There were entirely too many mares running about in the spire high above the ruins of the Castle of the Two Sisters. They were starting to become a huge distraction for me and my mission.
In a moment, however, there would be two less of them to bother with. Sunny Day and Ferrel had turned their backs on their opponent in an effort to save Rainbow Dash. Heroic, heartwarming, but ultimately foolish. If they anticipated that I would have a crisis of conscience and stop myself, they were wrong. That part of me was buried too deep in disharmony, pain, and fear.
Turning back to the matter at hoof. It wouldn’t take too much effort to disable them, even if attacking from behind wasn’t sporting. Time was of the essence, however, as the sooner this was done, the sooner I’d get back to Crystal. That was my priority and purpose.
I reared up onto my hindlegs and aimed my forehooves at the mares’ backs. I felt sorry. Truly, I did, but it wasn’t enough to cause more than a second of hesitation at most.
As my large form came forwards and down, my hooves suddenly collided with the metal shaft of a large greataxe, throwing them off target and stopping their momentum.
The whole weapon vibrated before clattering to the ground. It hadn’t been much of an impediment, but it was just enough to give Sunny and Ferrel the time to jump out of the way.
Before I could stomp the blades of the greataxe, it lifted in the grasp of magic and started to swing at my face. Each swipe brought it into contact with a hoofguard as I blocked the attacks. Large, strong, and magical or not, I was no fool. One does not simply ignore a greataxe wielded by a powerful unicorn.
Fighting the axe was a fool's errand, however, and as I was doing so, it was clear that Twilight Sparkle and her friends were up to something. They’d been disengaging and moving towards each other despite Maristella’s best efforts to blast them apart.
Once more, the greataxe flew towards my face, and I lifted both forehooves to catch it. As it struggled in my grasp, I quickly scanned the room for its owner. Gray Maelstrom was not too difficult to locate.
Unicorn or not, she was neither the smallest nor most delicate of ponies. Despite that, she had managed to sneak into the room during the fray and take up position by the metal doors.
The two of us were now locked in a battle of will. Her unicorn weapon levitation magic against my disharmony-fueled, unnatural brawn. There wasn’t much contest. I tore the weapon from her spell and flung it towards her.
Maelstrom ducked just in time to avoid losing her head as the greataxe flew past her and smashed into the wooden wall in the room beyond, its blade embedded there. Her magic immediately encircled it and started to tug.
“Be still with this silly weapon!” I roared.
“The Silent Knight I know would never call my weapon silly!” she shouted back, her magic going still. Then she did something I would not have expected. She charged me with her head down and horn aimed at my chest.
It was a challenge I was willing to take. As I counter-charged, the going was easier. I hadn’t noticed but the mares holding onto the lasso around my neck had let go. Without having to drag them, I’d be able to have far more momentum.
When we collided, I heard the sound of bone snapping as Maelstrom bounced off my breastplate and staggered about. She was dazed and wounded. I think she’d underestimated the fact that I was not merely Silent Knight anymore. I swatted her with a hoof, sweeping her legs out from under her and sending her sprawling.
Finally! Somepony was down and I could move on. I turned back to the battle at hoof. Sunny and Ferrel were both challenging Maristella head on with their magic. That was a losing battle. I could focus elsewhere and my agreement did not necessarily include protecting an alicorn, only killing one.
I wheeled around and flared my wings. This room was large but limited my flight. An excellent place for them to have ambushed me. Fortunately for me, these ponies did not seem prepared to deal with a creature such as myself, nor had they expected Maristella to arrive.
That thought seemed out of place, but then Twilight Sparkle caught my attention. She and her companions were all looking my way and there was a ribbon of multicolored magical energy swirling between them.
It was mesmerizing to watch the band run through one pony and then the next, growing faster and faster as it did so. Soon it was moving so quickly I could not discern where it started or ended, only that it was now being focused into the tiara perched upon Twilight Sparkle's head.
“Now!” she shouted as the energy burst out of the gem on her tiara, arched over the tip of her horn, and exploded into a rainbow beam of light. It shot across the room and struck me right in the chest with physical force.
My hooves slid across the floor as I was driven back. I planted my hindlegs and flapped my wings as hard as I could, trying to resist the force and close the distance between us.
At the same time, I realized my hooves were mine. I could move them? Just a little. The numb feeling in my spirit started to warm and, for the moment, I cared that my friends were in danger! What had I done to Maelstrom! She was hurt. Where was she?
