//------------------------------//
// Chapter 2 
// Story: Knight Terrors 
// by Purple Patch 
//------------------------------//

“Once upon a time, in the magical land of Equestria, there were two regal sisters who ruled together and created harmony for all the land. To do this, the eldest used her unicorn powers to raise the sun at dawn; the younger brought out the moon to begin the night. Thus, the two sisters maintained balance for their kingdom and their subjects, all the different types of ponies. But as time went on, the younger sister became resentful. The ponies relished and played in the day her elder sister brought forth, but shunned and slept through her beautiful night. One fateful day, the younger unicorn refused to lower the moon to make way for the dawn. The elder sister tried to reason with her, but the bitterness in the young one's heart had transformed her into a wicked mare of darkness; Nightmare Moon.”
The stallion reading the book aloud did so in a voice steadily growing more and more enraged.
“She vowed that she would shroud the land in eternal night. Reluctantly, the elder sister harnessed the most powerful magic known to ponydom; The Elements of Harmony. Using the magic of the Elements of Harmony, she defeated her younger sister, and banished her permanently in the moon. The elder sister took on responsibility for both sun and moon and harmony has been maintained in Equestria for generations since...”
The reader’s hoof holding the book shook and with an eerie, shadowy screech, a dark-indigo shape emerged around his hoof, forming five sword-sized claws that crushed the book, turning it into a cloud of minuscule, burnt scraps of parchment scattering across the interior of the lightless town hall.
Shadow magic. Trademark of powerful batponies.
The reader then slowly turned to the young stallion he had inches from the tip of his sword.
“How many times have you heard that story now?”
“Well...it’s hard to know for sure...and to be frank, this current situation is not such so as to one can properly estimate...”
The side of the batpony’s lip curled in dark amusement.
“But you know it’s not true.”
“Well...not the full story, of course.”
“So knowing that...Knowing, indeed, what you know, Mr Patch, as a historian...Would you say, therefore, that the good folk of Equestria were blissfully ignorant...or just ignorant?!”
The snarl ripped through the air, setting Purple Patch’s scruffy mane on end.
Purple Patch had, at no point in his life, claimed to be a courageous stallion.
Though few would claim to be with a blade at their neck.
Especially with a wielder such as the stallion before him.
“H-h-hard to say, sir...” he managed to mumble.
“That is disappointing. From what I’ve seen from you, Mr Patch, ‘saying’ is one of your greatest skills. And I require you to employ it tonight.”
“...r-r-righto...”
The batpony gave him a steely look.
“You will head with all haste to Twilight Sparkle’s homestead. You will tell her who we are, why we are here and what really transpired a thousand years ago between the two regal sisters.”
“Uh...I’m terribly sorry, sir, but...I don’t have permission from the necessary authorities.”
The batpony rose one eyebrow.
“You are being given permission this very moment.”
“N-n-no, no, I mean, it’s simply not possible...sir...sad to say...truly...The Grand Academy, they’d take away my cloak.”
The batpony gave a quiet snarl and moved the blade a fraction closer meaningfully.
“Mr Patch...If you do not do as I have requested...the item I remove will mean infinitely more to you than your cloak.”
“...true...”
“So am I clear, Mr Patch?”
“...As the Crystal Empire...Which is, as far as I know, very clear. I’ve never been there myself but-”
“I have. I’ve seen horrible things happen there...”
“...I’m sorry to hear that...sir.”


The batpony gave a sigh.
“Pay attention.” he said sternly “Once you have told Twilight the full story, so to speak, you will tell her to send a message to Celestia. Are you listening?”
“I can do little else, sir.” Patch’s eyes remained fixed on the sword edge.
“Celestia has till the stroke of midday to reveal the true details of her sister’s banishment, take responsibility for all that took place and formally abdicate the throne in favour of her younger sister, surrendering to our judgement for her charges of high treason. Have you got that clear?”
“Well...”
“As the Crystal Empire?”
“P-p-purely hypothetically...what if Celestia chooses...prefers, even...perhaps on the advice of her counsellors...to decline?”
The batpony’s chest lifted and fell with a weighty sigh.
“You may tell her that if she refuses...We will kill everypony in Ponyville.”
Purple Patch paused a moment.
“You have not misheard.” The batpony said flatly “We will not discriminate. Species, gender, age or position...none shall be spared. If she refuses further, we’ll find another town and do the same. We will take it as far as Canterlot if that’s what it takes for her agree.”
“But...why?”
The batpony bared his fangs and hissed.
“She knows why!”
A moment passed. Purple Patch could feel the tip of cold steel brushing under his chin. Sweat and tears beaded down his cheeks but he said nothing nor moved a muscle.
The sword lowered slightly.
“Deliver the message, Mr Patch. She has until dawn to reply and midday to prepare.”
The massive blade sheathed itself behind its wielder’s back.
“Nighty-night.”


*


The ground rushed up to meet her as Dinky Doo fell on her side.
A sudden golden flash had erupted from between Dinky Doo and the spear-wielder. The green unicorn stumbled back, shielding his scarred face with one forehoof and crying out in anguish, cursing in his odd language.
“Hraaagh! Die flamme! Verdammte, unreine flamme!”
“Girls! Come on!”
Dinky felt Applebloom grab her by the tail as Scootaloo kicked loose a few arrows.
The barrier had subsided and the foals were wasting no time in escaping it.
The four little fillies ran as if they knew no other course of action. The wet grass turned slippery under their hoof, making them feel almost as if they were simply sliding at high-speed through the dark.
The dim lights of Ponyville still in the midst of settling down guided them forward.
Dinky made a mental note to thank whomever sent her adopted sister, Sparkler the light-tender and lantern-maker, to Ponyville.
"Du kannst nicht fliehen!" the strange unicorn’s voice pierced the storm, close to screaming. Bright green lights appeared in the sky, steadily growing brighter.
“Oh shuuuuuuucks!” Applebloom screamed the strongest curse she knew at her age as roaring balls of green flame crashed into the ground, missing them by mere paces.
Sweetie Belle screeched as emerald embers sprayed in front of her face. Over the din, Scootaloo’s frantic yell could just be made out.
“What is this guy’s problem?!”
On and on they fled. The sounds of the green unicorn’s furious hollering growing fainter.
‘He’s angry.’ Puzzled thoughts swam around Dinky’s mind despite the madness outside ‘Why is he so angry? And the mare...Her voice...Was that-’
“Kids!”
A tomboyish voice above shook them out of their fright.
Scootaloo’s violet eyes widened with hope as her ever-impressive role model appeared in the sky.
“Rainbow Dash!”
“Sweet Celestia’s Sunny Flanks, am I glad to see you!” the Bearer of Loyalty hovered over them “Hurry! We’re in the library!” She glanced back “Better pick up the pace, I don’t think that creep’s gonna’ give up too soon and his friend’s even worse!”
“AAAAAAAAAARRRRROOOOOOOOOO!!!”
“I heard ya the first time!” Rainbow Dash yelled back as the dim outline of the howling pegasus mare appeared in the oncoming storm clouds.
Without a doubt, the Cutie Mark Crusaders had never run quite so fast in their lives, not even when they were trying for Cutie Mark Super-Fast 100-Metre Gallopers.
They felt glad to have the wind at their backs.
The howl came again. Closer.


