The rain beat down on Scribble Quill as he galloped down the highways of Equestria, his bag bouncing against his side. He could feel them coming, on his left and on his right, and more behind him. They were trying to box him in, but he was faster than them. At least, he was for the moment. The colt that had barely passed the exams to join the Order as a scribe, and he had expected a nice, safe job, not something like this. They were coming closer now. He turned his head and saw a shadow moving closer to him in the light of a lightning bolt, and in a last-ditch attempt he mustered up the best attack spell he knew and shot the thing point-blank. It flew back against the rocks but rolled to its feet instantly, looking none the worse for wear as he kept running. At least he had bought himself a few seconds to work. He broke a small charm off of the bracelet he had been given by the Order and pushed his magic into the small sun-shaped amulet.
“Light of Celestia, guide my avengers! Let this shadow perish before your flames of glory!” The charm suddenly glowed with the light of the sun and he threw it up as high as he could into the sky, momentarily illuminating the highway before it shot off across the horizon towards Canterlot. Scribble kept running, but he knew it was hopeless. He didn’t want to die, he wanted to just go home to his nice warm bed, but there they were. Closer now, and angry. They didn’t like the light, and there was nothing left for him to do but scream as they pounced.
==========
“Sugar, Ah’m not sayin’ you have to come with, I’d just be mighty pleased if you decided to.” Fluttershy nervously pawed at the wooden floors of Applejack’s kitchen, deeply unsure of what to do. She had been living in a little cottage deep in Sweet Apple Acres since she had moved to Ponyville, and she had become fast friends with the farmer since the day she arrived. Of course, the farmer had a second job as a Grey Guard and the other was a Faerie, so neither was among the most trusting sort, but they had come to have the utmost confidence in each other more than almost anyone else since the incident.
Two weeks had passed since the raid on the farm and the attempt on AJ’s life, and while there weren’t any lasting legal troubles she couldn’t help but feel like she hadn’t done the right thing. She had let herself become a monster, and she had done terrible things. It was a wonder there weren’t more deaths, and even though she still didn’t quite remember what had transpired she could still taste the blood in her mouth every time she thought of that terrible night. All things considered, this was not a trip she wanted to take. She had just been getting settled into her nice, comfortable little cottage in the orchard and was loving Applejack’s company, but now the farmer had called her over to the farmhouse and told he she had decided it was time to pay a visit to Canterlot and get some answers for herself.
“The old colt said he’d get things straightened out with the church, but ah don’t think that’s good enough. The Order of Celestia used to be made of the greatest ponies in the world, an’ ah don’t much like the idea that they’ve got free reign to come kick in mah door in the middle of the night an’ try to murder me. Ah’m funny that way.” The most annoying part was, Applejack was right. Fluttershy knew the Royal Guard from years past and she knew that they honestly did try to live up to the lofty standards they set for themselves. They were a great and honorable Order, and for an entire company to go rogue and try to assassinate a pony was nearly unthinkable. Didn’t make it any more fun to go see them about it, though.
“Look, I don’t... I don’t know about all this... Doesn’t the farm need someone to take care of it while you’re out? I can stay here and keep the trees company!” Much as she would’ve liked to have the Faerie’s presence around to keep the orchard as healthy as it could be, she knew things would be much easier if she brought along another witness to what had happened. It wasn’t that she wanted to get Fluttershy out of the farm; in fact, ever since she had moved in Sweet Apple Acres had been turning double the yields with a quarter the effort on her part. The trees absolutely loved her, and for her part Fluttershy seemed impressively at home with life on the farm. If nothing else, she had calmed down quite a bit since AJ had first met her.
“Sugah, we’re only gonna be gone a couple days at most, and we’re nowhere near ready to harvest.” She paused and thought for a long moment, then remembered something that might tip the scales in her favor. “Look, ah’ve never been, but ah’ve heard that there’s a really pretty garden in Canterlot. I’m bettin’ it’s just the sorta thing you’d love to see and it’s not too far from where the Order has their headquarters.” Applejack had been right, and Fluttershy perked right up at the thought of getting to go see a lovely new garden, and the royal courtyards in Canterlot were the stuff of legend among her kind. The castle didn’t employ any of her kind to tend them, and it tended to be off-limits to anyone not on official business.
“Really?! The gardens should be nearly in full bloom this time of year, are you certain they’d let me in?” To be totally honest Applejack had no idea, but she was willing to entertain the thought.
“Well, ah can’t make no guarantees, but ah figure if you come and tell them what happened they wouldn’ mind lettin’ you get out on your own for a couple hours. Ah mean, not like we really have a better plan.” It was true; Fluttershy hadn’t heard of anyone getting into the Canterlot Gardens without something close to a royal favor, and if she knew Applejack then chances were she was going to go straight to the most important paladin in the entire base. That would be the pony to ask if anyone was.
“Well... All right!” She put on her bravest smile, which was still tiny and adorable even though she was trying to be strong and intimidating. “I think we can go together, I hope... I mean, nothing scary is going to happen there, right?”
“Dahlin’, it’s just a quick little chat with someone to get some answers. What could possibly go wrong?”