Yes! This was the magic of friendship. This was the power of harmony. With these ponies, I could break free. This was how they’d saved Princess Luna. Princess Celestia’s love for her sister and Luna’s for her had kept the mare going inside the nightmare
But Crystal does not love you anymore. Unlike Celestia, she gave up. Who would bother waiting for you? And just like the wall was restored and the numb feeling returned. The beam kept colliding with my chest, bathing me, but my feelings hadn’t changed.
The moment of hope was shattered. Crystal had left me. My life was in ruins. What was the difference between this and not? Maristella had promised me I could have her back. What could these ponies do?
The bone colored alicorn started to laugh. “The look on your face is priceless, Twilight Sparkle. Do you really think I would give so much of myself to a new thrall and not protect him?”
“Don’t give up! I know he’s in there!” Twilight shouted before visibly bearing down. Her horn erupted into brighter light and the beam intensified.
The pressure was intense and fighting against it was like trying to walk up a rushing river. That is precisely what I was achieving, however, as their power no longer sent me skidding away. No, now I was marching towards them.
“Stop now and I will not hurt you. You’ve failed,” I said casually, not sure I fully believed it.
“Don’t stop!” Sunny yelled from the side as she fired off more heat lances at Maristella. She then yelped as it was reflected back and struck her in the side, singeing her coat and setting the hairs on fire.
The rainbow beam continued to batter my chest but I soldiered on. The going was easier. A few meters more and they’d be in my grasp. If I could knock Twilight Sparkle out the others would fold. They had no power without her. They were we—
My head wiped back and my moment stopped as there was a mighty tug on the lasso. A glance back revealed a bleeding Gray Maelstrom holding onto the rope with both hooves and her hindlegs dug in against some rubble.
All of this effort to stop me? All of this trouble to blast the disharmony free? What was the purpose? Who were they trying to save? Princess Luna was beloved and necessary to the survival of Equestria. I was just a soon-to-be divorced soldier with a cruddy foalhood.
It was time to start taking what was mine! The life I wanted with the mare that I loved. I was powerful now! With a violent jerk of my head, I ripped the lasso free from Gray Maelstrom’s hooves and surged towards Twilight Sparkle.
The sound of glass shattering rang in my ears and caught my attention as a grey pegasus burst through one of the stained-glass windows, sending shards everywhere. This was Tranquil Dusk, the foolish little mare that had the audacity to blame me for her choices.
She was swooping right at me with Dream Pop clinging to her as best she could at those speeds. Both were wearing goggles and some kind of protective suits. It was comical. Almost as comical as the beam of rainbow energy that still battered my form. It was barely registering now.
No, that could wait. If these two wanted my attention, they now had it. I shifted into a battle stance to tear the pegasus from the sky, but she pulled up before I could lash out at her. In that instant, after they’d sailed by, Dream Pop leapt from her companion and landed on my back, clawing at my mane with a hoof.
“You’re going to need so much therapy after this!” she screamed as I bucked, trying to get her off. To her credit, she held on tight. “Midnight, now would be super okay!”
Midnight? Midnight who?
My head swung, slinging Dream Pop around. She dangled by my mane, her other hoof holding a silver badge of some kind. “Hey, Silent!” she said as she swung by. On her way back, she jammed the badge up against my chest.
I recoiled in pain, trying to get away from it. It was attached to my armor, though. How was I in pain? I was Nightmare Knight! No army could stand against me. Where the badge was stuck, it burned away at my being. I scrambled to rip it free with my forehooves, but that only burned them.
Everywhere it touched, the black armor burnt away, exposing my dark coat. At least until that started to burn away, too. Fear filled me. What was this sorcery? Maristella lied! She said I was invincible!
Dream Pop clung to my back and squeezed my wings shut as I tried to throw them out to escape. How could she overpower me? “I am strong!” I howled.
The rainbow beam shifted from where it battered my side to where the armor had been burned away. Once more, I was throwing myself against the force of a waterfall. It drove me back against the wall and flattened me.
“Midnight! I said now would be super okay! Okay!” Dream Pop shouted.
Through the intense glow of the magical beam, I saw the ghost of Midnight Snow standing not far from me. Her horn was burning as bright as the sun, casting an intense light into the room. Then it narrowed into a beam that smashed against my helmet and everything went white.
I found myself standing in the den of my new house. There was no pain or burning, just the scent of sweet treats, the warmth of friendship, and the fellowship of ponies. This was the home Crystal and I had remodeled together.
We’d been playing host to a large group of ponies. Most were dear friends while some were just acquaintances, but they’d all been invited for specific reasons. It was time to utilize the resources I had and enact a plan that had been concocted thousands of years ago.
“I’m going to propose something to you and I need you to listen. I need you to hear all of the facts and details before you speak out. What I will ask of you will be one of the worst things imaginable. It will be awful, but necessary.”