Rainbow Dash felt her heart chill as she realised it wasn’t the wind at their backs.
As the light from Ponyville reached the ground beneath their hooves, Rainbow realised there were two shadows of pegasi above.
With a snarl, not unlike thunder, the strange mare descended.
As she drew close, Rainbow Dash threw her hoof back to catch her pursuer off guard.
Her eye caught the glint of metal in the moonlight.
The next instant, Rainbow Dash threw her head back and screamed in pain as something thin and sharp stuck into her shoulder and wouldn’t leave. Shaking frantically, her hooves reached the ground as she half-ran, half-skid forward.
“Dash!” Scootaloo’s terrified shriek cut through the storm, the little pegasus staring back in horror as her hero’s face twisted in pain.
“I’m fine! Don’t worry ‘bout me! Keep running! We’re almost there!”
The fences that marked Carrot Top’s garden spelt safety.
Rainbow Dash let out a growly sigh of relief as they entered Ponyville and half-landed, half-crashed to the ground.
There was a thump as the dark pegasus landed on all four hooves behind them, growling and hissing.
The unicorn stallion followed but stopped as the mare threw out her forehoof, blocking his way.
She sniffed the air. Her eyes widened.
Out the corner of her eye as they approached the Golden Oak Library, Dinky saw something in the mare’s face that looked almost like fear.
And just as quickly as they’d emerged, the two vanished into the darkness.
And as they found themselves on the porch of Golden Oak Library and found the door unlocked, they felt fatigue take each of them as the wooden floor somehow felt surprisingly comfortable.


*


At the sound of the door slamming and locks rattling, Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie spun round and bustled towards the door where an exhausted, sopping-wet Rainbow Dash stood over four unconscious foals, blood running down her wing from the knife embedded in her shoulder.
“Girls...” the Bearer of Loyalty said hoarsely “We got a problem.”
“Oh my goodness! Dashie!” Fluttershy flew to her best friend’s side, her green eyes wide with worry “Don’t worry, Dashie. Don’t move. I’ll get this out and make sure it doesn’t hurt too much.”
Rainbow Dash shook her head with groggy reassurance.
“Don’t worry about me. Are the kids okay?”
“Sweetie!” Catching sight of her little sister bedraggled, wide-eyed and delirious, Rarity forgot her anger at the filly’s impunctuality, rushing over and sweeping her up in her hooves and planting her with hugs and kisses.
“Dear Celestia in Paradise, Sweetie Belle! Speak to me! I take back everything I said! I’d never think you were staying out late to spite me! I’ll go with you next time, I promise, just please wake up!”
“Sis...I can hear you, you don’t have to overreact.”
“I’M NOT OVERREACTING! TWILIGHT! MY LITTLE SISTER’S LIFE HANGS IN THE BALANCE!”
“Rarity.” Twilight interjected “Calm down. Let’s get everything together. Fluttershy, you deal with Rainbow and Scootaloo. The rest of us take care of the foals.”
Fluttershy gave a nod and ferried her friend into the bathroom. The rest of the mares tended to the foals.
“Bloom! What in Celestia’s name ‘done happened to ya’?” Applejack was at her sister’s side in moments “Ya look like ya’ seen a...well...worse than a ghost!”
“Ah-ah-ah’m okay. I just think ya’ll gotta’ help Dinky and Rainbow Dash first. Ah’m alright, honest.” Applebloom was breathing heavily, shaking her head of the rain.
Pinkie Pie shook her head as she helped Twilight gently pick up the collapsed Dinky Doo, giving off stunned exclamations.
“Holy Roll-Me-Up-In-A-Guacamole-Poly, Twi! What’s happening? Luna finally found some friends around here and everypony had a super-duper Nightmare Night. So why’s Ponyville’s suddenly gone cuckoo-ka-choo!”
“I-I don’t know.” Twilight stammered “Right now, I just want to make sure nopony’s hurt then get some answers.”
“You okay now, Scoots?” Rainbow Dash passed her protégé’s wing “You’re okay, right? You’re a tough filly, aincha’.”
“Um...uh-huh...” Scootaloo mumbled hugging Rainbow Dash tight.
Between them, Twilight Sparkle and Pinkie Pie carried the semi-conscious Dinky Doo upstairs to a bed. The moment Dinky’s head rested upon the pillow, Twilight Sparkle straightened up and gave a call to all present in the house.
“Alright, mares and fillies, let’s reign in the sanity here! What is going on?!”


