//------------------------------//
// Aftermath 
// Story: Legion of Shadows 
// by Strythio 
//------------------------------//

"... And that is all that I know regarding this." Fancy Pants concluded as Celestia finished tying another set of bandages around his waist. "I swear it." 

Celestia rose and sighed. She had not expected to hear as much as she had, but now it was all becoming too clear. No matter how many times they attacked it, that shadow never ceased to rest and let well enough alone with the living. 

"Fleur had that book and Sunset's saddlebags. She even willingly allowed a changeling into her occupation. She is almost as involved in what is going on as Sunset is." 

"Well you know the saying Princess," Fancy Pants chuckled, "Like mother like daughter." 

Celestia sighed. She had never cared much for that saying, particularly back when there were still ponies who remembered what her mother was like. "Either way, all of these coincidences are adding up to one thing. Sombra's warning. The crystal ponies treachery would have hardly been a problem had the Market not dipped its talons into the matter." 

"Well, you did outlaw it in Equestria, and crossing the sea was not much of an option," Fancy pointed out, "Most simply dissolved and blended back in. Others, like Fleur, were outright ruined by it. I still don't see why they would want Shining Armor and Cadance out of the way." 

"Their removal were orchestrated in order to return those back to the question of who would rule them," Celestia mused, "As we have seen in just these past few days, they are not too keen on being ruled by myself and Luna directly." 

"Well, they do not have much choice." Fancy Pants sat back onto his haunches, pawing at the floor. "Without the crystal heart, they are just a bunch of regular earth ponies with a complaint." 

It then occurred to Celestia that, during all of this hubbub, she had instructed her guards to keep a lookout for any suspicious activity. Now that it seemed to her that things were winding down, now would be a good time to investigate as to why crystal ponies had come to Canterlot in the first place. 

"Princess!" a voice shouted, redirecting Celestia's and Fancy's attention to the hole that had been earlier made. "There is an issue!" 

"Spit it out Blueblood." Celestia had hoped that he had already left the castle, but it seems that he was still lurking about.

"Princess Luna's room has been ransacked!" Blueblood said in alarm, "It does not look like they took anything material, but a great amount of magic has gathered outside." 

Celestia tilted her head. "How did her chamber get intruded upon in the first place? Are there any guards in this castle still?" She would have to do some serious inspections on the quality of her royal guards after this was over. 

"Well, that is the thing, the castle is completely abandoned," Blueblood sheepishly stated, "In case you have not noticed, it is very quiet in here, and very loud outside." 

"Hm." Abandoned? Well no wonder no guard had yet to inform her of some terrible disaster. Just as her thoughts wrapped around disaster, one flew right through her castle walls, sliding over her carpet, rolling up in it, and ending up as a bundle at her hooves. 

That disaster, however, looked an awful lot like Luna. Celestia hurriedly unrolled the carpet to reveal Luna, with a particularly bad scorch mark on her side. "Luna!" Celestia cried out, "What has happened?" 

Luna's eyes fluttered open for a few moments before closing again. Upon close inspection, it was clear that it was a magical strike to her side that had sent her flying into the castle in such a fashion. 

"I must have underestimated Sunset Shimmer," Celestia spoke aloud, "If she is capable of this." 

"Should we leave?" Blueblood inquired, seeing Celestia's facial expression go from pleasant to morbid in far less time than he preferred. 

"I will attend to Luna. I want everypony to find her-" Celestia paused, and then looked to Blueblood. "Find them. All five of them. And tell the Captain of the Guard to report to me at once." 

Blueblood nodded and fled the room, the brooding alicorn not one to be tampered with. Celestia channeled magic to her horn, and began working on healing Luna's injury. Though it was not lethal by any means, it had been strong enough to physically leave a mark. "I should have personally executed her when I had the chance," Celestia grimaced, "First a changeling appears as an imposter of my daughter Nimba, now Sunset has the power to severely injure Luna?" 

Fancy Pants wanted to leave right behind Blueblood, but proximity disallowed him from simply leaving without drawing Celestia's attention. As a result, when he tried to creep from the room, Celestia shot a look to him. "Fancy. You are not back in my graces, but I have something for you to do. Take that corpse to the library. There should be a group of ponies with Princess Cadance's body there; drop that corpse to them. They shall know what I want from it." 

