//------------------------------// // Holy Knights // Story: Embrace of the Night // by KingofBronies //------------------------------// The two reached Canterlot. It was still bright, but getting darker. The streets of Canterlot were as busy as ever, with very poshly dress ponies, mainly unicorns roaming the streets. The ponies bowed at Luna's arrival, she was royality after all. Through the street she notice some of the Royal Guards and Celestia trotting toward the two. Luna froze in shock. She hoped Celestia would not suspect anything of her faithful student attire. Celestia could also sense the life within creatures. She knew she couldn't just run and hoped to avoid this situation, but she had no choice, she had to confront it. The astral princess looked at her sister keeping a straight face. Twilight was shivering though. She was scared what the sun princess might do if she found out that she had joined the undead ranks. Celestia reached the two immortal ponies. "Twilight Sparkle, my faithful student and Luna my dearest sister. I am so glad you could stop by Canterlot while on your travels. It is your first checkpoint to the Emerald Quartz Cave is it not?" Celestia smiled, however in the mood the two ponies were in it was very unsettling. "Tis, dearest sister. We would love to stay, but we wish to end these turmoils as soon as possible." the night princess responded. "Is that so? Then why did you not take the midnight train to Canterlot?" the white alicorn questioned. Luna couldn't think of much a response to the question. She needed more time to think of an apropriate lie. "It was my suggestion princess, we needed more time to think of a plan of what we were going to do about the changelings." The lavender pony spoke saving Luna. The dark alicorn sighed mentally. "Your student was very helpful devising a plan to assist us against the changelings." "Very well sister. I wish you safe travels." Celestia smiled yet again. Celestia and her sister parted ways. The dark alicorn and vampire went east to begin their final travel to the changeling kingdom. -Celestia- Something was wrong with her faithful student. Her attire was most odd, but it was something more. She felt Luna's immortal blood flowing in her, but at the same time she gave off no sense of life. While she reached the castle she growled angerly. That cursed sister and her experiments! That had to be it! Necromancy! She had killed Twilight and brought her back as an immortal using her blood. She thought it not to be possible, but now with murder and Necromancy. Luna had gone too far, she tampered with lifes very limits and would have to pay the ultimate price. However she knew better then to kill her and her creation in the streets of Canterlot. That would draw question to her own motive and she had no proof mearly what she sensed. She knew that this was far bigger than last time. She knew Luna would do everything to prevent her death even raise an undead army. She needed to call upon her knights enlisted for just such an occasion, the Paladins. Holy knights that fought against the undead with holy weapons forged using silver and enchanted with solar magic. Most questioned why there was such a lack of earth ponies in the royal guards, it was because earth ponies were mostly in the secret division of Paladins. Their natural born strengths and abilities made them the perfect canidates for the use of large weaponary and heavy armor. Sure there were some exceptions for this, but none the less unicorns and pegasi were in the minority in the paladins. Whatever Twilight was now she needed her captured to find out. She would not have her killed yet, but her sister needed to pay for her vile crimes. The sun princess looked over the balcony watching her sister and Twilight still in sight. Celestia called in her advisor, she was a cobalt unicorn with long green mane and red rimmed glasses with quill and ink cutie mark. "You called, princess?" the unicorn asked. "Yes Veronica, we desire the Paladins to hunt my sister and bring back Twilight Sparkle." Celestia said darkly. She was very much angered by her sister, feeling betrayed when she clearly forbid her from using Necromancy. "The paladins?! And you sister?! Princess this is a very sudden order. May I ask why?" Veronica asked. "All you need to know is that undead is involved and my sister has disobeyed a forbidden command." The sun princess said in a cold voice. The advisor caught on fast. She did not wish to anger the princess. "Very well Princess.." The cobalt unicorn trotted away from her ruler to rally up the Paladins. -Luna and Twilight- The two had gotten a good distance away from Canterlot. They were both still nervous from the unexpected confrontation from Celestia. It could not be mere coincidence, or was it? They knew not what to think of the thoughts that went throught the sun princesses head. Could she already know? What was to happen to them they thought? They trotted through the grass as there was no clear path towards their destination. The area of which they were was dense and forested. Creatures of carnivorious natures usually lived in parts such as these so the immortals needed to be prepare. Twilight however was at ease from the lack of sun hitting her. "This forest makes us very uneasy." the night princess heard rattling in the trees above. "Don't worry princess. I'm sure we can handle any challenge that will come our way." Twilight smiled. She was very confident with her new powers along with Luna there she felt she could not be stopped by some mear animal. Her confidence