“Somepony’s chasin’ us.” Applebloom was the first to gather her senses and tottered up to Twilight, hopping with anxiety.
“Who? I told you before, Nightmare Moon isn’t a problem anymore.”
“It wasn’t her! This was a stallion!”
“And a mare!”
Twilight blinked.
“Okay...Can you describe them?”
“Green unicorn...Uh...Bright blue eyes, like big blue lightbulbs in his head!” Sweetie was mumbling “Blue pegasus, dark-blue, long white mane, feathers and beads and weird spooky bracelets, the kind of hair that’d give Rarity a heart-attack!”
Rarity rolled her eyes.
“I dunno’. I dunno’ what’s out there but they’re nuts!” Scootaloo gasped “One kept on speaking these weird words, the other one didn’t speak at all! They’re definitely not from here!”
“Ah think Dinky might know.” Applebloom pointed out “She said she could understand them...or something anyway.”
“Well, we’d better wake her up soon then.” Twilight shook her head “This doesn’t make any sense. If it’s not Nightmare Moon out there, who else could be causing this ruckus?”
“Ah can make one a’ Zecora’s pick-me-ups.” Applebloom piped up, the first to recover from the shock of the events.
Twilight nodded and took a moment to check on Rainbow Dash “Ah just need me some nettles, elderflowers, brown sugar and some boilin’ water.”
Fluttershy had managed to sew the wound and was cleaning the bloody shoulder. The tomcoltish pegasus was wincing now and again but doing her best not to show pain.
“Twi...What’s out there?” She panted “That pegasus. She’s like nothing I’ve ever seen before!”
“How exactly?” Twilight answered, exasperation in her tone “I’m just as confused as you are, Dash. What was this mare like?”
“Well...she wasn’t faster than me but...it’s like she didn’t need to be. She was pulling the storm along like a freakin’ kite! And the way she flew, the way she moved at all, it was like she’d been hunting all her life. It was like...it was like some kinda’ flying monster in a pony body. Look at this!”
She drew her wing up and showed her the slightly mangled edge of her wing membrane.
“Her teeth were like daggers! I swear!” she squawked.
“Um...Twilight. I got the knife out. Do you know if it means anything?” Fluttershy pointed tentatively to the knife she’d removed, resting on the table, half-submerged in a basin.
The Bearer of the Magic of Friendship lit up her horn and the knife glided slowly and carefully through the air, hovering before Twilight Sparkle’s face.
“Strange...” she mused “The knife is of cervine craft. I recognise the runes. But there’s no way the deer would grant their weapons to ponies. How did it come into her possession?”
“Y’know, Twi, I’m a lot more interesting in how it came into my freakin’ shoulder!” The technicolour tomboy snapped before her face twisted in pain “Ow! Flutters?! Are you trying to make it worse?!”
“Don’t fuss so much, Dashie. I need to make sure this wound doesn’t get infected.” Fluttershy said with all the calmness and professionalism of the best nurses as she dabbed at the wound with salve-soaked cotton swabs.
“Okay...Spike?”
“Right here.” The voice of a small dragon sounded underneath a walking pile of towels topped with a full basin and Applebloom’s herbal ingredients.
“I need you to write a letter to both princesses and send them off, soon as possible, if not sooner. State of emergency. Armed ponies in town, threatening folk for reasons unknown.”
“Okay, Twilight. Gimme’ a minute.”
Twilight nodded and helped him dispense the necessaries. As she placed one hoof in front between Spike and Sweetie Belle to stop them colliding, there came a wooden tapping against the door.
Twilight sighed audibly, already under more stress than was convenient for her, especially at this time of night even after what had transpired before.
Cantering to the door, she stopped, remembering there was a very possible threat to them and all others in Ponyville.
She held up a hoof for silence.
All eyes turned to the door, hearts thumping against the insides of their chests.
The knock on the door sounded again, quicker, more desperate.
Twilight managed to ask.
“Name?”
“The Doctor.” A stallion’s voice came from behind the door “Just the Doctor. Please let me in!”


Breathing a sigh of relief, Twilight threw open the door. A scruffy brown stallion in a nutmeg coat and a stripy scarf shuffled in. Carried over his shoulder was another stallion, his head lolled dully over his shoulder.
This stallion was very different. While he had a similarly scruffy mane, it was fuller, thicker and consisting of bright locks of violet and white. His coat was patterned with thick patches of purple and white. A pair of spectacles hung lopsided over his muzzle in front of a freckled face that was paler and sweatier than normal. His amethyst eye were sunken and blank, in the grips of some fit of terror as he muttered nonsense.
“It’s them again! Them great big hairy things with big feet! I knew you couldn’t trust the blighters!”
“Dr Whooves?” Scootaloo exclaimed, noticing him as Dinky’s father she’d seen pick up their daughter from school once or twice “What’s wrong?”
“Who’s that slung over yer’ shoulder?” Applejack asked with concern “He don’t look too grand.”
“I was on my way here and found him in the rain, stumbling about like a loon.” the Doctor explained “You’ll want to get some tea into him fast before he blinks out completely.”
“Sorry. One thing at a time.” Twilight shook her head “Doctor. Your daughter’s upstairs. She’s fainted but she hasn’t any injuries I can see. You should stay with her.”
The Doctor didn’t need telling twice. He placed his companion down on a chair and cantered upstairs.
Twilight continued relaying orders.
“Rarity, your sister’s fine, I promise. Can you check on the newcomer?”
“Oh very well.” The glamorous unicorn trotted over and checked over the bizarre purple stallion.
“Are you quite alright, sir?”
The young stallion started, drew himself up and spoke in a bombastic falsetto.
“I beg your pardon, miscreant? I will have you know that I am to be addressed as the Duchess of Odds-Bodkins!”
“I’ll take that as a ‘no’, shall I?” Rarity muttered aside, ignoring her little sister’s giggling at the spectacle.
“Okay, stay calm everypony, AJ, watch the door. Pinkie, pass around the things. Spike, letter, quickly. Rarity, you watch the fillies, I’ll take over here”
Twilight gave the bedraggled creature a look over and suddenly stepped back, eyes wide and mouth open.
“Holy Horn of Star-Swirl! It’s Purple Patch?”
“Who now?” Applejack asked.
“My old history teacher and librarian at Princess Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns.”
“Uh...huh...An’ the reason he’s here, lookin’ like he done got dragged through a soggy hedge?”
“Sproggs. Sproggs. They come at night. Bouncy balls of bad-breath.” Purple Patch whined incomprehensibly.
“Well, we’ll have to bring him to his senses somehow. We can’t just leave him here in a state like this.”
“Get some tea down him, Twilight.” the Doctor hollered from upstairs.
In a quite literal second, a cup of piping hot tea materialised before Twilight Sparkle and Purple Patch, held aloft by a grinning pink pony sporting a bowler hat, monocle and fake moustache.
“Good show, old bean!” Pinkie Pie sounded, speaking to an edamame bean atop her muzzle "Actually, no, it would be 'bean' if it was coffee, wouldn't it...Old 'leaf', I guess."
Twilight blinked, shook her head and paid it little heed as she offered Patch the beverage.
The librarian gulped it down eagerly, jolted, puffed out his cheeks, rolled his eyes and straightened up.
Blinking several times and clearing his throat, Purple Patch came to his senses and looked around.
“Ah. Good...Made it.” He brightened up “Twilight! Hello! How long has it been?”
Twilight scratched the back of her mane bashfully.
“Sorry, Patch, but reunion’s gonna’ have to wait.”
Before she could continue, there came a sudden bout of choking and spluttering as Spike, having written the letter and flamed it away, suddenly regurgitated it quite messily on the floor. The little drake doubled up, eyes bulging and brow sweating as clumps of soggy parchment and jet-black bile which those around quickly realised was ink shot out of his open mouth as he gagged and heaved, falling to his knees in no small amount of discomfort.
“Spike! My gosh, are you okay?” Twilight exclaimed, rushing to his side, joined by another.
Rarity scooped up the little dragon close to her heart and gushed over him.
“Spikey-Wikey! You poor little drakelet, are you alright?! Speak to me, my little smoky-puff!”
Spike, unable to enjoy Rarity’s affections for the moment, hocked up one last scrap of wet blue-black parchment that smacked into the side of the mare’s muzzle. With a cry of alarm and appal, Rarity frantically brushed it away.
“S-sorry! I’m really sorry, Rarity!” the little dragon managed to groan.
The unicorn blinked and gave a shudder but managed to compose herself.
“I-i-it’s alright, Spike. It’s not your fault. Here.” She passed him a glass of water while Sweetie Belle passed her a towel.
Twilight patted her young assistant on the shoulder gently as his throat was cleared.
“Okay...That has never happened before.”
“Urgh...Oh, that was awful!” Spike croaked, staring at the black puddle on the floor “It was like choking up a shower drain...Sorry about the mess everypony.”
“We’ll get it.” Scootaloo said as she and Sweetie Belle brought forth a mop and basin.
Twilight clutched her aching temples as she gave another command.
“Okay...Nopony do anything for now. We need to know just what the hay is going on here before we make any more moves that could get us hurt.”
She spun round and clutched her young history teacher by the shoulders and shook him slightly, her face a picture of anxiety.
“Patch, I am giving you free reign to talk as much as you want, no backsies. Just for the love of Celestia, tell us what the hay is happening!”
Patch gave her a look.
“Free reign? When this is already going to be a long story even in summary?”
“If it helps, yes!” Twilight exclaimed “We’re all ears.”
The patch-coated librarian sucked his teeth and sighed.
“Well, alright, but don’t say I didn’t warn you. Here’s where it gets...complicated.”


