//------------------------------// // Chapter 2 // Story: Internal Darkness // by Silver Sorcerer //------------------------------// Disclaimer: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic and all associated characters, settings and stories are the rightful subjects of Hasbro, the HUB, Studio B, and Lauren Faust. Chapter 2 The walls were cold and unforgiving as she walked down the corridor. A few torches only gave her minimal light. The hall seemed to extend forever, but she kept anxiously walking. Something wasn’t right, she could feel it. Yet she couldn’t overcome this feeling of déjà vu. She had been here before but she couldn’t remember when. She glanced around her but all she could see was a, cold, dark, and narrow corridor that went on forever. She paused a moment to think of a way out; she couldn’t stay here, she had to leave. Her thoughts were suddenly dashed as a filly’s scream pierced the corridor causing her to jump and shake. She galloped forward in the direction of the scream. They continued and grew louder the faster she ran and she kept running until they suddenly ceased. She didn’t stop running though; she kept going fearing the worst and hoping for the best. She finally found a solid door and attempted to push it open only to find it locked. Desperately trying to unlock it she used her magic and blasted it open. The room was bathed in moonlight, but remained just as cold and dark as the hall. She scanned the room until she screamed herself. There, in the center of the floor was an alicorn. Her wings had been ripped from her leaving gaping holes of blood and bone in her sides. Her horn had been sawn clean off and blood was draining from her stomach, staining her dark sapphire coat. Her eyes were closed and her face showed great pain and suffering. She wasn’t breathing; she was dead. The remaining alicorn stood in shock and horror at the fallen alicorn and then gasped further when she saw her cutie mark, the mark of a crescent moon. “NO!” she screamed. “NOT YOU, LUNA. NO!” she collapsed next to her sister and bawled; her eyes becoming cascades of tears. As she sat there next to her now dead sister she heard somepony behind her. “Tragic, is it not?” the pony said, his voice deep and menacing. Celestia turned and glared at the pony, who stood amongst the shadows. “YOU!” she yelled, tears still in her eyes. “YOU DID THIS!” “You brought this upon yourself and now you will join your sister in suffering and in death,” he slowly stated with an evil smirk. He charged at Celestia and wrung a rope around her wings and her neck. Celestia felt paralyzed and constrained by the ropes that were now choking her. She was loosing air and desperately trying to break free. She attempted to use her magic but a sharp pain in her horn prevented it. She felt herself loosing consciousness gasping for air as the rope squeezed her neck. “No.” she whispered, “no…” Celestia rapidly sat up in her bed, in a cold sweat and panting. Her nervous breaths filled the air of her bedroom as she sat there overcome with shock and horror. Quickly checking to see if her horn and wings were still attached to her, she let out a long sigh realizing that it had only been a dream. No, it wasn’t a dream; it was a nightmare. She hadn’t had such a vivid and traumatizing nightmare in years. The image of Luna, bloodied and ruthlessly murdered was a haunting one, one Celestia she hoped to never see again. She didn’t need such a vivid nightmare to be reminded of the madness of Red-Blood. His insane passion and philosophy was one of the most disturbing events she had ever experienced in her life. She didn’t want to relive it and she didn’t want to see anypony be the victim of this madman. Whether or not he was actually alive was not a concern, the fact that somepony had discovered who he was and his evil actions, despite Celestia’s attempted cover-ups, meant that somepony had fallen to his madness. She put a hoof to her face and took a deep breath, attempting to calm herself in the clear night air. It was still dark out, but from her bed Celestia could tell that Luna’s moon was falling towards the horizon. Her sun would soon need raising and what was wrong with an early start to the day? Rising from the bed, she went to the bathroom and stepped into the shower. The warm water felt comforted her and allowed her mind to wander. She thought about the coming Winter Wrap-Up and her duty to help and supervise the event in Canterlot. She also thought about how Luna would assist her in these duties and help the citizens clean up winter and bring in