==========
Give Canterlot their due, even if Ponyville was the world-acclaimed haven for everyone of any species and temperament, they didn’t have the same sense of infrastructure as the castle city. There had been a concentrated effort to standardize the roads between cities in Equestria, and while no one had been interested in actually building a road to the little valley hamlet it wasn’t a major issue to hike a few miles of dirt trail to the worn cobblestone road that was under the official protection of the Order. Of course, even with the best walking conditions the journey was still far enough to take all day, and the sun was creeping down towards the forest as they came up to the summit of the road and approached the grand gates of Equestria’s capitol. There were half a dozen guards at the gate and the drawbridge was solidly locked in the up position, leaving the pair of ponies in something of an awkward standoff with the Paladin at the front of the group.
“Halt and identify yourselves.” The unicorn stallion was gruff and had a clear no-nonsense tone in his voice, but he didn’t move towards his weapon as he approached them. Fluttershy wasn’t the best at reading emotions and cautiously took a step back on pure reflex, but she got the impression he wasn’t there to hurt them; he honestly did just want to know who they were.
“Ah’m Applejack, an’ this here’s Fluttershy. We’re here to talk to the big boss in there about somethin’ goin’ on with the Order.” The paladin stopped and drew his blade, slowly and clearly trying to not intimidate them. Of course, given the nature of who he was working with, Fluttershy had somehow completely disappeared behind Applejack and the farmer herself raised an eyebrow as she shouldered her own black blade. She let him approach, cautiously, and watched him like a hawk the whole time as he gently waved the shimmering silver sword around them. A moment later his horn flashed and he sheathed his sword.
“They’re clear of enchantments or tracking rituals. Lower the gates.” The guards behind him jumped to their duty and the drawbridge slowly lowered, but AJ couldn’t help but question the tight security.
“Somethin’ got the King’s knickers in a twist?” The paladin shook his head once and stepped aside, letting the pair of them pass.
“The Order is on alert after one of our members was killed on the road for unknown reasons. Please proceed directly to your destination if you don’t wish to be questioned by other guards in the city. I’m afraid this whole situation has the entire Order on edge, I’m certain you understand.”
“Why make the whole city hunker down, though? If’n ya ask me, it’s jus’ a little overkill.” The paladin actually scowled and shook his head, just once before regaining his proper stoic demeanor.
“If the Order is at risk, then so be it. We are trained to handle such things. We are not, however, going to risk any harm coming to the citizens of this fair land, no matter what it takes.” AJ smiled a little and nodded as she walked past him. The Order might have some bad bits, but it seemed they still taught their colts what it meant to be one of the good guys.
Once the pair were within the city walls and the gate had closed behind them, the emotions within seemed different from the pleasant neutral of the road. Fluttershy felt it as they crossed the moat, and while she wasn’t sure what to think of it she was fairly certain she didn’t like it. The city felt almost sterile to her higher senses, the haughty, snobbish attitude of the social elite permeating the very stones the city was laid on, and for a moment she even felt herself growl, just a little. Sure, it felt safe and it was visually a lovely city, but she instinctively knew this was no place for someone like her. She needed to be out in the woods where she belonged.
Applejack had her own take on Canterlot, having been in the city a few times as part of her job, and it wasn’t far different. For her, the city was one that had grown complacent in the safety provided by the Order. She didn’t begrudge them their peace, but it always made her feel pained and alien, just a little, when she compared their comfortable lives to her own existence beyond the front lines in the endless war against darkness. For her the Order was a far-off idea, not a constant presence, and while she held them in the highest honor for their part in the fight she couldn’t help but wonder just what the ponies behind them could do but die if their protectors left them.
As they rounded the corner and approached the headquarters of the Order of Celestia, Fluttershy couldn’t help but be a little disappointed. She had expected them to have some sort of great fortress or cathedral or something, but instead it looked to all intents and purposes like just another wing of the royal palace, aside from the enormous stained glass window depicting Celestia’s cutie mark above the main gates. That said, the palace itself was a thing of incredible beauty, and Fluttershy wasn’t entirely certain what more could be done to it to make it look any better than it already did. Maybe get rid of the angry-looking Pegasus in full armor on the front steps, at least.
The first thing either of them noticed about the mare was how large she was. Most ponies stayed about the same size, but this one, be it biology or a trick of her armor, was nearly two full hands taller than either of them and strapped to her side below her left wing was a longbow to match. She didn’t seem to have a melee weapon on her, but they both knew that looks could be deceiving around the Order. This time Fluttershy managed to stay the course as they approached her, although she still looked and felt like she was about to have an accident when the mare turned her piercing stare on her for a moment.
“Greetings, madame Applejack and madame Fluttershy. I am Stoneheart, Knight of the Order of Celestia. Your arrival was heralded by Archpaladin Sol Invictus at the gates, and Captain Platinum wishes to speak with you directly. Follow me, please.” She turned and cantered up the stairs, leaving them little choice but to follow or be left confused and in the dust. As they walked through the security in the front hall and entered the foyer of the Order’s headquarters, what Fluttershy saw next nearly made her heart stop. The room clearly served as the main hub of the palace wing, stretching up to the rooftop with a dozen rings of balconies and pegasi fluttering about, but that wasn’t what had her attention. The entire far wall was made of a solid pane of glass, and beyond it lay the Palace Gardens. An entire forest, obsessively well-kept and seeded with the most beautiful plants from all around Gaia, enclosed in the space where only the chosen were allowed to walk. Even through the enchanted glass she could hear it calling out to her, a grand symphony of voices rarely felt in nature all working together in perfect harmony to create a place of abject beauty. On pure instinct she spread her wings and launched herself towards it, only to get stopped in midair and yanked backwards. Stoneheart spat out her tail and leveled a stern glare at her, before glancing around at the dozen or so guards that had already reached for their weapons at the sudden movement.