*


The house was cold. Terribly cold.
Why Dinky was resting upon the icy floor, she couldn’t fathom.
Raising her near-frozen cheek off the floor, she gazed around.
Twilight’s library was gone. She was standing in a dark marble corridor stretching on for what seemed like miles, bathed the whole way in moonlight.
She turned to its source.
Before her was a balcony facing the full moon Standing in the centre of it, right before the railing was a stall pointed dark-grey pedestal from which hung a great midnight-blue curtain with a pale gold crescent moon embroidered into the centre surrounded by and five silver stars.
Turning, despite fearing what she might find, Dinky jumped at a growing shadow at the end of the corridor and the clacking of hooves upon the tiles.
She nearly curled up in fear, hiding her muzzle in her forehooves.
Then she realised the shadow was getting smaller and smaller until it was right before her, curling round the shape of a galloping filly.
An alicorn filly.
Darkest-blue of coat and cornflower blue of mane trailing in locks behind a small silver tiara, a patch of night sky with a moon and stars as a cutie mark.
Dinky Doo blinked as the dark filly rushed past her, a giddy smile on her face, glee in those big bright navy eyes of hers.
The little unicorn took a moment to fathom the fact that she was looking at Princess Luna.
Barely as old as she was now.
The pedestal turned.
Dinky blinked again as she realised it wasn’t a pedestal at all but a pony.
An earth stallion with the darkest grey coat she’d ever seen, so much so that he’d passed for solid stone in his motionless, watchful state. His mane had barely been noticeable in the darkness, coal-black and thick, sloping over his head and down his neck gracefully but plainly. The curtain she saw was in fact a cloak, trailing behind his shoulders, held aloft by great spiked jet-black pauldrons. His chest was covered by a black steel plate and his hooves were calked with obsidian.
It was like looking at a pony out of a black-and-white film, quite literally. Dinky had never seen such a dull-coloured creature among Equestrians before in her life, young as she was.
Yet there was a luminosity in the slightly sunken eyes set in a rugged, rocky face pitted with scars. A safety in the night’s gloom that radiated like a crystal lamp.
At the sight of him, the dark filly rushed forth and the silence of the corridor was broken by her laughter.
A smile spread across the face of the grey stallion as he knelt down with his forehooves outstretched.
The little alicorn’s wings gave a short, fowl-like flap as she bounced into the stallion’s hooves. Both of them laughing, they hugged before the fullest expanse of the moon.
Dinky stared in awe, thoughts of confusion pushed aside, transfixed by the spectacle.
Was this stallion Luna’s father?
No. It couldn’t be.


