//------------------------------// // An interesting Discussion... Not Really // Story: A New Game // by INFUSCATE //------------------------------// Spike and Starlight walked up the steps to Canterlot Castle. Spike, with his shoulders hunched, and his eyes downcast, Starlight, with her eyes struggling to stay open, and her fur bristling as if it were a cats hackles. Starlight hadn't gotten an iota of sleep last night. She kept muttering and turning in her sleep. Spike heard the words "unimaginable torment" and "eyes", alongside "always watching" and "hopeless". Spike thought she needed to lay off the slendermare comics. "Halt!" announced one of the two pegasi guards stationed outside the entranceway to the castle. "Who are you two?" Spike furrowed his brows, there was something... off about these two guards. For some reason they wore neither solar nor lunar armour, their chestplates instead being made of some kind of reddish-coppery metal, that shone like a freshly polished gem in the sunlight. Starlight raised her head to answer the guard, before catching sight of his appearance and hurriedly dragging Spike and herself back, before enveloping them in a magic shield. "Who are you!?" She called out, a touch of fear and uncertainty entering her voice. The guards both looked at each other, before staring back at Starlight, bewildered. The one on the right cleared his throat before speaking. "I am corporal Phantom Blade, and this is my partner, Crimson Torpor. Before you ask about our armour, a few days ago Princess Celestia decreed that the Solar and Lunar guards become one cohesive unit. We're just called the royal guard now." Phantom cleared his throat before speaking again. I take it that answers your question?" Spike involuntarily shuddered when he saw the teeth of the guardsponies. They were sharp. Feral. They reminded him of adult dragon teeth, except all of them seemed to be sharp, with no molars. Starlight, upon realising that the guards weren't a threat, hastily lowered her shield, her cheeks suffusing with blood and developing a soft red glow. "Uh... Can you take me to the Princesses please?" The lilac unicorn mare emmited a nervous chuckle, which quickly snuffed it as she remembered why she had gonee to the royal palace in the first place. The guards efficiently opened the double doors, and guided them into a long hallway. Sometimes called 'the hall of stories', the stained glass pictures depicted here were legendary. They not only told the history of Equestria, but were also protectd by the most powerful wards in existence. A couple of years ago a stallion tried to steal one of them. He still hasn't woken up... The walk to the throne room was awkward. The guards didn't want to talk, and Starlight didn't want to talk to them. Spike tried to speak from time to time, yet his tinny voice seemed to be crushed by the sheer magnitude of the hallway. Eventually after a walk that seemed to last forever, the group arrived at their destination. The doorway to the throne room. This door was made of solid gold, inlaid with steel and precious gems. They depicted every race in equestria, from the dragons flanking the corners, to the alicorns in the center, all were there. All except... draconequui Spike noted. The guards took position at either side of the door, before brushing it with their right forehoof simultaneously, and allowing Spike, (with his draconic hearing) to hear heavy bolts being withdrawn and even the pop of magic being dispelled. Starlight and Spike rushed in, eager to tell the princesses just what had happened, they were both so caught up in their own thoughts that they didn't hear the subtle click of the door closing behind them, nor notice how... dark the room truly was. It wasn't until Starlight stubbed her hoof against somethng and fell over that she noticed the unnatural silence of the room. "Woah. Starlight, you okay?" Spike asked, extending a claw to help her up. "Yeah, fine I guess." She chuckled awkwardly, before gratefully accepting the claw. As she stood up she quietly spoke: "I wonder what I trippe-" Starlight suddenly cut off in the middle of that sentence, she gazed down at what had caused her stumble. What she saw was impossible. What she saw shouldn't have been there. What she saw went against everything she had ever thought of. But it was still there. What she saw, was the sun emblem that was usually emblazoned on the back of Celestia's throne. it had rough edges, and a crack running down it's middle. Somepony had shattered Celestia's throne. Quickly racing up the steps and onto the podium that the lunar and solar thrones were normally kept on. Instead of the thrones, she only found debris. The princesses weren't here, nopony was. Wheeling around to Spike, she frantically tried to tell him that something was wrong. Spike's eyes were glowing red. "You