Two months ago, Silver Star had been starving in the muddiest alleys of Moonrise, barely able to make quota for long enough to earn the smallest food rewards the foreman offered. Now he stepped in the Lunar Palace, a place that even the greatest ponies in Moonrise only ever saw in portrait and tapestry.
If it wasn’t for his time in Vanaheimr, he might’ve lost concentration and dropped the air-shield, though for nearly the opposite reason. He imagined a palace of opulence beyond imagination, and at least for the princess he wouldn’t have been upset about it. Nightmare Moon wasn’t taking the heat and air that ponies in the city below needed to survive, and if the art was right she obviously wasn’t devouring all their food either.
The place didn’t even have a wood floor, but leveled regolith with Lunarium accents along the doors and walls. There were no tapestries or paintings hanging, and only an occasional carving. Most of it was polished flat, like a construction site that had been abandoned halfway.
There were signs of the grand building it was meant to be under all that. The doors opened into a vaulted entryway, an artificial cavern with a balcony along the top and a domed skylight overhead. Except the glass had never been put in place, so the dome was just a hole, with naked starlight trickling in from up above. The floor directly beneath it was obviously meant to be a mosaic, but only a tiny section of the colored tiles were finished. The rest was a slight depression in the gray rock, and he didn’t have to guess about the boxes along the far wall.
The only true sign of luxury in the huge space were the chandeliers, wrought of True Lunarium banded with gold and carrying some kind of… self-glowing purple rock? Whatever it was, he could see more of it further on, illuminating the hallways leading to either side. One seemed like it would take him to a great hall, with huge stone tables and a throne in the distance. The other turned upward, maybe a set of stairs.
The princess herself stood like a ghost on the floor above. She wore flowing robes of blue and purple, obscuring all but a set of glowing eyes from within. Yet the robes didn’t actually move as she stood there, only when she did. So the stories were true about her—she could live in hard vacuum, just as the Voidseekers could. It made sense; her palace didn’t have airlocks.
“I do not know your face,” she said, and somehow he could still hear her. Maybe she was projecting her voice down into the bubble, or… directly into his mind? The Princess of Nightmares could probably do whatever she wanted on that front. “Where were you hiding, cousin? I thought cryogenics was their first target.”
Some part of him recognized dimly that she wasn’t speaking any language he knew. It was the same way as all the writing in Vanaheimr, and the suit communicating with him. The suit with empty inflated wings. Could he keep it going, maybe elicit her cooperation without the fight he worried about?
Before he could answer, the princess vanished from her balcony, reappearing within the bubble. Magpie dropped instantly into a bow; crystal body pressed to the stone floor. Two months ago, Silver would’ve done the same. The Princess of Nightmares was a great and terrible ruler, who tolerated nothing but absolute obedience.
Now all he did was tighten his grip on the alien rifle. It echoed back to him, almost a mind unto itself. I am ready, it seemed to say. I was not made to kill petty tyrants and pretenders, but monsters.
He ignored the imagined voice, and found he was looking down on the princess. That doesn’t seem right. Isn’t she supposed to be taller?
Nightmare Moon flipped back her hood, revealing… not what he was expecting. From the floor, Magpie stifled a gasp.
Instead of a flowing mane of stars and distant galaxies, her mane was purple and gray, without even a trace of magic. “You’re Nightmare Moon,” Silver stammered. His righteous indignation didn’t quite make it through, leaving only a faint layer of shock and confusion underneath.
“That’s a new name,” she answered, waving a dismissive hoof. She studied him closely, eyes lingering on the rifle. She barely even seemed to see Magpie. “You speak the servant language. You need not. I was young, but I… I still remember.”
I don’t. Silver retreated a step, though of course it would do nothing to protect him from Nightmare Moon’s power. Had he really marched in here thinking that a single stupid gun would be enough to fight an Alicorn? “I’m not what you think,” he said, glancing over his shoulder, where the huge doors to the palace still hung open. And why shouldn’t they, who was going to attack a palace no one could reach?
