//------------------------------// // 363 Part 2 // Story: A Scratch On Shining Armor: Bad Moon Rising // by BaeroRemedy //------------------------------// Still Three Hundred and Sixty-Three days until the next Summer Sun Celebration “Ah don’t like bein’ out here, Lily. The Everfree Forest is dangerous, y’all know that.” Lily had, after months of begging, finally convinced Applejack and her brother Big Macintosh to come out to the old dilapidated castle to help rescue Mia. It hadn’t been easy, in fact, the Apple siblings were convinced that she was lying at first. They came around, though. “V-very dangerous…” A small voice came from behind Macintosh. Applejack had insisted that her friend Fluttershy had to come along in case they came across any animals that might give them trouble. “A-and I’ve never heard of any castle out this f-far in the Everfree…” “Ah have.” Applejack replied as the group made their way through the dense forest as carefully as they could. “Granny used to tell stories about an old haunted castle out here.” That elicited a yelp from the pegasus in the rear, her yellow wings covering her face. “Oh calm down, Fluttershy. It’s all hogwash. Probably just some old ruins, just spooky lookin’ and nothin’ else.” The earth pony removed her ever present hat from her head and wiped sweat from her brow. “And Lily, you’re sure that there’s a pony stuck in that there castle?” “Yes!” Lily shot back. She was tired of ponies doubting her on this. “Mia is in there and she’s real! She said somepony is keeping her there, but she’s really nice and doesn’t deserve it!” There was a silence as the adults all looked away. “Why don’t you believe me?” “Well, it’s just…” Applejack hesitated, struggling to put what she was about to say in a nicer way. “...Ah know what it’s like when yer Ma is sick, y’know. Sometimes ya make up stories to get away from it.” “Well you’ll see! Mia’s real and we’re going to save her!” She wasn’t just some hallucination, she wasn’t some made up story or anything, and this had nothing to do with her mom! “You’ll see…” She grumbled as she lead the pack through the little trail she had carved over the months. The walk took about 20 minutes, but as soon as they broke the treeline where they could see the castle, they were believers. The look of awe on the faces of the ponies that were tagging along was worth it. “This place is huge..” Applejack marveled at the structure before them. The crumbling edifices slowly being taken back by nature was really cool, but that’s not why they were here. “How can somepony live here?” “Eeyup…” Macintosh agreed curtly from the back. “Mia! Mia come out!” Lily jumped to the edge of the cliff, Applejack reaching out and putting a hoof on her just in case. The little filly waited for her friend, eyes wide and heart fluttering. This was going to be the first time that anypony other than her saw Mia. The large wooden door to the castle opened slowly and Mia came out draped in her black cloak.Lily could see the smile across her face fade when she saw the other ponies with her. There was a moment of hesitation, as if she wanted to turn back towards the castle and hide away. “Hello, Lily. Who are your friends?” Mia called across the chasm, clutching her cloak close to her body. There was a lot of fear in Mia’s eyes, more than normal. “This is Applejack, her brother Big Macintosh and their friend Fluttershy! We’re going to help you get out of that castle!” Lily yelled back triumphantly, much to the horror of Mia apparently. Applejack and Macintosh met with Lily there on the edge, both staring at the pony across from them. “She looks mighty frightened, Lily.” Applejack commented, keeping her voice low. “Eeyup.” Macintosh added. “She’s been all alone over there for like ten years she said!” Lily battled back. “Wouldn’t you be?” There was sympathy behind the older earth pony’s eyes. She was nice and kind, Lily knew that firsthand. The filly knew that Applejack would find it in her heart to help out Mia, that’s just who Applejack was. “Being alone is almost as scary as being in a crowd.” Even Fluttershy agreed with Lily! That had to mean something. “Everypony needs a friend to help them not be so scared sometimes.” “Yeah! And I’m Mia’s friend! It’s my job to help her.” Lily stamped her hoof down and looked to the adults. “So we’re going to help her, okay?” It earned a determined nod from both Applejack and Macintosh, and a sheepish nod from Fluttershy. “Shy, y’all think you can fly across there with these here supplies and secure that side?” Applejack held up a saddlebag that had some thick wooden stakes and a mallet. “You just gotta drive the stakes in. I’ll toss rope over to ya, alright?” ---- Cadance was just waiting now. As soon as that little yellow pegasus took flight, she was waiting for the poor little pony to smack into the magical barrier that Celestia had erected around the castle. It allowed things of the non-living variety