spring. Celestia welcomed spring, the sun would shine longer and Equestria would become warmer. She would have more power and energy to do her royal duty and help her subjects. She also thought about her favorite student, Twilight Sparkle. Twilight and her friends continued sending her letters and she always found great joy in reading them. Though it had been two years since their last big adventure, which was the Canterlot Wedding, she could tell that the girls were still just as close. That meant the elements remained strong and loyal to their bearers. Then a thought popped into her head. ‘If I’m going to tell Magicon, Shining Armor, and Cadance the truth, no doubt they’ll want extra protection of me and Luna. The Elements of Harmony could be used to protect me. No, I can’t do that; I can’t use the Elements for my own selfish purposes. But is protecting my life and my sister’s really selfish? If I bring them here, they’ll have questions, especially Twilight. And though they would lay down their lives for me and each other, I can’t ask them to do it. The risk is just too great. What if Red-Blood expects me to summon them and doesn’t even want me or Luna, he wants those Elements? ‘No, I didn’t ask the girls to come here when a threat was made against Canterlot during the wedding for their protection. I asked them to help in the wedding. I asked them to come during Discord’s return, but that was the only way to stop him. I’ve only asked them to come when it was necessary and I don’t think the Elements of Harmony would even work against a normal pony. I’ve only seen them work on non-ponies. Besides with Winter Wrap-Up being so near, they all are going to be needed in Ponyville. If Ponyville gets a late start in the growing season it’ll be a major problem for central Equestria. I can’t afford that, we must continue with normalcy. The Elements of Harmony won’t be involved.’ Satisfied with her thoughts and forgetting how long she had been in the shower, Celestia stepped out, dried herself, and reentered her bedroom. Noticing how late it was getting for her celestial duties, she rushed to the tallest tower where her sister was somewhat patiently waiting for her. “Good morning. You’re a little late sister,” Luna flatly stated like an old school-teacher. “Can you blame me for a little self-indulgence in the last few of your beautiful winter nights, Professor Luna?” she teased. “I guess not,” Luna sighed. “Though I think you need to fulfill your obligation and raise the sun.” “Indeed I shall sister, you may retire.” “When will we share our secret with the ponies?” “Midday, so you may rest until then.” Celestia waved a hoof to her sister who nodded and left Celestia to her work. _________________________________________________________________________________________________ Magicon awoke to the sunlight streaming in from the outside. Even before opening his eyes, he knew it was going to be a busy day. Only two days before Winter Wrap-Up and more ponies would not only come for royal blessings, but also for advice and possibly even assistance with their own Winter Wrap-Ups. Though Celestia and Luna remained in Canterlot, they always sent royal workers to help ponies across Equestria. He had contemplated returning back to his estate to help his servants, but a letter he received a few days ago told him that the servants were doing fine on their own. Magicon couldn’t help but feel like they were lying to him, but it was probably for the best. When Celestia and Luna dedicated themselves to help in Winter Wrap-Up, someone had to watch over the Kingdom and that fell to him. Opening his eyes, he followed his daily morning routine. His thoughts still dwelled on the events from yesterday, but he figured that Celestia and Luna would be able to handle this and the morning confirmed this. Luna wasn’t present at breakfast and Celestia was focused on a full briefing from other advisors and ministers as well as himself. The morning duties were also the same: engaging with Canterlot Nobility, talking and socializing with other ponies, and giving counsel to the princess whenever she asked for it. It came as a surprise to him during lunch that Luna was there. Not only that, but the typical group of advisors and ministers weren’t present, replaced by Princess Cadance and Shining Armor. “Princess Celestia, pardon my frankness, but what exactly is going on here?” Magicon whispered. Celestia chuckled, “you sound like you never expected to see Shining Armor and Cadance ever again.” “Well princess…I admit that I am quite surprised. I normally do not involve