made Luna smile. "Your confidence is warming, Twilight Sparkle. It reminds us of when we were young. We believe thou to be right, there must be little to fear for two immortals such as us." Twilight looked down. "Well there is one thing I fear., What if Princess Celestia found out about me.." Luna frowned at the thought. "We would be in horrible danger. Even us immortals can be slain if wounded greatly. We would protect you Twilight, we cannot let our friend die for an error we have commited." She looked down. It was still eating away at her all the trouble and pain she had caused Twilight. She wanted a friend to live forever, but she didn't want this existance for her. The vampire pony trotted next to the night princess. She nuzzled the princess's neck. "That's all it is Princess, its an error. Science has plenty of errors. We learn from those and become better because of it. Sure its going to be hard to live with, but I'll adapt to it. Besides, being a vampire has its benefits." "But do they out weight the negatives?" Luna looked at her with saddened eyes. "I believe so, yes. I mean I can live forever now and you've been a wonderful friend to me. With all this power I'm stronger than anypony I know! I just hope one day I can tell my other friends about this and that they will accept me as they did before." The palish lavender unicorn looked up at the trees. She thought of the times she was with her friends. She did miss them greatly and she would tell them the truth one day, but for now she needed to wait. "We art sure your friends will accept thee. Thou art still Twilight Sparkle, thou may seek the blood of others, but thou art no different then thou was before." The alicorn of the night smiled. Twilight yawned. "Yeah, I think you're right." Though she had slept earlier that night, the abrupt awakening of the light forced her awake. It was very temporary and the fact she was in the sun tired her even more. Luna joined her in a yawn. "Doth thou wishest to rest?" The night princess was used to sleeping during the day and had also missed quite a bit of it. The unicorn blushed a little embarassed. "If you wouldn't mind.." The alicorn layed on the grass of the forest. "We do not, truth be told we art very tired as well." Twilight followed what the princess did. "Sweet dreams." She said as she dozed off. The moon pony smiled. "Same to thee, Twilight." The two both fell soundly asleep. Though the forest held monsters they were not afriad. -Twilight- The unicorn was in a space like area with no planets only darkness littered with stars. The darkness swirled like a black hole with violet, black and sapphire. "Hello Twilight Sparkle." A voice spoke from the darkness. It was the voice of Nightmare Moon. "What do you want?" The mare yelled back. "Mearly to speak with you Twilight. Do I frighten you?" The voice laughed. "No, do I? Show yourself you coward!" Twilight growled growing tired of her games. The maniacal laughter could be heard. "Very well." The night terror appeared in front of her with a toothed grin. "You act so tough Twilight Sparkle, but know that you are still a frail pony without my powers." "Maybe so, but this frail pony still defeated you!" The vampire smirked. Nightmare Moon laughed. "Maybe, but only together with your friends were you able to accoplish such a feat. Alone you could never hope to defeat me." She had a point. Twilight even as a vampire could not hope to defeat her alone. "You may be right, but I hope you had a better reason to interupt my sleep then to just gloat about your power." "Oh, but I have Twilight. I have, but an offer." She smirked. "I'm listening." The lavender unicorn looked up at her. "You wish to protect the one I wish to devour, that I cannot control, but I am more free in you body then I am in her's. You see, you hold a part of Nightmare Moon while she holds the rest. Even so I could make great use of your body and in fact give you more power than even Luna can imagine. You have already recieved a taste of my dark powers, when you slaughters those other vampires. I ask for you to stop resisting me so that I may grant you my full power." The malicious pony smirked. "Are you crazy?! If I were to do that you would just take over and control over me. I am not stupid enough to give myself to you! You would just devour Luna!" the element of magic yelled. "Silly foal, I ask you not to answer this question now. Think about it, let your desires eat away at you.. Now begone!" The nightmare grinned. A black hole appeared under Twilight and swallowed her as she screamed. -Luna- The night princess stood in a blackened Canterlot Castle. She was in her bedroom when Nightmare Moon appeared in front of her with a stern look. “Why doth thou wishest to interrupt our slumber?” the night princess spoke calmly. The two hated each other, but Luna still showed respect to her. “Oh, I feared you to yell at me again.” She chucked. “I have come with an offer, one you cannot refuse.” “Oh? What would that be?” The curious alicorn asked. “Simple, if you continue to resist my powers so greatly I will be forced to do what has nearly been done. I will have Twilight devour you. Now Luna, I ask do you think one small unicorn such as her can control all of our power?” The malicious pony grinned. “You bastard! You threaten her in our own slumber! We should eliminate you!” the night princess growled. The Nightmare laughed. “I'm sure you would like to try, but you can't not without destroying yourself! You have no choice, but to submit to my offer. Do not worry, you will have more power