Still hugging the stallion, Luna seemed to grow. Her legs, shoulders and ribs stretched, as if unfolding like rolled up silk. The feathers in her wings grew and reproduced, smaller feathers sprouting out of the larger ones.
The armoured stallion dissipated into a mist as black as ink.
Around Dinky, the corridors split into segments, great pillars of stone branching off between each other.
Then it dawned on her they weren’t pillars at all but trees. Grass, ferns, flowers and shrubs sprouted out of the floor which itself turned soft, uneven and damp.
Before she knew it, she was standing in a forest.
Luna, about the same age as her older adopted-sister, Sparkler, was sitting in a clearing alone, quietly crying. Her wings were wrapped round her sides, hiding her from view.
Dinky stared. Taking gentle, tentative steps, she made to check on her, unable to tell how silly she felt casually walking over to the princess to see if she was alright.
One of the ferns behind her rustled. With a slight squeak of fear, she ducked, trying to hide her horn under the foliage.
Four slender paws crossed the ground before her muzzle one after the other.
A wolf was slinking by, rounding on the Princess. A sleek, pale-grey mother with a buffy flush across her back. Another appeared on the other side, a sooty male with an arching back, bristly muzzle and narrow eyes. Beside that was a piebald male of smaller build. Another appeared between them, older and greyer than the others. Beside that one was a red furred, black-backed female powerhouse. Then an albino, thin-furred and skinny.
The mother growled. Luna looked up and gasped at the pack before her. Scrambling onto her hind legs, she gaped at the predators before her.
The red one crouched while Luna had her back to her, raising her hinds in the air in preparation to pounce.
Then leaves fell before them as there came a louder, clearer growling that sounded considerably un-wolfish.
Dinky tottered back, belly on the ground, as a familiar face broke through the canopy and landed before the pack, teeth bared and eyes full of fury.
It was the pegasus that had chased her. The same dark-blue coat, shaggy white mane, tribal trinkets and pointed canine teeth were unmistakable. But she was younger, the same age as Luna, as Sparkler
At the sight of her furious glare, the great red she-wolf, at least twice her size, backed off almost immediately. The wolves around did the same, beholding the spectacle with intrigue, just like Dinky.
The pegasus turned to the meek young Princess of the moon who was staring up at her saviour with wide eyes. The pegasus, though small in build and light in bone, seemed to dwarf her somehow.
Maybe it was just the shaggy fur and mane. Or maybe it was her posture, keeping her shoulders up and her neck down.
Then she did something, something neither Dinky nor her friends had seen her do.
She spoke.
Her voice was low but sonorous, given something of a slightly rustic drawl.
“S’alright now. I got my point across.”
Luna blinked.
“You...can talk?”
“You can listen.” The pegasus grinned, her canine teeth glinting. Even the way she sat down was lupine “Don’t let ‘em agitate you. They’ve got cubs to protect. They’re all a bit skittish nowadays.”
“You mean you...” Luna glanced at the pack “You can...talk to them?”
“Sure...Can’t you?” The pegasus tilted her head, pointing them out one by one "The mama wolf here's Nul'n-Mahs. Her husband, Gahs'la Greypine, and eldest son Riih'Mur. Beside them are their pack-sister, Kahsi-Farh the Red, and her son, little Yuh'Pek."
"You...named them?"
The wolf-speaker scoffed.
"No. They named each other. Ain't that what ponies do?" She tilted her head.
Luna did the same, perhaps out of confusion, causing the young pegasus to snigger.
“You’re funny.” she chuckled “What are you doing down here in the forest for? They said you were crying?”
“Who?”
“The wolves.”
“Oh...er...well...” Luna rubbed at her eyes “Sorry, I-”
“Don’t apologise.” the pegasus said, the closest she’d come to gentle that Dinky had heard “What was wrong?”
“Um...it’s complicated...” the princess murmured “Me and...my sister...we came round, we were sent round, to...to make some friends...”
“Right.” The pegasus nodded “And?”
Luna blinked away tears and slowly bowed her head.
“I...didn’t...”
“Ah.” the pegasus nodded understandingly “Well...don’t worry.”
Luna gave a sniffle.
“Why not?”
And she was met with the shaggy blue pegasus wrapping her forehooves around her shoulders and a calm, tender whisper.
“Cause you’ve made one now. I’m White Wolf, yours whenever you need me.”


Dinky gazed, equal parts heartened and puzzled at the mare who had, in her experience, been a feral beast bent on brutality.
A gust of wind shot forth from the canopy, blowing away the leaves.
Then the grass.
Then the trees.
Dinky huddled against the ground, buffeted by the storm, nearly blown away.
When she raised her head, the air was warm and heady. The ground below her hooves had turned dry, cracked, burnt.
It wasn’t the weather though. Storm-clouds were gathering above them, nearly blotting out the falling sun and the emerging moon.
She was standing on a battlefield. Blood soaked the fields. In the distance, she saw ponies in armour carrying their wounded comrades over their shoulders or simply upon stretchers.
Or worse, carts.
Tiny flames were still flickering upon the brown and grey grass, dry as quills.
Luna had stood up, taller and thinner, looking more like the Luna they’d seen earlier this night.
She was walking over the scorched fields, approaching a figure.
A unicorn in a dusky cloak with a quiver slung over his shoulders.
He turned his head to the Princess. Dinky’s eyes widened as the green-coated face with the long, wispy blonde mane gazed up at Luna with an unfamiliar gentleness.
“Your highness...” he spoke. His voice was low but soft and possessed of an odd accent, though his words were clear, spoke in Equestrian.
“I apologise for what you’ve seen, your highness.” he said gravely “War is never easy on the eyes, even for one who’s seen it many times before.”
“I am glad to see its end.” Luna said, her voice solemn and distant “Will your prince survive his wounds?”
“I am certain.” the unicorn answered “It’s just that...” He shook his head “It just gets to you...All of this. All I wanted was to end the Gildenpakt’s tyranny. I never expected it to get so...bloody.”
“Wasn’t like the stories?” Luna replied flatly.
“Nein.” he spoke in his native tongue, slowly getting to his hooves “My kind make much song and tales of it but I know better than most...War is the most unromantic thing known to ponykind.”
There was no doubt about it, this was the stallion who had chased them.
But gone was the blank-eyed stupor and the zombie-like gait. Gone was the erratic temper and the hellish fury. Gone were the hideous scars and the eerie blue eyes. His eyes now were a leafy green, light and naïve but darker in the shade, as if just slightly burnt by the flames of war.
“I hear things are...different in your land.”
“Not...that different. But nowadays, yes.”
“Is it true then? You alicorns really do ‘fight evil’. It’s not just bickering over land and gold and wives. It’s...it’s something meaningful?”
“It’s not as easy as it sounds.”
“I don’t want it to be easy. I want it to mean something!” the unicorn said intently “I...I don’t know what’s happened to Stirrope but it’s not what I was fighting for. Already, Traxony and Furingia’s nobility are at each other’s throats, the Pardans want to lay claim to our Herdeatic League, there’s even talk that the Baron of Fleiburg is raising troops to eradicate the deer of the Grey Forests. It’s like another war begins as soon as the other ends. After all this time, after all this blood...peace is nowhere near in sight.”
He looked out at the war-torn landscape.
“Tirek’s invasion has brought a sickness upon Stirrope. From Trotland to Hippomorphia, all the ponies can think of is war and unpaid grudges and the ‘glory of battle’ but this...This is all it brings.” He waved his forehoof out upon the scorched earth “I don’t want to be a part of that! When me and Conrad stopped hiding in the forest, I thought ‘This is where it all counts for something. I’ll be a knight now. A pony who protects other ponies from war and danger and all the stuff you hear about in the tales.' But as a knight, among knights, I’ve done nothing more than send ponies into those same horrors. And seen so few come out alive.”
He turned back to Luna.
“And then I hear of Equestria. And its wise and powerful princesses keeping those below them from harm. And I think...‘That’s where the stories come true’.”
“It’s not easy.”
“I would be disappointed if it was.”
“It will mean leaving all you have here.”
“There isn’t much left of that after all of this and...I’ll do it if I finally have something worth fighting for.”
The stallion knelt, drawing his spear and placing it upright in the ground before his bowed head as he spoke.
“Princess Luna of Equestria’s Moon. I, Fletcher Fray of the noble House of von Armbrust pledge to you my bow and spear, my hoof and horn, my words and deeds. I, Fletcher Fray, pledge to you my life.”
Dinky stared at the spectacle and all at once, the flames around her were snuffed out by a cooling wind.
The clouds went pink then ochre then gold as the figure of the kneeling knight and noble princess were silhouetted atop the hill.
Princess Luna smiled serenely and drew a sword, a mighty silver blade with ornate inlays and a gleaming ink-black edge.
She rested it atop the shoulders of Fletcher Fray left then right.
Then sheathed it and spoke.
“Rise, Knight of Luna.”