“The Order is rather on edge at the moment, so might I recommend not doing anything that makes you look like a terrorist, like suddenly flying without authorization into a large, crowded area? I would rather dislike having to scrape you off the floor when the guards figure out you weren’t actually a threat.” Fluttershy turned pale as a sheet and skittered back behind Applejack, just letting the farmer take charge for the time being.
“You two are still our citizens that we are all charged with protecting, but we are ultimately only ponies. Please do be careful.” Applejack could’ve sworn she saw the tiniest smirk under her helmet as she took the lead again, shepherding them upstairs and into a hallway on the highest floor. She gestured towards a mahogany door at the far end and stepped back, waiting and not going any further. Applejack took charge at that point and pushed it open, letting the pair of them into the office of the Captain.
The room was lavishly appointed with a thick carpet and bookshelves all around the walls, the latter all of the finest craftsmanship and packed with ancient, dusty tomes, some of which Fluttershy idly recognized as being centuries old. The far wall was, like the rest of the building, glass and let in the fading sunlight from the gardens, leaving the room fully illuminated despite the lack of lamps, and framing in shadow the large, imposing stallion behind a large, imposing desk facing the door. Two chairs sat between them and the desk, and with a slight smile the stallion gestured at the pair of them.
“Madame Applejack and Miss Fluttershy, I presume. Please, enter.” He was an older stallion, his mane long-gone grey, and he was easily as large as Stoneheart outside. He wore the gleaming silver armor of a Paladin, less the helmet, and his horn stood proudly from his forehead above a pair of eyes that seemed to burn with the fires of youth even after so many years had clearly taken their toll on his body. His desk was something of a cluttered mess, covered in old mementos and stacks of paperwork, and set aside in the corner was a sheathed longsword and a large shield made of the same Astral Silver the Paladins favored. They weren’t in any sort of place of honor; rather, they looked like they had been set aside by a stallion who expected to pick them up again any minute. Applejack and Fluttershy cautiously entered the Captain’s office and settled into the two chairs facing him, letting him lead the conversation for the moment.
“I am, as I’m sure you’ve been made aware, Captain Platinum Sonata of the Order of Celestia. I do apologize for the state of my organization at the moment; were we in happier times, I would gladly offer you a drink. Of course, in happier times we likely wouldn’t be having this conversation in a heavily guarded office and we would be able to just go get drinks, but such is life.” He paused and sniffed at the air a little, his horn sparking with the beginning of a spell before falling quiet again. “You are… One of Luna’s. A blackguard, I can feel it.” “Ah prefer Grey Guard, if’n it’s all the same to ya.” Platinum chuckled a little.
“Grey Guard, then. And you… Well.” He turned to Fluttershy, “I don’t think I’ve had one of your kind in here in over a decade. Tell me, did she try to charge the gardens as soon as she got in here?” Applejack grinned and nodded, eliciting an adorable glare from the Faerie.
“Sure did, an’ the colts downstairs nearly had a fit over it. Damndest thing ah seen all week.”
“Oh, in happier times this conversation could’ve been a wonderful thing indeed.” He smiled a little ruefully, then quickly grew somber. “However, this is not those times, and I am rather afraid we don’t have time for much levity, as appreciated as it is. You see, miss Applejack, miss Fluttershy, I have a very bad problem, and I’m afraid the two of you are quite thoroughly in the middle of it.” Applejack blinked and furrowed her brow, leaning forward onto the desk while Fluttershy curled up a little tighter in her chair.
“All right, an’ what does this problem consist of, if ya don’t mind me askin’?” Platinum pulled a fairly large file off the top of one of his stacks of paperwork and flipped it open, spreading half a dozen photographs across the table. A few were of Sweet Apple Acres, a few of Applejack and Fluttershy, and one of a pony they both knew all too well.
“Stalwart Sentinel, a rogue guard from the Order, attacked your farm a few weeks back. You killed him. Now, this is not the issue at hoof. You were fully within your rights and you were actually quite merciful to his platoon by most standards. However, we had some work to do here, and we dispatched a scribe with an official apology from the Order and reparations for the damages inflicted on your farm. However…” He flipped a few more pictures, one of the scribe in question at what appeared to be his induction into the Order, and another of the same stallion in a fairly large pool of blood, covered in deep gouges and bite marks.
“The scribe was caught on the road between guardposts and killed. When his body was recovered, the package he was carrying for you was missing.” Applejack began to speak, but Platinum cut her off with a wave of his hoof. “We doubt it was intentional banditry. There was a fair amount of money in the package but not enough for most ponies to consider it worthwhile, and even if they did need it nothing was marking him as a carrier. Knight Stoneheart has looked into the possibility of an Anti-Order group attacking him, but as of yet no one seems to have been anywhere near him that we know of. And there’s another problem.” He finally put down a large crystal on the desk and, with a glint of his horn, an image began to play across the faces of the gem. The stallion from the pictures could be seen running in the middle of the night as rain fell around him, and occasional glimpses of something moving could be seen around him. Suddenly, one of the things pounced, and with another spark Platinum paused the playback of the crystal.
