Prancelot sat up in his bed, shifting his legs off and rubbing at his face, breathing heavily.
“Prancer? What’s wrong?” his lover asked from the other side of the bed, still wrapped up under the sheets.
“A bad dream. That is all.” He ran a hand down his dark grey hair.
“You know we will always be together, yes? Even if I am to be married off to another.” She inched closer, wrapping her arms around him from behind.
“Yes, I know it, Princess Sunlight.” Prancelot smiled and turned to embrace her. “I know you will always love me as I do you.”
“To the very end.” She leaned away and placed a hand to his cheek.
Prancelot was about to lean over and kiss her, when his door was suddenly kicked open. Two hooded men stood by the entrance, dressed in black robes and wielding black swords in their hands.
“Who are you?” Prancelot searched for his sword, but could not find it.
Standing up only to be knocked down again by the two men, Prancelot couldn’t stop them as they pried Sunlight Radiance away from him, dragging her out the door as she screamed for him to help her.
“Prancer! Help! Don’t let them take me!”
“No! Sunlight!” He struggled to his feet, but something invisible held him rooted to the bed.
“Prancer!”
“No! I won’t let them! I won’t let you be taken, Sunlight! Sunlight!”
By now her beautiful face was out of sight, gone after the kidnappers turned past Prancelot’s door.
“No. No! Let me go!” No matter how hard he tried, he just could not get up. “Oh, Princess Sunlight… my love… Where have you gone…?”
Sir Prancelot shot out of bed with a gasp, coughing twice as he surveyed his surroundings. After realizing he was back in his knight quarters, he sighed with relief and put a hand to his chest to calm himself.
It was a dream. It was that dream again. That same dream he had been having for years.
“It’s just a dream, old boy,” Prancelot said to himself. “Just a stupid dream.”
Prancelot sighed and rubbed his face with one hand. He looked around his room. There was his armor, hanging up neatly by the full-length mirror. There were various banners hung up all around that were sewn with the emblem of the kingdom as well as his own personal crest. Arondight leaned against the table in its sheath. On a shelf, there were placed various trophies and mementos from quests he and the other knights had gone on.
All perfectly ordinary.
The sun was already halfway up from the horizon, so Prancelot slid out of bed and walked over to the basin to wash his face. Then, using some soap, he whipped up a lather and shaved. Once his face was smooth, Prancelot went and donned his armor, taking his time doing up the buckles and the clasps. While it would have been faster for him to get his squire to help, Prancelot appreciated the thoughtless work. It gave him time to ponder on other matters.
Princess Sunlight. Now there was a happy memory. Not just for him either. Everyone who had met Sunlight when she was still a princess would have agreed that there was no finer girl in the land. He had always been on good terms with her, and had she not been arranged to marry Dawn Saber, many of Prancelot’s friends and family would have expected them to be wed instead.
“That would have been nice,” Prancelot said privately to himself.
For years before the marriage, Sunlight had gone behind Dawn Saber’s back, seeing Prancelot secretly. And then after they married, it was like she was a different person. The intimacy between Prancelot and Sunlight had disappeared. For years, he didn’t know if it was because she was a married woman now and she wanted to forget their secret meetings or if she was simply growing into her role as a queen. Whatever the case, Prancelot was sorry that it had happened. Still, she was the Queen of Canterlot now, and he was but a Knight of the Round Table. What could he do?
No. That was defeatist talk, and as a knight, no challenge was too great for him. He would simply pay a visit to her quarters, perhaps under the guise of delivering an important message. Perhaps such a ploy would allow him to see Sunlight in private, where she didn’t have to act all pompous like royalty. He figured it was time to find out what had happened to the Sunlight he knew.
He had put this task off for years, hoping he could see the Sunlight he once knew in the queen. But this dream had been going on for far too long. He needed to know what had changed his beloved so.