The dim outline of Rockshanks’s corpse was still there, abandoned by his lieutenants. “One of your generals, Flint, ruled over the smallest and weakest ponies in your city. After letting them slowly starve and freeze, she finally decided to let the cold take most of them, and locked the shelter doors. I killed her. Your Lord Regent wanted to keep his failures from you.” He pointed out the open door, gesturing with the barrel of the rifle. “He is dead too. Moonrise needs you, Princess. We can’t survive another little tyrant.”
The princess nodded, unmoved. “I saw the fight outside. But if you’ve been alive for all this time, why would you be concerned with the petty affairs of Moonrise?”
Petty affairs of Moonrise. Silver ground his teeth together, his fear fading. Maybe he should still be terrified, maybe he was a few wrong words from an agonizing death. But he didn’t care. “I’m not what you think,” he said again. “I’m not an Alicorn, Princess. I went to Vanaheimr looking for a way to overthrow the evil strangling Moonrise. I found it.”
“You’re just a unicorn?” The Alicorn backed away from him, lifting her hood back over her head. But if she was self-conscious about the power no longer there, it was far too late to hide it. “Then who are you to judge the way my city rules?” Her eyes glowed fiercely, her voice echoing through the bubble. He had read stories of the princess’s terrible power, enough to bring even Celestia’s greatest heroes to their knees.
He didn’t feel that now. She was loud, but she wasn’t even taller than he was. She had magic, but… not any more than the skilled unicorns he’d just fought. Maybe this was a test of his obedience, and her power was hidden from him somehow? Silver didn’t care anymore. Ponies down below were dying, unless he could end this. Either by soliciting her help, or securing safety from her. “Frankly Princess, I’m not sure if Moonrise is your city anymore. I’ve lived here my entire life, and never once seen you. Your appointed rulers are working us to death and letting us starve, while the city rots under their hooves.
“Everything great the ancients left us is corroding away before our eyes. The harvests are smaller, the air is colder, the water makes us sick. But all your leaders do is tell us to work harder and throw bigger parties in their towers.” He could sense her rage building with every word, yet he didn’t care. Silver glowered back at the princess, his magic ready on the rifle. Maybe he wouldn’t be able to use it in time, but he would be ready to try.
“Such impudence.” The princess turned away from him, glancing up towards the balcony. She didn’t attack, no spells went flying, and his soul wasn’t ripped from his body. Or… any of the other terrible things the Nightmare Princess was said to do. “Penumbra, here, now.”
The air beside the princess fuzzed, a patch of greater darkness in the shadow. The lamp on Silver’s breastplate flickered, then cracked, going out.
Suddenly there was another pony beside them, a willowy bat wrapped in dark robes. Her legs might be thin and graceful, but they were still shorter than he expected, her body squat like Magpie’s.
She lowered her head to the princess, though her eyes darted to the gun, then down to the still-kneeling pony of crystal. “This is interesting,” she said, her voice just as strangely accented. “Are you under attack, Princess? He seems polite for an invader.”
Nightmare Moon turned her back on Silver, and there was satisfaction in her voice. “This impudent subject of mine has come speaking evil of Moonrise to my face. I won’t tolerate lies—kill him.”
Magpie twitched, rising suddenly beside Silver. She lifted her rifle, one hoof ready on the trigger. She wasn’t brave enough to actually point it at either of their attackers, however.
“What lies?” Penumbra asked, her eyebrows going up. “He must be a determined liar to come all the way up here. And his friend is… familiar.”
“That Moonrise is failing. That my rulers are evil and making things worse,” the princess said, her smugness replaced with annoyance. “I order you, Penumbra. Kill him.”
The bat drew something from her belt—a curved dagger, with a True Lunarium edge wrapped around darker metal beneath. Instead of lunging for him, she tossed it to the ground at Silver’s hooves. “I can’t, Princess. Your visitor told you the truth.”
“Damn right he did,” Magpie said. At first her voice was a shy squeak, but after just a few seconds she grew bolder. Realizing she wasn’t going to drop dead for daring to open her mouth, maybe. “Silver is one of the smartest bucking unicorns I ever met, and the ponies you put in charge had him muckin’ holes and breaking rocks. Flint really did lock the shelters and leave everypony to freeze. They’re still freezing right now, by the way. That’s why Silver’s feeling pretty urgent about all this.”
