The Night Mare's Knight

The sun was on its course down, sliding down the wall of sky like paint on a canvas. Luna sat in the palace gardens, a thousand-yard stare plastered to her face. Her gaze was fixed on the garden gate, just two hundred meters from her. Two bronze-armored guards stood at the gate, watching carefully. She looked down at her shadow, seeing that it had moved a good two degrees. Her gaze shifted back to the gate, her emerald eyes glazing over with another thousand-yard stare.

“Good evening, Princess Luna,” growled a deep and powerful voice. The sudden sound snapped the young (relatively speaking) alicorn to attention, eliciting a gasp as well. She spun around to face the voice, but saw nothing.

“My apologies for not showing myself,” the voice said from directly behind her. She swiveled again, but saw nothing. “I don’t much enjoy being out in the sun.”

“But how shall we see thy capabilities without light? The moon is new tonight,” she called into the wind. “And how dost thou continue speaking behind us without stepping into the sunlight?”

“All in due time, Princess,” the voice chuckled, again behind her. She gave up looking for the source of the voice. She looked to the sky again, seeing the sun hovering halfway down the horizon. Smiling lightly, she summoned her magic, activating a powerful spell. A deep blue aura enveloped the alicorn’s horn, expanding a considerable distance with the spell’s strain. To the east, the moon picked up from the horizon, as if not wanting the sun to see it. It stealthily slid up as the sun retreated behind the earth. As the moon rose completely over the horizon, the light blue veil gave way to Luna’s canvas. Stars and nebulas exposed themselves, figure skating across the sky, and around the moon.

A slight rustle behind Luna made her release the spell. Her head turned, looking only far enough to see if somepony was actually there. Seeing a silhouette, she grinned with satisfaction and turned to face the figure. The figure was covered in a ponderous looking set of armor. The armor included a helmet, which left only his eyes and horn unobscured, and covered his mane; a scarf, which covered the entirety of his neck and mane; a chest-plate, which covered his entire torso and underside, wrapping around his flank and blocking sight of his cutie mark; a cape, which coated his back, flowing over to cover his hindquarters, including his tail; and a set of boots that extended from hoof to chest, or flank, respectively. The armor itself was dark in color, matching the color of his horn almost precisely. It was segmented and jointed in multiple areas to free movement, and allow decent ventilation, but still looked like it restricted a significant amount of motion.

The sight surprised Luna. Everypony that had applied and been interviewed came either in something formal, or nothing at all. This pony before her was the first and only full-armored pony she’d ever met. Try as she might, she could not see even a square inch of skin.

Noting her surprise, he growled roughly, “Quite the sight, aren’t I?”

She looked into the pony’s eyes, seeing nothing there but black. She searched him for any form of identification, like a mane or coat color, or perhaps a cutie mark. Sadly, his scratched and roughed armor covered everything.

“Well, I’m here. I’m ready for anything. Shall we begin?” the figure asked.

“Aye. Let us begin, Darq,” Luna replied gruffly. “Now, we don’t have much to work with, due to thy lack of information. But I guess we’ll just have to go with what we have. How are your combat skills?”

“Ever wrestled a dragon?” Darq countered. “If not, you don’t want to. I have a nice gash from an adolescent’s claws on my right foreleg. Still won, though.”

“What level spells can you perform?” Luna asked.

“Highest I’ve gone is level thirty-two. But I’ve created a few of my own spells that I’m sure are far higher,” he replied.

“Oh? And what exactly is this spell that is level thirty-two?” Luna inquired with peaked interest.

“I’m just going to leave it at this,” he sighed nonchalantly. “I only use it in emergency. You, Celestia, Cadence, and even Shining Armor had best hope that I never need to use it.”

“I’ll allow you to keep thy privacy on that matter,” the Princess huffed. “I do wish to know, however, how many aura layers form over thy horn when you use this level thirty-two spell?”

“Four, ma’am,” he answered instantly.

“Ye mentioned earlier that ye hath invented a few spells of thine own,” Luna began, her head tilting ever so slightly to her right. “Perhaps ye would not mind if we asked for a demonstration of one of these spells?”

“Not at all, your majesty,” he responded. “I would however like you to pick a letter of the alphabet. I have a hard time choosing things at random.”

“We choose the letter ‘C’” she returned.

Darq took a wide stance, bracing himself as if to not be thrown by an unseen attack. His horn began to glow with a dark purple aura that could very easily have been mistaken for black. A layer of the aura became apparent around his horn, followed by a second layer around it, immediately succeeded by a third. As a fourth layer formed, Luna stepped back, sensing sheer power behind the spell. A layer of Darq’s aura formed around his entirety, his armor rattling silently in place. Her head tilted to the side, wondering as to the effect of the spell.

Darq seemed to grin. Four copies of himself stepped forth from the original standing before her. Each one was wearing the exact same armor, each scratch and detail in precisely the same position on all five Darqs. They formed a line before the lunar princess, each bowing simultaneously with each other. “Go ahead and touch. All five of me are tangible.”

She complied, tentatively poking the armor of each of the five ponies. Crickets chirped in the air, and the guards at the gate remained watchful, but did not notice the events taking place right at their tails. Luna’s jaw nearly dropped in disbelief. She had never seen such a spell in her life. There were now five of the same pony, wearing the same armor, standing before her. Each was just as tangible as the ground beneath her hooves,

“That is quite the spell,” Luna breathed, her eyes growing wide like a foal in an ice-cream shop. “What doth ye call it?”

“I call it the Shadow Clone spell,” he huffed proudly. “By far one of my favorites. It still glitches every once in a while because of its difficulty, but those are few and far between.”

Luna’s face adopted a confident smirk. Oh, this pony will prove most fun.