okay there, Starlight?" not-Spike said, his voice holding a touch of smugness, and seeming a lot more mature - like a stallions - rather than his normal raspy/squeaky tone. "What are you!? What have you done with Spike? And my other friends!? Where are they!?!" Starlight yelled, becoming even more hysterical with each question. "My, my... How clever. Already figuring out that I'm the one who "stole away" your friends? Now I can really see why Twilight picked you as her student." His tone was dark and mocking. Revulsion filled Starlight's face as, before her eyes "Spike" began to change and shift, his tail lengthened, gaining barbs the size of ballistae bolts. His size increased, until he towered over Starlight. His horns ripping through the enchanted marble ceiling of Canterlot Castle like it was wet paper. But the most terrifying change, was to his eyes. They went from emerald green orbs shining with kindness and a slight red tint to them, to eyes that seemed older than time. Eyes that had seen so much. The grass green was gone, instead there was... emptiness, his irides were black, the type of black you saw when looking into a deep hole, or a starless and moonless night, his pupils were tiny, contracted even at the small amount of light in the braziers dotting the room. Starlight felt like she was looking into the abyss. The lilac unicorn didn't stop to think. She just ran. Whatever in Tartarus this... abomination was, it was scarier than anything she had ever faced in her whole life. She was halfway to the throne room before the monster had took it's first step. it was big, but it was slow. Unfortunately it also covered a lot of ground. That one step had put it only centimetres behind her. Thinking fast, Starlight teleported in front of the throne room doors and flung them open. Somehow completely bypassing all it's magical security. The creature took another step, making it completely level with her, as Starlight sprinted down the corridor, the demon got closer and closer. She upped the pace, desperately trying to escape it's grasp. Then she noticed something that almost paralysed her with fear. No matter how fast she wanted to move, she was going at a rather sluggish rate, like a fly caught in amber. "Oh Starlight, do you know the funny thing about nightmares? No matter how fast you think you go, the monster in the hallway is always faster." Starlight looked left and right, hoping desperately for a way out, instead she saw the glass windows that made up Princess Ceelestia's legacy melting, twisting upon themselves. Only to be replaced with other images. Twilight's coronation was replaced with one showing a young male alicorn wielding a scepter and wearing a crown, with something that looked like the Alicorn Amulet around his neck, except the gem in it's socket was coppery with glowing blue runes on it. Discord being sealed in stone for the first time was replaced with Discord and some other being with white fur seemingly battling, if the lightning bolts and scorched earth was anything to go by. The image of Sombra being vanquished was replaced with some kind of Hydra, trying to eat the sun. And the image of Nightmare Moon battling Celestia was replaced with the same alicorn from before battling some sort of ram. Except his eyes burned with a red fire, and he seemed to have a drawing of an eye, right in the middle of his forehead, which also glowed red. "Wh- what are you going to do to me?" Starlight shrieked, eyes almost rolling up into her head as the monster grabbed her in one of it's terrible claws. "Oh, Starlight, if only you knew. But I wouldn't worry about yourself. I'd worry about Equestr- actually, why should I stop there? I'd worry about what's going to happen to the rest of the world after I'm through with it." Starlight squirmed in his grip, but still couldn't escape. She looked down and noticed something. The colour was being leached out of the world. The marble floor, faded to grey. The pictures on the walls, turned into black and white images, save for the 'red eye' on the ram. The colours slowly leached out of the dragon, leaving him looking like something from an old movie. The discolouration crawled up it's chest, before reaching it's arms. The greyness was inches from her when the beast lifted her up to his face, allowing her to get a good look at it, and to notice that it too sported a 'third eye', red in colour. Before the darkness reached her, she barely heard the creature utter some words over the pounding of her own heart. "Ave ac tenebras" It breathed, carrying the stench of death and decay. Even in such a dire situation, Starlight's mind raced to decipher the words, they were spoken in the olde tongue, A language used before the reign of Celestia or Discord. Seconds before the greyness claimed her she realised what it meant. 'Hail the darkness.'