Brightspawn

Fluttershy was humming happily, cleaning her home, when a knock on her door surprised her. “Just one moment, I just need to finish tidying up this couch.” She nudged her sleeping bunny Angel gently to the side and fluffed the pillow before heading to the door. The knocking was growing increasingly urgent. She opened the door and lowered her line of sight to see one of the skunks that lived nearby.

“What’s the matter, mister skunk?” The yellow pegasus inquired. The skunk pulled on her mane, gesturing for her to follow. “Oh okay, I’ll go see what’s wrong. You lead the way.” Fluttershy flew after the scampering critter.

They arrived at the skunk’s burrow, where a female skunk lay flat on the floor. “Are you okay?” Fluttershy asked, inspecting the skunk for injuries but finding none. “Is it a bad stomach ache? A headache? Some other sort of ache? What’s that?” She noticed a glowing sigil on the skunk’s back in the shape of a horseshoe with wings.

The sigil flared up and Fluttershy stepped back, shielding her eyes from the bright light. The male skunk chittered rapidly, pulling on Fluttershy’s mane and jumping up and down. The light died down and Fluttershy stepped forward to take a closer look.

The female skunk was now transparent. It blinked its eyes in confusion as it slowly began to disappear, fading from the feet up, clawing at the air as if trying to cling on to some invisible safety net. Fluttershy was completely lost, only being able to share in the male skunk’s helplessness as his partner simply ceased to be. She grabbed at the space the skunk used to occupy. “I’m sorry,” Fluttershy whispered. “I’m sorry that I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t help, and now she’s gone. I’m so sorry.” A tear dripped from her eyes, splashing on the dirt floor.

“Are you quite done yet? Spare me the drama, please.” A disembodied voice echoed throughout the skunk’s chambers, startling the residents inside. “And here I thought my one true friend in the whole wide world was stronger than that.”

Fluttershy glared through her tears. “Discord?” She asked. “Are you behind this? If you did this, I swear…” Discord materialized himself as a shadow on the floor.

“Relax, Fluttershy, I’m good now, remember? We’re best pals. I’d never do anything to hurt you.” The shadow shrugged. “Besides, why would I make skunks disappear? They’ve hardly done anything to me. And speaking of which, that skunk isn’t quite gone just yet.” Discord’s shadow snapped its fingers and the skunk that had faded away returned. The two skunks hugged. “Child’s play, really.” A rather small Discord rose out of the shadow, just big enough to fit comfortably in the skunks’ home. He materialized a small couch and laid back.

“What happened to her?” Fluttershy asked curiously. The oddly glowing sigil had disappeared on the fully restored skunk.

Discord looked aghast. “No ‘thank you Discord for saving my friend’? The first thing you have to say has to be ‘what happened’? Well, I’m sorry. I’m not sure what happened, I just know that someone was trying to make the skunk vanish, and I reached over and yoinked it back because it was bothering my dear friend so much.” He shrugged, “And before you ask who could have done such a terrible, horrible thing… Just ask yourself ‘who would be so much happier if all of the skunks had just simply disappeared forever?’ Of course, that hardly narrows it down.” The two skunks stopped hugging to look at him disapprovingly.

“I’m grateful for your help, really I am, but I just don’t want this to ever happen again.” Fluttershy said. “Not to the skunk family or any of the woodland critters in Equestria. If they started disappearing all of a sudden, life would be too terrible for me to imagine. I’d better go see Twilight about this. She might know what happened.” Fluttershy left the burrow, leaving Discord with the skunk family. The male skunk raised its tail.

“Don’t even think about it.” Discord said, leaving the burrow in a puff of purple smoke. The skunks went back to hugging.

In the Canterlot Royal Palace, Princess Celestia was writing a letter when a guard approached her. “Please excuse the interruption, your highness, but there is a pegasus who demands to talk to you. He says he is from the organization known as ‘The Solemn Guard’. He wants your cooperation in ‘spreading the light of something or other’ throughout the land. I’ve never heard of him nor his group before, but he doesn’t appear to be hostile.”

Celestia raised an eyebrow. “Send him in; I am always willing to hear a pony out that means well.” The guard exited, and a pegasus walked in.

He was pure white and wore white armor engraved with gold that partially obscured his cutie mark, some sort of spear with an odd design. His mane was a bright gold, the same as his armor. His eyes were purple and seemed to glow as he spoke. “Greetings, your highness. I am Crystal Lance, of the Solemn Guard. I serve under her magnificence, Tranquility, from the Shining Lands. I request your cooperation in spreading the light of my master throughout your land.”

Celestia examined him carefully before responding. There was something odd about him. “What is this ‘light’? Who is Tranquility?”