Checking that his armor was clean and that he was wearing his most resplendent cape, Prancelot buckled Arondight to he side and set off toward the queen’s chambers. Prancelot passed by several pairs of guards, all of them letting him pass as befitted a Knight of the Round Table. Feeling more and more confident in himself, Prancelot soon ended up outside Queen Sunlight’s room. Two guards stood outside the closed wooden door, which was emblazoned with a picture of a rising sun.
“Halt,” one of the guards ordered. “My apologies, sir knight, but the queen has given us orders that she does not wish to be disturbed.”
“Is she bathing?” Prancelot asked. He had not gathered all his courage and will just to be stopped by two lowly guards.
“Er, no, I don’t think so…” the other guard said, scratching his head.
“Then there will be no trouble from me. I have known her for years.”
“I agree, sir knight,” the first guard said. “But we still cannot let you pass. Queen’s orders.”
Prancelot’s mouth grew taut. He decided to try something a little unorthodox.
“Well, the king has a message for her, but if you two are telling me that I can’t deliver it, then I suppose I’ll have to go back to the king. What did you say your name was?”
“Brinehammer, sir knight.”
“Ah, yes. I wonder, guard Brinehammer, what the king would do to some guards who defied his orders?”
“He’d probably kill them,” the second guard supplied speedily. Then his face fell. “Oh. Well.”
“I suppose we could let you in, if that’s what the king says,” Brinehammer said hesitantly.
He pushed the door to Sunlight’s chambers open and nodded for Prancelot to go in.
“Thank you, loyal guards,” Prancelot said, a wide smile on his face.
The door shut behind him. Prancelot looked around the room. There was no bed in here, as the queen slept with the king in his chambers. But these rooms were for when the queen wished to pursue her own interests or when the king wished to be left alone. He still remembered days spent in the backroom with Sunlight before her marriage. It was a small room, just between the left wall and the balcony, but it was a room that brought back pleasant memories for the grey haired knight.
Gowns of every color hung from various hooks and lines around the room, and a small cluster of easels stood near the balcony.
“Odd,” Prancelot said to himself. He had never known Sunlight to be a painter. Perhaps she had picked it up as a hobby after ascending to the throne.
There was one piece on one of the easels, still a work in progress. It depicted a mountainous region Prancelot did not know of, with a small cluster of cottages lining one edge. The moon shone brightly behind them, casting deep shadows across the scene. It was a beautiful art piece, but once again, Prancelot did not know the queen could paint.
A perfunctory scan of the room told Prancelot that the queen was not in here. But the guards at the door had told him that she did not wish to be disturbed, which meant she must be deeper inside.
Leaving the easels, Sir Prancelot strode over to the door on the far side of the room, that led to the backroom. As this was his first time in the queen’s quarters for years, he didn’t know what might have become of the backroom, nor did he know what else it would be used for now. As he got closer to the door, Prancelot’s ears picked up the sounds of people speaking. He slowed down. Eavesdropping was in no way polite, but then again, barging in on the queen unannounced wasn’t good either. A solution presented itself. The knight raised an armored fist to knock, then he heard something that gave him pause.
“...You need to ease up on the nighttime fun, sister,” an unfamiliar voice said, muffled slightly through the door. It sounded almost like two women speaking at once, just slightly one after the other, creating a reverberating effect. Either way, it gave Prancelot shivers down his spine. Something was wrong here.
“Oh? And why should I?” Queen Sunlight’s voice came, though it now sounded… colder, less warm and smooth like it usually did in the king’s court. “Do you know how well I’m eating from just Dawn Saber alone?”
“Well, we wouldn’t want you to get fat…” the double voice said. “And like it or not, you can’t have the king be too tired to rule the land. Our success comes from the way the kingdom works. If it doesn’t run like it should, we can’t exploit it.”
Prancelot’s mind was reeling as he listening in on this. What was he hearing?
“I have too much fun at night to just cut down. Besides, my body is still attractive, is it not? And Dawn Saber will manage. If not, I help in his stead.”
