• Published 15th Mar 2012
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Guardians of Magic - Shire Folk



Twilight, Trixie, and others are sent to traverse Equestria and beyond when strange beings appear.

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Prologue: Creatures in the Night

…I don’t even know where this came from. To all of my AoD fans, this is almost completely unrelated to it at all and I’m not even sure what head canon I’m using. All I know is that I’ve got one OC from AoD showing up, and that I’m ignoring Dream Drop Distance, 358/2 Days, Coded, and probably a bit of BBS.

To everypony else, take this as having jumped right into the middle of one of your standard post-KH2, pre-Before-The-Other-Games-Came-Out Action/Adventure/Romance fics featuring the ponies sharing the spotlight. I honestly don’t know when updates are going to be because I have a lot of work on The Annals of Darkness over on fanfiction.net to do.

Anyway…

Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts or My Little Pony; those things are owned by Square-Enix, Disney, and Hasbro. This is purely for entertainment purposes and I am not making any sort of profit from this.

Note: “-G-M-“ stands for scene break.

-G-M-

Guardians of Magic

Prologue: Creatures in the Night

The moon is beautiful tonight.

Such were the thoughts of Starshine, the cobalt blue unicorn with an iridescent mane of silver standing underneath a poplar tree in the Canterlot gardens. The night sky was clear, allowing the stallion to gaze up at the moon and stars with his sapphire eyes in contented awe. A warm summer wind whistled through the leaves above him, bringing with it the scents of honeysuckle and petunias. Starshine sighed in the breeze, the air rippling against his coat and cutie mark of a bright, golden star.

An owl hooted from somewhere else in the gardens, and Starshine dropped his gaze from Princess Luna’s full moon to the ground. He pawed at it with a hoof, slightly nervous. Moondancer was running late; perhaps something had happened to her? A quick glance from where he stood underneath the tree let him see that he wasn’t the only pony in the gardens this night. In deep shadows that blanketed a bench he could make out the forms of two others, and from their proximity he was sure that their noses were nuzzling against one another. Just thinking about it made him think of the white unicorn.

“Starshine?”

The stallion smiled at the whisper and turned his head and neck in its direction. Slowly walking towards him was the beauty he’d been waiting for. Moondancer’s brilliant red mane with a purple highlight running through it was veiled slightly by the lack of light, but that which the pale moon did cast on her and her marshmallow white coat only enchanted him further.

Seeing his smile, the mare raced up to him and rubbed her neck affectionately against his. “I’m sorry I’m late,” she apologized, “but I lost track of time practicing the transformation spell Professor Hoofer set for us.”

Starshine chuckled and wrapped one foreleg against her withers. By Celestia she smelled nice tonight. “It’s okay. I’m just glad that you came.” Moondancer pulled back and nodded her head, smiling shyly at her coltfriend. He took one step forward, a smile now etched into his face as she joined him for a midnight stroll through the garden.

-G-M-

Watching from a castle balcony overlooking the gardens was another pony, this one a mare with both wings and a horn; an alicorn. Her mane and tail were a mantle of the night sky; dark blue with the white pinpricks of stars winking through it, and they constantly fluttered as if caught in a solar wind. A black tiara with three points rested on her head, and in front of her chest hung a peytral of black leather with a white crescent moon on its centre. On her haunches the pony’s own cutie mark, that of a white crescent moon over an inky black splotch to resemble the night, was clearly visible against her midnight-blue coat.

Princess Luna smiled gently down at those ponies she could see in the gardens. The Princess of the Night was a romantic at heart, though she would not admit it, and was glad that even after one thousand years some things never changed between ponies. Her beautiful night that most ponies slept right through still had that calm, mysterious charm that led to events occurring like the ones happening right now. There was love in the air tonight, only accentuated by the beauty of the night that she’d brought. Perhaps she could make it a little more breathtaking.

