finest evening wear, others in grand coaches entertaining their guests with the latest gossip. However, none of these sights could compare to the grandeur of a stunning white royal carriage that made its way towards Canterlot Music Hall.

Indeed, the carriage of the goddess of the sun was a sight to behold. The opalescent structure glinted in the rays of the early evening sun. Gold adorned the chassis and spherical cabin, forming intricate sculptures symbolizing the vehicles inhabitant’s glory and importance. It was pulled by eight strong, bleach-white pegasi of the Royal Guard, each outfitted with gilded gold armor so polished it would gleam even in the darkest of caverns. As a whole, it seemed as if the carriage could have been the sole source of light for the entire city were there no such things as a lantern or candle.

Well enough, crowds of ponies erupted into a fanfare as the carriage descended upon the court in front of Canterlot Performance Hall. The carriage door slowly opened as everypony gathered around, only to be pushed back by the guards as they escorted Princess Celestia down the marbled brick path to the entrance of the hall. The Princess waved to the throngs of onlookers as she progressed through the crowd that split like the sea before her until heard a familiar voice call out.

“Princess Celestia!” A young, purple pony cried with glee as she rushed to meet her mentor.

“Twilight, my faithful student.” Celestia replied coolly to her protégé, “I’m so glad you could make it tonight, seeing the Canterlot Symphony Orchestra perform is a wonderful experience for anypony.”

She said this with a slightly absentminded look on her face, as if something troublesome was on her mind that in her excitement, Twilight failed to notice.

“Come on, everypony else is inside already.” Twilight implored as she blissfully cantered through the tall oaken arched doors into the grand hall, the Princess following.

* * * * * * *

“Hey, Twilight’s been out there for quite a while, do you think the Princess is here yet?” Rainbow Dash wondered out loud to the rest of the mane six after zipping around the lobby of the Music Hall for the umpteenth time. “Should we go check that she’s okay?”

“She said she’d only be out fer a moment. I’m sure she n’ the Princess are headin’ on over here righ’ now.” Applejack replied. The orange earth pony was leaning against a catering table with her signature cowpony hat, trying to remember those darn table manners she learned the last time the Princess came to Ponyville. She had returned to deep thought when suddenly her hat floated off her head by blue magic.

“Dear Applejack, please do take your hat off while indoors, it’s so rude!” Rarity scolded AJ as she levitated the hat and placed it on a nearby hat rack, much to Applejack’s annoyance.

“You know what’s RUDE?” Pinkie Pie blurted out as she bounced around the crowded chamber. “There’s no confetti or streamers here! How can they call this a party???” She then whipped out her party cannon from seemingly no where and proceeded to explosively adorn a very old looking statue with the aforementioned party fare.

“Oh, Pinkie, please don’t be so loud. You’ll get the attention of all the other ponies.” It would be redundant to describe the softness of Fluttershy’s voice as she attempted to stay out of sight of the crowd among her friends.

The mane six - minus one were grouped together among a mob of unfamiliar Canterlot ponies waiting for Twilight to get back with the Princess, who had invited them out of the blue to join her at a performance of the Canterlot Symphony Orchestra. Despite the seemingly innocent invitation, they were sure it was at heart an attempt to discuss something urgent with them without causing alarm. Although they appreciated the gesture, they were suspicious nonetheless. The only times the Princess had ever requested them was always for some serious threat to Harmony or something. Whatever the reason though, they didn’t have time to discuss it as a familiar face approached the group.

“Ah, Rarity! What a pleasant surprise.” A voice with a Canterlot accent rang behind Rarity. She turned, and to her slight horror saw Fancy Pants approaching.

“Oh, hello F-Fancy Pants, it is quite a surprise.” His appearance caught Rarity quite off guard. Of all times to run into Fancy Pants, it had to be while she was wearing one of her less favorite gowns. How could she impress such an important, consequential, not to mention handsome colt if she was not in her best attire? She knew she should have gone with a more glamorous ensemble and redone her hair. But there’s nothing she could do about it now. “I was invited here tonight with my friends by Princess Celestia.”

“Really? Is that so?” Fancy Pants exclaimed in slight shock. “Why Rarity, you again prove you are quite the important pony. I myself have been appointed as a courtier on the High Canterlot Royal Court. I don’t get around to the fashion business as much as I used to, and I have to deal with many more to put it politely unpleasant ponies but it is a living. I can’t complain.”