“Because you know all about running a kingdom, don’t you? Look, did you at least check up on the princess this month?”
“I… might have forgotten to feed her this month… But I did leave a plate of bread by the door two months ago. I am sure she will put that to some use.”
Princess? What princess would the queen be talking about? As far as Sir Prancelot knew, the king had no heir. Having no heir meant having no princesses from other kingdoms wandering around Canterlot Castle as well, seeing as there was no heir to marry.
“A bloody plate of bread? It’s a good thing I send one of the sirens down there every week to bring food. If she dies, we have no one to replace you with when it’s time to get out of here.”
Replace? Prancelot frowned. What are they on about?
“Calm yourself, sister, she won’t die.” There was a short laugh from a queen. A laugh Prancelot had never heard her utter before. “Not with you looking after her for me. Why do I even need to feed her when the sirens can do it? I have better things to do, like pretend to be Queen Sunlight, for one.”
That last statement made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. He knew it. He had known Sunlight was not herself, and it was because she was indeed not herself.
Another thing Prancelot found strange was the mention of a sister. Sunlight was an only child. She had no siblings, so who was this mysterious sister? And who or what were the sirens?
“Anyway, I think tis time for breakfast. Get back to work, sister, and I’ll see about dieting myself off the king.”
The sound of footsteps came from the door. Prancelot jumped, startled. Unfortunately, his armor was not meant for sneaking, and the plates clashed against one another with an embarrassingly loud clunk.
“What was that?” the double voice asked. Prancelot drew Arondight, wincing at the scraping noise his sword made as it left its scabbard.
The door was flung open.
“Who’s there? Sir Prancelot!” Prancelot was surprised to see Queen Sunlight, still in her bed clothes, striding into the room. She saw him immediately, and to his surprise, clenched her fist at her side, which burst into emerald-green flames. The queen threw the ball of fire at him, but the knight ducked and the fireball exploded against the wall instead. Prancelot’s sword flew from his grasp, completely caught off guard.
Prancelot scrambled to the door and flung it open, smashing it against Brinehammer as he did so and ran from the queen’s room as fast as his feet could carry him. To his relief, the queen did not follow.
Behind, Moon Tide joined Queen Sunlight as they both watched Sir Prancelot flee. The queen stuck her now blackened and clawed hand into her gown and scowled.
“Your majesty,” Brinehammer said nervously, rubbing his nose where the door had hit him. “Is everything alright? Is there something wrong with your hand?”
Sunlight said nothing, but picked up the fallen Arondight, weighing it in her hand. Then without warning, she stabbed it into Brinehammer’s neck, then pulled it out and buried the blade in the other guard’s chest.
“What are you doing?!” Moon Tide quickly grabbed her arm and ripped the sword from her grasp. “Have you lost your mind?!”
“No,” Queen Sunlight said, taking Prancelot’s sword and throwing it on the floor. “Now he’s responsible for killing these two as well. We’ll have to get rid of him, so any incriminating evidence will go a long way. Gather the muses, sister. We will need their magic.”
Moon Tide’s mouth was agape. “That is… one of the most sensible things you have ever done. And after throwing fire at the knight. Still… So many years of secrecy, only to be found out now.”
“Some guards these were,” Sunlight said, looking down with disgust at the dead bodies. She reached a hand up and tore her clothes at the neckline and then ruffling up her hair. “Now, you should leave, sister. I must arrange myself into a perfect tapestry of fear and innocence. As well as fix my hand.”
Prancelot cursed at himself as he held his empty scabbard. He was a Knight of the Round Table, but that fireball the so called queen had tossed at him had surprised him enough for him to abandon Arondight in the queen’s room. He had given in to fear and fled like a coward, which was incredibly unknightly.
That was a mistake of a peasant. If the queen came for him now, he would have no knightly weapon to defend himself with. The next best thing to do would be to alert the king. King Dawn Saber had to know that he had been married to an impostor all this time. Putting his hand on his emergency hunting knife, Prancelot barrelled through the rooms until he found himself in a broom cupboard.