so your sacrifice will not go without reward.” “Very well, but doth thou thinketh us as simple enough to go without a fail safe? If you lay a single hoof on Twilight, we shall not hesitate to destroy ourselves and our blood to save her.” The astral princess grinned. Nightmare Moon looked shocked. What?! Was this one unicorn really worth her own immortal life? “You are bluffing! You must be! Besides how do you plan to destroy yourself and our blood?” Nightmare Moon yelled in a slight panic for control. “We art no more bluffing then when we offer ourselves to thee to gain power the first time. We will simply scorch this body to such a temperature that even our bones shall melt, none of your blood will remain. Only a weakened version of yourself will reside in Twilight. Now we ask thee, doth thou want to play nice or doth thou want all chances of thee reaching ultimate power set ablaze?” Luna yelled in a serious and demanding tone. The living nightmare scoffed. It was just like last time when she offered her power. The night princess would never go into a deal without a fail safe. She knew better than to just give into her power. On the moon during those one thousand years Nightmare Moon was born. She spoke to the night princess making her hate and was her only friend, a being created from pure utter malice and destruction. Her original purpose was to use her powers to destroy all of Equestria, but Luna held onto her pain for so long that she never gave into the new purpose Nightmare Moon tried to instill upon her. The second the moon had given her freedom she controlled as much dark power as she could. Though they were not synced with each others powers, so the ultimately failed to make eternal night. She knew better than to challenge Luna, but she would never give up on one day overriding her. “I have little choice, but trust me! I will find a way to get to you!” The Nightmare promised. “So long as thou knows better than to lay a hoof on Twilight, we very much desire thee to try.” She smirked. Nightmare Moon growled. “How dare you mock me! Begone!” The colors of Luna's dream faded as she awoke with a smile. Twilight woke shortly for with a different expression, one of fear and with a scream. The two heard heavy footsteps coming their way. “What is that noise?” Luna looked at her friend. "It sounds like a beast of some sort, but I hear several footsteps.." Twilight looked to the right. The two got on their feet as they noticed a few large earth ponies wearing helmets and heavy silver colored metal armor covering ever inch of the body and legs only leaving room for mobility reasons. The three had a different weapon strapped to them. Each weapon was forged of silver and had a blinding sheen to them. The weapons they had were a longsword, a battle axe, and a spear. “So we found them, by order of Princess Celestia we sentence you Luna to death for crimes of Necromancy, murder, treason.” The armored earth pony with a sword said. "What?! Who art thou to claim thou art from our sister!?" Luna demanded answers. She had a feeling Celestia knew, she just hoped it wasn't true. However, even if her sister had found out she did not expect herself to be sentanced to death without trail. Treason? She had no such intention of betraying her country! What was going on here? "We are the holy warriors known as the Paladins, a unit focused on slaying the undead and their Necromancers. However we have orders to take your unicorn friend back, alive." The axe paladin responded. The Paladins drew their weapons holding them in their mouths. The two immortals stood ready for combat. “You have no idea what you are messing with!” Twilight smirked. The knights charged at the two. The swordsman swung his blade at Luna, she jumped away, but still received a scratch on her right front hoof. The small cut burned as if crackling with the fires of the sun. The night princess yelped at the burning pain. “Twilight! Be careful they are using sun enchanted weapons!” Twilight nodded in response. The unicorn shot an energy beam at the axe wielding paladin sending him into a tree. The spear wielding one struck her with the back end of his weapon in her face sending her tumbling on the ground. “Twilight!” Luna yelled. “You're going to pay for that!” Her eyes glowed with great power as undead animals rose from their slumber. A large dragon, a pack of wolves, and a bear pulled themselves up from the dirt. The risen army roared readying their attack. The dragon took flight raining fire upon the Paladins. When the fires ceased the earth ponies still remained intact, but the pony with the spear was missing. He fell atop the large lizard thrusting the spear into its skull causing it to roar in pain as it turned to ash. The pack of wolves charged into the axe wielder not doing much damage but keeping him distracted. He crushed the wolves one by one with heavy swings and once he was done It was too late for him to notice that the alicorn had decapitated him with a magical blade created with her horn. Blood spilled from the mortals neck mixing with the ash of the wolves as he collapsed lifelessly to the grass. The bear swung its large paws at the sword wielding knight, but stopped as it felt its heart become pierced with the silver sword, reducing its essence to ash. Twilight charged at the sword wielder thrusting him with a horned skull bash sending him crashing into the forest. The spear wielder jumped and thrusting his spear into Twilight’s back. She screamed in pure pain ash escaping the wound instead of blood. The unicorn collapses, the