Fancy Pants is part of the Royal Court? Rarity thought to herself in disbelief. He just becomes more amazing every time I see him. She had been fond of Fancy Pants from the very start, but in the few other times she’d seen him since, she was beginning to feel something more. She hadn’t told anypony, she didn’t really believe it herself. “That sounds like quite the life, mingling with royalty and such all the time.”

“Indeed, my dear.” Fancy Pants continued. “I do say, if you aren’t too busy, there is somepony I would like you to meet from work.”

This is too good of a chance to pass up, I hope the others wouldn’t mind if I went with Fancy Pants for a bit. Rarity turned to the others. “None of you would mind if I- if I went out with Fancy Pants for a while, would you?”

Applejack was quick to catch on. “Not at all, Rarity,” She said with a reassuring grin. “Go have yourselves a good time. I’ll tell Twilight you wen’ off with a friend fer a bit.”

“Much thanks, Applejack. Let’s go, Fancy Pants.” Rarity couldn’t tell why she was so worked up all of a sudden; nonetheless she gave a small leap of excitement as she turned to follow Fancy Pants to the opposite side of the room. As soon as Rarity was gone, AJ got her hat and put it back on her head where it belongs.

Rainbow Dash chuckled then said teasingly, “She always gets like that when she’s around that guy. How long do you think it’ll be till they start dating?”

Applejack playfully nudged Rainbow Dash with her elbow.

"Leave’r alone RD, I think that Fancy Pants really is a nice colt fer her.”

“Yeah, well why is she going off like that when we’re supposed to be meeting the Princess here together?” Rainbow Dash went on.

As if on cue, the Royal Guard marched through the door with Twilight, Spike, and the Princess behind. Immediately, everypony in the lobby bowed down to their Princess, who acknowledged their respect before coming over to the group of her most loyal subjects.

“Good evenin’ Princess Celestia.” Applejack and the rest saluted their princess. “It’s mighty gen’rous a’ you to invite us here tonight.” No matter how many times she saw Celestia, Applejack was always struck by her awesome presence.
“It is my pleasure, I am quite glad you could come as well.” Celestia still had the slight look of worry thinly veiled by a calm façade, and the ponies noticed it. Twilight and Spike too, as they had walked to the lobby with Celestia had noticed her troubled demeanor too. But before any of them could ask about it, the tapping of a glass caught everyponys attention.

A well dressed colt unicorn with a dark green coat and black mane stood next to a series of antiquated wood doors tapping a spoon against a cider glass with telekinesis. “Attention everypony,” he called loudly enough to silence the room, but not enough to break decorum. “The Canterlot Symphony Orchestra will be performing in fifteen minutes, please make your way to your seats.”

When he ended his announcement, the crowds began to shuffle their way into the concert hall, some through the doors, others went up stairs to balcony seats. Celestia led her party up one such flight of stairs.

As they came up to the Royal balcony their eyes were met with a sight of awe. Gilded gaslights filled the gallery with a golden glow like the setting sun, sparkling off marble walls lined with gorgeous bannered oak pillars. A stepped ceiling of a beautiful maroon wood and polished tile gleamed almost as much as the marble. Rows upon rows of masterfully carved chairs lined with red velvet cushions spanned out to he stage, which was – if possible – even more stunning than the rest of the hall. Thick curtains, perfect acoustics, and glorious art-deco-esque ornamentation made the frame for what seemed to be the centerpiece of the room while there was no orchestra. Towering above all else, a monstrous pipe organ stood, forever at attention to the hall before it.

It’s so beautiful. Twilight thought to herself as they took their seats. Rarity must love this. It was just then that Twilight noticed Rarity was missing. She turned to Applejack. “Hey,” She turned to Applejack against the noise of ponies entering the hall. “Where is Rarity?”

“Oh, Rarity, she wen’ off with a friend jus’ fore you got here with the Princess.” Applejack replied “She said she’d be back, but I figure we came in here so quick she didn’t get a chance to catch up with us.”

Twilight saw through Applejack’s innocent ruse. “Oh, Applejack, I know she must’ve gone of with Fancy Pants. Those two become quite the item whenever they meet up.”

This caught Spike’s attention. “Whaddya mean Rarity’s off with that hoity-toity fashion colt?” He was desperate to know some stallion wasn’t gonna steal away his Rarity.

