Realium

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Realium

By Deathstrike666

Chapter 1 – Her Last Friend

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The moon was high up in the sky above Canterlot. The Princess of the Night was sitting on her throne, sixteen years since she has returned. Many things had happened during this time, being freed of Nightmare Moon, returning to the throne with her sister, gaining new friendships, finally getting to grips with modern society, and even learning their way of speaking.

But she was sad and unhappy. In the end, all of her friends have left her, while she was stuck in Canterlot. Cadence and Shining Armour now only stayed in the Crystal Kingdom, as Princess Twilight, with Spike and the rest of the bearers of harmony, set up another kingdom far across the eastern sea. Even Discord had gone missing a few years back, and Celestia never had any time to be with her. All her friends have left her, but one.

Her last real friend, the captain of her night guard, is a pegasus called Deathstrike. He had been her friend long before he became one of her guards, and because of this he quickly climbed up the ranks. She could still remember the night they first met sixteen years ago during Nightmare Night.

To ease her sadness Luna liked to think about how they first meet when she was alone in her throne room. Back then, he was the only pony that truly understood her loneliness. Luna Shuts her eyes and starts the dream.

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Deathstrike was happily doing what he did best, avoiding everypony. He had been dodging the sights of others for countless years, and by now nopony seemed to know that he even existed. He really didn’t mind being alone, he had learnt to put up with the sadness long ago.

Today, Deathstrike decided to hide in a dark alleyway on the outskirts of Ponyville. He sits next to a dumpster, getting comfortable and starts to think about his day. Earlier that night he had heard loud shouting and screaming but just ignored it, shouting and screaming were typical occurrences during Nightmare Night. Looking up at the night sky he tried to ease his boredom by trying to make shapes out of the stars.

The distraction didn’t last that long before the sounds of approaching ponies grabbed his attention. He quickly looked around the dumpster to see if the ponies were heading in his direction. He saw two mares, one was purple while the other was midnight blue, standing on the bridge out of town, having a conversation. He was too far way to make out what the two were talking about but he could make out something on the midnight blue one. What he saw on her was sadness, the same kind of sadness that he had suffered when he first started avoiding everypony. When he saw her turn and walk away from the purple mare with her head pointing to the ground he decided to do something that he never thought that he would do, he decided to follow her.

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Luna had been walking for a few minutes now but had only just noticed a presence nearby, following her and Twilight. She turned around and looked for the stalker, but failed to see anypony.

“WE KNOW THOU IS OUT THERE,” shouted Luna using the royal Canterlot voice, “SHOW THY SELF!”

There was a small rustling from a nearby bush. Slowly, a dark red pegasus came out, with a black mane and a tail with grey-blue streaks. He didn’t seem frightened like all the other citizens on Nightmare Night, which took her interest. Actually, he seemed more sad than scared. The pegasus continued walking up to her, only stopping once he was few feet away.

“WHY WERE THOU FOLLOWING THEE?” asked Luna still using the royal Canterlot voice and giving this pony an angered stare.

“Because I can see the sadness in you, the same kind of sadness that I have been under for nearly my entire life. The feeling of loneliness,” said the pegasus, “Everypony ran away from me, they feared me. So one day I decided to hide from everypony, I have been doing this for so long that nopony knows that I even exist. I don’t want anypony else going through the same thing, especially you, Princess”.

Luna was shocked by this. A pony that understood her sadness, her loneliness. A pony that had been through the same sadness for nearly his entire life. A pony that wanted to help with her sadness.

“What is thou name?” asked Luna, no longer using the royal Canterlot voice.

“Deathstrike, your highness,” answered the pegasus with a small bow, “Well that is what I changed it to”

“What was thou name before thou changed it?”, asked Luna a little bit concerned with what he changed his name too.

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Her nightdream was interrupted, though, when the massive doors to her throne room slowly opened. she opened her eyes and saw a pegasus wearing black armour, slowly entering. He stopped just in front of the Luna’s throne and gave a small bow to the Princess.

“Are you ready, Luna?” asked the pegasus.

“Of course I am Deathstrike,” answered Luna with a small smile, “Going for our walks around the castle is the only time that I never feel lonely nowadays”.

Luna slowly sat up from her throne and walked down the steps towards Deathstrike. When she reached him, he turned around and escorted Luna to the doors of the throne room. Once they had exited, Luna used her magic to gently shut the doors behind them. On their walks, the two rarely spoke to each other, preferring each other’s company over small chit-chat. Going on these walks every night was really the only thing that kept Luna going all these years.

They stopped on a balcony that overlooked the entire Canterlot gardens, above them was the magnificent night sky, uncorrupted by any cloud a far as the eye can see. They both stood there staring at its uncomprehending beauty.

Luna knew nearly everything about the pegasus next her but one really important thing.

“There has been one thing that I have always wondered about you, Deathstrike”, said Luna, turning her head to Deathstrike.

“Oh... and what is that, Luna?” asked Deathstrike, also turning his head.

“After sixteen years, you have still never told me what your cutie mark is and how you came to acquire it,” said Luna while pointing a fore hoof at his cutie mark.

Deathstrike’s cutie mark was one of the main reasons of his sadness and is what caused ponies to run away at the sight of it. His cutie mark was a bloodstained knife with two drops of blood coming off the tip of the blade.

*Sigh* “I have never told that story to anypony before,” said Deathstrike taking his eyes off Luna and pointed them back towards the sky, “I just don’t want to think about it right now. I will eventually tell you my sad story but just not right now.”

Luna was slightly disappointed with his response. She had been wondering how he had gotten such a disturbing cutie mark since they first met.

“As you wish, but I do want to hear this story one night,” said Luna, “Shall we proceed with our walk?”

Deathstrike just nodded. The rest of the walk was meet with total silence, and it wasn’t just them that were silent. The entire castle was quiet. As they continued their walk around the castle the only signs of life were the several Night Guards that were on duty. They only nodded to the Princess and their Captain as they passed and didn’t say a single word.

The silence was interrupted when Deathstrike decided to speak.

“Well the sun is about to rise. Do you think we should go back to the throne room?”

Luna just nodded in agreement. The two changed their course and headed towards Luna’s throne room.

Once they arrived, Luna slowly opened the two massive doors, revealing a tall white Alicorn with a pink, green, and blue mane which was moving in the windless air. The white Alicorn was standing in the middle of Luna’s throne room with an angered look on her face. Luna quickly noticed this.

“What’s wrong? ‘Tia? Did something bad happen?”, asked Luna

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Edited by Ultumateus