Thinking of that, the midnight alicorn looked up to her sky. The weather teams from Cloudsdale had done well in her books by not scheduling for any showers to occur in Canterlot tonight; it gave her full view of her nightly canvas. She hummed to herself and tapped a hoof to her chin, fixing her blue eyes on a particular grouping of stars. The alicorn’s horn became surrounded by a soft blue glow. Luna could feel the font of her magical energy reserves buried within her, much of it still untapped after her raising of the moon, and she accessed it again. A tiny trickle of energy left her, and the stars she was looking at brightened ever so slightly.

“Good evening, Luna,” a voice said from behind her.

The midnight princess turned to peer at the newcomer. “Good evening Celly,” she said, spotting her older sister, Princess Celestia, coming onto the balcony. “I was just making Virgo a tad brighter. Hm… do you think I made Polaris too bright tonight? It’s dwarfing a few of the other stars around it.”

The other princess chuckled, her hoofsteps sounding lightly on the marble beneath them. Princess Celestia gazed skyward, the taller white alicorn looking as regal at night as she did during the day. “I think Polaris looks lovely, Luna. Another beautiful night you’ve made.”

“True,” said the younger sibling, “and if I do dim Polaris a bit, then some lost pony who might be navigating with it might not be able to find it as easily. I just don’t know. The evening star is bright enough, but the Milky Way—” She cut herself off when her older sister began to laugh.

“My dear sister, you really do try too hard,” she teased. “You’ve brought another beautiful and perfect night.”

Luna sighed. “If you say so, Celly.” She glanced down into the gardens again. “I just want it to be as beautiful as I can make it for them.” Celestia strode up to where her sister was lying down and peered into the gardens. She smiled warmly, and laughed.

“You really are overly-romantic, Luna,” she told the midnight alicorn.

The Princess of the Night flushed. “Ce—Celestia! We are not overly-romantic. It is thou who makes baseless accusa—” She stopped again when her older sister began laughing once more, and Luna’s blush increased underneath her midnight-blue coat.

“I think I’ll retire for the night,” said the Sun Princess. “You will wake me before it is time to raise the sun?” Luna cordially nodded her head.

“Of course we—I mean, of course I will.” Celestia and Luna shared a smile, and the radiant white alicorn began to walk back inside.

“Good night, Luna.”

“Good night, Celestia,” replied Luna. She gave one more look to the gardens, watching Starshine and Moondancer for a few more moments, before turning her gaze back to the heavens. How else should she improve the look, maybe by making the Aurora Borealis visible? Yes, that could work, but it shouldn’t be too bright, or else it might detract from the rest of the sky. However, she’d never known a pony to complain about seeing an aurora before. But then the Milky Way was rather dim tonight; even up here in Canterlot she needed to strain her eyes a little to catch sight of it. Perhaps she should improve on that instead.

There were so many decisions. An artist’s work is never done.

-G-M-

Moondancer was grateful for the shadows from the garden’s trees as she and Starshine lay next to one another, both of them looking up into the night sky. The shadows were hiding the blush on her cheeks, almost certainly visible through her white coat. The unicorn pair had conversed with idle chatter about their respective days, but before too long they had fallen into comfortable silence and they’d set about stargazing.

She tilted her head sideways towards Starshine and nuzzled her cheek against the stallion’s. Starshine nickered from deep inside his belly and accepted her affection whole-heartedly until she gave him the chance to do what he wanted, which was to place his neck over hers in a hug. Moondancer hummed in her throat and closed her indigo eyes, just happy that he was here with her in this moment. “Do you think we’ll always be together like this?” she whispered.

Starshine smiled inside of their neck hug. “I’m not sure, but I certainly hope so.” Moondancer sighed contentedly in response.

“Me too.”

Another minute passed in blissful silence, the only sounds the crickets chirping and the hoot of a distant owl. Starshine removed his neck from Moondancer’s, and laid it down flat against the grass. The lawns of the garden were grazed meticulously; it felt so wonderful to lie down on it. Scents of the flowers drifted into his nose, and the moon and stars continued to shine and twinkle down upon them. It almost felt like they were the only two ponies in Equestria, even though there were probably no less than four or five other couples in different secluded hiding spots within the same garden.

Sudden movement on the grass attracted Starshine’s attention, the silver-maned unicorn frowning and raising his neck. “What is it?” Moondancer asked. Starshine shook his head.