“We received this beacon the night the stallion is believed to have died, and we believe this is what killed him.” Applejack glanced over it and paused, trying to remember what it is, but Fluttershy got there first.
“V’rahill. Magic eaters.” Platinum nodded and pulled open one of the books he had open next to him, which was open to a diagram of the creature in the image. It looked like some sort of lizard, except it was the size of a wolf and had just as many teeth. Its claws had an entire section of the page dedicated to them, as did its senses. The thing had a pair of enormous horns that looked more like insect antennae than anything that belonged on a vertebrate, which complimented the ridged spines running down the length of its back. Its eyes were sunken and seemed almost atrophied compared to its nose, which took up most of its face, and knowing what it was for did little to help Fluttershy’s disgust.
“They’re awful things, they just kill… So many poor forest creatures, it’s terrible.” She sniffled and curled up again, looking away from the book as Platinum set it aside.
“She seems to have the gist of it. They’re summoned creatures from one of the less pleasant parts of Tartarus, and they hunt in packs by sensing the mystical energy in mortals. Unicorns are their favorite, but they’ll eat anything and the Order is on a permanent kill-on-sight order. The thing is, they don’t live naturally in this world. They have to be summoned out of Tartarus, and that means that this wasn’t a random, brutal thing. Someone out there with a fair amount of power was actively targeting this colt, and we don’t know why.” Applejack glanced back and forth between the pictures of the colt and the images of the creatures that had killed him, slowly building an idea.
“So… These things, you’re sayin’ they hunt ponies. Like, they sniff out their magic?” “Essentially, yes. They often go for just about anything, but if they smell a powerful mage they’ll go after them like wolves tracking blood.” She nodded, things slowly fitting together.
“And this package, there was a signed apology in it. What’s the deal with that?”
“Well, whenever something like what happened to you occurs, it is one of my duties to issue an apology on behalf of the Order, signed with my own magic seal.” The trio continued studying the pictures, trying to link it together, then they all paused and slowly looked up at each other.
“Ya don’t think…”
“I mean, it’s possible…” Suddenly, an alarm went off outside the castle, and Platinum’s head snapped up as Stoneheart all-but kicked his door in.
“Captain sir! There’s been a breach at the city’s main gates! V’rahill are swarming over the walls and Archpaladin Invictus can’t hold them off himself!” Platinum scowled and waved his horn, calling up a dozen scrying spells to figure out what had gone wrong.
“This shouldn’t be happening! What happened to our defenses?”
“They were taken offline during the mana surge, sir. One of the creatures got into the crystal network and knocked the entire shield system offline before the guards could kill it.” Platinum spat out a curse and looked out the great window. The wards were attuned to the power of the sun and moon, but that left an instant’s vulnerability for them to be attacked, right at sunset.
“Damn it all, prepare to defend the city. How many guards and paladins do we have on hand?”
“Not enough, sir, not to protect the entire city from an invasion like this.” Platinum scowled and with his magic he buckled on his sword and picked up his shield on the way past his desk, glancing over at Applejack and Fluttershy as he passed. All joviality was gone from his face, and all that was left was the cold, calculating strength of a warrior.
“This is our fight, and you have no reason to get involved, but I think the Order could do with one of Luna’s best on the job if you’re interested.” Applejack nodded and stood, Fluttershy trailing behind her, and the pair of them both nodded in unison.
“Ah figure it’s ‘bout time for us to get some exercise in.” The four of them charged out of the office and back into the main foyer, where they didn’t even bother with the stairs. The two pegasi flew down to ground level, Applejack swung down from balcony to balcony with her ropes keeping her at a steady pace and lowering her safely to the ground, and the Captain himself simply jumped down the middle of the ten-story-room and his hooves slammed into the floor hard enough to crack the tile for several feet around him.
“Argh, these knees are getting old… I didn’t say stop!” The other three ran towards the door with Platinum only a few feet behind and as they passed through the security checkpoints they could see just what had happened. The walls were swarming with evil lizards climbing over and jumping into the city, and while the guards were doing everything they could to hold back the oncoming tide there were simply too many for them to handle all at once. Suddenly, Platinum stopped and whipped his head around, before finally focusing on a small shelf on the mountainside out past the gates.
“There’s a powerful ritual out there. That’s where the summoner is, I guarantee it.” Applejack nodded and her rope coiled around her barrel as she drew her black longsword that shimmered in the fading sunlight.
“Sounds like jus’ the sorta thing I can deal with. Think y’all have things handled here?” Platinum nodded with a smirk and she took off, jumping up between buildings and running at a full earth pony tilt across the rooftops.
