//------------------------------// // Chapter 4: Regent of the Sun // Story: To Serve In Hell // by CoffeeMinion //------------------------------// Brilliant lighting shot down from the sky, bringing rare illumination to the gloomy castle. Rarity raised a hoof, shielding her eyes. A mighty rumbling sound inspired her to look up again. She squinted, studying a twisted, warping haze that floated in the middle of the corridor. The sound intensified as the distortion resolved itself into the image of a large room full of heavily armored thestrals running to and fro. Some shouted orders, many gathered supplies and weapons, while others moved with less obvious purpose. The Mistress herself stalked through the guards’ midst, baring her teeth. And one thestral, whose armor was of a quality surpassing that of his fellows, followed close behind her. Sassy touched a hoof to her chest and inclined her head. Rarity and Dash exchanged glances before following suit. Nightmare Moon stepped through the portal, fixing the trio with a glare. “Overseer! You will explain why the Hellshard calls me from my preparations.” Sassy gave her a look of subservience. “Forgive me, Mistress, but these traitors were threatening to keep vital information from reaching you!” The Mistress narrowed her eyes. “Seneschal?” Rarity swallowed. “Mistress, I assure you, this is all a misunderstanding!” Nightmare Moon’s lips curled back. She turned toward the portal and lit her horn. Within moments, it faded back into a haze, then dissipated, leaving only the Mistress herself and the armored thestral—Sergeant Wind Rider—by her side. “Show me this information,” she said. Rarity hesitated before lighting her horn and producing the letter. Nightmare Moon took it in her own darkling magic and began to read. She snarled, looking back at Rarity. “The Overseer has seen this?” “Y… yes, Mistress,” Rarity said. Nightmare Moon’s magic first crumpled the letter, then tore it into scraps. “And what of our agreement, Seneschal?” Sweat beaded at Rarity’s scalp. “I… Mistress, I don’t know where that letter…” “I care not for excuses!” Nightmare Moon shouted. She shook her head. “I trusted you to keep these connections discreet.” Sassy’s jaw slackened. “You knew about this?” “Indeed, Overseer,” Nightmare Moon said, laying her ears flat and baring her teeth. “I have remade this world in my image…” She gestured first at Wind Rider, and then at Rainbow Dash. “It is, therefore, embarrassing that such mundanities as food would lead me to compromise that vision.” “I assure you, I took every precaution,” Rarity said. She winced as she considered how much careful work and planning had been undone in a single stroke by the careless actions of the stallion who she’d met down in the dungeons. “Perhaps… somepony else might’ve planted the letter, not expecting the Overseer—” “To do her job?” Nightmare Moon fumed, turning to Sassy. “Look at you; so eager to serve, yet so utterly rigid. Do you truly not see the realities that drove the Seneschal to do what she’s done?” Sassy dared to meet the Mistress’ eyes. “Then you knew about the ‘Underground Sun’ that the letter spoke of? And why Lord Rich’s seal would be upon it?” Nightmare Moon’s lips twisted into a grim mockery of amusement. “Why, no; perhaps the Seneschal could tell us?” Sassy shot Rarity an accusatory glance. “Indeed, she and Lord Rich are quite close.” Rarity shook her head. “I swear, Mistress, Lord Rich has shared nothing about this.” “And why, exactly, should I trust your word?” Nightmare Moon asked, leaning closer. “Seneschal, I tolerate the hints of treason revealed by your dreams because you are highly effective at your job.” She paused. “But perhaps I have grown weary of tolerating your… other proclivities.” Rarity froze. “Relinquish your keys,” Nightmare Moon said with a scowl. Rarity raised the heavy keyring in trembling hooves. The Mistress took them in her magic, examined them, then snarled: “All of them!” And so Rarity swallowed hard, before slowly producing the key to Zecora’s cell. Nightmare Moon snatched it from Rarity with her magic, then tossed it to Wind Rider. “Sergeant, bring me the zebra in our dungeons!” He took the key and saluted. “Yes, Mistress,” he said, before flying away at speed. Nightmare Moon glanced at Rainbow Dash. “Hold these for me, will you?” she asked with feigned nonchalance, before tossing the keyring to her. Dash fumbled her catch, and had to pick them up off the ground. Then Nightmare Moon whirled on Sassy. “Overseer, you will relinquish the Hellshard as well.” Rarity’s eyes darted toward the Overseer, and watched as she raised it in her long, willowy hoof. Nightmare Moon brought the Hellshard closer in her magic, then lowered her horn to touch its surface. All at once, it sparked and rippled in response. A stench of ozone wafted through the chamber. Rarity’s coat stood on end. “Perhaps you need a reminder of the way things are,” Nightmare Moon said to Rarity. “You think that you can sneak around unnoticed, with one hoof in the world as it is now, and another in the world that was before I remade it?” “Mistress, please. I will go to Lord Rich. I swear, I will use every aspect of my relationship