“Alright, Prancelot. I think you lost her,” he panted to himself. “What do we do now?”
Several answers presented themselves.
He could go back and confront the impostor queen. That did not strike him as a particularly good idea, as he had no clue what she was capable of. She had thrown fire at him. Fire. With her own hand. He really didn’t know what she could do if she could do that. Not to mention whoever she had been talking to. He didn’t like the sound of that double-layered voice. It brought to mind demons and other unwholesome creatures.
Whatever this monster was doing here in the castle, Prancelot did not know. But she had mentioned a princess. By the sound of it, that princess must be the real Sunlight Radiance.
Thinking things through, the knight knew he would have to face the monster at his door. He needed to rescue the real Sunlight.
“My beloved Sunlight…” He gazed at his knife.
The impostor had caught him off guard the first time that he, a Knight of the Round Table, had panicked and fled. For their second encounter, he would not flee. He was going to stand and fight and he would rescue his true love.
But first, he had to get out of this broom closet.
Easing the door open, Prancelot skulked from his hiding place and carefully made his way down to the main hall where the other knights would no doubt be having breakfast by now. The knight made sure to edge around corners and peek down corridors in case something unpleasant was lying in wait for him. But nothing was. He made it to the main hall just as the eighth bell began to ring.
Sir Agramane, Sir Boercival, Sir Morn, and Lady Emerald were all seated around the hall, finishing their meals. Boercival noticed Prancelot and waved at him. Prancelot waved back, but absent-mindedly noticed that the high table was empty. Neither king nor queen was present. This also gave Prancelot a bad feeling, but he kept it to himself.
“Oi, Prancelot! Where have you been?” Agramane demanded. “You’ve almost missed breakfast, and you’re always telling us how it’s the most important meal of the day.”
“I… Something has come up,” Prancelot quickly put together. “I shan’t join you today. I must… go… somewhere.”
And then he was out of the main hall, heading over to the throne room. He had to let King Dawn Saber know of his wife’s treachery, before she did any more damage, or to kill the impostor himself, whatever she was.
However, the throne room was empty as well.
A distinct feeling of doom was beginning to grow in the pit of Prancelot’s gut. Something was wrong here, very wrong. The king was supposed to be in the throne room by now, sorting through the day’s business and parleying with the barons and lords under his rule. None of those were present here today, though now that it was all quiet, he could hear a faint trace of music. Almost like… singing.
Why would the muses be singing now? The knight scratched at his cheek. But that meant that was a likely place the king or queen would be.
Placing a hand on his dagger, Prancelot grimaced at the thought of plunging it into the false Sunlight Radiance. She may have been a fake of the woman he loved, but she very much looked like the real one.
Heading up a stairwell beside the throne room, Prancelot followed the sound of singing, echoing down the stone walls around him; he was definitely heading in the right direction.
Prancelot found himself in one of the servant’s hallways, one of the many passages in Canterlot Castle that were for the serving staff only to get things like dirty dishes to the kitchens without having to pass through the nobility and knights.
The knight followed the increasingly loud sound of singing down the hallway, shaking his head to clear it. For whatever reason, it felt like something was messing with his mind, making it all fuzzy and unclear. He passed a window and spotted an owl perched outside it, looking in at him with wide, circular eyes.
Prancelot froze. The owl blinked slowly at the knight and yawned. Then it turned its head a hundred and eighty degrees and went to sleep.
“Huh.”
Ignoring the owl and getting back on task, Prancelot continued to speed walk to King Dawn Saber’s room, emerging back out into the regular hallway. He needed to tell him of the threat before it was too late. He needed to know that his wife wasn’t his wife.
Finally approaching the king’s room, two more guards were posted outside, looking at him with different degrees of confusion.
“I need to see the king. Tis an urgent matter.” Prancelot tried to put his hand on Arondight’s pommel, but then remembered his sword wasn’t with him.