“Stoneheart, get to the main gates and reinforce Invictus’s position, if he’s still alive. Miss Shy, if you would come with me please?” Fluttershy nodded at once and followed him as he galloped back into the palace. She wasn’t certain why he wasn’t taking the field, but a moment’s thought beat through her emotional rush and she understood. If these things were after his magical signature, they would be fools to let him get outside and potentially be surrounded. Still, why not let her take them on herself? However, she quickly buried all of that when they approached the great glass wall around the palace gardens and he shoved open a door set in the bottom of it for her.
“Now, miss Shy, do you feel more at home in here?” She nodded mutely, the garden reaching out to her and she to it, letting their magics dance and mingle with each other. There was incredible power in this garden, just waiting to be tapped, and for a moment she forgot there was anything happening in the outside world at all.
“If these things are coming for me, then I need you to work with this garden to destroy them as they come near. You can interact with the trees, can’t you?” She nodded, now rather unsure.
“Well, yes, but… I don’t… They don’t really want to, if you know what I mean…” He didn’t, but he honestly didn’t know much about how faerie magic worked and stayed wisely silent. “I mean, they like you, but they’re not animals, they can’t fight like that. All they can do is lend me their power and their will, I’m sorry…” Platinum nodded and a thought slowly crept across his mind, but he was shocked out of his moment’s contemplation by an enormous bestial roar outside the palace.
The great stained glass window exploded inward as a V’rahill ten times the size of any of those they had seen before dove through it, barrelling through the glass around the garden without a second thought in its quest for Platinum’s blood. The entire wall cracked around the hole, the enormous hairlines spreading around the entire place as the monster went in for the kill. Before it could open its jaws, however, Platinum snapped his shield up into its snout hard enough that the shockwave shattered the weakened glass, causing the entire wall to come crashing down in an incredible display of beautiful destruction as thousands of shards caught the twilight.
“IN THE NAME OF THE SUN, LET US CLEANSE THOSE TAINTED BY DARKNESS!” This time it was Platinum’s turn to roar and drive his shield into the creature’s face again, hurling it back out into the main foyer. Its face twisted into a cruel approximation of a smile and its blind eyes focused on him, before it spoke in a guttural, grinding voice.
“Foolish… Foolish mortalsss. You think the darknesss isss sssomething that you cleanssse? The darknesss isss what sssurvivesss after we dessstroy your ussselesss light, ssstarting with you!” In response, Platinum drew his sword, four feet of gleaming Astral Silver pointed at the beast as he held his shield up and stepped out into the foyer to face it properly.
“Well then. Shall we dance?”
==========
As the creatures scaled the walls of their home, a terrified filly and her mother ran down the back alleys, desperately trying to get away from the vile things as they smashed in their windows, hunting for the delicious mortals they had sensed within. The mother scooped up her daughter and hid the pair of them behind a dumpster, hoping against hope that the creatures had lost their scent, and the filly quietly sniffled and clung to her mother as they hid.
“Don’t worry, Moondancer, mommy’s here… Everything is gonna be okay, mommy promises.” The filly nodded and peeked out into the alleyway, watching the things climbing into their windows and watching them throw things back out in their mad hunt. Suddenly, one of the bits of jetsam being cast aside caught her eye, and she wriggled out of her mother’s grasp.
“Mister Smarty-Pants!” She evaded her mother’s lunge for her ran back for it, her mother screaming at her to come back, but it was for naught. One of the creatures saw the little filly and turned, diving off of the side of the building and lunging at her with all fangs bared. Moondancer screamed as it came towards her, but an instant before it reached her an unseen force slammed into it and it fell to the side, a long wooden shaft sticking out of its eye. The mother turned back and saw a tough-looking mare in the armor of a Paladin, up on her hind legs with another arrow in her mouth. With a practiced grace Stoneheart slid it into place and, holding the bow with her forehooves, she let it fly, square through the face of another, then another, then another. Within seconds she had picked the entire alleyway clean before any of the things could reach the mare or her daughter, and she couldn’t help but smile as the openly weeping mother scooped up her daughter and hugged her like she never would again.
“Get her inside, down to the basement. They shouldn’t be able to sense you there.” The mother nodded, letting Stone turn and walk away, before she paused and glanced back at them.
“Don’t forget the doll, she seems to like it.”
==========
“Nine here!”
“I got fifteen!”
“Thirteen!”
The guards at the front gate stood on the now open drawbridge, having lowered it when the defenses fell to get in on the action, and things had not gone exactly swimmingly for them. One of their number had been torn to shreds by the creatures already, and even though they were each racking up a respectable kill-count the oncoming hordes seemed endless. They kept hacking and slashing away at anything that got within reach and yelling out their numbers to each other, but ever so slowly the tides of the battle turned against them. More and more monsters crawled over the bodies of their fallen kin to attack the mortals, and even Invictus Sol himself was hard-pressed to turn the tide with the double-bitted axe gripped in his magic.
“Don’t give up the bridge, lads! Celestia only knows if this isn’t just the first wave!” He growled and swung the axe in a wide arc, cleanly splitting four of the monsters in half and letting his soldiers advance another few inches towards the beasts. Much as he wanted them to win, though, he could feel the force of the monsters like the tides, and he knew that they were in a losing battle even at this rate. He had to do something to turn the tides, and after a moment’s hesitation he tore a charm off of his armor, threw it into the air above the hordes of monsters, and blasted it with a beam from his horn. The stored magic within the little crystal released in an instant, blinding the higher senses that the V’rahill relied on, and in that moment of opportunity the members of the Order pressed their opportunity for all they could. The monsters, unable to scent the mortals, fell back upon their own reinforcements in a mad scramble to get away, leaving the field clear for the paladin and guards to take the victory.
