“It is rude to ignore one such as me, even if I make you want to flee. I have felt dark times fall over your land, what has happened under Celestia’s Command?”

I looked in utter confusion at the pony in front of me. My mind unable to comprehend what’s going on. How the hell was it possible for something like this to happen? I’ve never heard of any kind of magic that was able to change another creature into something else. But standing right in front of me was none other than Aura. She sounded different; she didn’t have that raspy voice I was used to. Instead, her voice was a little higher than normal, but I could still tell it was hers. Her eyes were the most noticeable thing on her, her coloring was almost the same also.

“Of course, it’s me! What the hell’s wrong with you?” she said, then gave off a small groan. “I don’t know what that killing joke did to me, but I can’t feel my talons, did I lose them?”

She started to look down at her hooves and I watched as her annoyed expression went from a little pissed off, to utter panic. I stepped closer to her. “Aura, you’re going to be okay, the killing joke turned you into…well a pony.”

She screamed. “Where the hell are my Talons!? Why am I shorter, what the hell’s going on!?” A hoof went up to her muzzle as she gasped. “My voice sounds….AHHHHHHH….where’s my BEAK!”

“AURA CALM DOWN!” I yelled then slapped her. “Listen to me, the killing joke changed you into a pony. Now stop screaming and calm down!”

Her eyes were wide as she looked down at her hooves again. “I’m a…pony?” Then she started to giggle, sounding a little insane. “I’m…a… fucking…pony,” she giggled a little bit more insanely, “Great…yeah, that makes sense, because why not. I guess that’s just fucking funny to those stupid…plants…yep, because all of this makes sense.”

She looked down at her hooves again, then back at her pegasus wings, giggled one more time, then her eyes rolled into the back of her head and she passed out. Her energy spear falling off her back as she did. I moved closer. “Aura!?”

Sun Spot stopped me. “She just passed out from the shock, it’s probably for the best. We need to get out of here.”

I looked over at her. “Why are you here anyway? I thought you said it would take a long time for you to lose The Enclave.”

“Six hours? How could that be? We just left the forest a few minutes ago,” I said.

Solstice groaned from a few feet away. “It’s been ages since you and Aura passed out Shadow. I was able to use some meds I have to keep myself alive from the bullet wound, but I’ve been waiting for you two to wake up for a long time. They just showed up a few minutes ago.”

I looked up at the sky and just noticed that it was darker than before and I could barely make out the cloud-cover overhead. “Crap, I had no idea. It felt like I was only out for a moment.”

I had to think back for a moment then nodded. “Only for a second, one of the vines slapped me in the face.”

Elliot came over and started to look me over. “I can’t see anything different about you, but killing joke can do more than just change something about how you look. We’ll have to check you over once we’re back in the ship, after I get a chance to look over Solstice.”

“Just up the road, Gunny’s hiding it under an overhang with a lot of brush around it. He deflated the balloon and is keeping the power off. We’re gonna stay there for a while until we know The Enclave’s given up the chase for good,” Sun Spot said. “We’re just lucky we found you before one of the patrols did, we’ve seen at least six just while looking for you.”

I moved over to Solstice who looked pale. She had a lot of blood crusted over her armor and her wing looked like it was in bad shape. “How you feeling?” I asked.

She groaned and said, “About as bad as I look. I’m losing feeling in my wing.”

“Don’t worry, I’ve seen a few injuries like that before, I know how to deal with them. You’ll be fine,” Elliot said as he walked over to her. “C’mon, I’ll carry you, Sunny can carry Aura, and Shadow can follow.”

“Sounds fine with me, as long as my wing’s mended,” Solstice said as she tried to get to her hooves and failed.

“Here I’ll help you,” I said, using my magic to slowly lift her off the ground and place her on Elliot’s back.

She gave me a grateful smile, something I hadn’t seen on her face before. I smiled back as she said, “Thanks Shadow.”

As soon as those words left her lips, a flash of memory flew through my mind. I shut my eyes and shook my head, instead of seeing what I expected to see, I watched as Misery sliced open her neck, a look of shock on Solstice’s face as I ended her life. I shook my head again, Another memory of the two of us laying with each other at her place in Cartwheel. Us laughing, kissing, enjoying the time we had together during the time she was in town. Then again, I saw her falling to the floor as the reaper pony claimed her.