“The queen said…” one guard looked to the other. “She did, yes?”
“She did.”
“What? What did she say?” Prancelot cast a wary gaze on the two guards, his senses tingling, telling him there was something wrong.
“She said if you were to arrive here, we were to… to arrest you, sir knight.” The guard looked hesitant.
“And she said not to let him enter.”
“Yes, she did say that.”
Prancelot stomped a foot. He wasn’t going to get stopped now. “I need to see the king! Tis an urgent matter. Tis about the queen! You must listen! She is not who she says she is! She is an imposter!”
“Im-imposter?” The guards looked at each other in confusion.
“Ho, Sir Prancelot. Fancy meeting you here.”
The knight turned around to see Sir Morn Dread and Lady Emerald Edge approach.
Yes, sensible people! he thought to himself. “Sir Morn, Lady Emerald, you must help me. The king, he is in danger.”
“The king in danger?” Sir Morn looked to his lover, then back to Prancelot. “From what, Sir Prancelot?”
“The queen! We must get in there. She is not who she says she is!”
“My mother requested we meet her here. She is inside, waiting for us, I presume. Guards, let us pass.”
“But… Sir Prancelot, the queen said to arrest him,” the first guard said again.
“Arrest him?” Emerald looked at him.
“We don’t have time. The king needs us!”
Prancelot had enough of waiting. Shoving the guards aside, he threw the door open and rushed in.
With the door open now, Prancelot could better hear the singing voices. They belonged to the king’s muses, who now stood before his fireplace, singing to him as he sat by it, sipping from a cup of tea. And then beside him, sat a sobbing Queen Sunlight Radiance, her hair in a mess and her clothes torn, drooping off one shoulder.
Why on earth is she crying?
“Your majesty!” Prancelot quickly ran up and stood between him and the fake Sunlight. “Watch out! She is not who she says she is!”
“Sir Prancelot! How dare you intrude here after what you have done!” The king shoved him aside and stood to defend the fake Sunlight. “Do you have no honor?”
Prancelot was stunned. “What? What do you mean, your majesty?”
Behind them, the muses continued singing, and Prancelot found it harder and harder to think. He looked at Sir Morn and Emerald, who followed in after him, but they seemed unaffected, if a little puzzled.
Sir Morn found his mother, standing close to the muses and walked to her. “Mother, what is going on? What has Sir Prancelot done?”
“I have not done a thing!” Prancelot pointed at the sobbing Sunlight. “It is her! She tried to kill me! She is not Queen Sunlight! She said so herself!”
“You dare to say such things against your queen? After you try to sleep with her?” King Dawn Saber, who was generally calm, looked like he was about to blow up.
“Your majesty, I did no such thing. She lies to you, like she has all these years. She is not Queen Sunlight Radiance!” Prancelot protested.
Morn and Emerald looked at each other with confusion.
King Dawn Saber reached behind his wife’s chair and pulled up a blade. It was Prancelot’s Arondight. “You tried to force yourself on your queen, and then kill two of my guards when they try to stop you? And then now here you are speaking ill of her?”
“No, your majesty, I would never.” Prancelot shook his head. “I am one of your most loyal knights. I will never attempt treason against you.”
“And so I thought, until this day,” Dawn Saber replied disappointedly. “Sir Morn, Lady Emerald… Arrest this man. He has committed treason against his king and queen…”
“Your majesty, no, I…” Prancelot tried to explain, but the king turned away.
Morn and Emerald looked reluctant, but approached him anyway.
“Prancelot, is it… is it true, what you have done?” Emerald asked him.
The grey haired knight shook his head and looked back at the sobbing queen, only, now she had stopped and was flashing him a devilish smirk between her fingers.
“No. No, I will do what I must for Canterlot.”
Prancelot moved fast. He first grabbed Arondight from the king, then jumped at Sunlight, pushing her to the ground. The imposter screamed as Prancelot pinned her underneath his weight, then brought his sword up, its tip pointed down.