“I’m not sure,” he told her. “I thought I saw something, but I guess my eyes are getting a little tired.” He smiled apologetically at her, and Moondancer smiled back and laughed a little.

“Then perhaps we’d better be getting back,” she suggested. “I doubt Professors Hoofer or Beaker will be forgiving if we’re late because—”

Starshine stood up suddenly, startling Moondancer into silence. She followed the other unicorn’s gaze to where there was a black shadow on the ground, the shadow an inky black that looked like light had never touched it. Two bright yellow circles were at what Moondancer suspected to be the shadow’s ‘head’, and she wondered what fireflies would be doing scuttling on the grass like that. Moondancer blinked in surprise; the shadow started moving! She looked around frantically, but couldn’t see anything that could be casting that exact shape on the ground.

Moondancer stood up and remained close to Starshine, and both unicorns nodded at one another before continuing to watch the shadow wriggle around on the ground. Moondancer dismissed her idea that the yellow things were fireflies; now she was hypothesizing that they were really eyes and that this was some sort of creature she’d never heard of.

Both unicorns snorted in alarm and backed up a few hooves as the shadow came out of the ground to stand in front of them, fully three-dimensional. Moondancer peered at it cautiously. The creature stood at about half their height and had a bulbous head, two curved antennae sticking out of the top of its head. It had four limbs attached to its abdomen, besides the head; two of them looked to be arms like Twilight Sparkle’s baby dragon, Spike, ending in claws, while the other two appeared to be stronger legs with flat feet; it was on these two appendages that it was standing.

“Twilight Sparkle would give anything to study this,” Starshine said. Moondancer nodded, inclined to agree with him on that. The last time she’d seen the lavender unicorn, Twilight had declined to go to her Summer Sun Celebration Break party in favour of studying. She knew that the intelligent pony had a lot of pressure on her hooves, being Princess Celestia’s protégé, but even her new friends in Ponyville probably wouldn’t be able to keep the unicorn away from a discovery like this.

“Yeah,” she said, “but I just know that I wouldn’t.” She took another step back, and the creature cocked its head at her in an inquiring gesture. Moondancer shook her head. No matter how she looked at its eyes, she couldn’t see anything in them. Though, just looking at it caused her heart to quiver slightly, and she almost swore she could feel as though it was eyeing her and Starshine hungrily. “It’s giving me a bad vibe.”

Starshine nodded, and he began to back up as well. “Come on, Moon, let’s get back to our rooms.” No sooner had he finished speaking than the creature leapt towards them.

-G-M-

Luna’s attention was forcibly jerked away from the night sky as a pained neigh filled the night air. Her eyes zeroed in on the location in the gardens and she stood up. At once she was flapping her wings to take her towards the sounds, panicked and angry shouts now sounding through the night like blaring trumpets. Luna was certain that she would be the first there with her swift and powerful wings, but the guards would most certainly have heard the ruckus too and would not be far behind.

She cleared a line of trees and was forced to stop and hover for a second in surprise. A pair of unicorns was below, and they were being assaulted by no less than five buggy black creatures with beady yellow eyes that the princess had never seen the like of before. Luna took another second to survey the situation below. The male unicorn was bleeding from a tear in his chest, while the female had a trickle of blood running down her flank near her cutie mark of a glittery silver moon surrounded by eight red stars.

The male unicorn took a step back, his head swiveling from one black creature to the next. Aqua light enveloped his horn as he began to cast a spell, and the same light covered one of the creatures, locking it in the unicorn’s telekinetic grip. He cast his head to the side, and the creature was flung violently against a tree, where it burst apart into dark wisps. Luna and both unicorns below were surprised at what happened to it, but the princess was the first to break out of her shock.

One of the remaining four looked like it was about to pounce upon the cobalt stallion, and defiant anger rose up in Princess Luna. How dare these beings besmirch her beautiful night? How dare they put fear into carefree little ponies? She dove for the creature like a falcon, and with a shrieking whinny Luna stomped onto the ground, reared up and dropped her strong hooves onto the thing’s head. The black creature burst asunder underneath her hooves, wisps of dark matter rising up around her shins. The touch sickened Luna, but she ignored it as her rage mounted.