myself in the royal guard so I see very little of Shining Armor.” “I thought we needed a change of pace and we have more pressing matters to attend to. Greetings Shining Armor, Princess Cadance, and Princess Luna. I am most thankful that you have come.” “Your wish is my command,” Shining Armor proudly stated bowing before Celestia. “Do take a seat Aunt Celestia,” Cadance said in her sweet and compassionate voice. “Good to see you again Magicon.” “Good to see you too Princess Cadance and to you Shining Armor.” The stallion smiled, “And to you as well Magicon. I’m sure you’ve been helping the princesses just as much as I have.” Magicon’s cheeks tinged with embarrassment, he knew his duty and didn’t really need to be complimented or thanked for his duty. “Thank you Shining.” “Well, if introductions are finished I do believe we can start eating and discuss the reason why you are all here today,” said Luna in a voice darker than her normal one. Cadance nodded, “yes why did you call us?” Answering Cadance’s question, Celestia spoke calmly with the slightest hint of worry in her voice, “Well, Cadance, there has been a grave and dangerous threat made against me and Princess Luna. An old enemy of ours has resurfaced, or somepony is using his name as an alias to scare me and Princess Luna into fleeing Equestria.” Everypony was silent, staring at the princess, worry in all of their eyes. “This letter,” Luna said as she telekinetically picked up a letter beside her, “was the reason why Princess Celestia and I locked ourselves in the library for those two days. I will read the letter a-loud so you can fully understand the threat.” She read the letter as shock and fear crept into every-ponies eyes. Magicon was scared. The letter was threatening and confusing. Even though familiar in old Equestrian, the words were still menacing. “Your Faithful Enemy, R.B.,” Luna finished putting the letter in the center of the table for everypony to see. The room was silent. Cadance stared at it horrified, leaning against Shining Armor who didn’t look pleased by any aspect of this. Magicon sat there with a mixed expression of shock, fear, and horror. His jaw had slowly dropped as he silently took in every syllable of the letter. “Princess Luna and I have figured out that the mysterious ‘R.B.’ is none other than an old enemy, Red-Blood. I’m sure none of you have ever heard of him.” Everypony shook their head. Standing and heading towards the exit, Celestia motioned for everypony to follow her. “To best understand this, I need to show you what Princess Luna and I discovered in the library.” The all rose and followed Celestia down the halls toward the library. As they walked down, Celestia warned, “This is not easy for me to share with any of you and I will not lie to you and say that I am not scared. I am and so is Luna, but we are not giving in to the demands of an enemy simply because of written words.” They reached the doors of the library, which now possessed a large lock that Celestia magically opened. They entered the dark room filled with mountains of books and shelves. They proceeded to a far corner where there were at least 30 books of different sizes and ancient scrolls lying about. “This,” said Celestia gesturing to the pile of information “is everything Luna and I could find about Red-Blood. Sit down and make yourselves comfortable, we will be here a long time.” When everypony had done so, Celestia’s and Luna’s horns began glowing and a purple mist surrounded them and they suddenly found themselves outside in a field of grass, however Celestia and Luna were not there. “You are now experiencing mine and Luna’s memories.” Celestia’s voice broke from the sky. “You cannot be seen by the ponies around you and will not be physically affected by the events that I am about to show you. Try to remain calm and quiet and this will all go smoothly. This will not be pretty for any of us, but it must be known if we are to understand what’s going on in our modern world.” Princess Cadance leaned on Shining Armor who glanced at Magicon who simply nodded, waiting for Celestia to show them her memories. “You are now in an Equestria before Luna’s dark transformation and banishment and after Discord’s reign of chaos, an Equestria in peace similar to ours today with one exception, alicorns.” Suddenly alicorns of all different sizes and colors appeared around them. Magicon counted at least a hundred but there must’ve been more. They didn’t all have the flowing manes of Celestia and Luna; some looked more like Cadance rather than the two princesses. “We had our own