Crystal Lance’s eyes shone brighter. “Tranquility is a being of perfect harmony. She seeks to bring a new age to Equestria, one of peace, where no chaos exists. This is her light, her light is her soul, and our way of life. We of the Solemn Guard are sworn to follow her in her quest to bring about harmony throughout the land. We all wear her mark as a symbol of our devotion.” He showed Celestia the mark of a glowing horseshoe with wings on his right front hoof, previously hidden by a gilded boot.

Celestia nodded. “It is true we are lovers of peace. Very well, I will send a message telling the many cities of Equestria to welcome the Solemn Guard. Of course, the teachings of this way of life are to be by choice, and not to be forced upon any pony.”

Crystal Lance bowed and smiled. “Of course, your highness, we will begin in the area known as ‘Manehatten’ and circle the kingdom, ending here in your capital city. Good day.” He rose and exited.

Celestia shivered. She had an uneasy feeling about this, but it wasn’t exactly fair to mistreat a guest of the royal family just because of a gut instinct. Was it?

Back in Ponyville, Twilight had just finished listening to Fluttershy’s story. “A glowing horseshoe? I don’t think I’ve ever seen that sort of symbol before. And then the skunk started disappearing… I think I have a book on vanishing spells somewhere. Spike?” Twilight called for her assistant while Fluttershy waited patiently.

Spike struggled to place a heavy red tome on Twilight’s reading desk. Twilight bent over and flipped through the pages. “I’m sorry, Fluttershy, there doesn’t seem to be anything on a glowing winged horseshoe in here. In fact, all of these vanishing spells are temporary and don’t leave marks.” Fluttershy turned her head downward in disappointment.

“Oh okay. Thank you for looking.” Fluttershy left the library, only to see a large group of ponies gathered around the town hall. It looked like Mayor Mare was giving a speech.

“Welcome, citizens of Ponyville! I have just received a letter from Princess Celestia. In the next couple of days, a group of ponies called the Solemn Guard will be traveling across Equestria to spread teachings of harmony.” The crowd cheered. “In case you are wondering how to recognize these wonderful teachers, it says that they are all white, wear gold armor, and carry this symbol on their body as a sign of their faith.” She held up the scroll, revealing the mark of a winged horseshoe. Fluttershy gulped. This was, indeed, bigger than she had thought.

“Solemn Guard? Gold armor? Do you suppose they come in silver too?” Rarity appeared beside Fluttershy. “Isn’t this exciting? I can’t wait to meet them.”

“Well actually…” Fluttershy started.

“They sound kind of boring to me,” Rainbow Dash walked over, interrupting. “And what exactly are they supposed to be guarding, anyway?”

“Earlier today, I…” Fluttershy tried again.

“Oh! I know! Maybe they’re here to guard Equestria from the dangers of chaos!” Pinkie Pie sprang out of a nearby barrel, making Rarity jump.

“I’d like to meet one of them guards in person. They sound like real charmin’ folk.” Applejack joined up with her friends as the last of the ponies left the town meeting.

“That might not be such a good idea.” Twilight Sparkle showed up just as Fluttershy opened her mouth to talk, and then closed it with a disappointed look on her face. “According to Fluttershy, that same horseshoe symbol just caused a skunk to disappear.” Fluttershy nodded. “I think the Princess should know about it. These Solemn Guards’ mission might not be as innocent as we think it is. Pack your bags. We’re going to Canterlot.”

“But the trains are all going to be full now,” Spike said. “All the ponies are trying to get to Manehatten to be the first to see the Solemn Guards.”

Twilight thought for a moment. “I’ve been practicing a teleportation spell. It’s designed to take a pony or groups of ponies long distances in an instant. It takes a lot of energy to cast, but just once for this emergency, it shouldn’t be a problem. I guess it can’t hurt to review the spell before our trip though. Meet me in the Library in an hour.” The ponies headed off.

An hour later, Twilight stood in front of the Library with her spellbook and greeted her friends. “Now then,” she said, “I’ve recited the spell ten times and teleported an apple across the room for practice, but this will be a little rough, and takes a lot of my magic, so we’re doing this outside, and please only bring what you absolutely need.” Everypony stared at Rarity, who grudgingly selected three of her five bags and set them aside.

“Alright,” Twilight said, charging up her spell, “Hold on to your hooves, girls.” There was a crackle, a flash of bright light, and the six ponies and dragon were gone. High in the sky, one of the Solemn Guard was watching intently.

The mane six arrived directly inside the palace in a bright flash of light, causing the guards to jump and level their weapons. Twilight, sweating a little from the effort of casting the spell, recognized one. “Big Brother? What are you doing guarding the palace?”

