Beacon in the Shadows

by Dee Bee Doo-wop Cooper

Prologue: Many Shades of Black

Beacon in the Shadows

or

Cheerilee's a Paladin

Prologue: Many Shades of Black

A/N: Here is the prologue for my remake. I hope it lives up to every ones expectation.

~~~~~

The room was dimly lit. Only the silhouettes of the gathered ponies could be seen clearly. Each one of them wore a long, black cloak with silver details sewn in. In the dark, however, the designs themselves simple simply melded into shadow. The group had been waiting patiently; a grand event was about to unfold. Their leader had spread word that they were going to have a new member joining them this night. And now, after almost two hours of waiting, the time had come.

The great wooden doors leading into the circular room swung open gently, and in walked a similarly dressed pony. He wore a darksteel crown on his head, and his cloak had gold stitched into it. He walked to the center of the room, and was followed by five more ponies. The four at the corners of the group had the same dress as the rest of the gathered ponies, but the one in the center had been ladened with heavy chains which wrapped around his body and were then pulled outwards, with each of the other four in the cluster holding one in their hidden mouths. The fifth pony stood silent, his mouth had been sealed using the same metal that made up the chains.

The way his coat blended with the gloomy room, it was a light shade of gray, or close to it. His mane seemed to be a dark brown. If one was to look closer, feathers would be seen pushing out from the chains, sticking up at odd and crooked angles. It was clear from the cuts and lacerations on the pony’s body that he had not willingly volunteered for this.

“Hello, my brothers and sisters. I’m so glad you have all joined me for this momentous occasion. Tonight not only will we gain a new member, and his blessing will come with the moon as well.”

The stallion levitated up the crown and pulled off his hood, returning the crown to where it had previously sat on his head. He had a deep blue coat and a graying blue mane, lines of light-blue arcane energy snaked their way across his skin like an ornate tattoo.

“With this crown, the Moon will have a new master, and one less royal sister will be able to stand against us.”

The stallion motioned to the four chain-bearers. Each of them moved away from their captive and fastened their chains to bolts in the floor, while the stallion nonchalantly walked to the back wall and turned around to face the group once more.

“I ask you, brothers and sisters blessed with magic, to lend me your power. Fill the circle so that we may begin.”

Several other ponies in the room dropped their hoods and channeled magic into arcane lines in the floor. With the room finally somewhat illuminated it could be seen that the group’s gathering point was a medium-sized round, stone structure. Arcane lines, similar to the ones on the group leader‘s face, had been carved into the floor and now pulsed a deep crimson.

The magic in the room caused a hole to open in the ceiling, from which the stars could be clearly seen. The stallion with the crown got down on his knees and sent his magic up into the sky. He felt it touch the Moon, which was already in the silvery magical embrace of a certain lunar Princess. Seizing the Moon from her gentle grasp, he blocked the connection it had with Princess Luna. Then, bringing it directly over the building, he began to channel the Moon’s own energy down into their spell.

The captive pegasus struggled against his bonds, but fell silent as red tendrils rose out of the circle and latched on to him.

~~~~~

Luna sat on the balcony of her large bedroom. She looked up in admiration of the beautiful sky that was her’s, and her’s alone to create. That night, she had decided that a change was in order, and had switched two of her constellations to create a kind of frame around the full moon. She had just finished speaking with some of the professors at Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns about moving stars, and why she shouldn't. But it was her sky, and she made sure to never move any star that ponies needed to navigate anyways.

She was on her way back inside when fear shot down her spine. She had felt something else touch her moon. Like a slippery, ice-cold tentacle, it had prodded at the magic that subconsciously kept her and the Moon connected. She was about to return outside to investigate, but instead collapsed onto the floor, writhing in pain.It felt to her as if somepony was stabbing a hot knife down her horn and into her head.

The princess let out a scream of agony that immediately brought the guards posted outside her door to her side.

All Luna managed to get out was, “Please...Please, get Celly...” before once again succumbing to the torturous pain in her mind.

The senior guard turned to his partner with a dead serious expression, “Get Celestia, tell her she is needed immediately. After that, go find Shining Armor and bring him too. Now go!”

The other guard, realizing the gravity of the situation disregarded protocol and jumped over the balcony, taking flight towards Celestia’s own quarters.

The senior guard turned back to look at the Lunar Princess. Her face was scrunched in pain and her eyes had glazed over. He may have been Turncoat, General of the Equestrian Expeditionary Forces, but he was no magician and no doctor. Even so, he began to scan the room, try to see if there was anyway he could make himself useful.

He didn't have to wait long, though. With a blinding flash, and a wave of gentle warmth, Celestia teleported into the room. Turncoat began to speak, but he stopped himself when it was apparent that the older of the two sisters had no concern for his speculations on the matter at hand.

Celestia rushed over to her sister and knelt down beside her. It was clear from her lack of royal attire, and the presence of a nightcap she had received from her sister for Hearth‘s Warming Eve that the solar princess had been sleeping. Her action were anything but that of somepony who had just awoken, though.

“Sister! Sister! can you hear me?” Celestia pleaded, panic written upon her face.

“Sis...Sister...They took it...They took my Moon...”

Luna’s eyes glazed over again and she gave out another grunt of pain.