city, in the Everfree Forest,” Celestia continued and the three suddenly found themselves amongst the alicorns in a city of stone and mortar. Every alicorn seemed content and interested in their own affairs, but no regular ponies could be found. It appeared that only alicorns lived here. Magicon assumed this was the case since Canterlot was originally a Unicorn settlement and Cloudsdale was a Pegasi settlement. “We had a pleasant life, quiet and amongst ourselves away from the ponies of Equestria. Luna and I ruled Equestria, but our ruling was limited thanks to the presence of the three tribes. Our world was peaceful and enjoyable, but that was shattered by the events of Red-Blood.” The three suddenly found themselves in a crowded throne room where a younger Celestia and Luna stood. “Fellow alicorns, we have thy gravest of sorrows to bestow upon thee in that some of our own kin hast gone missing. Princess Luna shall be mounting a full investigation into thy matter and will solve it with haste.” It was difficult to hear Celestia use the Royal-We, but Magicon managed glancing at Cadance and Shining Armor who showed the same expression of confusion. Celestia’s modern voice fell upon them, “Luna did mount an investigation, but trying to find a few alicorns across Equestria is no small task and though alicorns give off a magical aurora, none could be detected.” The scene then dissolved into another one where Celestia was sternly gazing at her younger sister whose head hung low, “Sister Celestia, thy quest that thou hast been bestowed upon me has failed. I have been unable to find thy missing alicorns.” Celestia’s voice was harsh towards Luna, “I am disappointed with thou, sister. I thought I could trust thee with these things but yet again, thou hast failed me.” Celestia slapped her sister, who remained motionless and tearless despite the obvious pain. Magicon noticed a bit of resentment in Luna’s eyes and thought ‘this must’ve been where Nightmare Moon stemmed from.’ “Very well Luna,” Celestia concluded, “since thou hast failed me in finding thy missing alicorns, I shall go myself and find them and prove to thee how one is capable of finding them.” Celestia’s modern voice took over once again, “I spent a year searching for them and found nothing. We feared the worst had happened to them and prepared a memorial service until one day, a group of earth ponies found the alicorns alive.” The scene changed to a group of eight earth ponies standing before Celestia and Luna. “I thank thee, kind ponies of the earth for finding these alicorns. Though shall be rewarded.” The earth ponies bowed and left and then four larger earth ponies appeared. But something was different about them. They had a chipped object jutting out from their foreheads and bones were jutting out from their sides and on their chests, the letters R.B. were branded. Cadance screamed and turned into Shining Armor’s mane sobbing, while he himself looked visibly disturbed by the former alicorns. Magicon turned his head away, but couldn’t help but glance over every so often. “We were horrified by the attack but could find no criminal, so we were forced to drop the issue,” modern Celestia regretted. “We convinced ourselves this was a one time event but warned alicorns to be more cautious. But while the first case got our attention, the next one really shook us.” The next scene showed a darkened palace gardens where younger Celestia and Luna looked on with shock and horror. The three peeked around them at an opened, blood-soaked white bag to which all three immediately screamed. There, inside the bag were the heads, legs, tails, and organs of former alicorns. Tissue, bones, and groups of red and pink mush were all twisted together in a huge mess coated in blood. Cadance immediately tuned away and hid her face in Shining Armor’s mane while his jaw dropped and his hoofs trembled. Magicon attempted to comfort Cadance and avoid seeing anymore of the scene, but was still disgusted and scared. Celestia’s modern voice was quiet and remorseful, “The body parts of twelve alicorn bodies were found in that bag. We were now convinced that this was no ordinary criminal, this was a lunatic.” The next scene showed Celestia sitting in her thrown her hoof pressing into her cheek as Luna paced before her. “Sister, we must find this criminal if there is to be peace in Equestria. He must be brought to justice.” “I agree my young sister, but thou forgets that this criminal does not want to be found. Hast thou already forgotten the letter that was next to that bag?” Celestia rose and flashed