Night Stormed wandered down the empty hallways of the palace, his torch leading before him.
He kept his eyes transfixed on way ahead of him, covered over in darkness.
It was silent – dead silent – except for the faint sounds of some ponies further off.
The guardsman looked around anxiously, keeping his sword close to his person, starting into the shadows.
Was it a whisper he heard? Or a move in the darkness? And he could have swore, in the darkness, he saw the glistening blades of their bloodied daggers.
“Come out!” he yelled furiously, swinging his sword against the wall. “Come for me!”
Silence was his only reply.
Night Storm let out a mighty roar as he leaned on the wall, unsure if he could bear his own weight.
“Cowards…” he muttered. “Damn cowards…O Gods!” he cried, clenching his stomach in pain.
“What have I done? Celestia’s murderers still live and I am alive?”
Night Storm ran his hoof over the blade of his sword. The steel was sharp – he knew, for he had spent countless hours whetting it against the stone. It would be easy…
The guardsman shook his head, sliding the sword back into his sheath. He took a deep breath and scanned the empty hall as the sounds of more distant voices echoed from afar, and the palace bells began to peal in alarm.
“I’ll have to find them…” he stated, running his hand along the stone. “And I’ll bring them to justice…every…single…last…one.”
~
In Cadance’s bedchamber, the alarm bells echoed as rolling peals of thunder. The Princess herself was soon aroused by the commotion, looking to see ponies scrambling here and there.
“How long have I…been out?” she said, looking around, realizing it was night. “…All
day?”
Cadance frowned, hearing the noises outside.
From her window, Cadance could see that the sky was dark and that the once pale moon had turned an eerie, blood red.
“What’s going on…?”
Then, amid the cries and shouts – there came a knocking on the door, ominous and foreboding.
Cadance's heart froze and she wondered if this were still a dream.
She waited a moment before again, the knocking came, this time harder and more rapid than before.
She began to trek to the entrance, carefully measuring each step.
“Who’s there?” she asked.
She was answered with another around of knocks.
At last she stood before the door, her hoof pressed on the handle. Another knock entreated her to open.
She opened the door with a mighty swing and standing before her was Shining!
“Cadance!” Shining exclaimed, moving past her. “There’s no time to explain, you have to run.”
“Run? Run from what? Shining, what’s going on?”
“There’s no time. There’s been a murder and your life in grave danger.”
“A murder! Who’s been murdered!?” she exclaimed.
“Princess Celestia, I think…”
“You think!? Shining, what is going on!?”
“Cadanc, listen to what I am saying: you have to go, right now! There is no time. We have to-”
The door shook with another knock.
Cadance and Shining looked at each other. Shining gave his wife a reassuring motion, bidding her to stay, while he opened the door.
It was Night Storm.
They were both equally surprised to see each other, as they both hesitated for words when they saw the other.
“Your majesty,” Night Storm greeted him, reverently but firmly.
“I’m sorry to intrude on you at this late hour, but I must insist you come with me, there’s been an incident…”
“The Princess?”
Night Storm paused.
“How did you…?”
“Why else would you be here if it wasn’t about the Princess?”
“That is so, and I have orders to escort you to the throne room, for your safety.”
“Orders? Whose orders?”
“Your sister’s, sir.”
“I see…I thank you and my sister for her concern, but I think we are perfectly well here.”
“No, sir, you don’t understand – you must go.”
“What do you mean ‘must go’? Why? For what reason?”
“Sir, Princess Celestia has been murdered. Her murderers are still on the loose and the Princess fears for your lives.”
“Again, I say, I thank you for her concern, but if they try to harm us, you can rest assured, they will have to go through me.”
Shining turned to go back into the room as Night Storm spoke in a forceful voice.
“Sir, you insist on non-cooperation, I will have to place you both under arrest.”
Shining paused, his back to the door, leaning on the frame. The former-guardsman turned around, his face as rigid as stone.
“On what charge?” he asked in an icy voice.
“On conspiracy to murder.”
A long silence followed as the two of them stared the other down in dread earnestness.