“How DARE doest ye appear here!” bellowed the princess, unconsciously falling back into her Royal Canterlot Voice as she had traditionally used one thousand years ago. “Ye foulest beasts have far overstayed thy welcome. Begone from this place, for thy doom is nigh!”

“Princess Luna,” the unicorns behind her muttered in awe. Dark clouds were forming in the clear sky above the alicorn, and lightning began to stab the sky.

Luna barely acknowledged, glaring at the creatures that had disturbed her preciously romantic night. None of them were making any sort of move to retreat, which Luna decided to interpret as a hostile act. Her horn began to glow midnight blue and her stare hardened. A beam of light shot out from her horn and struck the cloud forming above her, and a forked bolt of lightning shot out of it and struck two of the creatures in front of her, reducing them into nothingness. Luna’s horn’s glow persisted, and two more of the creatures she picked up with its glow and threw them into the third. The tangle of shadowy limbs and eyes she grasped with her magic, and raised it to just above chest height.

The midnight mare snorted and kicked back a hoof, lowered her head, and galloped straight towards the mass. She gored them with her glowing horn and took off with a powerful thrust of her wings. She climbed in a vengeful corkscrew into the night air above the garden, and paused only when she was three times the height of the tallest tree in the garden to throw her head down and fling the three impaled creatures from her horn. She watched with grim pleasure as they plummeted to their demise on the lawns below.

Princess Luna descended quickly to where the two unicorns were, noticing that the Canterlot Royal Guards were now arriving at the scene, a few of the pegasi likely having seen her handiwork crashing to the ground. Even in her haste, though, she made sure to alight on the grass with dignity befitting her station. “Captain Crimson Horn!”

“Your Highness,” answered a scarlet unicorn in the golden armour of the Royal Guard.

“Thou must commence an entire search of the gardens and city. None of these vile obsidian mongrels are to be left alive. Curfew shouldst be established as well with all haste. No little ponies are to be seen upon our streets until we are certain that our city is free of them. Hast thou understood our wishes?”

“Yes, Your Highness,” answered the unicorn, nodding his head. “You heard the princess!” he shouted at his fellow guards. “Emerald Wing, you take Ivory Coat and Cloudmane and start checking the other areas of the gardens! Heavyweight, you and…”

Luna turned away from the guard captain as he barked out his orders. He knew best how to do his job. Instead, she settled her gaze on the two unicorns that had been out this night and run afoul of these strange beings. “We are concerned,” Luna began, “thy injuries. Are—” She cleared her throat as she remembered that this was not the form of speech of the day. “My apologies to you both; old speech habits die hard. Are you hurt much?”

The male unicorn winced. “A little,” he answered her, “but not too badly, I don’t think, Your Highness.”

“Thank you for coming to help us,” said the female, bowing before the princess. Luna raised a hoof, waving off the formalities.

“Now is not the time for pleasantries,” she insisted. “Come with me to the castle infirmary. You are both hurt and shall be treated.”

“But Your Highness,” the male started, “we have class tomorrow and—Moondancer!” He stopped with a gasp as the female winced and dropped her head a little in pain. She had sustained another injury that neither he nor Princess Luna had spotted before, just against the thigh of her left foreleg.

Princess Luna frowned slightly and her horn became shrouded with a blue glow again. Moondancer was covered in the same glow and lifted from her hooves onto Luna’s back. “You shall both be excused from your classes tomorrow,” she assured the mare and stallion. “I will be sure to have a long talk with Princess Celestia about this.” Luna gave the clearing one last look, snorted agitatedly, and cantered back towards the castle, Starshine following her at a slightly slower pace.

Above, the moon continued to shine unconcernedly.

-G-M-

So that’s it for the prologue, and I swear I’m going to need brain bleach for this fic. It’s not going to be really grimdark or anything like that, but I’m seriously going to need brain bleach. I’ve got to be insane to write two KH adventure fics at the same time.

May the Grace of the Valar Protect You

Shire Folk