The Lunar Empire

Gryphus Castle

December 15, 1129

Ace Graymane

1:27 a.m.

"So, Lord Graymane, would you like to explain why you need so much of our iron and lumber? Your Princess Celestia seems to want enough to build a new castle." said King Halfbeak.

"Ah, yes. You see, she is interested in making several additions to Canterlot. A new platform for housing, prison improvements, some new towers... that sort of thing." I replied.

"I see. Since we have been talking for the past few hours about this, I will be very brief, as I would like very much to retire to my quarters to get what little rest running a kingdom allows. I want one million gold pieces for the materials, and not a coin less." came Halfbeak's offer.

"I am sorry, King Halfbeak but I was only given seven hundred and fifty-thousand gold. Maybe we can come to some sort of compromise-" I was cut off when a small scroll materialized in front of me. It dropped to the ground, causing some dust to fly up.

"Do you have some other business to return to?" questioned the King.

"It would appear so. Do you have a table I could read this at? Judging by the seal and expensive looking paper, this is a very important letter." I replied, picking up the scroll in my mouth.

The King motioned to a corner of his throne room. I flew over to it, and broke the seal. It read,

Ace Graymane, Lord of Foreign Affairs

Today, a very important event took place. Nightmare Moon, formerly Princess Luna, was banished to the moon. Immediately afterwards, her personal guard, General Dark Thunder, displayed extreme hatred towards Princess Celestia, killing two of her Celestial Guard, and nearly killing a third.

I stood there for a moment, confused. "Dark Thunder, Dark Thunder... Where do I know that name from?" I whispered to myself. "It seems familiar, yet..."

I continued reading.

Afterwards, he attacked Celestia on top of the now ruined Western Watchtower. He was, however, knocked unconscious by Celestia's magic. He is currently being detained in an underground prison cell. Because of his outward treachery towards our leader, he will have a court hearing in exactly one hour in Celestia's throne room. As a member of her majesties higher court, it is recommended that you make an appearance there, as your knowledge of Dark Thunder might prove useful in a conviction.

"A court hearing, yes? And before you assault me for violation of the privacy of outside affairs, Celestia is aware that I have the right to know what is on the letters she sends to her advisers that are in my castle." said Halfbeak, peering over my shoulder. "I assume you know this 'Dark Thunder' character? He sounds high up." he continued.

"Erm... yes. He is an old friend of mine. We grew up together, but we have been out of touch for quite some time. And now it appears..." I glanced at the letter. "...that he has gotten himself into some trouble." I replied.

"Very interesting. Since the Luna-supporters in Celestia's little court likely fled or quit to avoid persecution, now only Celestia's sympathizers remain. I suggest you return to Canterlot at once to prevent an extremely unfair trial from taking place. Wouldn't want an execution of your friend, now would we?" said the King.

I nodded in agreement and began running over to the castle entrance. As I opened the massive oak doors, a golden carriage, pulled by two white Pegasi, landed near me. The doors on it opened, and a small  light brown Earth Pony with a darker brown mane stepped out. "Ah! Master Graymane! I assume the trade went well?" he said.

I brushed by him, stepping into the carriage. "Sorry, but I will explain what happened later, Barley. Right now, we need to return to Canterlot to stop some overzealous judges from executing my friend!"

Barley got in with me, closing the doors behind him. "What do you mean? Celestia's judges are always fair." Barley questioned.

"Please, save your questions for later. I promise I will explain everything." I turned to look out at the Pegasi pulling the carriage. "Listen! We need to get to Canterlot immediately! I promise that you will receive double pay if you get there within the hour, understand?" The two Pegasi looked at each other briefly, then nodded at me. I continued, "Well, what the bloody hell are you waiting for? Take off!"

30 Minutes Later

"Sir, I can see Canterlot on the horizon. Should we begin our descent?" shouted a voice over the wind.

"Of course!" I replied. As soon as I did, the carriage changed from flying perfectly straight to being at a slight angle. No less than a second later, a small scroll, exactly like the first, appeared in front of me.

"Now, what could this be..." said Barley, catching and opening it. His eyes grew wide as he read it. "Oh my! They have started the proceeding early!" he said.

"What?! I must get there as soon as possible!" I replied.

"What do you plan on doing?"

"Barley, I suggest you hang on to something. This ride might get a little bumpy for you."

I stretched my wings and legs, getting ready. I walked up to the carriage doors, and kicked them open. They flew open, but the resulting air suction threw me into the air. "Master Graymane!" I heard Barley shout, his voice quickly fading away.