I blinked and the memories faded away. Looking over at her I tried my best to smile, saying, “Yeah, don’t worry about me, I guess I’m just a little dazed after that slap I took from the killing joke.”

Sun Spot shrugged then went off to pick up Aura’s unconscious body. Solstice however was looking at me oddly. It was almost like she knew I was hiding something. She let her eyes glare into mine for a few moments then finally she looked away. “Okay pony…bird…thing, let’s get back to the ship,” she said.

“Best thing I’ve heard all day, but you can just call me Elliot,” Elliot said.

***

It took us about half an hour to get back to The Bitter Cob, which was in fact tucked under a rocky overhang. The large balloon was laying on the deck, fully deflated and the ropes that held it to the ship neatly rolled up next to it. Some brush was placed in spots around the ship as well, making it so that nopony from the sky would notice it. Captain Gunny might be mad, but he wasn’t stupid. Okay, not that stupid, at least when it came to hiding, and being a pirate… I guess.

“Ah, bout’ time ye be gettin’ back here with Gunny’s passenger and the two storage aways,” Gunny said with a mad smile as we climbed the gang plank.

“Stowaways,” Elliot said as he moved toward the cabins with Solstice still on his back. “Call yourself crazy or mad all you want, but even you should know a word like that you moron.”

“Hey now Elliot, Gunny be takin’ affiances ta dat’” Gunny said with a glare at the pony griffon.

Elliot chuckled to himself, then responded, “Well, good thing you aren’t the Captain at the moment.” Then he looked toward Sun Spot who wasn’t far behind me. “Hey Captain, can I call Gunny a moron?”

“I call him one at least ten times a day, so feel free,” Sun Spot said as she went to go put Aura in our room.

“Hey now, Gunny said he were sorry didn’t ‘e? Ya can’t just keep sayin’ dat Sunny be Captain,” he said with a huff.

“Well seeing as how you only have two crew members and three passengers and all of us still don’t want to trust you yet, then I say you don’t have much say in the matter,” Elliot said, then went into his own room with Solstice.

Gunny sighed then looked over at me. “Ya don’t think Ol’ Gunny be a bad pony do ya Shadow?”

“Fine, be dat way, at least Gunny still be havin’ da big cabin,” he said, then stomped off in a huff.

I just shook my head and went to follow Sun Spot. When I got into the room I saw Aura was now laying on the bed in Sun Spot’s cabin. I looked at the pony-griffon, asking, “Is there some way we can wake her up?”

“I was just about to do that, let’s just hope she’s calmer now,” she said, pulling something from her desk. She cracked it open and placed it under Aura’s nose.

A second or two later Aura jerked awake, looking around wildly. “The hell was that?”

“Smelling Salts,” Sun Spot said, tossing the small item into a bin on the other side of the room. I could just make out a slight ammonia smell as it passed by.

“Back on the ship, you passed out just outside of Everfree,” Sun Spot said, sitting on the floor next to the bed.

“Oh yeah, I almost forgot about that. I had a weird dream though, about…” she stopped talking looking down at her body. “It…wasn’t a dream?”

I moved over to her before she could start freaking out again. “Aura, you’re okay, the killing joke just pulled a prank on you, I’m sure you’ll be fine.”

Aura closed her eyes, taking in long, deep breaths. She did this for a couple of minutes. When she opened her eyes, she looked a lot calmer. “No, I won’t. Killing joke has no cure that we know of. Some of the jokes do wear off over time, if the joke isn’t funny anymore, but most of the time, it kills you or your stuck like that.”

She nodded. “Most likely, unless somepony’s come up with a cure for it in the past six months, but the last I heard, no one has.”

Sun Spot looked her over, then said, “I don’t see the killing part of this joke.”

Aura lifted her hooves, and raised a brow. “Being a pony means I can’t fight, at least not how I was trained to. My talons are my main way of fighting, by either using my claws to fight, or using my spear, or other weapons that griffons use to fight. Like this, I’m more useless than a foal.”