Celestia’s eyes shown with understanding. Her and her sister were not only responsible for the heavenly bodies they each controlled but those heavenly bodies were literally a part of them. If somepony was blocking her sisters connection to the Moon, then she was watching her sister die in front of her eyes.

Celestia shut her eyes and called out to her own heavenly charge. She felt it resting below Equestria, waiting for sunrise. However, sunrise would be too late. With a burst of power, Celestia flung the Sun back into the sky, and set it on a path towards the Moon. The two heavenly sphere’s came together in a beautiful eclipse, and both Celestia and Luna felt a buzz as the to sister’s magic overlapped, and fused together.

Luna gasped and began to breath normally again. Her eyes opened fully and she moved into a sitting position, still too exhausted from the ordeal to try standing.

She looked at her sister and gave a small smile, “Thank you Celly. Once again I owe you my life.”

Celestia sat down next to her sister and draped her white wing over Luna. “Oh my dear Luna, you owe me nothing. I love you more than anything, and I will never let you suffer.”

Luna closed her eyes, and buried herself beneath her sisters wing.

Turncoat was so caught up in the moment, that he failed to notice Shining Armor‘s entrance.

“General,” Shining Armor gave a crisp salute.

“At ease.”

“What is the situation? From Flurry Wing’s report it sounded quite grave.”

General Turncoat turned, and for the first time, gave the captain of the guard his full attention. The stallion’s messy mane, and his knotted coat showed that like Celestia, he too had been asleep when the situation had started.

“Princess Luna was suffering under the attack of an unknown source. It seems that somepony had found a way to steal the Moon from her control.”

Being married to an alicorn, albeit a lesser alicorn, he was fully aware of the gravity of such a thing.

“I see. How is Luna doing?”

Turncoat was about to correct him on his addressing of the Princess but thought against it, being the Princess’s nephew in-law must have some privileges.

“She’s doing better. Celestia eclipsed the sun, and that appears to have broken whatever spell had been used on it.”

Celestia looked up from her sister, and addressed her Captain of the Guard, “Shining Armor, I want you to go down to the school and find Mental Bonds. Have him start looking into some way to safeguard mine, and my sisters celestial connections. Then contact Cheerilee, inform her of tonight‘s events and ask her to meet me as soon as she can.”

“Understood.”

Celestia’s mood brightened a bit, as did her voice, “And tell Cadence I’m sorry for waking her.”

“I will, but I’m sure she’ll understand.”

Shining Armor turned around and exited just as Flurry Wing, Turncoats partner that night, returned.

Celestia acknowledged Flurry Wing’s entrance with a nod, which was greeted by a bow on the part of the pegasus. Celestia then turned to Turncoat.

“General, I want you to gather your forces, and have them on high alert. They will be taken off guard rotation in preparation for emergency deployment, should it be needed. Keep them well fed, well rested, and well trained. And let us hope that they will not be needed.”

“Immediately, your highness.”

Turncoat turned to leave, but was stopped by Celestia voice, “And for the last time, we have been friends for long enough for you to call me Celestia.”

Turncoat smiled a bit and continued out of the room, “We have been friends for quite a long time, haven’t we, Princess?”

~~~~~

The stone room was silent. The chains that had held the unfortunate pegasus lay on the ground, and on top of them stood pony strikingly similar to the one whose position he had replaced. Except, his coat was considerably darker, and his mane was not a dark brown,but a deep crimson hue, and his eyes, being the most striking change, the iris’s were bright red and almost seemed to glow.

The stallion with the crown once again stood near the center.

“Who are you?”

The pegasus looked back and forth as if searching for the answer, “...Your brother.”

“Ah, very good. Yes, we are all brothers and sisters here. And what is it that you do?”

The pegasus’s response came much faster this time, “I serve.”

“Very good. Very good. Rice, Pepper, why don’t you show our new brother his chambers?”

Two of the ponies that had been chain bearers turned,and walked out with their new member in tow.

“And all of you, who have remained faithful to the cause. Join me in the dining hall in half an hour. We will celebrate our new brother, and our one step closer to victory.”

The rest of the ponies shuffled out of the stone room leaving only the stallion behind. He looked up at the eclipse that now hung in the skylight, an obvious marker of his failure to kill the Princess. The artisan who had construct his crown had told him that it would control the Moon, but he had doubted that it could control the Sun and certainly not both.

It seems that Celestia had caught on quicker than I had hoped.

The stallion pulled off the crown and held it in his telekinetic grasp. It had suited him well, and certainly represented his power nicely. The magical aura around the crown turned bright red, and the crown began to turn to slag. He would not, however, get a chance to try that again, and keeping the crown for pure vanity was foalish. To not recycle the darksteel would be a waste, and he was not one that relished wasted materials.

Author's Note:

A/N: Thank you all for staying with me through this process. Let me know what you think. Also, If you want to read the original, here it is on my DA account:Link. Lastly Thank you to Parakalo for editing this for me, without you my writing would be nothing but spelling errors. Be sure to leave a comment, and let me know what you think.

Comments

[Dee Bee Doo-wop Cooper]

Wow, no comment? Well I would assume that from the reception i got on Deviant Art that it was good but I don't know bought here. Why are all of you so quiet?