“Aha! Fifty-three! What say the rest of you?!” Sol threw back his head and laughed in triumph at the crestfallen looks on his guards, who had only managed thirty at the most themselves. His celebration was cut off, however, at the sight of a creature at the back of the retreating pack suddenly stumbling and falling, and he turned with a sour glare at Stoneheart as she came out of the alleyway behind them.
“Fifty-four.”
“I hate you.” Stoneheart stuck out her tongue at him, then turned back to look at the fleeing mob.
“Where are they going, anyway?”
“Scared them off with one of my better tricks, they’ll probably turn back for another round in a minute.” They continued to watch as the last of the creatures vanished around a corner, all moving with a distinct purpose.
“They’re not turning back, are they?”
“They are not.”
“We should chase them, shouldn’t we?”
“Oh, I should think so.”
==========
Fluttershy backed away from the brewing battle in the foyer, adrenaline pumping through her system as she looked up to the trees for support. They had outlived the palace that was built around them, and they would live on for centuries yet to come. Let pass what may, they had seen dark gods rise and invasions of creatures that would destroy the minds of any that dared imagine them, and they had weathered it all. There was a rock-steady peace in the garden, even in the middle of the battle, and Fluttershy felt herself giving into their calmness.
“All right. What do we have to do?” The trees and plants around her radiated their approval, but nice as that was she still had no plan. She wasn’t a fighter, not on as enormous a scale as this, and she already knew that the trees couldn’t fight for her. All she had to work with was an enormous ball of raw power and no way to focus it, just sit there and be a huge beacon for every nasty thing within a hundred miles.
Actually, maybe she did have a plan after all.
Fluttershy turned and ran out of the garden through where the glass had broken into the depths of the palace, looking for someone that had taken shelter further from the battles. Thankfully, a secretary was underneath her desk in an office adjacent to the garden, and she was kind enough to point Fluttershy towards the Paladin barracks. The battle had been going for mere minutes, nowhere near enough time for everyone off-duty to get ready and get moving, so she hoped against hope she would still have enough time to make something work as she ran down the stairs into the stallions’ quarters. She thanked her lucky stars when she heard somepony giving orders, and as she rounded the corner she smacked square into the white flank of one of the paladins.
“Woah! Be careful there, miss… What are you doing here?” Fluttershy backed up, suddenly wondering if this was quite such a good plan, but she steeled her nerves and stood straight as she faced him. The stallion still wasn’t in his armor, and she could see the blue shield on his flank right in front of where she had smacked into it.
“Please, I have a plan! Could you please point me to someone in charge, if you could?” The stallion nodded and extended a hoof to steady her, trying to calm her nerves at least a little.
“Vice Captain Shining Armor, at your service. You have a plan?” She nodded and did her best to stop shaking, trying to look like someone that at least knew what they were doing.
“Yes, please, come upstairs, and bring the guards with you, if it’s not too much trouble?” She smiled a little sheepishly and he couldn’t help but feel a momentary pang of sympathy for the poor darling that was clearly so far out of her element it wasn’t even funny. “A-and, is there anyone here that knows shield magic? That would help, I think.”
Five minutes later, the remaining guards mustered with Shining Armor and Fluttershy in the wrecked foyer, Platinum’s battle having apparently taken him elsewhere for the moment, and as the guards moved into position the Faerie reached out to the trees, calling on them for aid as she gently flew up into their branches. The trees gave her their power, collected over centuries of life, and as her magical aura grew Fluttershy began to radiate with an incredible light, the same light that lit the halls of the Faerie queens. What was visible, though, was only the tiniest fraction of what was happening. Past the range of mortal senses, Fluttershy’s aura grew into a ball of light seemingly greater than the sun itself, and almost as one the V’rahill turned and forgot their former quarry in favor of this infinitely more delicious target.
Shining stood, a spell ready in his horn, alone in the gardens below while Fluttershy worked, his guards and paladins ready for battle as the first of the creatures stumbled in, mad with hunger like all the rest that were close on its heels, and it was an act of will for the guards to not attack even as hundreds of the things poured in through the broken window and front hall and into the garden. Finally, at the last second Shining threw up a shield around the garden, cutting the garden off from the outside world and trapping the creatures within. Suddenly, the magic of the garden was all contained within a relatively tiny space around them, and the power within Shining’s shield was utterly blinding.
What happened next was a moment of absolute chaos as every guardspony and paladin available poured in from where the trees had hidden them, fighting with an epic ferocity as the creatures panicked. Compared to the power radiating from Fluttershy they couldn’t distinguish anything that was happening from the blinding lights coming out of her, and within a matter of minutes the great garden was littered with hundreds of smoking, slowly vanishing monster corpses. Shining Armor stood, sword in his mouth and spell still on his horn, triumphant in the middle of the garden, even as the trees saw that their work was done and slowly pulled their power back, letting Fluttershy return to the ground as her aura faded back to normal. Shining approached her a little cautiously, since even he had been able to feel the power radiating off of her a moment before.