with him to learn what he knows about this ‘Underground Sun!’” “Indeed you will.” The sparking of the Hellshard intensified. Lightning shot from its surface with greater frequency. A surge of coruscating energy swirled out in front of it, creating a circular, pony-sized disruption in the fabric of reality. The disruption’s innards turned to black, and a sense of distance asserted itself, bringing visions of amorphous silhouettes that writhed in livid pools of fire. Tartarus. Sensing movement to one side, Rarity turned, and found that Wind Rider had flown back already. A desperately emaciated figure hung limp in his forehooves. Rarity struggled against the urge to reach out to Zecora. A flood of unbidden memories threatened to overwhelm her. She thought of those in Ponyville who she’d lost when the Longest Night began, and of the aid Zecora offered those who fled into the Everfree… Zecora’s eyes drifted open as her head lolled around, giving her a clear glimpse of the open gate to Tartarus. “I commend your determination to keep this relic of the ‘time before’ alive,” Nightmare Moon proclaimed, keeping her gaze on Rarity, even as she grasped Zecora around the throat with her magic. “But I wonder who ultimately brought her greater torture: me for leaving her to die, or you for prolonging her life for all this time?” “The path of good… is difficult to see—” Zecora choked. “Enough with your damnable rhyming!” roared the Mistress as she whipped Zecora through the portal with her magic. Rarity averted her eyes as Zecora was lost amid the flames, and lowered her ears as she began to scream. At first the sound grew distant, but then Rarity flinched as it became louder and more strident. In time, Rarity looked back at the portal. There, floating just on the other side, was the backlit silhouette of something that may have once resembled a pegasus. Now, though, it was gnarled and twisted, with rough fur, ragged wings, and legs that ended not in hooves, but claws. And as always, it was holding something. “Good day to you, Regent of the Sun,” a spectral voice intoned. “I am in no mood to deal with the likes of you, Guardian,” Nightmare Moon snarled. The thing on the other side of the portal flapped its wings, buoying itself on unseen currents. “You know the arrangement. If one pony enters, one pony leaves.” Nightmare Moon growled, and turned back to Rarity. “Seneschal, let this be a reminder that you still have things to lose… ponies to lose… however much you feel you’ve lost already. I’m sure you didn’t work alone to keep Zecora alive all this time, and I’m equally sure that your relationship with Lord Rich involves more than mere ‘business.’” White-hot panic lanced through Rarity’s mind. Her jaw moved, but no words came. “And yet,” the Mistress said with a sudden and unnerving mildness, “you still are one of the most competent and thorough ponies in my employ. Indeed, there are few who might be more capable than yourself and the Overseer to investigate and stop this new conspiracy.” Rarity watched with widened eyes as the Nightmare turned on Rainbow Dash. “Sergeant Dash, in light of your long and loyal service, I’ll exempt you fully from my expeditionary force. Instead, you’ll take the Hellshard to my private vault, and bear the Seneschal’s keys in her absence. I trust she’ll make your transition as painless as possible?” Nightmare Moon laughed, then lit her horn, and teleported both herself and Wind Rider away with a loud crack and a burst of energy. “Farewell, Regent of the Sun,” the Guardian said. Rarity felt, more than saw, as it turned unseen eyes on her. Her flesh began to itch as it regarded her from the crackling portal. “And good evening to you, Rarity.” “H… hello,” she said, averting her eyes again, and battling a crawling feeling of discomfort that it knew her name. She didn’t know how, but it had always known her name. “Give my best to Rainbow Dash,” it said. “I tried very hard to keep this one safe.” Rarity’s brow furrowed. It knows her name, as well?! But then there was a sound of greater sparking and protestation from the Hellshard, followed by a heavy thump upon the floor. “I only hope I tried hard enough.” Rarity looked up at an orange-coated filly now lying in front of the gate. Nothing from the filly’s hooves to her dark-pink mane looked harmed in any way. Yet Rarity knew that those the creature sent back were not always damaged on the outside. The portal sparked and whirled again. Rarity watched as the creature and the flames beyond it seemed to flatten before being lost amid a spinning surface of electricity. Then that power flowed back into the Hellshard again, and it clattered to the floor, silent and unmoving. Sassy took a few steps toward the Hellshard, and eyed it with what seemed to be a mixture of both envy and fear. But Rarity’s focus was drawn to the filly lying before her. She bent and ran a cautious hoof through her mane, then took a closer look at her diminutive wings. “I recognize this filly from Ponyville,” Rarity said. “She must have been taken when the Longest Night began.” Rarity looked at Dash, whose eyes and mouth were wide. “Sergeant Dash, what is it?” Rarity asked. “Do you know her?”