I took a deep breath and looked out into the concerned eyes. In each pair, I found resolve, fear, hope, and dread. Especially in Crystal’s. “Listen carefully, because you’ll all have a role. Everypony here has a special talent or endured a particular experience. You’re all important and without you playing your part we’re doomed to fail.”
The faces in the room hardened and whatever levity was there disappeared in an instant. I’d changed the tone and broken the brightness. It was regrettable, but necessary.
“Silent?” Crystal said softly.
I smiled at her as best I could, given I knew what was to be proposed. “Please, listen first. That’s all I ask.”
She hesitantly nodded, her lips pressing tightly together. Velvet draped a hoof around her and pulled her in tight.
My gaze shifted to Princess Luna. “Princess, I know now why Lady Nocturna mentioned that me being… touched by the darkness could be used to our advantage. In fact, I think I’ve discerned what she had in mind.”
“And what is that?” the princess responded cautiously.
“Disharmony can know a pony’s thoughts and, more importantly, peek at their memories. I was given no indication she was omniscient or that she could see inside every pony. Only that if there is too much of her in a pony, she can tap them for information.
“At the same time, what Disharmony remembers, evidentially Maristella can, too. Tapping into the forces of nature to pull memories from them is some kind of magic I don’t understand, but I take Nocturna at her word.”
There were soft murmurs in the room as some of the wiser unicorns contemplated that idea.
“As such, whenever the protection given to me by harmony and Nocturna wanes, I become a liability. We all know that I’ve been gripped by disharmony for some time. That is why I won’t be able to knowingly participate in our plans.”
Princess Luna’s head tilted. Many faces in the room were marked with confusion. How they reacted to what I said next would set the whole tone for the rest of this meeting.
“Princess, you’re going to use Nocturna’s spell and manipulate my memories. You’re going to hide the fact that I met her. You’re even going to wipe the very notion that I died and that Princess Celestia restored me to life from reality.
“You’ll even go so far as to strip away everything good that has happened to me recently and, instead, create a different event for tonight. An event where something horrible happens. That is the reality I will wake up to.”
Crystal gasped, her hoof going to her mouth. I could see the pain on her face but she held her tongue. Velvet nuzzled her cheek and gave me a disapproving glare.
Dream Pop cleared her throat. “I see what you’re getting at, Silent, but there is a flaw in your plan. Other ponies saw you die and come back.” She twirled her hoof. “I get that Disharmony may not be able to hear all of our thoughts and memories, but if even one of us fails, we’re sunk.”
I nodded. “Yes, I’d considered that. We’ll have to address it, too. One thing we do know is that the group of ponies that saw those events is small. Most of you here and the other veterans and guests at the banquet. Raven will have the guest list.”
“Both your and their memories will also be altered to show this new version of the event unfold. Assuming it can be done. Can you manipulate that many ponies at once, Princess?” I asked.
Princess Luna’s nose scrunched up. Turmoil over what I was suggesting played on her expression. “Maybe… it isn’t hiding an alicorn from the world. It is just… altering their perception. I learned much in Nocturna’s memory crystal, but you still ask for a large feat of magic.”
“I can help you, Luna!” Twilight Sparkle chimed in. “If you’ll share the spell with me, of course. I bet that together we can do it. There are several mass spells that I’ve used over time.”
“Of course, Twilight Sparkle. Together, then,” the princess replied.
Dream Pop’s hoof went up and I pointed at her. Evidently, we’d moved to classroom rules. “Okay, so we narrow the pool. What is the different version?”
“I’m going to be honest here, I’m getting confused,” Rainbow Dash called from the back of the room before Applejack elbowed her.
Pinkie Pie turned and started to explain everything to her once again. She was doing it with a whiteboard, though. We didn’t have a whiteboard.
It was better that I ignored that and pressed on, so I turned to Midnight Snow. “I’m sorry to say that Lightning Hammer killed you instead, and Princess Celestia was not able to restore you to life.”
Midnight Snow’s eyebrow briefly went up before she replied, “Tragic.”
“Indeed. That is the story we’re going to tell: Midnight Snow’s heroic sacrifice to save the princess. The only ponies that will remember that I died will be the princesses, Midnight Snow herself, and…“ I trailed for a moment before smiling. “Dream Pop.”
The mare gasped and hugged her forehooves to herself. “Oh golly!”
“Why her?” Sunny piped in.
“We need a spotter while she is hidden and who could be better? After all, do you think there is any disharmony in Dream Pop?”
Sunny’s head tilted before shaking. “No, I just assumed she was filled with glitter and cotton candy.”