Then the black mist fell.
Dinky felt herself blown away, caught up in the sudden gale, pulled through the air as all four of her little hooves reached out and kicked at nothing. She opened her mouth to scream but whether it never escaped her mouth or it simply couldn’t be heard over the screaming of the wind itself.
She felt her heart pounding as she was taken up, higher and higher and higher, into the sky, into the stars.
The ground below was turning too.
Bricks, then walls, then towers rose out of the darkness. Damaged, broken, holes in the walls and the tops of towers torn out of their workings by some staggering power. Yet still they rose.
It was if the city below was trailing her, following her upwards, trying to catch her.
Then it stopped suddenly.
Dinky felt herself stuck in mid-air, frozen in place, watching the scene below.
White Wolf, Fletcher Fray and another figure were atop the balcony in that tall, dark castle, staring upwards at the night sky in the wake of the carnage.
This figure had the same coat as the grey earth pony who had laughed and played with young Luna. But something had happened to him.
His mane had whitened, his face had hardened. Wings very much unlike a pegasus were arching out his shoulder blades.
And his eyes lacked all colour.
Yet in them was pain. So much pain. And loss.
The three ponies were staring at the sky, faces torn with absolute dismay.
White Wolf was crouching, emitting short, strangulated howls of grief like a dog who’d lost its beloved master.
Fletcher Fray was on his knees stamping a hoof calked in black metal upon the balcony tiles, tears running down his muzzle.
The figure in the middle though, looked the worst. His rugged face was twitching, one forehoof raised in front of him as if reaching out for what had just shattered in front of him.
He spoke quietly, brokenly, like a father calling out for a child taken from them.
“Luna...” he murmured “...Luna...”
With a robotic, fitful steps, he staggered to the balcony, gripped the walls with both forehooves and bowed his head as low as he could, a low, throttled wail escaping from the bottom of his throat, his entire body shaking with grief.
Then it stopped.
A hissing came from the back of his mouth. Razor sharp teeth clenched against each other. His lip bled. His eyes twitched.
He whispered something. Even as a whisper, Dinky could hear it from high above, running down her spine, every word dripping with umbrage. Dinky felt the air grow cold as every word from the creature’s mouth billowed up like a cone of icy wind.
“Your sister, Celestia...” the grey pony rasped “Your...only...sister...”
The hissing and growling from the furious stallion pulsed and pounded like a thunderstorm.
Dinky stared at the wings on the beast spread, bat-like, monstrous, coursing with shadow and colourless mist as pure, unadulterated fury emanated from the core of the batpony before her.
Until at last, the stallion threw back his head and gave a scream that slashed the very sky.
Dinky flew back, blown away by the final, coldest, harshest, angriest storm below her.
Then light hit her eyes.


She was resting on a bed in a house with walls that looked carved from a tree.
Or rather, into a tree.
Her father was beside her, the scruffy-maned, earthly-coloured time-traveller, looking at her with eyes of half-composed concern.
“Dinky.” he said gratefully “You gave us quite a fright.”
“The ponies...the ponies out there...in the night.” she murmured, eyes wide, face damp with night-sweat.
“Yes?” The Doctor asked, feeling fairly sure he knew the answer.
“I know who they are.”