She walked past him, glaring at Nightmare Moon. “What happened to you? The princess I knew would’ve turned such incompetent leaders to ash. Luna would’ve raged at the treatment her ponies were receiving, no matter what pointless badge they were wearing. Wasn’t that the whole point of fighting your sister in the first place?”
Nightmare Moon spun suddenly around, robe billowing around her. She shoved past Penumbra in a single stride, knocking Magpie’s rifle contemptuously aside and pressing her to the ground with the force of her magic. Her horn glowed dark blue, swallowing the starlight all around them. Ice condensed on Silver’s armor, spreading along the floor away from the princess. But Silver wasn’t afraid of the cold—he didn’t even shiver. “I don’t care what or who you are, worm. No creature speaks to me like that.”
She shoved down hard, hard enough that Magpie made a faint cracking sound, her body shaking under the pressure.
Silver didn’t think, just lifted the rifle a few degrees until it was pointed squarely at the princess’s head. Without prompting from his touch its sides opened, exposing the almost living heart from the center and tracing a faint line forward to Nightmare Moon. “No more,” he said. “Let go of her, or I’ll do what Polestar sent me to do.”
If this was one of the old stories, Nightmare Moon probably would’ve laughed at the threat, then killed them both before he could react. This Alicorn froze, her eyes darting towards the gun. “The Polestar… let you into the Armory?” she asked, shocked and horrified. “You can’t threaten me with that. An alien weapon wouldn’t respond to you. That was a gift to my ancient ancestors.”
At least she wasn’t crushing Magpie to death anymore. Silver didn’t flinch, tightening his grip on the rifle. “Tell that to Lord Regent Rockshanks, or the sacred Lord Commander’s Armor shattered on the moon’s surface.”
He advanced on her, pressing the barrel of the rifle up against her chest. “I came here to save Moonrise. With you or from you, Princess. Your choice.”
The words might be full of anger, but as he said them Silver wasn’t sure he could actually pull the trigger. If this was a test, he sure was failing hard. And if it wasn’t, what would Moonrise be without its princess? Honoring their ancient protector and getting vengeance for the ancient evil of the Solar Tyrant was all they had.
Nightmare Moon wasn’t really watching him anymore. Her eyes seemed entirely for her Voidseeker. “What kind of bodyguard are you, Penumbra? You won’t obey me even now?”
The bat shrugged, expression almost smug. “He’s not the first pony to tell you this, Princess. Besides, you were crushing Magpie to death. I’m not sure what happened to her, but I’m guessing the two of them aren’t just fighting together.”
“It’s a long story,” Magpie croaked, her voice pained. “But I… don’t want to be shattered, if it’s all the same to you.”
“Magpie.” Nightmare Moon glanced at the gun one last time, then stepped back. Her horn stopped glowing, though that proved little. She could easily lunge and attack them all over again if she wanted, and there would be very little they could do about it. “I remember that name.”
Silver reached down, helping her to her hooves. Magpie settled beside him, leaving her rifle behind. She’d been willing to fight in Moonrise far below, but maybe she was right about some of her weaknesses. She could fight the petty soldiers of a tyrant, but not the princess herself.
“Flattered,” she said, wiping away something silvery from her lips. Blood? Or… something like blood, anyway. “I’m the same one, in the… flesh. Ish. I’d still be flesh if Silver here hadn’t insisted on being a hero. I got dragged into giving up Nightmare kicking and screaming. It looks like… I’m not the only one.”
“Huh?” Silver asked. The gun drooped a little in his grip, its sides settling closed again. He could practically sense its disappointment, though it made no sounds like words. “What are you talking about, Magpie?”
She gestured towards Nightmare Moon, rolling her eyes. “The princess, she… she’s practically back to Luna already. All that power the Nightmare exchanged to fight her sister. I’ve seen ponies try for her before—Nightmare Moon doesn’t need a buckin’ bodyguard. Sometimes she saved us from assassins.”