Indeed, the guard was her brother, Shining Armor. “Princess Celestia asked that I return,” he explained, “Cadence is here too, in the garden. Nothing has happened, but she wants a little extra security, just in case. She didn’t say why. I’m guessing it has something to do with why you’re here? Follow me; I’ll take you to Celestia.” They headed down a hallway.

“What was that spell you used, by the way, the one that took you here? I’ve never seen anything like it,” Shining Armor turned to his little sister.

“It’s a long range group teleport spell. I found it in the Starswirl the Bearded collection. It takes a lot of magic to cast, but it seems to have its uses.” Twilight said.

“I’ll say. That spell can be one heck of a security issue.” Shining Armor said. “I mean, what if an army of changelings decided to materialize right here in the throne room?” They had arrived. “But you leave me to worry about it. Whatever the princess needs to know, she should know as soon as possible.” The doors opened and Shining Armor left.

Twilight Sparkle and her friends strode into the throne room and were confronted by Celestia. “Twilight, what brings you and your friends to Canterlot?” She greeted them.

“Princess Celestia, I think that Equestria may be in grave danger!” Twilight said. “Fluttershy, please describe what you saw.”

Fluttershy meekly bowed before the princess before speaking. “I was checking in on a sick skunk just this morning when I noticed a strange marking on it, a glowing horseshoe with wings. The skunk started disappearing and I couldn’t do anything to stop it. It’s a good thing Discord showed up, or else I don’t know what I would have done. Not long after, Mayor Mare announced that there would be ponies with these marks all over Equestria.”

Celestia nodded. “That was in the letter I sent. These marks must be linked in some manner. However, I cannot act rashly and must see both sides of the story. I will arrange a meeting with the pegasus that showed up earlier this morning. He was the one who represented their order.”

“There is no need for that,” a voice sounded out from the chamber door. “Tranquility has seen these ponies coming to speak with you and we would be more than happy to explain.”

“You spied on us?” Rainbow Dash asked indignantly. Fluttershy lowered her head beneath her hooves and inched towards Celestia. Rarity flipped her mane and smiled, always trying to make a good impression.

“Tranquility sees all,” was the only answer. Crystal Lance strode into the throne room. “You witnessed a portion of Tranquility’s power. Please, join us and accept her light.”

Celestia flared her wings and stood between Crystal Lance and the mane six. “Why was your leader erasing innocent creatures from this world?”

Crystal Lance’s eyes shone as he spoke. “We seek out the ultimate harmony. A time of peace, of no quarrels. To do this, we must mark every being in the world. When every being has been marked…”

“Then everypony disappears,” Twilight Sparkle’s eyes widened.

“And there will be eternal peace,” Crystal Lance’s eyes flashed again, “No chaos or disorder. The entire world will be unified. It will be a wonderful thing.”

“Unified into nothing!” Rainbow Dash interjected. “There’s no way we’re letting you do this.”

Celestia nodded. “I cannot allow you to do this.”

Crystal Lance frowned. “You do not accept the light? But the light is inevitable. As we speak, the Solemn Guard is spreading it over your land”

A dark shadow crept over Celestia’s face. “Please stop. Equestria does not need another enemy, and I’m sure Tranquility values the lives of the Solemn Guards.”

“We of the Solemn Guard will fight for our cause. The light is the way, the beginning and the end.” The armored pegasus stood his ground. “We are prepared to spread it by force, if necessary.”

Celestia closed her eyes and took a breath. “You spy on our citizens and threaten to erase every being in Equestria. You can tell Tranquility that we are now at war.”

Crystal Lance bowed and exited. Celestia lost no time. “Retrieve Shining Armor,” she instructed a nearby royal guard. “I must warn the rest of Equestria.” She went to a desk in the far corner of the room and began writing.

“We should help,” Twilight said to her friends. They nodded and went over to the desk, replacing each scroll with a new one when finished, stamping it with a royal seal, and sending it to the leader of each town. Within moments, the group had finished.

Shining Armor approached the throne room. “You sent for me, Princess?”

Celestia turned from her desk. “Shining Armor, we will need a force field around the city. From now on, all Solemn Guard are to be treated as high priority threats.”

A royal guard burst into the throne room. “Princess! Commander!” He saluted Celestia and Shining Armor one after the other. “A battalion of Solemn Guards is approaching on Canterlot, estimated four hundred in number.”

“How many guards are in the palace?” Twilight asked her brother.

“I’m in charge of sixty here in the palace and surrounding estate, and there’s another one hundred and forty stationed around the city in gates and train stations ever since the changeling invasion…” He trailed off.

“We need that force field up.” Celestia ordered. “We shall fight outside the city, where no innocents will be harmed. And ready my battle armor. We will need all the help we can get.”