in, but Cadance knew that anything living thing that came into contact with it would be bounced away. It was meant to protect Cadance from the dangers of the Everfree, but now it was just going to hurt this poor timid creature. Except nothing happened. Cadance blinked. Right in front of her, on her side of the chasm, was another pony. With a shaky hoof, Cadance reached out and poked the soft yellow flank of her visitor. She was soft, she was real. “Oh my gosh, you are real” Cadance exclaimed, laughing in disbelief. She could feel tears well up in her eyes as the realization hit her like a freight train. “You’re real…” She pulled the now-squirming and shaking pony into a the tightest hug she could manage. Dear Celestia, she was real and this was actually happening! “P-please let me go…” The other pony protested quietly, causing Cadance to quickly pull away. It wasn’t like her to be that touchy with ponies she didn’t know, but...she just couldn’t help herself. “I am so sorry, I just needed to make sure.” Experimentally, Cadance focused with all of her might on her horn. Usually she couldn’t produce even a small spark, but now she could feel the entirety of her horn glowing. Somehow, Celestia’s spell had lost its power. How? Negligence, maybe. Distance, possibly. Cadance wasn’t going to question too much, thought. She was getting out of here. ---- “So you never knew your mother?” Shining questioned the bat pony in front of him. Sure, he had to leave soon so he could spend all day at the castle yet again, but that wasn’t going to stop him from grilling his new house guest. “No, she dropped me off at my dad’s door when I was a few months old. I do not even know her name.” Ray seemed innocent enough, but there was just something behind those yellow eyes he couldn’t trust. He couldn’t exactly prove she was lying, but he knew something was being hidden from him. “What did you say your full name was, again?” Shining had a final trump card, he would just look her up at DEqI. If he knew her full name and what she looked like, it would be easy. And her cutie mark would be the most helpful, a sun crossed with two spears. “Radiance.” The hybrid pony replied, looking straight into his eyes. He held the gaze for a few seconds, staring into those eyes. He was searching for anything, any sense of doubt, any quiver that he could pin down. Instead he got nothing. “Will you leave her alone, Twinkle? Go do your magic stuff, alright?” Vinyl shoo’d him off of the couch and away from her friend. He grumpily got up, not taking his eyes off of Ray. “For Celestia’s sake, stop being so paranoid. It’s not a great look on you.” “Fine.” He finally tore his gaze away from Ray and gave Vinyl a kiss on the cheek. “Have a good day, don’t get into any trouble, okay? Just have fun with your friend.” He smiled the best he could, knowing damn well that Vinyl would see through the false sincerity. “Oh trust me, Twinkle. I’m sure if I get into trouble you will be the first pony to know.” The mare shrugged and patted her friend on the back. “We’re probably just gonna go out on the town, get something to eat and come back home. So don’t worry your pretty little head.” Yeah, Vinyl telling him not to worry had the opposite effect. After so many years, you learned the warning signs for Vinyl getting up to nonsense, and that was one of them. “Alright. Well, I love you. See you when I get home.” He headed towards the door, clad in his DEqI uniform of a dark blue double-breasted suit with radiant golden buttons. Originally he wasn’t going to wear the uniform today, but after the thought of looking up Ray came up, he had to so he could get into the archives. “Love you too, nerd! Send somepony if you’re not going to be home until late!” Vinyl called after him as he shut the door. He sighed and went on his way, knowing the day ahead would be long and fraught with exhaustion on both the physical and mental level. The trip to DEqI headquarters was quick and easy. He walked in, presented his badge, and went down to Archives. He presented the Archivist, an old stallion named Nosy, with the information and waited about ten minutes. He signed off that he was taking possession of the file for the day, and he was on his way. The thing about DEqI, which Shining both loved and loathed, was that they knew everything about everypony. Even if you thought you had a secret, you didn’t. If you wrote it down anywhere, they knew. If you talked about it in a public space, they knew. It was scary as hell, but useful all the same. Now most ponies in DEqI wouldn’t be able to get these files, but because Shining Armor was a liaison to the Royal Guard, he had access to the archives. It was mostly for retrieving information on guards or ponies of interest in high-profile cases the Guard was looking into. “Countessa Demura Radiance Lucia Rosette the Fifth…” Shining read out the name aloud. “What a name…” Well, she had not been lying about part