With the reactions they’d got so far, Silver expected more rage from the princess. Instead of lunging for them, Nightmare Moon slumped onto her haunches, hanging her head low. No one spoke, though Silver’s curiosity burned at him. Eventually the princess looked up, her slitted eyes wet with tears. “The price I paid, Voidseeker. I bent my ears to one too many brave ponies. I chose to defy the Nightmare’s will. Its power is… withdrawn. I only have its voice in my mind now, whispering. All and more granted to me, if only I will return my service.”
She rounded on Silver, tears streaming down her face. “You think my rulers are cruel, Silver? Stare into the abyss, see what it says when it looks back at you. You will find no mercy waiting for you there, for you or the other ponies of Moonrise. It has taken… all my strength, to get this far.”
Penumbra rested a gentle hoof on the princess’s shoulder, though Silver could see at a glance that she was still dead. There would be no miraculous return to flesh for her. But in some ways there hadn’t been for Magpie either. “You said you hadn’t seen the princess, now you know why. Only the Lord Regent knew of her weakness. He was supposed to keep running Moonrise, to prepare it for the invasion. The longer went by, the more he seemed to realize that he could break his promises with the princess if he wanted.”
That would explain why she tolerated so much from us. She’s been pushed around for years now, slave to the whim of Rockshanks. We’ve liberated her as well as Moonrise. But even if it was true, the ponies below could never know. The princess wasn’t a person, she was a symbol. Without its power, that symbol would be worthless.
“You can’t save Moonrise,” he said. “You… you’re already doing that. By keeping the Nightmare at bay. Do the other Voidseekers know how vulnerable you are?”
She nodded curtly, meeting Penumbra’s eyes for a moment. “My bodyguard is the best of them. But there are eight of them out there somewhere, serving Nightmare’s will even now. Sooner or later, the Outsider will decide I am no longer worth the investment, and reclaim its power through my death.”
Or break your determination and get you to serve it again, Silver thought. “What does the Nightmare want from Moonrise?”
“A city of the dead,” Nightmare Moon answered, expression bleak. “Let the cold and darkness in, then reanimate them to serve in its name. They would not be Voidseekers—the power to create such servants is abandoned on Equestria below. But they would still make for an army that would require no food and no water, only weapons and an enemy. Eventually the Nightmare thinks we will find a way to make it back to Equestria. It still promises to give me back my home.”
“Five, not eight,” Magpie said. She sounded almost cheerful as she corrected the princess. “Noctir got crushed during a cave-in while we hunted for Lunarium. I suppose he’s probably still conscious down there somewhere, in constant agony. But… not moving. Morbius wanted to be the leader, but she lost. Then there’s me. The Nightmare can buck right off, I don’t have to listen to it anymore.”
She pulled her hood all the way down, exposing her fully transparent head, and the collar of the air-armor. Hers had survived perfectly well, a shame it was too small for him to wear. “Silver will help too I bet. I’d like to see a Voidseeker survive a shot from that gun.”
The princess looked up. There was the first sign of cooperation in her face. Maybe the beginnings of a plan. “You aren’t safe up here, Princess. I can’t help thinking that sitting by yourself in an airless shell can’t be good for remembering why Moonrise is worth preserving. You should be down there with us.”
She shook her head harshly. “I can’t… they can’t see me. All authority comes from me. Even if you go back there as the new Lord Commander. That title passes all the time, but it only means anything because the princess grants it.”
He nodded. “I’m aware of that, Princess. And I agree that what you represent is too… precious to sacrifice. But maybe we don’t have to. When I was young, my father told me of your powers. I was told you could appear like other ponies, or even an entire crowd. You could slip behind the lines and be impossible to discover until it was too late.
“So your magic has weakened, and your reach is far shorter than it used to be. You’d only need to hide your wings to seem like anypony else. There’s no… mane thing going on to hide.”
She would still look strange, even if she wasn’t an alicorn. She was built like one of the Voidseekers, though larger than Magpie by far. Maybe she could pass for one of them?
“Forget what the Nightmare promises. The home we’ll build isn’t down there in Equestria, it’s right here. The ponies of Moonrise want your help to build it.”