a letter in Luna’s face. “You forget things so quickly, my sister that I must recite them to thee everyday!” Growing visibly annoyed, “Sister! Thou dare assumeth that I am of lesser intelligence than thee simply because of mine age! I very well remember thy letter, but unlike thou I am willing to work and help stop this madman rather than sit and wait for him to strike again!” Celestia quickly turned around and harshly smacked Luna who fell to the floor causing Cadance to flinch. “Respect your elders, sister!” Celestia shouted and disgustingly glared at Luna. “Thou wouldith do well to remember that. Thou has already tried and failed and I’m not letting thou fail again. I am finished here, leave my presence.” Luna got up and glared at her sister and walked out of the throne room. “That letter,” Celestia’s modern voice interrupted, “was very similar to the one we have now. The one back then stated that ‘alicorns were unnatural, alien, and wrong. That they are not native to the Equestria and shouldn’t be here to begin with.’ The author demanded that Luna and I step down as princesses, take the remaining alicorns and leave Equestria forever or else more alicorns would die. He called himself Red-Blood for the first time in that letter, and given his lust for murder, it suited him perfectly.” The next scene showed the Everefree Forest surrounded by a gold force field, very similar to the one that Shining Armor had cast during the Canterlot Wedding. “I responded to the threat by placing the Everfree Forest on lockdown, nopony going in or out. But the murders didn’t stop.” The scene shifted to a pile of dead alicorn bodies in the middle of the street surrounded by horrified alicorns. “Five more alicorns were found dead only two weeks after the letter.” The scene then rapidly shifted to a café where three alicorns lay dead. “And then three more were killed in the middle of the day.” With each scene change all three grew more disgusted and horrified. Cadance’s head was turning a light shade of green and Shining Armor was shaking his head rapidly attempting to remove these images out of his head. Magicon was practically paralyzed with fear and repulsion and his breath was short and rapid. The scene shifted once more back to the throne room, except this time Luna was sitting in her throne and Celestia was before her. “Thou’s great defenses hast failed, sister.” Luna said with vengeance in her voice. “Red-Blood is still somewhere and thou hast failed to protect her subjects from him.” “Hardly,” Celestia rebutted, “They are thou’s subjects too, sister! And what hast thou done to protect thou’s fellow alicorns? Red-Blood hast murdered twenty alicorns! Twenty Luna!” “Do I look like I can forget that, sister? I am scared so very scared. I…I…I just don’t know what to do.” Luna began sobbing. “Cease the tears, Luna. Thou arest a ruler of Equestria; thou must be strong in times of great fear and danger.” Just then a red fire emerged from the sky that morphed into a letter. Celestia telekinetically opened it and read it aloud: “My dear monarchs, the time hast come upon thou to make one final decision for thy fate and the fate of thou’s fellow alicorns. I have in my possession, a weapon which is new that will wipe the alicorns from the face of Equestria in a single blow. I have no fear in using it and am willing to do so should the case arise. However, I offer thee a choice before thou’s final moments: take your precious and pathetic alicorns and flee Equestria forever or watch yourself, thy sister, and thou’s species perish. You hath until the sun hast risen tomorrow morning. Your faithful enemy, Red-Blood” Celestia’s voice trembled as she ready the letter and Luna walked up beside her, herself shaking while reading the letter. “We must give in, sister.” Luna nervously said, “It is for the best.” Celestia’s voice was quiet, “I…I…will not abandon my kingdom and thou shall not either. I shall inform the alicorns and allow them to make their own decision whilist you prepare for a fight with Red-Blood.” Luna nodded and Celestia slowly walked out of the throne room. Modern Celestia broke through and said, “I told the remaining alicorns about the letter and none took the matter lightly and by the end of the day the capital was deserted,” showing an empty city and alicorns flying off into the sky away from Equestria. “We never knew what happened to those alicorns.” The three turned around and saw Celestia, Luna, and four other alicorns standing in front of the palace, fear in all their eyes. All were scared; all were young; all were going to die.