*


“You mean to tell me...That the story of the Two Sisters...how Luna went mad and became Nightmare Moon...and Celestia kept the peace...is a lie?”
Twilight’s face looked as if something inside her had cracked in two. Her friends were beside her yet none knew the full measure of just what this meant for her.
This was her own little world before she came to Ponyville, all she’d taken to heart, all she’d relied on when fighting Nightmare Moon the first time round.
In front of her, Purple Patch gave an awkward look.
“Well...not exactly. But it’s not the whole truth. Not by a long measure.”
“But why’ve we’ve been led to believe it then?” Applejack asked with a slightly begrudging tone.
“To stop the past repeating itself.” the librarian shook his head “If Equestria knew what mistakes were made and how much they cost the land that came before them, it would start all over again. Nopony would feel safe in Celestia’s hooves. Nopony would trust her.”
“What...what did she do?” Twilight was close to stammering, so afraid of the answer.
“It’s more what she didn’t do.” Patch sighed and fidgeted with his hooves in dismal gestures “What we are led to believe was that nopony loved Luna or her night and that’s what made her jealous. But that’s really not how royalty works.”
“So...she had ponies who loved her.”
Patch raised his head and spoke almost grievingly.
“More than anypony can contemplate.” He brushed his mane and explained.
“She was the younger of the two sisters. As the heir, she had support as all heirs do no matter their disposition. It wasn’t about night or day, not in the capital. There it was all intrigue and power games and the misadventures of those willing to go to any ends to rule through either one of the princesses. Celestia and Luna were powerful, exceptionally powerful but they were also young, naïve, Laurelore, Star-Swirl, Gusty and Mimic were gone and even in the period of peace and prosperity, danger was never far away. The long period of non-event heralded the end of the Second Age of Magic, an oncoming storm. As the great Chineighse warlord, chancellor and mastermind, Chao Dao, once said ‘An empire long united must divide. An empire long divided must unite.’”
“Does anypony wanna’ tell me what the hay this guy’s getting at?” Rainbow Dash shook her technicolour-topped head impatiently.
“What you must understand is that there was conflict in Canterlot long before Nightmare Moon. Both the Princesses had their own supporters that clashed with each other in court, bitterly. To the second most powerful social tier in Equestria, the alicorns were simply a means to rise higher. And neither of the princesses took it well. Celestia, obliged to see the good in everypony, saw all these flatterings and grand gestures as genuine, promoting those undeserving of it. While Luna saw threats in every corner, damaging her trust and faith in the ponies she was meant to protect."
He caught his breath a moment then continued.
"Many years ago, when Laurelore left Equestria, the two princesses had expelled their dishonest regency together after years of turmoil. The corrupt and power-hungry knew therefore that the best way to exploit them was to separate them. As she gained more authority, Luna employed spies in court but Celestia wouldn’t follow suit, seeing it as duplicitous in itself to resort to spying on others, as she'd been taught. As a result, not only did Celestia see none of the corruption and malevolence behind the veil of courtesy in the capital but she began to distrust her sister more and more. The court accused Luna and her faction of more underhand, ‘dark’ practices which Celestia steadily began to treat as more and more credible until at last she sent away the spies and most of her sister’s faction, barring them from court, shaming Luna in full view of Equestria. It is this that pushed Luna over the edge, completely. She had long believed she hadn’t a friend in Canterlot and now...” he sighed “Her sister had just confirmed that.”
“But...Celestia must have realised her mistake!” Twilight murmured.
“She did. Far too late. By then, Nightmare Moon had emerged, bent on carnage. She could not reform the court without the influence of her sister. As one faction was removed, the sword hung above the one remaining, as it often is.”
“But she punished the ones responsible, surely.” Rarity piped up.
“That was most certainly her plan. But...the ones outside got to them first...and carried out retribution in ways one cannot imagine.”
“The ones outside...” Applebloom’s eyes widened as she worked it all out.
“Luna’s spies!”
“Her personal bodyguard, her eyes and ears in the capital, the only ones she truly trusted.” Purple Patch’s voice darkened with dread. “The Eternal Knights.”
“But that would make them-”
“Over a thousand years old, yes.” Patch interrupted Sweetie Belle “If you’re asking how they’ve lasted this long, of that I don’t know. But I reckon it has something to do with their vow. The Eternal Vow.”
“Which was?”
“Never to rest, not even for death, until they had released their Princess Luna from her imprisonment...”
“Well, that’s okay then.” Pinkie jumped up and spoke “We done that already. We can tell them all about-”
“I’m...not quite finished.” Patch interjected awkwardly “-And placed her on the throne of her sister, ruling over all of Equestria...after the execution of her sister.”
“What? Why?” Twilight blurted out “She...Celestia didn’t do anything!”
“Precisely.” Patch waved his hooves frantically “She didn’t do anything while the entire capital ganged up on her sister.”
“It was a mistake.”
“A big one. One that, to them, proves her unfit to rule. You need to understand. To the Eternal Knights...Celestia is the betrayer! And for a thousand years, she has escaped punishment!”
“But...Luna’s back. She’s happy. The sisters have made amends.” Fluttershy pointed out “Surely, anypony in their right mind-”
“Precisely! They’re not in their right mind! You’ve seen them!” Patch squawked feverishly "A thousand years have taken their toll!"
“I wish she’d stop saying ‘precisely’” Rainbow muttered to Fluttershy.
“Look, try to look at it from their point of view.” the librarian’s hooves flew about in some attempt at sign-language.
“Imagine, at the lowest point of your life, the very lowest, after losing just about everything you grew up with and left in a strange world you have no idea how to traverse, an alicorn, a goddess, a guardian offered you a new life, a life better than you could ever have dreamed of. You grew up with her, learned beside her, fought beside her, laughed with her, you and her against the world. And then you had to watch her grow sick. Sick with fear, with despair, with paranoia, as all around the most powerful ponies in the land made life hell for her and for you. And the one pony she’d trusted more than you, the one pony closer to her than you...was letting it all happen with no idea just how much it hurt. And finally, when she broke, you were far away, sent away, and while you were gone, the pony who was meant to help her...destroyed her.”
“It...it couldn’t have been like that.”
“I don’t know if it was, I wasn’t there, but that’s how it feels to them.” Patch shook his head “Now imagine that feeling. Imagine holding onto that feeling for a thousand years. Imagine blood spilt over that feeling. Imagine hiding away, waiting for the day your goddess, your princess, would return...and then imagine hearing that she now thinks they were right from the beginning, that it was all her fault and that she was bad and selfish and unfit to rule...How would that feel?”