“You shall not deceive the king any longer!”
“No!” Moon Tide and the muses began to run over.
Sunlight simply covered her face, looking like she was afraid, but Prancelot knew better. Or did he? Right now, he had her. He had the imposter under his blade, but she still looked just like his precious Sunlight. The knight remembered the many nights they shared together, hidden from King Dawn Saber’s eyes. He remembered her touch and her body against his. He remembered his time with her when they were younger, playing in the fields. In the end, it was so hard to bring his blade down into the imposter’s heart. That hesitancy was what cost him his chance.
A hand had been put on his shoulder and then he was yanked right off, flying across the room and landing in a roll on the stone floor.
Sir Morn now stood between him and the imposter queen, Clarent drawn.
“Prancelot, you are not in your right mind. Stand down now. Do not harm the king or queen,” his fellow knight ordered.
King Dawn Saber quickly attended to his wife, who made a show of being violated. Seeing that just made Prancelot more angry.
“Why do none of you see it?!” Prancelot swished his sword in the air. “She is not Queen Sunlight! She is some kind of demon! She has to be put down.”
“Prancelot, no.” Morn gave one final warning, his tone lowering. “Do not try it.”
Prancelot decided to try it. Canterlot depended on him right now. The real Sunlight depended on him to rescue her from this demon.
“This is for the good of our kingdom, Morn!” He approached, sword raised. “She must die.”
Morn countered his steps, walking in front of him and always keeping himself between Prancelot and Sunlight.
And then Prancelot attacked first, trying to use the flat of his blade to push Morn aside, but his brother in arms was almost as equally skilled in combat as he was. This was not going to be easy.
Spinning, Prancelot aimed a swipe down at Sir Morn’s legs, which the blue haired knight easily avoided, then kicking up with a foot, forcing Prancelot to dodge back. That allowed Morn to press an offensive, slashing horizontally and pushing Prancelot even further back, away from Sunlight.
“Stop! Stop it!” Emerald yelled from the side, but her pleas fell on deaf ears. Prancelot knew what he had to do.
Righting his footing, he gave himself just enough time to deflect one of Morn’s oncoming attacks and clubbed him on the side of his head with an armored fist. Morn stumbled to the side, giving Prancelot enough time to sprint for the fake Sunlight, who pretended to look afraid again, with the king once again beside her.
“Your majesty, please, step aside! She is not who you think she is!”
“If you continue to attempt murder on your queen, you will force my hand. You do not want to face Excalibur, Sir Prancelot,” Dawn Saber warned.
“I will not, your majesty. Please, trust me. She needs to die. She is a fake!”
The muses continued to sing, their voices resonating in the chamber and making it hard for Prancelot to think. It became a struggle to keep his sword up, but he did not know why he was feeling this way.
Taking advantage of this moment of hesitation, Dawn Saber drew the mighty Excalibur from its sheath and held it in front of him.
And then Moon Tide hit him with a crossbow bolt with a glass head, striking him in the shoulder, spreading ice across his plates, forcing him to remove part of his armor, only for Emerald to tackle him down, pinning his left arm behind his back.
“Prancelot, you are not yourself,” she told him. “We are on your side. The queen is on your side.”
“No! No, she is not!” Prancelot struggled, but he was unable to get up. He tried to slash at Emerald with Arondight, but Morn was soon over, kicking the sword from his grasp. “She is a fake! She is a fake! The real Sunlight is out there!”
Dawn Saber sheathed Excalibur and shook his head disappointedly. “You leave me no choice, Sir Prancelot. You have dishonored your position as a Knight of the Round Table.”
“No, your majesty-”
“For crimes against the Kingdom of Canterlot, you are hereby relieved as a Knight of the Round Table and you shall be exiled from Canterlot.”
That last part shocked Prancelot into a deafening silence.