“I wouldn’t say useless, you just need to learn how to fight with your new body,” I said, as I spoke I couldn’t take my eyes off the strange sight of Aura as a pony. I wasn’t even sure if I missed her griffon form or if I liked this one better. Both were beautiful, but something about her as a pony just felt…normal I guess. I wasn’t going to tell her that though, she’d overreact and think I didn’t like her as a griffon.

She looked back at me and sighed. “I know that, but it’s not something I can pick up on overnight. It’s going to take time and who knows what’ll happen while we’re stuck all the way out here and away from the rest of our friends.”

“The Aura I know wouldn’t give up like that, hell, when I left my stable I didn’t know the first thing about how to fight and look at me now. You’ll be fine, just take as much time as you need to learn how to use your body to its fullest,” I said, moving over to kiss her on the cheek.

She got to her hooves and spread her wings. “You’re right, I can’t let something like this get me down.” She looked over at Sun Spot. “Got any weapons I can use to practice with?”

“Good, I’m going to take the time while we’re waiting around here and get to work,” Aura said, then she tripped on her hooves smacking her face on the floor. “Ow.”

I couldn’t help the small laugh that came out as I said, “Maybe you need to learn to walk first, then work on fighting.”

“Even if you didn’t, right now I’m stronger than you,” I said laughing harder. “Anyway, I’m gonna dive into one of those memory crystals, I need to see if there’s anything in them that can help us.”

“Diving into a memory crystal. Don’t worry, I’ll be fine, just come check up on me when you’re finished training,” I said, finding a comfortable spot in Sun Spot’s room.

“But…you said those things are dangerous,” Aura said trying to convince me.

I looked back at her. “They are, but I know what I’m doing, just check up on me when you’re finished. I don’t know how long this’ll take. If I’m still not out of it by the time we’re ready to leave then just get us going.”

Aura tried to argue more, but I shoved her out of Sun Spot’s room. “Go have fun learning about your new temporary body.” I shut the door and dug out the saddle bags I’d gotten from Charity, and moved over to the bed and dumped everything out onto it. I was a little amazed at how much stuff I was able to collect over the past few days. Nothing worth much really, just a few odds and ends, some ammo, a few caps, the letter I meant to throw away. Huh I’d forgotten I kept that, oh well, me having it was almost like throwing it away for Glory. It’s not like I’m ever going to meet Blackjack in the future. I picked up the larger envelope and put it into my other saddle bags.

With that done I looked at the rest of what I’d collected. A few guns, the spellbook from the base, the box with the wing blades in them and at last, the memory crystal. I picked it up with my hooves and pushed the rest of the stuff to the side with my magic, setting it all on the small desk. Setting it back down on the bed, I moved to lay down next to it, wondering what it was going to be like to enter this thing. I took a moment to think back, I remembered Minuette doing a spell to make the crystal she had glow and show the weird colors over it. I could almost remember the spell and how she did it, but not enough to risk trying it yet.

“There has to be a way for me to pull up that memory again,” I said to myself. It was too bad that the memory I needed wasn’t in an orb, it had been transferred to me by a peace of my grandmother’s memories inside Lacunae. Maybe if I used that same memory spell on myself, I’d be able to pull it up. Is it even possible to do a memory spell on yourself? Well, I won’t know until I try. So, I pulled on my magic and cast the spell over my own mind. At first nothing happened then with a snap, the world melted away.

A little while later I gasped as I left the memory. I guess I can make myself remember things with that spell, good to know. Some of what happened in it making me tear up a little. Remembering that this memory took place only a day or two before my grandmother lost her mare friend. I took a moment to settle down then looked at the memory crystal. The spell she used was similar to the one used to trap and release uncle Ori in that crystal. I was sure I knew how to do the spell now. I could feel myself shaking as I readied my magic, then with a flash of my horn I cast the spell over the crystal.

It only took a moment then the crystal started to glow and appearing right in the air over it were eight colored lights. An odd sensation came over me as I held onto the spell, first I noticed that small tendrils of magic were splitting off from my horn reaching for the lights. With just a thought I could make them move forward or back. This must be what I had to do to unlock the crystal. Second was a voice that seemed to echo around the small room. It was rich and powerful with a hint of amusement behind it. It was a mare’s voice, one that sounded ancient and wise.