As much as Fancy wanted to ask if he really had to do such a thing, Celestia's intense stare convinced him not to disagree. The stallion scampered to obey. Celestia gave another look to Luna's pained face, ears folding back. 

if you must betray them, put them out of their misery, lest their hatred and vengeance make you slaves once more.

Sombra's words echoed in Celestia's head again. No, Sunset could not have gotten strong enough for this. Not yet anyways. Luna's room being sacked, her possession of the Crystal Heart, and more importantly, the fact that Sunset still should have been incredibly weak stacked that this could not have possibly been done by Sunset. 

There was only one other explanation then. One other conclusion that justified what she was about to order. "Always the hard way," Celestia sighed, stroking her sister's mane tenderly. Luna had had the Heart, but Blueblood had clearly not noticed it anywhere in her room. Presuming she kept it in her chambers, that meant that the crystal ponies had stolen it during the mayhem. 

And if that was their plan all along, using all else as merely a distraction, then that meant that they were capable and willing of far worse than theft of what was rightfully theirs. And that was something that could not be allowed to continue.









"Where are we going?" Gilda inquired as the group ended up at the train station. 

Crystal ponies and royal guards alike were fighting, a large, blue, heart-shaped gem apparently being the center of attention. 

"Well, we are not going to be able to fly out of this," Lightning pointed out, "We are catching the train. Whether these ponies like it or not." 

"Defend the Heart!" one of the crystal ponies shouted, putting up a rather bold defense around the heart. The guard, mostly content to have the thieves contained, hardly noticed the sizable group that boarded the train. 


Trixie and Lightning went to the conductor's car. A mare of about mid-age was at the helm, and she seemed surprised to find a glowing horn pointed directly at her head. 

"Get going. We do not have all day." Trixie threatened.

"Err, I was ordered not to go anywhere yet," the mare stated calmly, "the guards do not want to risk any ruffians escaping Canterlot. If you attack me, you will only draw attention to yourselves." 

Trixie had no trouble blasting the mare in the face, though she more of dazzled her than killed her. Replacing the dazed mare as conductor and merely pushing her aside, Trixie and Lightning Dust soon found a problem in their logic, other than the possibility that the mare had spoken the truth regarding attention.

"Err, do you know how to drive a train?" Lightning inquired. 

"Um, no, that is not in Trixie's trick book."

Pulling the dazed mare up from her position, Lightning threatened, "Tell us how to operate the train or we will have to get lethal!" 

The mare shook her head clear, and seeing Trixie ready up another blast, she reasoned it would be less time consuming to tell them. "It is very straightforward. That lever there controls both the speed and the pace of the train. Only thing you have to worry about is warning passengers of unfavorable conditions-" 

Lightning hurled the mare from the train car before she even finished. With an eager hoof, she pushed the lever forward, starting the engine on the train. "Oh, so it is that kind of train," Lightning commented, "I should have known. I don't think it takes two to operate." 

"I will keep an eye on the back," Trixie looked out, just in case they had indeed drawn any attention, "Put us on full blast." 

The train began pulling away from the station, slowly but ever so surely. The guards, noticing this, cried out for the conductor to stop. Lightning merely pushed to full throttle, rocketing the group out of the station and on towards the first tunnel of the trip. Trixie was thrown forward to her destination, her momentum stopped by Gilda, who managed to catch her by the tail before she could go flying out the back train car and back to the train station. 

"Easy there Trixie, we don't want you leaving us so soon," Gilda jested as she returned the mare to stable ground, "What pony drives this thing like this? I think my stomach might have shifted places." 

"Lightning Dust is driving." 

"Oh great," Gilda moaned, "Fortune favor us for this ride, and let it not be our last." 









Flash lay unmoving where his body had rested for the past few minutes. Fleur put a hoof to his muzzle in solace. Dash merely stood in stunned silence, confusion riddling her face.

"This, is her brother?"

Fleur moved her hoof further down to his neck before lowering her head to his still open muzzle. He was still breathing, though rather shallowly.