“No, your majesty.” It was Emerald Edge who spoke. “He… Exile sounds too much, does it not?”
Dawn Saber raised a hand. “Exile is already lenient of me. For trying to kill my beloved, he should be executed. But… Prancelot is an old friend. I shall spare him, because I am a benevolent king. Sir Morn, Lady Emerald, please escort Sir Prancelot to his quarters to gather his belongings. He is to leave tonight. And never come back, or there will be swift punishment.”
Prancelot felt as though someone had shoved a knife straight through his heart. He had tried to do the right thing, but no one else could see it. Now he only felt sadness, not for him, but for his king. If he could not see through his queen’s deception, then it would be his problem. Prancelot was done trying to help.
He cast one more look at the false Sunlight as Emerald and Morn brought him out of the room. Behind the king’s back, she was smirking so evilly and she waved a hand at him.
Prancelot simply turned away and walked on.
So be it.
“I am sorry there was not more we could do for you, Sir Prancelot.” Emerald Edge handed him a pack of goods from the kitchens. “But here, for your travels.”
“Thank you, Lady Emerald. And it is no longer Sir Prancelot. Tis just Prancelot.” The grey haired man shook his head and looked down.
Sir Morn too, looked disappointed that his fellow knight had to leave. He slapped a hand down on his shoulder and sighed. “The queen is not the enemy, my friend. I hope one day you see it.”
“No, Sir Morn. It is you who must see. But it does not matter now. The queen has won.”
Morn frowned, but Emerald’s touch told him not to push it further.
“Where will you go?” the female knight asked, one hand wrapped around Morn’s arm.
Prancelot looked out the town’s gates into the distance. “I suppose I will pay a visit to Prance. I am no longer welcomed here. Perhaps I can start a new life there.”
“We wish you all the best in your travels, Prancelot.” Emerald stretched a hand out.
“And I wish you both the best of luck in keeping Canterlot safe.” Prancelot took her hand and shook it. “You will need it. You certainly will.”
When he was ready, Prancelot shifted his pack’s sling over one shoulder and set off away from the place he had called his home for so many years.
He was just outside the town gates when he heard the sound of hooves. Prancelot turned around to see Moon Tide ride up to him with a morose look on her face.
“Have you come to see me off, mage?” Prancelot asked.
Moon Tide stared at him for a moment, then shook her head. “Nay. I have come to show you something.”
“What is it?”
“Get up on my horse and I will take you to it. Tis only about half an hour’s ride, and then I will see you off to the borders of the kingdom.”
She wants to show me something? Prancelot found it odd, especially after what had happened in the king’s chambers. “What is it you want to show me? And why now?”
“Because now is the best time. If you leave Canterlot, you will never get to see it again,” Moon Tide blinked at Prancelot. It was then that Prancelot realized that there were no muses with her. Unusual, she usually had at least one hanging around.
“Very well, mage. If it will not take long.” Prancelot got up on her horse behind her. “Then lead on. And, may I say, if I have caused you any trouble earlier, Mage Moon Tide, I am sorry. I did not mean to harm any of you, be it physical or mental.”
“I imagine you are sorry,” Moon Tide said under her breath, then she spurred the horse on through the fields. They rode on in the darkness for a long while, until all that could be seen around was grass and a few rocky protuberances. The city of Canterlot was just a small dot on the horizon.
“And we will stop here,” Moon Tide announced, tying her horse to a solitary yew tree that was growing next to a huge pile of boulders. A small stream gurgled out between the rocks, bringing with it a supply of clean water.
“Is this it?” Prancelot watched the stream flow. It would certainly be a good spot to stock up on water if he needed. “Tis a nice view from here, I must say.”
“Further in here,” Moon Tide beckoned, leading Prancelot to a gap in the boulders, wide enough for a man to squeeze through.
“What is there to show me here?” Prancelot looked in the gap. “Is this a secret passage?”