“Hey, are you okay?” She smiled and stood a little shakily, before collapsing down onto her knees. He rushed to her side and steadied her, idly letting her drape a wing over him for support.
“Easy, easy. Just relax, I’ve never seen anything like that before. You all right, little miss?” Fluttershy chuckled and relaxed against him, prompting a few of the guards around them to put their weapons aside and pick her up.
“Get her to the infirmary, I’ll be here with the other casualties and… Um. That.” He glanced up at the top of the shield, wondering just when his life had grown so complicated.
==========
Platinum grunted in pain as he smashed through the one of the palace walls, the V’rahill Alpha having gotten a lucky strike in on him, and he magically summoned his sword and shield back to him just in time to catch another swipe of the thing’s claws and go in for a killing blow. Much like the last several, though, his sword glanced off of the Alpha’s deceptively durable hide and the thing just chuckled at him again.
“Jussst lie down and die, mortal. It’sss all your kind isss good at, after all.” Platinum scowled and batted away another strike from its claws, the two of them having ended up in something of a brutal stalemate. He glanced over at a slight movement in the corner of his eye, and one of the bookish mares that he recognized as a scribe in training peeked out from behind a couch, her eyes wide and fearful.
“Evening, ma’am. If I might say so, you’re looking lovely tonight.” The Alpha roared at him, but Platinum just glared at it and bashed it in the face with his shield again.
“Ignore him. Absolutely no sense of how to treat a mare right.” The Alpha scowled and clawed at him again, but while Platinum was blocking that its other foreleg swiped up and smacked him straight up into the next floor, then the next and the next. It was a testament to the resilience of the stallion that he didn’t break every bone in his body as he hauled himself back to his hooves, as well as the craftsmanship of paladin armor. He resolved then and there to actually start taking this thing seriously as it tore its way up through the hole he had created, absolutely wrecking the rooms in between with its far larger frame. In the process, though, the thing left itself off-guard for just a moment, and as it came through the hole Platinum jumped over it and grabbed onto one of its horns, using the full weight of his body as well as the Alpha’s motion against it to stab it square in the blind eye.
The Alpha screamed in pain and rage as it shook Platinum off, and in the process the Captain’s head slammed into the ceiling hard enough for him to see stars, just in time to actually see stars as the creature smashed him through a wall and sent him tumbling out into the open air above the gardens. He twisted around, knowing something was definitely dislocated or broken inside him, and prepared himself for what was likely to be a rough landing. As the trees approached, though, a sudden pink barrier appeared between him and the topmost branches, letting him roll to a stop while the Alpha jumped down to sneer at the fallen Captain.
“Ah, you’ve decided to jussst roll over and die, good. Now let’sss work on the sssecond part.” Platinum summoned his sword back to him, his magic yanking it out of the creature’s head and eliciting an angry snarl, and it charged him as he hauled himself back to his feet and put his shield between him and the wall of fangs bearing down on him. He didn’t have the same strength of will as he had at the beginning of the fight and he couldn’t shove the creature back anywhere near as well, but he still forced it into a stalemate as they shoved on each other. The Alpha slowly gained ground on him, pushing harder and slowly approaching him as his shield bent beneath the crushing weight of its jaws, and in a pivotal instant the beautifully worked Astral Silver shattered in its maw and it charged him, knocking him to the ground as it pummeled him with its claws. It couldn’t break through his armor, but the blunt force was still doing a number on him as it screamed in rage.
“Die, die die DIE DIE DIE!” In what he believed to be his last moments Platinum looked downwards at the guards he had failed to save, and through a gap in the treetops he caught the eye of one Shining Armor, who was watching the fight with a look of horror in his eyes. Suddenly, a plan caught in Platinum’s mind, and he nodded with a smile at his second-in-command, who thankfully caught his meaning and dropped the shield, leaving the Captain and the Alpha with nothing to support them. The sword that had carried him throughout all his years snapped down into Platinum’s mouth as the creature roared in enraged confusion, and as they slammed into the garden ground the creature’s own weight upon him was enough to overcome its defenses. As it hit the ground on top of the Captain his sword speared up through the roof of its open mouth, embedded to the hilt inside the monster’s head.
Platinum coughed up a small bit of blood as Shining and several of the other guards rolled the creature’s carcass off of him, his armor stained and cracked in a dozen places and his left foreleg bent in an odd angle, but he smiled nonetheless at the sight of the wrecked garden. It seemed the battle had been won at last, and through the ringing in his ears he could vaguely make out Shining explaining what had happened. He closed his eyes and when he opened them again Stoneheart and Invictus were leaning over him, and now it was their turn to fill him in on the small pockets of monsters that were being eradicated throughout the city. Satisfied, he closed his eyes, not opening them again until he was safely in the infirmary’s intensive care unit, confident that his job was done.
==========
After jumping and climbing her way across the city, over the walls, and up the side of the mountain, Applejack finally hooked a rope over a rock outcropping and hauled herself up onto the little plateau where Platinum had told her to look. The old colt’s senses had been right, sure enough, and two hooded figures stood around a summoning circle carved in the stones of the mountain. Rather than waste any time with witty banter she charged right up and jammed her sword into the rock, sinking it in and then yanking it backwards to cut a scar clean through their ritual. Both figures jumped back in shock as the magical energies released, and in doing so their hoods fell back. Both turned out to be cream-colored unicorns with red and white striped manes, and they both turned to glare at Applejack as she hunkered down into a fighting position with her rope at the ready.
