//------------------------------//
// Chapter 6 
// Story: After Discord 
// by Faindragon 
//------------------------------//

I looked up at the sky from my position on the top floor of the flat tower. Celestia’s grace embraced her younger sister’s grace as they swirled around each other in a dance of balance, of harmony. Luna’s eye rose from her dormancy, rose to take the space that the elder sister’s eye gave her. I started my nightly meditation, whispering into the air around me.

“Luna and Celestia, eternal goddesses of the Equestria realm. Watch over me this Luna hour as I go onto my crusade in your name, a crusade to clean the filth that soaks this city. Under Luna’s grace will I accomplish the deed, under her watching eye will the servant of Discord fall. Luna, greet the restless soul of the servant that will fall tonight with love in heart, his mind was poisoned, not his soul. He will become one of your loved servants once his soul is free from the poisoned body and mind that is the shell he walks around in now. Celestia, forgive me as I take the life of one of your children, forgive me as I stop the beating of his heart. Understand that what I do is for the good of the celestial goddesses. Watch over your children with love in your heart, knowing that when the time comes will they all serve your sister. For a Equestria free from corruption.”

I finished the meditation prayer and looked up at the eternal sky above me.

The sky glowed bright red as Celestia’s eye felt through the horizon, her last shimmering waves of grace spreading in the sky closest to the horizon. 

And Luna’s eye washed over me with its pale, white grace. Luna’s mane started to twinkle up there, surrounding her eye, danced in the eternity above. 

And all I could do was to watch, watch as her mane danced with her eye, watched as the world got coated in Luna’s purifying grace. 

And with Luna’s grace came the transformation. 

I could feel it in my entire being, my mind got sharper, my body tougher. My muscles played under my coat, ready for anything. My hooves felt as if they could run ten miles and then tenfold more before stopping. I felt my body burn with a fire of pure ice, could feel it in every part of my being, every hair of my coat and mane.

And just like that was the feeling gone. I still knelt on the stone floor of the tower, fighting to control my breathing.

Fighting to withstand the urge to kill.

My entire body trembled under the internal battle, a battle only watched over by Luna’s eye and Lightheart. 

I never know for how long I fight that urge, only that in the end, do I succeed in pressing down the urge, hiding it at the back of my mind where it rages.

It rages at me.
It rages at the world.
It rages on everypony around me.

But most importantly.
It rages on the celestial sisters.
It rages on Luna’s eye for trapping it inside me.

I slowly got up on my hooves again, standing and letting the Luna hour wind ruffle my mane and coat. The chilling wind brought with it the scents from the gardens of Trotholm. I turned around, looked at Lighheart who had stood still during my meditation and now looked at me, sadness and pain in his eyes.

“Come with me my friend, I need to talk to you about some things of a.... serious and horrible nature.” He said as he turned around, started to walk downwards.

This alarmed me, the little raging thing that I thought I had fought back tried to take over again; clawing against my mind, trying to make me kill everything around me.

I violently pushed the thing away, pushed it into the darkest corner of my mind. I would not kill the innocent, the only killing I did was against the ones corrupted by Discord. 

I nodded towards Lightheart, following him down the tower and into his office.


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We sat in Lighthearts office, Luna’s eye watching us through one of the windows. Lightheart was uneasy. He had offered me tea; which I politely, with a shake on my head, refused. Now he sat there and drank from his own cup, looking at me over the tea cup. I don’t think he knew that I saw it. More than once did he start to talk, only to hesitate and stop. I gave him the time he needed, tonight’s mission might not be easy, but I owed the captain this much. 

He finally started to talk.
“I have a death sentence over me.Tomorrow at this time will I be hanged in public. Hanged for treason, hanged for not following orders.”

He took a trembling breath.
“I will be hanged for letting you in here every day for this past years. It had not been a problem earlier, but after my command at sunrise today, when you came here for your meditation... that seems to have been the last misstep. The last misstep leading to the noose around my neck.”
I could only look at him. Lightheart, the captain that had gained my respect, the captain that I had grew to like, to befriend. The captain that now would be hanged for allowing me entrance for my meditation. But how did he know about this? 

He chuckled, a sad chuckle. 
“You must ask yourself how I know about this, and why I haven’t left when I got to knew about it.”

He lowered his cup of tea, looking directly at me now.
“I have not gotten this far without making any friends in the army, I received the information less than an hour after it was spoken. The order that I was not to leave this tower and that I was being arrested if I tried or at sunrise. The guards standing outside are the ones to arrest me, either if I run for it or at sunrise. I would probably be able to run for it, they would not be able to catch me, not alive at least. But that would put my family in danger. My wife, my son. Both would be put in great danger. And I rather die than let that happen.”

I couldn’t be quiet anymore. I had to know.
“Why are you telling me this? What could I be able to change? What good does it do?”

Lightheart looked at me, taken aback. This was after all the first time I talked to him for the years I had known him. He quickly found his composure, talked again.
“Didn’t you listen to what I said my friend? I’m to be arrested for treason. They know about you. They know that you are the shadow of Trotholm.”

It was as a hammer had struck my head. They knew? The thing started to claw against my mind again, digging deeper and deeper. I had to fought to push it down again, but it had planted a seed in my mind. A seed of rage.
“Why did you not tell me directly? When I arrived here?” I said, my voice heated with anger and rage.

Lightheart, however, was calm.
“I did not know back then. I received the information during your meditation. I had my suspicions earlier, that was why I told you that I had to speak to you.”

His sad eyes looked at me. 
“I will not order your arrest here, I know a bit about who you have taken out during the course of mere weeks. You have taken out the ones that served Discord. But I beg you, put your daughter in safety before you do anything.”

It was my time to be taken aback. How much did he know about me?
“How did... how did you know that I had a daughter?”

He smiled at me, a sad smile.
“I know more than most suspect. The Black Stable is not safe anymore, not for Honey. In fact, it is not safe for her around you at all. You have to make a decision my friend. Keep going with this, and risk the life of your daughter, that and your own. You can also just give up, leave Trotholm forever. But its a decision you have to take tonight.”

He stepped up from his place, trotting over to his desk.

My mind raced. What was I to do? I could not risk the life of Honey, nor the life of the rest at The Black Stable. If the guard was to go in and arrest me in the darker part of Trotholm then they would come in with great numbers. Suddenly, it was all clear to me.

I would have to be the one to strike first.