“Yes and no. You see, I thought since you were so hung up on Sunlight Radiance, you would be pleased to see her again. So I’m taking you to her. You can have all the time in the world together.”
The last sentence was spoken with an overlayed double voice, the same one Prancelot had heard in the queen’s chambers. He stiffened and was in the process of turning around and reaching for Arondight, which he did not have anymore, when two sharp objects sank into his neck.
“Ah!” Prancelot felt his strength leave him and he crumpled to the floor. He tried to get up, but it was as though his body had turned to stone. He couldn’t move. “What… have you done…? Who are you?”
“Me?” Moon Tide chuckled, picking him up with one hand, a feat that no ordinary person would have been capable of. “I am the queen’s sister. We couldn’t have you heading to some other kingdom and spilling secrets. Before long, rumor would turn to gossip and gossip would lead to war. So we decided it was best to bring you here. To where the real Sunlight is being kept. You can be with her forever.”
Moon Tide hauled Prancelot to a grille in the floor, unlocking it and lowering him in. There was a small flap in it, through which small objects like food could be pushed in. Moon Tide smiled to herself and locked the grate.
Prancelot thudded against the hard ground below, unable to move as his vision spun around him. The only light source he had came from above, where the moon shone through the grille, lighting up only a fraction of his surroundings. The floor, from what he could see, was littered with hay and he could smell water.
“I will leave you to it,” Moon Tide said from above. “That pack of yours should last you quite some time. I will be back to check on you… maybe in a week.”
Prancelot heard her footsteps trail off, and then the sound of galloping hooves.
“H-Hello…?” There was a soft voice behind him. Prancelot couldn’t turn around, but it was a woman’s voice and she sounded close.
“Who’s there?” Prancelot managed. “I can’t move; can you help me?”
A pair of hands were hooked under his arms and he was dragged up and placed against a cavern wall. It felt jagged and rough, but there was nothing else he could do at the moment.
There was a stream flowing in from a slope above, leading out through an exit blocked by metal bars, leading down and out into the field, where Prancelot had earlier seen it. All around them was a simple cavern, not man-made, and in front of him was a woman he barely recognized.
Her smooth face was now aged and her radiant blonde and red hair was paler now, unbraided and strewn across the floor, likely uncut since she was put here.
Any other person might have forgotten the face of this one princess, but not Prancelot. This was one woman he would never forget, even if she looked different now.
“Sunlight,” Prancelot said, unable to reach out to her to hold her. “Sunlight, my love. Tis really you.”
“P-Prancer?” Sunlight gasped. “Is that you? Oh, I had given up any hope of a rescue years ago. But you came, you came for me!” She fell against Prancelot and embraced him tightly.
“Yes, tis so good to see you again, even if it is such conditions.” He smiled at her embrace. “Alas, my beloved, I cannot. I too, have become prey to whatever monster currently assumes your identity. Rest assured, Sunlight, I will do everything in my power to get us out. Remember, I will do anything for you.”
“There’s more than just one of them,” Sunlight whispered. “Once a week, some kind of child comes by with food and drink, and she sings a song that makes it impossible to move until she is gone. I think it is magic.”
“Children, of all things…” Prancelot mused. There seemed to be more going on than just the queen and Moon Tide. For all he knew, maybe the king too, was a monster. That would explain why he refused to believe his wife was one. But that would mean that the entire kingdom of Canterlot was under the control of a demon. And that thought was too terrible to entertain.
“Once I can move, I will find a way for us to leave, Sunlight.” Prancelot returned to the present. “You have been prisoner here long enough.”
Sunlight nodded with a smile. “And it is nice to have someone with me now. It has been so lonely all these years, sitting here in the dark, unable to leave. And I know I can count on you, Prancer. I always have.”
“We will not let these monsters win. And then you and I, Sunlight, we will escape here and live as we have always intended. To be together.”
Sunlight embraced him again as they sat there in the darkness. All that could be heard was the faint trickling of water, and in the distance, maybe even a cackle of laughter.