“You think…that I…who committed so many years to the protection of her majesty…am a traitor?” Shining spoke.
“A traitor is only one who would disobey the lawful authority of the crown…”
“That now sits on my sister’s head!? The Princess is not even buried and yet you spit on her grave!”
“Don’t you dare!” he shot back. “I love my Princess more than the world and it’s by that same love I serve the will of the crown now. Come with me, both of you, or I will make you go!”
“Then I will fight you, you damn scoundrel!. Arm yourself! Harmony will decide the right!”
“Shining, no!” Cadance wailed, throwing herself on her husband’s shoulder.
Shining cast her off, drawing his sword, Night Storm doing likewise.
“I’ll give you one last chance, sir, because of your former association with the guards – put up your sword and come with me,” Night Storm commanded.
“It’ll be a cold day in Tartarus!”
Shining threw himself into the fray, swinging his sword in a wild frenzy.
Night Storm countered every blow, nimbly dodging his former captain’s blade.
Blood pumped in Shining’s ears and his breaths became heavy. He hacked and slashed, hurling his hoof with all his might, missing his opponent and inadvertently cutting tapestries from the wall.
Whenever their blades met, sparks flew in all directions as they fought pell-mell in the narrow confines of the hall.
Each of the adversaries tried to maneuver, at last yielding, only when Night Storm head-butted against Shining and kicked him in the stomach.
The lunar guardsman quickly recovered his sword, but was thrown off balance by Shining’s quick recovery.
Shining leaped upon him, battering at his blade until it flew from his hoof, before striking his opponent’s hind leg with the razored edge of his sword.
Night Storm cried out in pain, collapsing backwards on the floor as he tried to beat a hasty escape, holding his fore-hoof over his head.
“Mercy! Mercy!”
Shining took his newly bloodied blade and approached him, eager to finish off his opponent, before his wife, crying and hysterical, grabbed his sword-hoof.
“Shining, stop! No! You can’t do this! He’s wounded!”
Shining tried to press by her as she held him back, the guardsman trying to crawl away – his blood trailing behind him.
“Mercy…” he moaned, holding leg.
Shining advanced at him, but Cadance stepped to intervene; only to stumble back onto the floor. It was only then that Shining gave pause, and looked down at the two terrified visages looking up at him, and noticed the blood that dripped from his hoofs..
In instant, Shining threw his sword to the ground with a echoing clatter, kneeling beside his wife to hold her in his arms.
“No more killing…No more killing…”
His wife embraced him.
“Shining…”
Shining turned his head away as they both rose together.
“Cadance…I’m not the pony you think I am…”
Cadance placed her hoof upon his cheek and guided his eyes back to hers.
“You’re my husband.”
Shining felt his wife’s warm lips touched him, the sweat from the battle now cold upon his brow. He thought at that moment of nothing but the love of his wife – unaware and unhearing of the sword being recovered behind him.
At once, it a state of muted pain, Shining felt himself severed, as the cold steel found its mark.
Cadance let out a horrific shriek as the blood splattered in all directions, staining her coat and mane.
Night Storm quickly flew, throwing his sword behind him, limping down the hall, and disappearing into the darkness.
Shining collapsed on the floor, a pool of red quickly forming around him – his white cheeks turning an ashen gray.
“Cadance,” he rasped, as his hysterical wife cradled his head. “I haven’t got long…listen to me…”
Cadance tried to stop the torrent of tears and sobbing long enough to hear her husband’s words.
“Cadance...I haven’t got long,” he labored. “Listen to me: go and find Twilight’s friends. All of your lives are in danger.”
Cadance shook her head.
“Cadance, look at me!” Shining exclaimed, clenching her hoof. “Promise me you will not stop until the crown is off my sister’s head!”
Cadance choked, closing her eyes.
“Promise me!”
“I...promise,” Cadance stammered.
“Cadance,” Shining continued, his voice faltering. “You must preserve the realm, or many more lives will be lost. You’ve got to...got to...Cadance forgive me!”
The Prince clenched his wounds, his breaths labored and heavy.
“Cadance…” he whispered, looking into her eyes. “Forgive me…”