"I'm alright!" I yelled in return as I leveled out. I looked ahead, and saw the skyline of Canterlot a few miles away. I began flying as fast as I could towards it.

In a matter of minutes, I had arrived at the center of the city. I looked around, spotting the two central spires that marked the Castle's location. I flew over to the large oak double doors. There was a massive mob outside, armed with pitchforks and torches, shouting things so loudly they were incomprehensible. I landed near them, and got the attention of a young unicorn armed with a sickle. "What is going on here?" I somehow managed to scream over the mobs shouts.

"Our leader, Princess Luna, was unfairly banished to the moon! And now, her ex-personal guard is going to be executed by the tyrant Celestia! We have been trying to break down these doors to stop them, but they will not budge! Maybe you could fly over them? The courtyard is not far from the throne room." she explained.

"Yes, I will. Luna's personal guard happens to be a friend of mine." I replied.

"Then you have twice as good a reason to stop Celestia. When you fly over the walls, be careful of the archers. They have downed many brave ponies already." she warned me, then turned her attention back to the doors.

I began flying again, quickly reaching the battlements. "Hey, you!" a gruff voice yelled. "Get down from there, or I'll shoot!" it continued. I looked for the source of the voice. I saw an armor-clad unicorn walking towards me, his bow floating in front of him. An arrow floated from his quiver and notched itself on the string. "I'm warning you!" he yelled again.

"Fine. Whatever you say." I said calmly, then before he could raise his bow, I flew downwards and shoved him over, making him lose his magical grip on the bow. There was a dull thud as it hit the ground. I looked around, and saw a group of Pegasi armed with swords stationed at another entrance.

"He just attacked one of our archers! Kill him!" one of them said to the others. Three of them rose up, and the others remained behind. I looked around, trying to find another point of entry.

I saw a dull glow coming from numerous sections of the throne room wall. The stained glass windows... Perfect! I thought, and I began flying in their direction. "Stop him!" The lead Pegasus yelled, and he and his two friends began chasing me.

"You guard the doors, but does anypony guard your windows?" I yelled in return. The guards instantly became aware of my plan, but by then it was too late.

Time slowed down as I struck the glass, smashing through the metal frame and the glass being held. The tiny shards fell around me, and I was aware of the pieces I was closest to cutting areas of my face and chest.

I dropped to the ground, the members of Celestia's court around me. I looked to my left and saw Celestia just about to touch a gray unicorn with her horn.

"No!" I shouted. Celestia's horn was a mere inch away from the unicorns head. I looked more carefully at the prisoner.

It was Dark Thunder, and he looked pretty bad off.

He had several bruises on his right side, as well as an uncountable number of cuts and a lot of dried blood all over him.  Overall, he looked exhausted, as if he had been working in a mine. There was even a faint coating of dirt covering most of his body. My pursuers followed me in and landed behind me, pointing their weapons at my neck.

"Ace!" he and Celestia said in unison, both of them scowling at each other.

Celestia looked back at me. "Ace, what is the meaning of this?" she questioned.

"Oh, you mean attacking one of your archers, breaking a window and showering all of you in glass? I'm stopping an act of tyranny." I replied. "Were you not aware that after you banished your sister, all of her supporters in your court fled? They feared that you would come for them next. Because of this, only your supporters are left. Of course they are going to want to execute the last high-ranking pony that is against you. Oh, and there is a pretty angry mob out there." I explained.

"I don't need somepony telling me about the events that happen on my doorstep, Ace. But, now that you mention it, I haven't heard anything from the members of Luna's court..." she said.

"Executing the last of your sister's officials would be seen as an act of extreme tyranny, especially by the ticked-off ponies outside. Those doors may not have opened, but they looked pretty weak last I checked..." I continued.

"Don't listen to him! Kill that traitor!" one of the judges behind me screamed.

"Yeah! Get on with it!" said another. I rolled my eyes at them.

"Enough!" she said, using her Canterlot voice. A strange silence covered the room Celestia stood there, deep in thought, then finally said, "Fine. Since a revolution is the last thing this divided land needs, I will let Dark Thunder go and allow him to have all freedoms he had before he was imprisoned. That means his elite unit, his claims to land, everything."

"Thank you, Princess." I replied. I walked over to Dark Thunder, and Celestia and her guards backed away. "Come on, old friend. Let's get you out of here."