of her name, and there was truth that she didn’t know her mother. “Brother: Prince Blueblood. Now that’s interesting.” Shining wasn’t aware that Duke had a bastard, in fact he had never heard that from even his grandmother. What was even more odd were the two separate photos attached in the files. One was of the pony in his house, and the other was the same pony but...well, more Equine. She had a pretty white coat, normal looking pupils, a beautiful mane. Must be a charm of some sort she uses as a disguise. It would make sense considering her pedigree. “Great to know Vinyl is lying to me…” He muttered, tucking the file away in his breast pocket. Vinyl didn’t have friends that came from that high up in Canterlot society, not from before they met and not even now. Those just weren’t the ponies she got along with. He would grill her on it later when he got home and Radiance wasn’t around. Shining honestly wished he had access to the facilities he had now back when he was helping Vinyl. Finding where Lily had gone would’ve been so easy, it would’ve saved days. But, then again, DEqI wasn’t this...hyper vigilant back then. All of this personal information collection started after Galea came in and the whole political landscape changed around Canterlot. So while he didn’t quite condone what DEqI did, he found it useful enough at times. This sort of thing had become more commonplace over the years. First the Royal Guard had set up magic detectors in and around the Palace that could detect any quantity of magic, send it to a hub where analysts figured out what the spell was from thousands upon thousands of references. Eventually, those sensors covered all of Canterlot, then they adapted and evolved due to more and more nebulous ‘threats’ DEqI and the Guard kept finding. Far be it from Shining to question the whole process, but he just felt that when you were looking for enemies you found them more often than not. It’s not even that he was on the side of whoever the leaker was that spilled the beans on the mail skimming op. He didn’t like traitors, and he didn’t approve of leaking things to the public if they weren’t being explicitly harmed by it. DEqI had never abused the use of those tools, not that he knew of, nor had the guard. So where was the harm in it? Protecting the ponies of Canterlot was their whole job and that’s what they were doing. “Good morning, Shining Armor.” He stopped, it was odd for Galea to ever engage in pleasantries with him. He blinked and turned to the Captain, giving a small salute. “Morning, Captain. What’s so good about it?” He didn’t think anything ever qualified as ‘good’ in her eyes. Just adequate or inadequate. His jaw nearly dropped as the icy mare pulled a cup of coffee from one of her assistants and held it out to her. She nodded at it as he stood there slack jawed, beckoning for him to take it. He finally shook himself out of it and accepted the beverage. “I have something to do today that is not sitting behind a desk signing papers, that is what is good about it.” Galea responded, actually smiling for once. “I am heading down to Ponyville for the day. I have business to attend to down there.” He would ask what that might be, but he knew better than to pry too deeply into the Captain’s personal matters. “So since I cannot foalsit you and your sister, I am having a very special military advisor look over your work today. She is intelligent, talented, and I have known her for her entire career. You will be in good hooves.” Shining waited, maybe trying to find words or even just process it all. “Go on, get going.” “Of course, thank you, Captain” He nodded, taking a sip from his coffee as he attempted to digest that. Military made sense in a wider ‘national security’ sense, but usually they didn’t get involved with Canterlot affairs. Shining could only shrug and sigh as he made his way into the palace proper. Moving through this once hallowed and regal place had become so commonplace to him. At this point in his career, he didn’t even need to think about where he was going, his hooves just took him there. Eventually, after multiple seemingly endless tiled corridors and several slate gray spiral staircases down, Shining found himself in the same ramshackle laboratory from yesterday. It was on the same level as the old unused dungeons, and looked just about as kept and sanitary. Twily had set up a large table surrounded by candles and stacked high with books and she was currently pouring over them with great interest. Parked just beside the table, leaning against a wall and keeping a close eye on the young lavender mare that was studying, was a very familiar pony to Shining. Her coat was a warm and rich orange, her mane a deep pink. It was Major Parhelia from Baltimare, sans dress uniform or any uniform at all. “Par?” Shining asked out loud, drawing the attention of both of the mares in the room. Twilight acknowledged Shining with a little wave and