“Not Hoity-Toity, Spike, Fancy Pants. Two different ponies.” Twilight reprimanded the dragon. “And he is actually a really nice stallion.” She insisted, but Spike wasn’t convinced and the conversation ended.

“Twily!” The voice that could only belong to Twilight’s B.B.B.F.F Shining Armor rang out. Twilight stood up at the sight of her brother and his wife Cadence.

“Shining Armor! Cadence! You’re here too?” Twilight nearly jumped for joy. She galloped to be hugged by her brother and sister-in-law. Despite her joy at having her brother here, she was now even more suspicious about why Celestia had brought her and the others here. She was about to turn to the Princess when the audience began hoof-stomping. She looked to the stage and saw the orchestra was entering and setting up now. Out of respect, she filed her thoughts away for later and returned to her seat between her friends and her brother.

She watched all of the orchestra members take their seats too and observed all of the different instruments. Brass horns of all different sizes, harps, different sized drums, some long black ones that looked like thin party hats. There were also several stringed instruments too. Twilight hadn’t studied pony music much, she only recognized the violin. However, she knew Shining Armor was knowledgeable in instruments having played the violin long ago. He was never great, but he knew a lot about instruments from his musical years.

“Hey, Shining Armor.” She whispered to her brother. “What are all these instruments again?”

He took a moment to think. When he rememberedeverything, he began pointing out the wind section: “Well, the small brass horns are trumpets, the large ones are tubas. Those swirley-looking ones are called Equestrian horns. The silver stick-like ones are flutes. Those black conical instruments are woodwinds. That’s a clarinet and an oboe, which is the smaller one.” He then pointed out the string section. “You know the violin, I used to play that. The slightly bigger ones are violas. The upright ones that the ponies sit with are cellos, and the largest ones are double basses. See that grey mare at first bass; she’s Octavia, one of the greatest string players in Equestria.”

“Wow, there are so many instruments.” Twilight couldn’t even imagine the time and energy it took to master one of these things. She kept looking and noticed an instrument she’d missed. It was a tall, wood one that looked like a bedpost. “Wait, what’s that tall one there”

“Oh, that one is called a bassoon.” Shining Armor answered. Twilight wasn’t sure why, but one of the bassoonists, a blue stallion with a black red-striped mane and full moon glasses, stood out amongst everypony else. She kept eying him trying to figure out why, but she couldn’t place her hoof on it.

“Who’s that blue bassoonist?” She pointed him out to Shining Armor.

“That’s the lead bassoonist. For some reason I can’t remember his name, but he’s really good, I saw him perform Nobile Finire’s concerto once, never even knew somepony’s hooves could move that fast!”

As the lights in the hall dimmed and the conductor came out on stage to take his bow, make an introduction, and set the orchestra to begin its first piece Twilight finally noticed something very strange about this stallion: he had no Cutie Mark.

* * * * * * *

DUN! DUN! DUN! DUUUUUUUN! …

The whole hall, even the organ was in applause as the lights reignited for intermission after the orchestra finished its third piece. Chattering about the performance so far, the mane six and royal accompaniment returned to the lobby to stretch their legs.

“I have to say, as much as I love my rock music, this classical stuff is pretty awesome.” Rainbow Dash confessed to the group.

“Technically, that last piece was from the Romantic era, Rainbow Dash.” Rarity corrected as she and Fancy Pants came out of the doors behind them. “I apologize for not meeting back up with you for the first part of the concert, but Fancy Pants and I here were having just a splendid time, and well, lost track of time.” She smiled wide in an attempt to show the sentiment was genuine - because it was, but she had enjoyed the alone time with Fancy Pants.

“Hi Rarity… Fancy Pants.” Spike glared at Rarity’s companion accusingly then turned away, hopping on Twilight’s back, who stared at Fancy Pants apologetically before turning to the Princess.

“Good evening, Rarity.” Celestia no longer attempted to hide the look of worry, and now had a much more serious tone than before. This finally confirmed the mane six’s fears that something bad was going down once more in the kingdom of Equestria. “Now that all of you are here, I must tell you that there really is another reason I’ve brought you here tonight.” She scanned the lobby, determining if it was safe to talk. “Please follow me.” She motioned to an empty corridor with her wing, then turned and set down it, the others in tow.