pain from the burning wound causing her to blackout. A dark and vicious roar came from Luna as darkness enveloped her and she transformed into Nightmare Moon, but still in control of her anger and hate. “How darest thee lay a hoof on her!?!” She yelled in a distorted voice violently. She magically raised the spear wielding knight who dropped his spear as his teeth chattered in fear. She grinned darkly as she forced his armor to tighten around him crushing him within it leaving a mess of blood and metal as she dropped him. “And as for you..” She turned her now glowing eyes to the final warrior returning from his fall. The Paladin charged at her only to be captured by undead fangs and claws from underground, which held onto his hind legs. He screamed dropping his sword as he struggled to escape from the undead that were trying to drag him down, holding on for dear life with his front hooves. The night princess trotted towards him. “Now feed my subjects!” She raised on her hind legs and smashes her front hoofs down onto his causing him to fall into the undead pit. She could hear terrorized screams and piercing cuts as the monsters made their way through his armor and to his flesh. She closed up the holes of summoning with magic and trotted away returning to her usual form. She lifted the wounded Twilight onto her back and feed her the blood of the fallen paladins levitating it to her mouth with magic. She hoped that that would work. The small cut Luna had still had not healed. It was strange, ash. The weapons had the same effects on Twilight as they did a normal undead. She cleared the ash out of her wound. She then eyed the sword of the fallen Paladin, thinking it might be useful she took it with her. She trotted through the forest reaching the end. The ground much more lifeless like a wasteland very few trees and the dirt was a brownish gray were in view. She notice it was nightfall upon leaving.. -Celestia- Veronica trotted toward Celestia who was rising the moon on the balcony. “Princess I have a report..” “Is it on my sister?” Celestia had finished her spell and now gave her full attention to her adviser. “Y-yes you see, one of the paladin teams was eliminated.” She stuttered with fear of angering her ruler. “I honestly didn't expect her to go down so easy, she is my sister after all. How were they killed?” the sun princess asked. Veronica sighed with relief, relieved she did not anger the princess. “One decapitation, one crushed in his armor, and the last on is missing, but presumed dead. Ashes were scattered around the site, but one odd thing. The report states there is no blood at the scene at all.” Celestia blinked in shock of the unusual statement. “What? Well it didn't just walk off! Where did it go?!” “I-It's just gone, we believe they took it for some reason..” She looked away scared to make eye contact. Celestia grinned. “Well I guess this goes far beyond simple immortality. We have two options in this matter, either Luna is offering the blood to the Changelings as a sign of trust or Twilight has joined the undead ranks as a vampire!” The cobalt unicorn almost dared not ask. “What?! Vampire? Why are you smiling princess?” “Because Veronica, everything adds up! I know her plan! Shes going to the Changelings to learn about vampire like beings. They feed on love the same way vampires feed on blood. But what to do..Hmmmm.. Yes, send the Paladins to the Emerald Quartz Cave.” Celestia smirked. “B-but that will make our soldiers targets! They will be slaughtered!” The unicorn screamed. “Sacrifices must be made! It should be all we need to turn the Changelings on them. They will think they are bringing forth an army for war.” She responded. “No! I will give no such order! What happened to friendship? Fair trial and all that! This is going to far!” Veronica yelled. This angered the sun princess. She bucked the unicorn sending her tumbling through the hall. She trotted towards her. “You dare question my moral intention? Do you think I want to do this?! I can't help it! Vampires must be destroyed at all cost! This is bigger than a few lives! And my sister has found a way to create them! If such knowledge became common, all of Equestria could be doomed! Don't you ever speak to me as if I am some lowly foal! I have no choice in this manner!” The unicorn struggled to rise to her hooves. “Y-yes..Forgive me, princess.. I shall give the order..” She trotted away leaving the princess alone to her thoughts. -Luna- She had been trotting with Twilight on her back for hours. She wished she could fly but alas the weight of both their saddlebags and Twilight was far too much to bear, least for flight. Carrying her was not hard. She looked at the map and noticed the cave was in sight. Twilight woke and the astral princess let her off her back. The unicorn looked up at the moon. “How long have I been out?” She asked. “A few hours now, Twilight Sparkle. The cave is over there!” The princess of the night pointed her hoof in its direction. Twilight smiled viewing the cave. She tasted blood on her lips. “Luna, why do I taste blood on my lip. I thought I was unconscious?” Luna blushed a bit. “Umm..We feed thee blood of the fallen while thou was out. We hope it was fine, we worried because of the blood thou lost.” Twilight also blushed a bit. “Oh..It's fine princess. Um.. Thank you. “Oh it was nothing, Twilight Sparkle.” The alicorn smiled. The two reached the entrance of the cave. “Art thou ready?” Luna asked. “As I'll ever be.” Twilight smiled. The two trotted into the cave not knowing what may await them...