went back to work, meanwhile Par got a very big grin across her face. “Spook?” Shining nodded in response to the little name that Par seemed to like to call him. “You have got to be kidding me!” The rather lanky mare galloped over to Shining, smacking him on the back and laughing. “The universe has it out for us, doesn’t it? I didn’t think I would see you for another couple of weeks at least.” “You know her?” Twilight asked without raising her head from the book it was currently buried in. “Uh, yeah.” Shining had to compose himself after Par’s assault, straightening his uniform and clearing his throat. “We met at the Summer Sun Celebration out in Baltimare. She helped me after I got a little lost.” He turned back to address Par. “I’ll admit, when Captain Galea said a military advisor who she had been following, I didn’t expect you.” “Nepotism is fun, isn’t it?” Par walked with Shining over to Twilight’s study table and took a seat right beside him. “Mom can be a little hard sometimes, but she gives me nice cushy gigs when she can.” Shining’s mind flatlined at what was just said. None of it added up. ‘Mom’ wasn’t a word that could replace ‘Captain Galea’, they just didn’t equate. “I’m...sorry..?” “My mom, Captain Galea.” Par said, once again sending Shining’s thoughts in a spiral ever downward. “Ahhhhh…” Par’s smile died a little as she finally looked in his eyes. “You didn’t know.” “She...the Captain….Galea…” Shining was trying to find the nicest way to word this so he wouldn’t offend Par or her family, but he was struggling mightily. “I never imagined her as a mother.” Better than the one-hundred other ways he could’ve said it, he supposed. The thought of Galea even being as intimate with somepony else to procreate, it was impossible. “Yeah, I get that a lot.” Par admitted. “You don’t have to worry about offending me, Spook. I know who my mom is and what she’s like.” Oh thank Celestia, that was a load off of his mind. “And I know I don’t seem like I’m even from the same planet as her. Mom shipped me off to a military school as soon as she could, so I didn’t exactly spend a lot of time growing up around her.” Par was way too open with this stuff in his opinion. If he was the foal of Galea, he wasn’t sure he would ever want to tell anypony. “Well...that’s good to know.” Shining looked across to his sister, eager to move away from this topic and onto something a little more pressing. “What’ve we got, Twily?” Twilight looked up, unamused at all of the prattle that came from him and Par it seemed. “Same as yesterday, Shiny. I’m still trying to figure out if there’s any way for a single unicorn to erect and maintain a barrier around the whole of Canterlot to no avail.” Twilight was still upset about last night judging from the tone of her voice. “I mean, I know I can do it. I don’t know how long I can keep the barrier up for, though. That would create the baseline for how much more...brainpower we would need.” “Why don’t you just try?” Par interjected. “There’s no harm in it, and if you pass out your brother and I are here to take care of you. What’s the worst that could happen?” Shining’s heart skipped a beat at that question. A lot could feasibly go wrong, feedback if the spell was cast wrong, energy detonation if the excess energy bleed from the outer shell wasn’t recycled in the correct patterns. That was magic as a whole, though. It was an inconceivable wreck of ‘what could go wrong?’ just waiting to happen. “You know the spell?” Shining asked, knowing he was a fool for asking Twilight Sparkle if she had a spell memorized. Twily nodded simply in response. “You know to maintain the barriers properly?” Again another nod. “Just ask if you have any questions, alright? I’ll be here.” “Can you even do it from down here? Shouldn’t you have a clear view of the city?” Par leaned on the table, maybe just a little enthralled by what was happening. “I know how big Canterlot is from one side to the other. I know I’m offset from the center of the city by about ten-thousand feet. I know I’m going to make the bubble bigger than it has to be to account for any errors in my math.” Par laughed at Twily rattling off of statistics, her eyes locked on the young mare. “So yes, I can do it from here.” “I like you.” Par said, leaning back. “You’ve got a lot of smarts, Twilight. Let’s see what you can do.” All three ponies stood up and moved to the middle of the room, both of the older standing back and away from Twilight as she took a few deep breaths.Twilight’s horn began to charge, her mind weaving the intricate spell together. “She really is something isn’t Shining, snap out of it.” Shining blinked. Par’s words didn’t make any sense at first, then the rest of his senses caught up. This wasn’t the depths of the castle, no. They were in Twilight’s private quarters, and the sun had set who knows how long ago. “Another blackout…” Shining muttered under his breath and sighed, hoping Par didn’t