“Factually wrong, biologically improbable, but much appreciated!” Dream Pop squeaked.
Shining Armor spoke up. “Alright, Silent, I’m with you so far. We hide information from Maristella. We tell her a lie. I’m getting at what you’re after and I’m starting to get a sense of exactly what you’re not saying yet. Let’s get it out and over with so we’ll know whether we can support this.”
The tension in the room doubled, but I wasn’t ready to show my entire hand yet. “Right. The next step is where the awful starts. There is one other pony that is going to be manipulated… against his will. We’ll have to change Lightning Hammer’s recollection of the events. We have to go beyond that, though.”
This was the first deal breaker. There are few things in life that are right and wrong. This was wrong. Necessary, but wrong. It was probably those thoughts that attracted the disharmony.
“We’re going to fabricate in his mind a violent escape. An escape that occurred this very night. He, as we speak, has figured out a way to pull himself out of his gloom and trick the guards. They will be better prepared than he thought, however, and his plan will go poorly. He’ll be forced to kill many of them and, on his way out of Canterlot, he’ll also kill civilian ponies.”
The horrified faces and murmurs told me I’d struck a nerve. This was an awful thing to even talk about, even as fiction.
“He will awake near the Everfree Forest with that as his memory of tonight. Much in the same way that I will awake with the recollection of guards interrupting this party to send us after him.”
Princess Celestia shook her head, her pink mane trailing loosely. “What you ask Luna to do is not our way. It borders on evil, Silent Knight. You would use your former friend as a tool?”
“Lady Nocturna would,” I replied, keeping my tone as even as I could. Confidence, Major. Don’t show your feelings here.
“That is obscene. That violates the rules of magic!” Twilight Sparkle said.
“And yet it is necessary,” Gray Maelstrom replied.
“I will do it,” Midnight Snow said softly.
Sunny shook her head, “I don’t like that at all. Messing with somepony’s brain? Nopony would ever—wait, what?”
“I will do it,” Midnight Snow repeated as all eyes turned on her. “Princess Luna can teach me the spell. I should be able to manipulate one pony with it. Suggestion magic is not new to me. In fact, I once used it as a foal.”
Princess Luna shook her head. “Midnight, no. That is too much to ask.”
The mare was full of resolve as she replied, “It isn’t, Princess. Silent Knight has sacrificed all for you. It is time that I follow his example. This is a burden I will take from you and, if I deduce his next move correctly, it will be necessary that I know this spell regardless. Is that not so, Silent?”
She’d always been smart. That is why I’d picked her to succeed me. One of Princess Celestia’s brightest and coolly logical. “Yes. Rather so that you can reverse it. You are the only pony outside of the princesses that will know the truth. Our hidden ace to break the charm at a pivotal moment.”
Midnight Snow nodded. “Agreed, but I see another flaw in your strategy. Disharmony would not ignore me simply because everypony remembers I am dead, correct?”
I shrugged. “I can’t say for certain, but I have two solutions for that. I’ve learned techniques that fortify the mind against magic. I’ve failed at using them but you are a better pony than me at that sort of thing. Plus, we have one more weapon on our side. A pony with a special talent she’s never shared.”
Everypony started looking at each other. The confusion set in but there was one that looked uncomfortable.
“Sunny, tell me something, why do you occasionally shoot those little bursts of light around my head?” I asked.
The mare stiffened. “Me! What? It’s fun?”
Princess Celestia snorted.
All eyes fell on Sunny who simply perked up and shrugged. “So… okay fine. I kind of have a super power. It’s no big thing.”
Twilight Sparkle gasped. “What now? A super power? How come Sunny gets a super power, Princess?”
Sunny glared at her. “Because you’ve got all of the other ones, Miss ‘I can cast every spell’ and ‘I have the Element of Magic’ and ‘I once went to a sleep over and quit spin the bottle when it landed on Sunny.’”
Twilight Sparkle’s ears turned bright red. “I didn’t kiss anypony! It wasn’t about you. Look—wait a minute! Stop trying to distract everypony. What is your super power?”
After having watched with great amusement, Princess Celestia chimed in, “She has the ability to see disharmony itself. Or, at the very least, the dark magic that accompanies it. Over time, she has also found a way to dispel it.”
Sunny’s withering glare turned on the white alicorn. “Just tell them everything why don’t you!”
"Oh, if you insist,” Princess Celestia said with forced levity in her voice. “Sunny once came to work extremely hung over from the night before. She threw up in my waste bin, and I told Shining Armor it was me.”
That just dropped Sunny’s jaw. She sputtered some inane response about cake banditry.