The corridor eventually came out to a small, quiet sunroom. Outside the glass walls the valley below Canterlot spanned as far as the eye can see until reaching the Everfree Forest. It was night now, and thousands of stars twinkled in the sky with a full moon. Celestia saw all the ponies and dragon in then shut the door behind them. She then bid the others to sit before taking a seat herself, Shining Armor and Cadence next to her.

Celestia cleared her throat before speaking. “Recently there has been a string of attacks all around Equestria. The first one was about a week ago in a small village not far from Ponyville; several ponies were assaulted in one evening. We dismissed it originally as an off-season Timberwolf attack as nopony could recall seeing an attacker, but two days later there was another in Manehattan, then in Vanhoover the next evening; and at least one pony is reported missing in Manhattan. At both of these, a few ponies claimed to have seen a large shadowy stallion that had a cry that pierced the night sky.” Celestia turned to look out the window into the starry sky created by her sister. “Each attack had more serious damage than the last. I fear that whoever or whatever is committing these attacks is becoming increasingly powerful, as if feeding off something.”

Everypony was silent. Very faintly the sound of the orchestra resuming its programme could be heard, it was rather fast and in minor key. What is going on? The mane six wondered to themselves. How could they have not heard about these attacks until now? Twilight was the first to break the silence.

“Do you think the changelings have returned? Could it be an escaped monster from Tartarus?”

“I don’t believe so.” the princess replied. “The changelings always attack in swarms. Also, I would have heard if anything has escaped from Tartarus, but I haven’t received any such reports.” She sighed and stood up, continuing to gaze at the violet and speckled abyss. “I’ve tried to keep things quiet, but if these attacks don’t end soon there will be panic and chaos all throughout Equestria.”

This gave Applejack an idea. “Perhaps discord’s back?” she chimed in, but before anypony could answer the sound of heavy galloping overpowered the faint bustle of the orchestra. A member of the Royal Guard burst through the door.

“Your majesty,” he crowed urgently. “It is my misfortune to inform you that Ponyville is under attack by the beast seen at Manehattan and Vanhoover! The Night Princess has already dispatched her Nocturne Guard but requests you be on guard for backup.”

The princess’s eyes flashed. “Very well,” She said in a grim tone with a hint of anger. She turned to look out at the peaceful sky one last time; in an instant she regained a calmer composure. “Ready the rest of the Royal Guard. It looks we won’t be seeing the rest of the performance.”

Twilight, Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and spike stood with mouths agape is dismay.

“No! Not Ponyville!”

* * * * * * *

A young mare with a yellow coat ran through the crowds of screaming ponies along the main drag of Ponyville. Her red mane twirled in the dry summer air and a large state-of-the-art flash camera dangled from her neck.

“Huckleberry Bush, Get back here NOW!” A concerned but stern voice called out behind her above the roar. Huckleberry turned back to see her mother calling to her several meters away. “It’s not safe; you’ll get yourself hurt, or worse!” The filly paid no attention. She turned away and continued galloping against the flow of the crowd. She had reporters' instincts; she wasn’t going to let anything get away from her.

She broke free of the crowd and ran along partially destroyed houses. In the distance she could swear she saw the pitch-black silhouette of the beast. She reached the spot she was sure the monster had just been, but it was nowhere to be found.

Suddenly, a gust of wind knocked Huckleberry off a small ledge onto her back. What she saw sucked all the breath from her lungs. Standing above her was an immense stallion with furious eyes. She gazed into the gleaming eyes. Something was familiar about them; familiar, but at the same time completely strange.

Without thinking, Huckleberry immediately snapped a picture of the beast, sending a blinding flash into the sky like lightning. The stallion jumped back violently in reaction to the flash, took one look at Huckleberry Bush and wailed a horrifying sound she would never forget, and then the beast ran off into the night.

Huckleberry remained frozen where she was, breathing heavily. She was pensive. Those eyes, could that have been…? Her thoughts were interrupted by the buzz of her camera automatically ejecting a small blank photo. Slowly it developed into a grainy, black-and-white image of the beast that had stood above her only moments before, it’s face gnarled in an eternal scowl. Huckleberry has said many times before that nothing escapes her lens of truth, and tonight not even the Dark Stallion could evade metaphorical capture.

Huckleberry Bush let out a deep breath. She laid back and stared into the starry sky. In the distance the shouts of royal guards could be heard as they arrived in the city. Softly she spoke to herself, “Was that… dad?” The stars continued to twinkle in the black summer night sky.