"Thank Celestia you wear armor wherever you go," Fleur scowled, using her magic to lift him. "Rainbow Dash is it? Help me get him to the infirmary-"

Flash coughed, spurts of blood landing on Fleur's muzzle. Dash gasped, and Fleur gently lowered him back to the ground. His eyes opened, his gaze resting on Fleur.

"Figures you would be the one standing over me," Flash joked, "You did say you would let me join my parents in Las Pegasus one way or another."

"I did not intend on this to happen!" Fleur shot, unwittingly raising her voice, "Celestia came into what used to be a thriving parlor and practically ordered me to surrender incriminating evidence about my own daughter! How was I supposed to know that she would turn into a demon from some mystical force?"

Flash hacked and coughed, that temporarily serving as the response to Fleur.

"Nobody is blaming you," Dash pointed out, "It is just that you looked pretty ragged for a model. Just saying."

Fleur shot Dash a look, but not before Flash began speaking again. "Naw, you look better stress, broke, and ready to cry. I can see why Dad hopped on that flank. Heh."

He coughed some more, and with a hoof prodded Fleur's stomach. "Fleur, you know Chrysalis right?"

"What is your request?" Fleur inquired, dodging the question.

Flash chuckled, and then said, "You know that mare that you sold Sword for the sake of the Crystal Tavern?"

"They were one in the same."

Dash seemed surprised, but Flash merely chuckled. "Figures you would already know that. But what you don't know; is that that mare is laying in Celestia's castle right now."

Fleur neighed in surprise, catching even Dash off guard with her reaction. "What? But how-"

"I don't have enough time to fully explain," Flash cackled, coughing up a storm inbetween sentences, "Ask Lightning Dust when you catch her next about that. But as for Shining, do not be shocked if he ends up in griffon talons by tomorrow."

"What value is his body?" Fleur inquired, "I do not understand, two dead ponies-"

"Neither of them are actually dead are they?" Dash's conclusion brought a smile and a nod from Flash, even as he rested his head back onto the ground.

"Dash, tell Spitfire to go back to the Crystal Empire Barracks. Before the invasion."

"Invasion?" Now Dash was the one confused, but rather than give an answer, Flash merely closed his eyes. Fleur sighed, and once again picked him up in her magic.

"We have delayed enough. We need to get him some proper attention before he dies for real. Sunset would never forgive me if I just watched him die trying to explain all of this madness to us."









Much against his better judgement, Fancy not only complied with Celestia's order, but also made sure not to drag the body the entire way. The alicorn-looking creature clearly had some issues, for already her wings were beginning to fall apart at the seams, and her horn seemed about ready to snap from the weight of death.

Not to mention the body was beginning to smell. That combined with the noxious fumes from the library nearly dropped the stallion like a fly. When he burst open the grand doors leading to the study, he found that the center of it was occupied by eight ponies, all studying Cadance's body as if it were some sort of science project.

Hell, for all he knew or cared at the time, maybe it was.

"Celestia ordered me to drop this off to you," Fancy declared, dropping the body to the floor in front of him while trying to contain his breakfast, "Now if you excuse me, I think I need a few showers."

"Fancy Pants!" one of the ponies called, "Are you returning to Celestia anytime soon?"

As much as he wanted to say no, he knew he would have to pass by her throne room on his way out anyways. "Yes."

"Tell her that this pegasus has been identified," the pony announced, "She is not Princess Mi Amore Cadenza. She is Dusk Wind."

"What, who?" Now Fancy Pants was interested, though his breakfast attempted to make an escape once more. "What does that mean?"

"It means the body that Lightning Dust threw off the cloud was not who it was dressed up to be," one of the ponies retorted, showing the snapped off horn as a sort of proof, "No lie though, we were fooled at first sight too. It was not until we did the identity test did we notice the cutie mark beneath the disguise was off."

Good old identity test. One of the few of Starswirl's prototype spells perfected by Celestia that Fancy knew a decent deal about. "Well, Celestia thinks that this corpse here may prove to be a surprise. It used to be Queen Chrysalis, but that is hard to believe really seeing as it is now-"

"That is definitely not a changeling," one of the ponies scoffed, "Fool, dead changelings revert to their normal form."

"Fool?" Who did that pony think they were calling 'fool'? "I will have you know that I am merely the messenger, not the composer."