5 Hours Later

"So, mind explaining to me why I had to halt an important trade and fly halfway across Equestria to save your sorry flank?" I asked Dark Thunder. We had went over to my Canterlot home, where he and I had washed up and he had healed whatever cuts I had, only bandaging his.

"I was following orders. Luna was attacked, and instinct took over. I retaliated." he replied.

"Elaborate, if you will." I told him.

"Fine. It started a few hours ago. Princess Luna was arguing with Celestia. You know how they've been fighting over how we all sleep during Luna's night, but do our jobs during Celestia's day? Well, Luna got downright pissed when Celestia proposed extending they day to allow for more farm-related work to be done. I tried to calm her, but she never really listened to me or Celestia. Last night, it got as worse as it had ever been. Somehow, Luna turns herself into..." his voice trailed off.

He's having a flashback... I thought. "Dark! Snap out of it!" I shook him a little.

"Gah! What happened?"

"You zoned out." I told him.

"Oh. As I was saying, Luna turned herself into something else. Changed nearly everything. She even started talking all old-style, referring to herself as 'we' and such. Then, she attacked Celestia with some sort of spell, and I attacked Rune. We would have won then and there if Nightmare hadn't taken a hit. She started blinking around the room, then just disappeared. Right before I was able to kill Rune, I got thrown into a wall and knocked out thanks to one of Celly's kicks. That's where these bigger bruises came from," he said, pointing at his side with his hoof.

"After that, I woke up in a prison with three guards around me. Two of them left, and I overpowered the third. As I ran out to assist Nightmare, I killed two Celestials, but got ambushed at a gate. Right after that was when...it...happened." he said, stopping.

" 'It' is Nightmare Moon being banished, correct?" I asked.

"Yes. There was a massive explosion. I got up to the top of the tower, and threw a brick at Celestia. That turned out to be a bad idea," he said, chuckling a little. "When I got imprisoned again, they didn't exactly treat me like the usual prisoners. They tossed me in a mine for a while, then pulled me back up and started kicking me, cutting me, and all sorts of things. Either Celestia turned a blind eye, didn't notice or thought I deserved it."

"I think I understand everything now. Right around your second capture, I got a letter informing me of what happened. I was in the middle of an important purchase of some building material. Had to drop it to get here in time." I said.

"So that's how you knew what happened..." He replied. We sat there in silence.

"Walk with me." Dark said, getting up. We started off towards the door. He opened it, and we both walked through. The morning sun greeted us, just starting to rise over some of the houses. Despite it being morning, the only ponies we saw were patrolling guards.

After a few more minutes of silence, he said, "You know, I don't recall you ever telling me your history before you met me. I think it might be time you did."

"I suppose it would. I grew up on the streets of Cloudsdale as an orphan. At first, ponies gave me food because I couldn't work for it. Eventually, they stopped with their handouts because I was getting old enough for work. It was then that I began persuading people to give me things. Call it theft, but it saved me from starving plenty of times. After that, I went off to Canterlot to try my luck. It's a sort of 'high risk, higher return' thing here. I did well, but got caught quite a bit. I think that no less than a month after getting here, you were sent to arrest me."

"I remember that. I was just a recruit in the Luna's Army. Things were... different then." said Dark.

"Yes, they were. After you took me in, we became good friends. Soon, you convinced Celestia and Luna to give me some proper education. After that, they saw how good I was at convincing ponies to do what I wanted, so they made me part of their noble court, and later, their... what was it... 'Lord of Foreign Affairs'."

"Well then, I'll have to stick that in my mind. I'd suppose you'll want my story now." he said, looking at me. "Not much to tell about school. Seems the only interesting thing that happened is what I can't remember. There is just this big 'gap' in my memory, starting at when I graduated from my school and ending with me joining the Army. I was able to advance very fast there, attaining a medal, badge and a title in what seemed like every other week. Before I knew it, I was in command of my own group of elite troops, around fifty or so. Then the Changling War started. Our experience couldn't compete with their numbers... As a Captain, I lost soldiers left and right on the field." he said, remembering parts of the war.

"Even in the midst of all this, I jumped from rank to rank. I even took on a Changling hive single-hoofed. By the end of the war, I was eligible for the rank of General, on account of my battlefield and strategic experience. Normally, Generals aren't private guards, but Luna wanted me to fill the position. I suppose it was the same with Rune." he said, finishing his story.

We started walking back towards my house. "Do you think a war will be necessary to bring Luna back to us? Those rioters at the gate last night looked ready to start one." I asked.

Dark stopped and looked at me. "I certainly hope not. But if one starts, I will not hesitate to spill blood..."