There was quiet in Twilight’s library. The Bearers of the Elements and the Cutie Mark Crusaders looked from one to the other with faces of unease, dread and confusion bubbling in the pits of their stomachs.
“Oh dear...” Fluttershy murmured.
“But...that’s a rotten way to live. Holdin’ onto a grudge like that.” Applejack said sternly.
“I’m sure they think so too. But it was their vow. They consider it their duty. Luna was their Princess and they’ll fight for her even after all this time.”
“So why weren’t they there when Nightmare Moon showed up in the first place?” Scootaloo asked.
Patch looked up in thought and Rainbow gave her student a friendly nudge for ingenuity.
“Of that I cannot say. My best guess is that the rebirth of the Elements created magic they cannot traverse. You see their nocturnal magic is exceptionally powerful but, as the Elements banished Luna so too can it keep them at bay. The Elements lost their power after Luna was banished. They are unfamiliar with the power they hold. Its possible the Elements even subconsciously blotted out their gaze. The Knights until now have been in self-imposed exile on some unknown plane, waiting for Luna’s return. They might not have even heard until the Elements became somewhat dormant. Might explain why they’re so angry. They see it as another betrayal. To them, Celestia is keeping them away while she brainwashes Luna the same way she’s brainwashed Equestria.”
“What makes them think she’s brainwashing Equestria?”
“The fact that nopony knows the truth!”
There was another pause.
“So...that’s why the story ain’t the whole truth.” Applejack summised “Because if the ponies knew...the mistakes Celestia an’ Luna made...the stuff that happened ‘cause of it...it’d...it’d happen all over again?”
“Precisely.”
“Stop saying that!” Rainbow groaned.
Patch nodded apologetically and continued.
“The moment ponies figure out the alicorns aren’t perfect, some nut-jobs who think they are will try to take their place.” he said darkly “It’s happened before.”
“Wait. It’s a metaphor!” Pinkie piped up, hopping on the spot “Celestia was kept in the sun and saw only the bright stuff. The good stuff. And any other way looked nuts to her! And Luna was kept in the night and saw only bad things and thought nopony loved her! It’s all about taking the bad with the good and the good with the bad. That’s what Granny Pie taught me!”
Her friends were taken aback by her odd moment of sincerity.
“Hmm...Interesting theory.” Patch mumbled “Regardless. They’re here now. The night will only get longer and darker while they proceed. I ran into one, you see, getting here.”
“The howling mare with hair like a bathroom rug or the stallion taking gibberish with blue glowsticks in his face?” Sweetie asked.
“Their names are White Wolf and Fletcher Fray. And no.” Patch sighed “Their leader. Midnight Blade.”
Twilight’s brow rose.
“Blade? As in-”
“Vorpal Blade’s nephew. Yes. The deadliest swordsmaster the Second Age of Magic ever saw. A batpony, a creature of night, like Luna. It’s him that’s causing the curse of long night around the town as well as a null that prevents anypony escaping the city or sending out messages.”
“So that explains it.” Spike said, shuddering at the aftertaste of the null’s effects.
“However, they’ll allow one and only one message to go through, provided it says what they want.”
“Which is?”
“They want you, Twilight Sparkle,” Purple Patch pointed to her “To write to Princess Celestia. They want to formally denounce her, refuse her the power of the Elements of Harmony, reveal her crimes to Equestria, demand she step down as Princess in favour of her sister and submit to the Eternal Knight’s judgement.”
The Bearer of the Magic of Friendship gave a snort of indignation.
“Like hay I will!”
Patch sucked his teeth as the sound of thunder sounded outside, the rain slamming against the windows.
“In that case, I should probably place my head between my flanks and kiss my skinny, Trottingham flanks goodbye.”
“Please don’t, there a foals watching.” Rarity said bluntly.
“Why?” Fluttershy asked.
“Because their ultimatum is that unless Celestia abdicates the throne and places her life in their hooves then by evening the next day...everypony in Ponyville will be dead.”


There was a third pause, longer than the ones before it.
Rarity clutched Sweetie Belle tightly in one forehoof and Spike in the other.
“What do they mean by that?” Rainbow Dash asked.
Patch raised an eyebrow awkwardly.
“I...would have thought it was fairly self-explanatory.”
“But why? Why do they want to kill so many innocent ponies?”
“They don’t.” Patch answered “But they feel they must. Celestia has gone without punishment for over a thousand years. This is their way of reminding her that even a princess must pay her debts. They can't go after Celestia herself but they know this town and the ponies in it, yourselves prominently among them, matter a lot to her. You must understand that these are ponies who feel it is their duty to place Luna upon the throne, no matter the cost. And considering they’ve spent a thousand years in limbo out of that same sense of duty, I think it’s safe to assume they are well and truly serious.”
Twilight gave a nod and was quiet a moment. Her face was flat, torrents of conflicting emotions running through her mind.
Was this really Celestia’s fault?
Was this what Luna wanted?
Were the Eternal Knights who Patch claimed they were?
At last, she stood up and spoke grimly but determinedly.
“Well...No time like the present.”
“So...are you going to write that letter then?” Patch asked timidly.
“Well, Mr Patch...At times like this, I prefer to answer in person...in actions.”
“Now that’s what I’m talkin’ about!” Rainbow said, testing her wings “I’m getting even with the wolf-mare! And the green guy! And if I say the third dude, Fright-night somethin’ or whatever the hay is name is, he’s gonna’ get it too!”
“Careful now!” Patch said, nearly starting for the door “These guys are serious! They come from a time unknown to us and have killed more ponies than you’ve seen days! What do we have to fight them with?!”
“Not sure...yet.” Twilight said, putting on her cloak and hat from Star-Swirl’s assortment, leaving behind the beard “But we’re gonna’ find out. After all...”
She opened the door, standing rigid as the rain hit her like a brick wall, wrestling against the storm’s force to stare up at the night sky.
“It’s a lovely night for a fight.”


*


The silver caught the moon’s light, even under the heavy storm.
On the hills overlooking Ponyville, a rocky and branchy outcrop provided some cover from the pouring rain as Midnight Blade lay against it, wings spread out, colourless eyes fixed on his famed sword.
So long, it seemed, had it gone without the gleam of the moon.
So many years spent in darkness, living like a cypher.
So many years spent under false names in half-lives.
So many years unable to be true.
With claws of shadow, forming glass-like out of his hoof-tip, he caressed the flat of the blade, admiring each enchanted gem as the hum of the running metal sounded softly in his wide, bat-like ear.
It felt like an old friend.
An old friend kept in darkness.
Now at last, it was back in hooves that were his own, that were the hooves that made the blade so feared, that protected Luna and Equestria from the foul forces now rotting in silence.
When murderers and traitors woke up screaming in the night, they saw Midnight Blade coming for them in darkness.
And so it would be again.
Wind buffeted his right side and a blue light dazzled his left as his compatriots emerged.
White Wolf landed and crouched, her long shaggy tail coiling round her side as she growled in a language only he had familiarised himself with, years of silence and wildness costing her most of her voice.
“Yes...I see...” he replied flatly “So he’s with them?”
“Lichter lechten.” Fletcher Fray said dourly, his vivid blue eyes staring into the abyss he’d plunged into all those years ago and never fully emerged. “Lichter in vielen Farben. Wie Flaggen. In die Schlacht getragen.”
“...Interesting...” Midnight closed his eyes “A shame that blood must spill this night. Still...If Celestia wills it, let her see that a war put to silence and falsehoods...never truly ends.”
He stood, his wings still outstretched, stepping out of the outcrop like the nocturnal hunter he had long become, raising the sword high in his hoof.
“Celestia, the False Princess...Night comes for you!”