"Anyways," one of the earlier speakers broke in, eager to prevent a confrontation, "Bring the corpse over here. We shall do a nobility test first, since, you know, it looks like an alicorn and all, even if only just hardly"

"Who would we compare it with though?"

"Celestia and Luna obviously."

Fancy Pants rolled his eyes and levitated the corpse towards the table as the pony investigators removed the other body from their study table. For it being a corpse holder, it was surprisingly clean and devoid of excessive decay. Fancy was mildly impressed by this, the cleanliness of this profession.

Setting it down, he backed off as the table suddenly became a rune-riddled pedestal, magic surrounding the corpse.

A bright flash of green light, and then a brief darkness, after which the library doors slammed shut behind Fancy. Alarmed, he began backing away once the pedestal began glowing ominously, revealing a group of changelings. One stood out among them, and it was not just because it was the tallest. 

"It can't be-" Fancy turned and prepared to attempt an escape, but magic already had his tail. With a strong tug, the stallion was hauled back towards the table. 

"Guards!" Fancy shouted once before being silenced by a magical muzzle. Flipped onto his back, the stallion could only helplessly accompany the corpse atop the pedestal, much to the utter delight of the changelings surrounding him. The tallest of them, the green and dark grey one who was supposed to be the creature next to him, hopped onto the pedestal, standing like a hunter having finally cornered its prey.


Chrysalis put a hoof to Fancy's torso. Small bits of steam began to emit from his form, and the unicorn let out a muffled cry, Chrysalis' magic preventing any exclamations from escaping. 

"My my dear, Celestia left quite a mark on you," Chrysalis mused, "I suppose you cannot defy death for much longer lest I extend my spell-" 

Fancy's pleading eyes might would have struck at her heart chords, but as the stallion had long realized, he was not dealing with an ordinary female. He was dealing with a predator who sought anything that moved as its prey.  Once content that the stallion would not scream, Chrysalis removed the magic muffler. 

Though he felt like shouting, the agony of literally dying urged him to steer her away from entirely undoing whatever spell she had cast on him. "How, what is this madness?" 

Chrysalis responded by stopping her hoof trace halfway down his belly, a small frown on her face. She looked towards the corpse next to her, who began looking less and less like an alicorn and more like an earth pony with poorly sewn on props. "My top mare, able even to seduce the likes of you. I will miss her, but she served her purpose at the Crystal Tavern, stirring up dissent and concerns. Unfortunate that she enjoyed both sexes; her jobs were bested only by yours truly." 

Perhaps only now hearing Fancy's question, or making it seem that way, Chrysalis tapped her hoof in that single spot on Fancy's heavily heaving chest. "Oh yes, I must thank you for taking Celestia's attention for a few precious seconds; I prefer not to do my own stunts you see, and after Celestia had hurled me as she did, I went with plan B. Hence, the dying mare who temporarily took my place in disguise." 

"That must have been rather fast." 

Chrysalis laughed, and to Fancy's anguish, so did her changeling entourage. It had been bad enough hearing Chrysalis' laugh, but the other changelings had a laugh more akin to that of a large set of bee drones buzzing in unison into a set of miniature microphones. 

"As I said, plan B. It is a good thing Celestia did not bother asking me any questions; I know very little about Prince Blueblood, but I do know what he looks like." 

The light in the room began to dim. Fancy Pants attempted to direct attention to his injuries, but Chrysalis merely continued, apparently lost in her own self-perceived cunning.

"Disguising that mare was the easy part. Joining Celestia's autopsy group was a matter of forgery and Market payoffs. That whole story I told to Celestia I came up with just shortly before she confronted me. Except perhaps keeping Shining alive and failing to secure Cadence, I would say I have been perfect in judgement up to this point. Now, almost everything has fallen into place." 

She put a hoof tenderly to Fancy's stomach, running it up to his muzzle like a predator measuring the proper place to cut open its prey. The rest of Fancy's injuries finally gushed opened, the stallion gasping painfully, his last breathes beginning to be recalled as a brief flash of his life came into view. 

In his dimming vision, he heard the chatter of changelings, and felt a set of teeth sink into his left hoof. 















Some hours later


"You lost an entire train?" Celestia could not believe what she was hearing. The crystal ponies and the crystal heart had been rounded up, but somehow, both the train and the ponies she so sought were gone? 

