Equestria's flame

by Lon35hadow


Canterlot Interlude

Luna was in her her personal chambers, looking over reports from the Lunar guard, when a sound-one akin to the slash of a sword through air- was heard behind her. With most, this would be cause for alarm. For Luna, however, it was not. Her room had special teleportation and alarm wards placed, along with security measures her father installed, meant to alert her. As none went off, she knew there was no cause for alarm.

"Ah, Raven," Luna said to the pony behind her. "How is she?"

"Well, your majesty," Raven replied, her face hidden behind a white an red mask, as she bowed. Raven wore a red shirt over a chain mail shirt, the red shirt having special protection spells and using a fabric no other outfit on the planet used. She also wore a black, knee length skirt, boots that went halfway up her calves, showing only lavender skin, and skin tight gloves that were black with white accents that seemed to writhe as if the white were flames. On her hip was an absurdly long sword sheath that also had a revolving cylinder filled with an assortment of blades, the sword hilt hanging out with Raven's right hand over it. "Her only complaint is the boredom."

Luna sighed. "As usual," she said. "Any word from my father or uncle?"

"No, majesty."

"How many times must I tell you that you do not need to give me any titles in private?"

"Apologies, Luna."

"'Any titles' includes that damnable fake name."

"I was not aware you disliked it."

Luna let a small smile loose. "Yes, well, when the name your father gives you is poetic sounding and you can only use one aspect of that in a fake name, you tend to not like the fake," she said.

"I wish I could say something about that," the masked pony said.

Luna turned around, the reports let go and grasped in her magic. "Have any other memories resurfaced?"

Raven nodded. "A small machine that was almost always with me. The surface of the moon. Weapons somewhere between your father's and Equestria's in terms of technology. Nothing as to my identity before your uncle gave me a second life."

"Something, at least," Luna said. A silence of a few seconds passed. "If my cousin is okay with it, I have an assignment for you. Something the two of us would agree is needed."

"Of course," Raven said. "What is it?"

"There's a group of individuals in Ponyville. Eight of them. They may be a threat. I'm sure whatever resources my cousin has access to is already being used to observe. I want you to observe and, if they are indeed a threat, to remove them."

Raven bowed her head. "Of course. Anything else?"

"See if you can get my other cousin in Ponyville, as well. Disguised, obviously. The apparent leader of the group says that the deceiver sent her. Even if she's unaware of what she is in the middle of now, we must ensure there is an alicorn nearby to deal with it."

"I will alert her." With that, Raven took her sword, a green blade coming out of the sheath and connected to the hilt, and sliced the air, a green portal appearing in the air. "Until next time."

"You as well," Luna said before Raven went through the portal. The lunar alicorn then sighed. "And back to appeasing the asshats. I swear, why did this facade have to involve merging military with monarchy and leave in the pretentious pricks?"


In the Canterlot public park, Lone-wearing a pair of jeans and a gray t-shirt- sat on a bench, a book in hand. "Thought you'd be somewhere else," a voice he recognized said behind him.

"Got lucky. How's everything going, Shade?"

The mare-whose skin was ashen gray and her mane and tail being black- laughed before she hopped over the back of the bench, her moderately sized breasts jumping in her blue tank top, and landed next to Lone, the short blue workout shorts making her skin hit the wooden seat with a smack. "Hilarious," she said. "The dumbplots that pass for recruits thought I'd burn in the sun just because I'm a you know what!" A short laugh. "Celestia, we need to tell Celestia to set the record straight on vamponies."

Lone let a small smile out. "Trust me, I would too, but then that would remove the night time safety you all have from those moronic hunters."

"Moronic because they just use a wooden stake, or because they think we're demons?"

"Both." Lone turned a page. "You hear about Celestia's guests in Ponyville?"

"Short list is who hasn't," Shade said, leaning back. "In the Shadow Guard, I mean. It true that the leader was sent by Harmony?"

"Supposedly, yeah."

"Another crackpot theory?"

"Yep."

"Can I hear it?"

"In short-and I am using old legends involving her as evidence, by the way- she pulled a Nightmare Moon and succeeded, taking the original Harmony's mantle." Lone shrugged. "With my luck, it's just me being paranoid." He turned the page. "So, stupidity aside, how are the new recruits doing?"

"'Bout as well as you'd expect for having only a week," Shade said. "You want to recruit some of those humans?"

"Nah," the black unicorn stallion replied. "Not now, anyways. Later, maybe." He looked at the vampony. "Anything on your assignment?"

Shade took on a serious look. "Small things. Bits of what I assume to be tech that's too advanced for any nation in known history, and the aesthetics don't match the reports I've gotten of the human weapons." A few seconds passed. "You think those weapons are compensating for something?"

"No," Lone said. "Back on topic."

"Okay, jeez. Kill a mare for asking something, why don't ya?" she muttered, ignoring Lone was right next to her, and went back to normal volume. "The closest thing I can find even remotely close to those tech pieces I've found is in that book. The conspiracy one about what really happened with the pony tribes unifying."

"Better than nothing, I guess," Lone said. "You know what to do."

"You going to inform Celestia?"

"She's hidden this from the public, and the last time I went to her about those pieces of tech, she dodged the question," Lone said. "She knows something, most likely, but won't say."

"So the usual with stuff like this, then?" Shade asked before chuckling. "So, does Celestia think you're somewhere else?"

"In the north," Lone replied. "Which will be true, in a few days."

"Need someone to come with ya?"

"Nope," Lone replied, dog-earing the page he was on before closing the book. "You know I don't like people. You especially when you start joking, Shade."

Shade rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah, you prude," she said, her tone jovial. As Lone got up to leave, she said, "By the way, the reason I came to speak to you about? We got another signal similar to the ones that had the humans arriving. It's up north. The cells up there are alert, and pegasai acolytes are enroute now."

Lone nodded. "Thanks for letting me know," he said. "See ya." With that, one lit his horn, and disappeared with a flash of light.