hear that. “Sorry, I kind of blanked there for a bit. What happened?” Twilight was laying on the bed in front of them, out like a light Twilight’s barrier must’ve lasted some hours, but he couldn’t be certain of how many. “Eleven hours, twenty-three minutes and thirty-seven seconds. That’s how long her bubble stayed up until she couldn’t take it anymore.” That was a good little filler, that mixed with context gave Shining a pretty clear picture of the last eleven hours. “Should we leave her be?” “I would stay.” Shining lamented. “But Vinyl is at home and If I’m late again, she’s going to kill me.” He sighed at the thought of losing a whole day to this problem. It was honestly becoming too much at this point. “You go home, then. I’ll stay here tonight with her and her little dragon friend.” Shining had honestly forgotten about Spike the last few days, they had just been a little bit of a whirlwind and he hadn’t even questioned where his little sister’s assistant had been all this time. Of course he had been up here, and of course he was sleeping. “Alright. Thank you, Par. Have a goodnight, alright? Get some sleep, Major.” ---- Cadance had been put up in the Apple family’s barn for the next few days. She had requested privacy throughout the day and had been granted it entirely save for the the delicious meal of some sort of stew with freshly made apple juice. She had made sure to keep her wings and mane hidden all throughout the time she was in contact with the others. If they had seen any of it, they would’ve known who she was in an instant, and who knows how much distrust that would sew. Now she was all alone. The lights in the main house had gone out some time ago and her cloak was thrown to the side. She was truly free at this moment. No castle, no Celestia, no restraints. For the first time in almost a decade she was actually truly free. ‘We doth hope Our gift found thee well.’ “Oh…” Cadance’s blood ran cold at the realization once the words drilled themselves into her head. “You...you did this? How?” If she owed her freedom to Luna, well Cadance had no clue how to feel about that. ‘Come outside, O’ kindred spirit. Come look upon Our ghostly visage and see the chains of Our sister that doth still bind Us.’ Cadance felt...compelled to do it. After all, Luna did help. If this truly was her work. She should at least hear what she had to say, right? It had been 1000 years, and Celestia always said that she was a good pony before Nightmare Moon. What if Nightmare Moon was gone now? What if it was just the good little Luna left? It’s not like it was Discord in her core, it was just the pony that Cadance had hear so many good stories about. She slowly opened the barn doors just enough so she could slip out. She was met with yet another beautiful clear night, the stars twinkling brightly and the moon hanging high above Equestria, it’s nocturnal watcher. ‘Our sister’s taint hath left this land far behind. We know not why, but she hath abandoned this land just as she abandoned thee and Us before.’ Celestia was gone? That would roughly explain how the Mare in the Moon had been able to manipulate and break the spells, distance. And with Nightmare Moon’s return growing ever closer, there was no doubt she was growing stronger and stronger by the day. It was a perfect storm. ‘This antique land cannot be without a ruler, doth thou agree?’ “I...I am not ready, Luna.” Cadance had to be honest with the ruler high above. She was not ready for the responsibility of running Equestria, not now. But with Celestia gone, what choice did Equestria have? ‘Kindred spirit Cadenza, look away from thineself. With assistance, We can come back sooner than expected. We can lift the crown that weighs heavy upon the soul in this now abandoned land. Work with Us, Cadenza, restore Equestria.’ “How would I even do that?” Cadance’s heart and her deepest judgement were fighting against one another. Equestria was so close to her heart, to her soul. It did need a ruler, she knew that deep down. If Celestia had truly abandoned it like the Mare in the Moon said, then what was she to do? Equestria needed a princess like a pony needed air. ‘The gift of Princesshood does not befit thee like Us or Our sister. Open thine heart to Us, let thy gift flow freely to Us and grant us the power so misused by thee. Become one with the common folk once more and leave the ruling to Us.’ Give up her status as alicorn? It had been her destiny, it had been what she was told she was born for. She had been groomed to live this life since she was so young. How could she give it up? Then again, where had it gotten her? Locked in decaying ruins for seven years. It had done nothing but alienate her from her parents, from her lover, from society as a whole. She had been driven to some insane degree perfection that she could never live up to, that she could never ever truly maintain. She had snapped because of it. Could she do it? “Okay…”