The guardspony shamefully hung his head low. "We are sorry your highness, but containing the crystal ponies kept us from actively pursuing it. And the dangerous speed with which it left." 

Celestia sighed, nodded, and waved her hoof, dismissing the guard. Her throne room had hardly been repaired in the short time since things had climaxed, but Celestia felt like wrecking it some more. The targets of her aggression had escaped, her Sister was in the infirmary, her crystal subjects were in outright rebellion, and to top it off, it was clear to her now that much of the Market had been resentful for her decree and had a large part in all of this. So many of them had stirred up trouble with the guards, half the guard had to be arrested for both treason and for going against royal decree. 

It was clear to her now that her dream regarding Sunset had been more symbolic than literal, but Luna had dismissed its significance altogether. And like a foal, she had too. Then of course, her captain of the guard just had to be late, several hours late at that. How difficult could it be to find one pony with armor different than that of the rest of the Guard?

Her patience was wearing very thin when a pony dressed in a brown cloak entered her throne room. Celestia had been just a few tipping points from telling the pony another time. But that was not how a princess should act, so Celestia entertained the temporary audience. 

"My Lady, we have the results from both autopsies," the mare spoke, removing her hood to reveal a bald head and a pair of bright yellow eyes. The coat was a dingy tan, almost as if the pony had been fashioned to stick out for this very moment. "You might not like what you are about to hear." 

"Go on." Celestia did not like it when she was warned that she would not like the message. It tended to ruin the reception of said message. 

"The good news is that the pink pony is not Princess Cadance, meaning that both Shining Armor and Princess Cadance are both technically missing and not confirmed dead," the pony reported, "Along with that, we have confirmed that the mare made to look like her can be traced to Fleur's former, um, pleasure house and bar. The bad news is that the alicorn corpse is legitimate." 

Celestia felt lumps in her throat begin to build. "Legitimate? How so?"

"As you know, every creature has both a magical signature and DNA. The former is useful for living subjects, but the latter is definite, and proves that she is very much related to you. Could even be a foal, if you ever had offspring. Strange, she did not seem to have a cutie mark on her flank. It is baffling that our records cannot ID this pony specifically-"

"Thank you for your report." Celestia cut the pony off and dismissed the pony. 

"Would you like to take a look at the body at least-" 

"Burn it." Celestia motioned with her horn the hardly hinged throne room doors. "Leave not one trace. Not one word of this to be spoken understood?" 

"Yes your majesty." The pony hastily departed, either out of eagerness to carry out the order or fear of further hesitation inciting anger.

Celestia found tears welling to her eyes, and her teeth coming together in a grinding fashion. Her two on post guards kept their eyes forward, but no doubt they were wondering what had so quickly bothered their princess. Celestia ceased her teeth grinding almost as quickly as it had begun, a new resolution coming to mind.

It was time to have a chat. "Guards, if anypony comes in here seeking an audience, have them make an appointment for at the earliest three days from now." She gave that simple command, and then teleported in a bright yellow flash of light. 





Straight into Luna's room. Despite earlier being unconscious, the now awake alicorn was more than a little upset that she had been interrupted just before she could finish Sunset Shimmer. She seemed eager just to get the chance to soon leave her hospital bed, and get back into the main fight. That's about when Celestia appeared in a bright yellow flash at the foot of her bed.

"Sister!" Luna greeted happily, rising from her resting place, "I think I will be back in shape in no time to help you out-" 

"Luna, Fleur had the book that contained the spell that Sunset used on Cadance. I can tell simply by having read mere portions of it." Celestia did not beat around the bush on this matter for any long; it was time to get this resolved right here and now. "And recently, the crystal ponies stole the crystal heart from your chambers, and are clearly in rebellion." 

"Where is this going?" Luna had picked up on the displeased tone in her sister's voice, and could tell, "Which book pray tell was it?"

"The House of Umbra: Dark Magic." 

Luna's eyes widened. She still had her version locked away deep in the Canterlot Caverns. If Celestia had found another copy, then it would have had to have been only one other version. "The original?"

"The original, sister." Based on Luna's expected reaction, Celestia knew for sure that she had been intending on hiding this from her. "I get that you wanted me dethroned, but to want me completely destroyed? To plot with Sombra of all ponies? Even worse, you helped establish his slave network?"