“I do say, oh brother mine, that was quite rude!”
“Yes indeed, brother mine, quite rude indeed!” Applejack blinked a few times, taking a slightly longer moment to process that than usual.
“Young miss, this is not your fight to interfere with!”
“Like hell it ain’t!” Her brain finally caught up with what was going on and she scowled at the pair of them as she yanked her sword out of the stone and slid it into its sheath at her side. “Y’all come in attackin’ innocent ponies with a buncha monsters an’ you think it ain’t my problem?” She stomped up to the one without the moustache and he stepped back with a sheepish grin, even as she got up in his face.
“You attacked the Order of Celestia! What’ve they ever done to ya?!” The stallion quickly got his cocky smirk back on and idly pushed her away with his nose, leaving her own muzzle scrunched and confused.
“Us? Why, not a thing! Some old colt with a pocketwatch offered us ever so much money to kill the old fool that calls himself Captain, and we just couldn’t refuse, could we brother?”
“We certainly couldn’t, brother!” Applejack stared, dumbfounded at the pair of them, trying to deal with what they had just said.
“You did all this… For money?! What in tarnation is wrong with y’all?!” Her rope uncoiled from around her and lashed out, but as one both colts hopped backwards off the cliff face, vanishing from view. She stared, mouth agape, and ran over to look for them before they suddenly rose up on some sort of carpet that was supporting their weight in midair.
“Money is what makes the world go round, my dear! I’m sure you’ll learn eventually, won’t she brother?”
“Indeed she will, brother! In any case, we must be off! Places to go, ponies to kill!” Before she could react their flying carpet took off at a speed only the best pegasi could hope to match, leaving the extremely angry farmer alone to stomp out her rage on their summoning circle. Once she was well and truly exhausted she began the trek back to the palace, hoping the others had been a little more lucky than she had.
==========
“All right, it looks like he’s coming to. Are you feeling all right, sir?” Platinum groaned and opened his eyes, staring up at the sterile white ceiling of the infirmary. With an effort he turned his head, before it was quickly pointed back up where it had been by an unseen pair of hooves.
“Easy, easy. Don’t move, you got put through the wringer real good. Just relax, okay?” Platinum considered nodding, but he really did feel like he had gone through hell and back. Probably best to not press the issue.
“Yeah, okay. What’s the situation, Stone?” Stoneheart kicked back at his bedside and glanced over at Applejack, who was still a little sour about what had happened.
“Right, well. The guards are rooting out and killing pockets of V’rahill around the city, but it looks like we cut down ninety-nine percent of them already. The garden is a wreck after the battle but Fluttershy is up there now tending to it, she’s certain she can get it looking as good as ever by the time she leaves. There’s structural damage through half the base thanks to you and the big guy, that’ll take a couple years repairing, but nothing we can’t deal with. The summoners got away, but based on what Applejack said we’re pretty certain we know who they are. Flim and Flam, specifically, a pair of mercenaries and assassins that dropped off the radar a couple years back. I’d bet twenty bits they got into Sentinel’s head too somehow and started this whole thing rolling. All in all, it’s been a hell of a night, sir.” Platinum chuckled and wheezed when chuckling proved a little too painful, and nodded very slightly.
“Sounds like it. Any thoughts on what we should do with the two of them?” Stone glanced across the bed at Applejack, who was half-dozing under her stetson while trying to listen to the conversation.
“Not yet. Guessing you’ll have to write up another letter of apology, though.” More half-laughing, half-choking noises came out of the Captain, and for a moment Stoneheart considered just scrapping the whole conversation and finding a nurse to put him back to sleep.
“I think they might need a little more. Have they literally murdered the king yet?”
“...No sir?” Stone sputtered out in bewilderment, trying to figure out if he was going somewhere with this or if he was just going delusional from the shock.
“Great. Stick ‘em both with Eternal Sun medals for protection of the royal family or some shit. Whatever looks good on the paperwork.” Stoneheart smiled and stood up, before he called out and she paused.
“Also, when you’re done with that, bring me Shining Armor’s file. Little punk did good out there today, and I need a replacement sometime soon. Maybe not just yet, but… It’s a thought.”
“Yes sir.” Applejack pushed her hat back up on her head and walked off after Stone back up into the main part of the Order’s base, where Fluttershy had, true to her word, made the gardens look just as beautiful as ever.
“Applejack!” She fluttered down to stand next to her friend, rather excited to show off her handiwork. “Is the Captain feeling okay? I really hope he’s not hurt too badly, that would be awful!” Applejack just chuckled and shook her head, looking around at the gardens as they had been before.
“He’s gonna be all right, don’t you worry none. I jus’ think it’s about time we get back to Ponyville, don’t you?” Fluttershy nodded a little, before looking back at the gardens. They were beautiful, sure, but she really didn’t think anything could compare to the orchards she now called home, and she turned her back on them with a soft smile as they walked out the doors.
“Let’s go home.”