I quickly cut in before things got further off-track, “Yes, I’d guessed it was something like that. The Disharmony part, not the waste bin.” I cleared my throat. “You’ve too often looked around me but not at me. The more telling part is that I’m not sure I’ve ever seen you shoot at anypony but me.”
“You… uh… it clings to you a lot, Silent. I was just trying to help,” she said, whatever indignation she’d had now replaced with true concern.
“It’s appreciated. Now I need you to teach Midnight Snow the spell that zaps off the disharmony.”
Midnight Snow’s ears perked up. “Which we can manipulate into a defensive ward?”
Twilight Sparkle lit up. “Yes! We could even combine it with the Pentagonal Personal Protection Power and fuse it with Bosco’s Bubble.”
“Oh, yes, that would be excellent,” Midnight Snow mused, “but I’m worried that most unicorns wouldn’t be able to cast a spell that powerful. Especially a modified one to defend against disharmony.”
Twilight Sparkle pulled a scroll and quill from her saddlebag and started writing. “Right, so, we can do that and also create a lesser war—”
Sunny’s hoof landed on Twilight Sparkle’s mouth, shutting it. “Shhh, you two just stop. I’ll teach you the spell if you’ll stop. You can nerd out about magic later.”
That was followed by a light swatting match, but I pressed on. “Princess Celestia.”
The alicorn perked up. “Present!”
“Did you actually send Princess Luna to the moon?” I asked curiously.
She shook her head. “Oh, no. That is a myth. I used the moon as a focus and vessel to bind her within it. To be honest, that spell was done on the fly during a highly emotional moment. I needed something with enough magical properties to hold her. I looked up, there was the moon, and, well, any port in a storm, as they say. That was overkill, though.”
That was what I hoped for. One more weapon for my arsenal. “Great. And can you teach that spell to Twilight and Midnight?”
“I already know it!” they both called in unison.
“Jinx!” Twilight said before Sunny’s hoof found her mouth again. That resulted in another swatting match.
That led to some soft laughter by Princes Celestia. Evidently, she enjoyed her students’ antics very much.
Princess Luna, however, did not. She stepped closer to me. “Silent Knight. You mentioned that each pony here had a special talent or went through an experience that made this… mission a possibility. I find it unlikely that such a gathering would happen by chance.”
Chance was unlikely. In fact, it was probably impossible. Both words would have worked. “I’m sorry, Princess. I don’t believe this is happenstance. In fact, I’m starting to think Lady Nocturna’s manipulations go so deep that they’ve all led to this point.”
Ferrel, who’d done nothing but listen for the whole time, chimed in, “Do you suggest the chain of events until now was directed just so that ponies could develop the skills and experiences necessary to defeat Maristella?”
Without a word, I nodded. It was best not to say anything, as the implications behind that notion were dire and cruel in some of our cases.
“My fall?” Princess Luna whispered softly.
That was one of the cruel cases. Much like mine. Nocturna was hard on her own. “Unfortunately so. I suspect it was a…” I nervously cleared my throat and lowered my voice. “A lower stakes opportunity for us to see that a pony can be rescued from Disharmony.”
That soured her expression and sobered the room. Nopony likes to think that what they’ve done wasn’t something of their own making. I understood that best of all. It was an attack on free will.
“Silent,” Shining Armor said into the silence.
“Sir?”
“What if Maristella’s memory remains intact? All of this would be for nothing.”
“That is the part of this we can’t control. It is a gamble, but I think the odds are in our favor. To our knowledge we’ve never physically been aware of Maristella at any of the events we’re going to manipulate. It is likely she is viewing them through our memories and thoughts due to her link to Disharmony.
“If we remember it differently and are touched by Disharmony, that is what is likely going to be seen by Maristella. I just can’t see any way around the risk. Plus, even if she does, we have to assume the bait will be worth the chance that we are trying to trap her.”
"What is the bait, again?" Miley Hooves squeaked.
“Silent Knight!” The voice of my wife tore through the air. Everypony turned to her. My beautiful mare looked a mess. She’d been quietly weeping the whole time, her makeup running. She started towards me and everypony got out of her way.
“You intend to use yourself as bait. You’re going to plunge into darkness and let it take you in the hopes that you’ll draw her out? And that these ponies here will be able to save you? That is what we’re all dancing around, isn’t it?” Crystal accused as she reached me.
I reached out to softly wipe a tear from her cheek with my wing. “Yes, sweetheart. I am… I am so sorry. There isn’t anypony else, but I can’t do it without your help.” My hoof found hers and I squeezed it. “Your part will be the hardest. The ugliest. I need you to let me go.”