"Sister, before you get angrier than you already are," Luna put her hooves up, not up for a skirmish much less a fight, "That was a thousand years ago. It was the past. I had a change of heart, Sombra did not, so we did what we had to do-"

"Sombra is dead now," Celestia pointed out, "But he is long from a past problem." 

"Listen, I am the first pony to have wanted Sombra to live, but he was too far gone-" 

"Because you betrayed him!" Celestia paced the foot of Luna's bed with a frown, " It says so right in the preface. Luna, the two of you were charting out an Empire together! And then one day you turned on him based on my suspicions? No wonder the stallion vowed to destroy us!" 

"It was not like that," Luna clopped her hooves together for emphasis, "With Sombra making the Legion and using it to enslave his populace, and his rather forceful approach to practically everything, I realized what a mistake it would have been allowing him to be King of anything, much less Emperor. He would have enslaved all of Equestria, and considering that we had to beat Discord just to prove that we were worth having as rulers again to the pony races, there would have been no repairing those relations if Sombra would have been in charge." 

"Why did not you just tell me after you returned?" Celestia now was in tears, "Why? And what of Nimba?"

"She poked around where she should not have," Luna pointed out, "You had exiled her for some of the same reasons I turned against Sombra. Besides, you did not think Sombra would just let her kill him would you? He had to make her pay somehow, and the changelings were very eager to see her blood spill-"  

"Is that why you did nothing when she sieged Canterlot?" It was a jagged question, one that Celestia now felt had been the real question that she had been trying to find an answer to. "Is that why you hardly even cared when I told you that a shape-shifting queen had actually defeated me in battle using the love of Shining Armor?"

"What does that have to do with anything?" Luna was a bit confused now, for Nimba should have been long dead by now, regardless of how that end would have been met. "And I so did care afterwards. That is why I was so concerned with security regarding Shining Armor and Cadence shortly before the due time for their foal."

Celestia blinked back any extra tears, until the salty dripping became a steaming path along her coat. "Your orchestrations have cost us two alicorns too many Luna. That book, and any other copies, are to be destroyed this very night. Are there any other copies?"

Luna frowned. "Now hold on, my personal copy is all that I have left from the Sombra that I fell in love with. You cannot just decide to burn it-" 

"I can and I will," Celestia declared, "Unless you are still planning something which you need that spellbook for." 

"That book is part of the reason I could figure out Nightmare Moon was behind the dreaming incident," Luna pointed out, "That darkness has been handled, hopefully for good, and I wish to hear nothing of you burning my book. Do you not trust me?" 

For a short while, both sisters passionately stared at each other, neither giving ground on their cause. Did Celestia trust her sister, with this newfound evidence surfacing at how well-thought out Luna's original plan of getting rid of her had been? How the spell meant to remove her from the equation had been instead used on Princess Cadance? Celestia snorted and turned from Luna with a determined look on her face. 

"Safeguard your copy. As for the original, it shall be the first and hopefully last book that I ever burn to ashes." 

Celestia stormed out of the room, her tears beginning to fall once again. Between her subjects and Guard acting questionably towards her, this was the last time she needed to also have a conflict with Luna. But in one shape or fashion, Luna could be indirectly blamed for the inciting of these incidents. She and Luna jointly had irritated the crystal ponies, but Luna had left the royal couple conveniently right before Sunset and Gilda made their move, and Luna had not bothered to tell her that her daughter was a changeling. 

Celestia shook her head clear of these thoughts. Blaming Luna would not solve anything, and would probably make them worse. No, objectively speaking, the real problem rested in her reluctance to execute Sunset. Had she done so, at least she would not have had to worry about an alicorn with questionable morals making things worse with her desire to be a princess with subjects. She and Luna could have both taken on Chrysalis, and perhaps that matter also would have went differently.

This was as much her fault as it was Luna's. There was only one clear course of action to settle at least one of these issues. 

She needed to put the Crystal Empire back in its place, its boldness in sending crystal ponies to carry out its will into the very heart of Equestria, the most powerful country in the world and no less even with the recent regime changes to the East, rang of folly and ill-will. 

They needed to be reigned in, even if force had to be used.