//------------------------------// // Part 2 // Story: Shatter Realm Chronicles // by keithsterling //------------------------------// After the Grand Prince of the Moon, Somnus Silverlight, fully embraces his new position and form as the new ruler of Dreams and the Night, things started to happen quickly in this young monarch’s reign. The bat pony’s forces, loyal to his Aunt Princess Luna (the original Princess of the Night and Protector of Dreams) start to abandon him. They felt he was not going to be able to fully embrace the night because he was born of the sun. At the cost of their standings within their own pony group, two bat ponies remain loyal to the Grand Prince. (Lunar Guard Captain Adrian Nightwing the grand prince’s personal guard since training under his Aunt Luna’s wing and Solar Guard special Trooper Sneaky Shadow.) For the first two years of the Grand Prince’s rein he focused on trying to regain the loyalty of the whole bat pony population in Equestria at the same time fulfilling his duties as the new Ruler of the Moon. During that time, it met with minor success as individual bat ponies and small family groups pledged their loyalty to him. But what he desired the most; the loyalty of all the bat pony population still eluded him. In two and half years after ascending his aunt’s throne of the Moon, Grand Prince of the Moon, Somnus Silverlight found happiness in the form of a sea pony siren named Wave Runner. The two ponies dated for close to three years when he finally popped the question to her. Sea pony siren Wave Runner said ‘yes’ and married the Grand Prince a few years later. One month into his new life as a married stallion and Ruler of the Moon, an event that would change the life of this newlywed couple happened. After a severe winter, an infection swept through the many cave bounded bat pony colonies in Equestria. A mold started to grow on the wings of healthy bat ponies causing sever sickness to the old and very young within the colony. The Grand Prince heard of this event within the colonies and rushed over to aid with the afflicted. He took samples of the wing mold and returned to Canterlot to begin a study of it in the hope of finding a cure. With his little sister, Grand Princess Blueberry Swirl Silverlight now ruling the Crystal Empire; he was left to use his very limited medicine knowledge to find a cure and ID the mold to stop it from happening again. Over the next six months, he worked to identify the mold and find a cure before the whole bat pony population would succumb to the infection. Due to him not being a trained medic pony, it was a long shot for him, but he was not going to let the population die. He worked endless hours in his little sister’s hospital laboratory on the grounds of the royal palace trying to ID the mold. It finally caught up to him and he fell severely ill. As he was recuperating in bed, his wife Princess Wave Runner Silverlight snuck away from their bed chamber to the hospital laboratory to pick-up where her husband left off. Unknown to her husband she was a self trained Herbalist. She traveled in the seas around Equestria in her sea pony form and would use her ability to transform into a normal unicorn and talk with other herbalist about healing herbs. With that great knowledge, she set to work studying the mold that her husband brought back to the palace. Before long, she quickly identified and figured out its origin. She set to work making a cure out of the herbs she had collected around Equestria. From dawn until dusk Princess Wave Runner worked to refine her elixir so it could be reproduced. A week later, Grand Prince Somnus felt better and headed to the lab to begin his work anew; fearing him being laid-up for that long would doom the population. As the Grand Prince entered the hospital laboratory, he found his wife fast asleep with her head on top of a journal written by her and a small bottle with some red liquid in it. After putting his wife to bed, he returned to the lab and read over his wife’s journal. He blinked with surprise! Within the pages of the journal were detailed experimental notes with every kind of herbs know to; pony kind. As he continued to read his wife’s journal, his breath catches in his throat. The very last entry was the cure for the bat ponies’ wing mold and how to mass produce it. As he was looking at the first small bottle inside his magic bubble with the cure in it, the laboratory door opens and standing just inside the door with a smile on her snout was Princess Wave Runner. Before she knew what happened, he pulled her toward him with his magic and hugged her tightly. Over the next few weeks, using the notes in his wife’s journal and his little sister’s hospital staff, they made enough of the elixir to save every bat pony colony in Equestria. On his return to Canterlot, after delivering the cure to the bat pony caves, his wife asks her husband if it will change anything with him and the bat ponies. Grand Prince Somnus looked at his wife and shrugged his shoulders; Wave Runner knew her husband didn’t do it to gain the loyalty of the bat ponies. He did it because that’s what his Aunt Luna would do as the ruler of the Moon and the Night. Two months later while finishing up night court Grand Prince Somnus was visited by all the elders of the bat ponies’ population, who pledged their loyalty to him. As Grand Prince Somnus was busy trying to win back the loyalty of his aunt’s bat pony troops, life went on in the Royal Palace. As Grand Princess of the Sun, Aurora Silverlight went about her royal duties as the new ruler of Equestria. But in the deep dark corners of the city a new plot was being hatched to take advantage of the absence of the bat pony night watch. Several individual ponies pooled their bits together to put a contract out on the life of Grand Princess Aurora. The contract would have never been fulfilled if not for the anonymous donor of the rest of the payment (only clue to the anonymous pony was a moderate violet colored strand of mane hair that was caught in a string around the bag). With the contract fully paid off, the first assassination attempt happened that night. As Grand Princess Aurora was removing her Princess’s regalia in her private bed chamber, something caused her to abruptly move to one side. In doing so, a crossbow bolt aimed at her heart tipped with some kind of sap shattered a vase on a stand nearby. The sound caused her to jump. With the first assassination attempt ending in a failure, the assassin continued his attempts to kill the Grand Princess. But as the failures continued to happen, it seemed that some unseen force was protecting the Grand Princess from harm and the assassin’s bolts. In a last ditch effort to complete the contract the assassin attacked the Grand Princess up close and personal in her private bed chamber. The sneak attack against the Grand Princess quickly ended in failure unlike Aurora who was no unskilled mare in the use of weapons. As Aurora delivered the killing blow against the assassin, the royal palace guards arrived. An exhausted Aurora ordered the guards to remove the dead assassin from her bed chamber. A few moments later, her brother, Grand Prince Somnus arrived and asked his sister if she was ok. Grand Princess Aurora turn towards her brother and told him she wants his Solar Guard special investigating unit to look into the attempt on her life. The following month, the Solar Guard special investigating unit launched a full investigation into the attempts against the Grand Princess of the Sun. Before long, all the conspirators involved in the plot were rounded-up and dealt with. Most were turned in by their own families who were loyal to the rule of the Grand Princess of the Sun. But the oddest thing was that Princess Twilight Sparkle: The Princess of Friendship kept a close eye on the Solar Guard Investigation into the assassination attempts. She offered no reason why she was watching the case so closely and only said it was her duty as the Princess of Equestria.