“You have activated a document of my life; a slice of my history now lays in your hooves. One who dares to dig into the past be warned, only one with great power and a steady heart can enter a memory of mine. I give you this one chance to pull back. If you do not, you might be trapped within my memories for the rest of your life. If you know you can deal with the strain that comes with watching this, then please give me the code and watch one of the worse mistakes I’ve ever made,” the mare’s voice said.

This was unlike anything I’d ever felt before with a normal memory orb. Was I strong enough to deal with this? Could I escape once I was inside it? Maybe, maybe not, but one thing was for sure, Night Stalker wanted me to find something at his base and this might be it. So, with a deep sigh I moved the tendrils of magic forward and entered the code I’d seen written on the terminal.

As soon as I tapped the last color, the door to the room opened and I saw Aura walking in, saying, “Shadow I really think you should wait to enter that…Shadow…NO!”

I never heard what she was going to say because right then. Everything I was, vanished in a haze of black and gold light. My mind split, my body seemed to disappear, everything about who or what I was erased as I fell into the mind of another. The world didn’t melt away…it shattered.

oooOOOooo

“Moon Light! Moon Light! Wake up, now’s not the time to be passing out, we’re in the middle of a WAR!” I heard a griffon say, his talon’s shaking me awake like our lives depended on it. “Our Queen needs us.”

I shook my head and opened my eyes, looking up at his worried face. Strange, a moment ago I could have sworn I was in a cabin of a strange flying ship. But no, it must’ve just been some kind of strange dream. I’m not sure what it was, but I have to pull myself together. “War? What war? Our Queen?” I said wearily. “What happened? How long was I out? Who are you again?”

“You must have hit your head pretty hard when you passed out. Never mind, it’s me, Geoff. You’ve been out for about five minutes ma’am; we were just discussing our battle plan against Celestia’s forces when you just passed out. I was worried so I brought you back to our tent, Platinum Sky took charge while I looked you over,” Geoff said.

I thought about it for a moment, when something jolted my memory. I hit my hoof with my other, “That’s right, now I remember.” I looked back at Geoff. “Sorry Geoff, I’ve been working myself into the ground,” I said with a nervous laugh.

It was then I noticed that I was in the tent I shared with Geoff. It wasn’t much compared to our room at headquarters, but as long as I was with him, even a blanket on top of the dirt was better than being alone. What am thinking? I don’t have time for this right now, our Queen would be here soon and if we didn’t have a plan ready for our assault on The Castle of the Two Sisters… “Thank you for pulling me away like you did my love, but I’m fine now, we need to get back to what we’re going to do to combat Celestia,” I said, heading toward the tent flaps.

“Moon Light, you just passed out for an unknown reason, you should rest and let the others take care of this,” Geoff said as I made my way back up the small trail leading to the command tent.

“No! What I need to do is make sure everything’s ready for this last attack. You know what’s at stake Geoff,” I said as I pushed though the command tent’s flaps. “Platinum Sky, I need an updated report on the numbers Celestia has at the castle. Moonflower, what’s the status of the batpony guard? Calming Seas…where’s Calming Seas? Cold Front, go find Calming Seas and make sure he didn’t get lost in the forest.”

My team looked at me for a long moment, almost like I’d just walked in on something personal. The tall Pegasus buck with a metallic coat and silver eyes looked over at the rest then back at me. Finally, Platinum Sky spoke, “Moon Light, you just had some kind of episode, you passed out a few minutes ago. You need to rest, let us deal with this. We still have time before the attack.”

Moonflower, the pegasus mare with a flowing lilac mane and a black and white coat looked at me with her aqua blue eyes in concern as she asked, “What happened to you Moon?”

“Yeah you gave us all a scare there for a moment ma’am,” Cold Front said, she was a pegasus mare with a white and reddish orange mane and a navy-blue coat. Her mane was cut short to keep it out of her eyes when she flew. She was one of my strongest fighters and my best friend.

“I’ll be fine, I just didn’t eat enough today. I’ll be sure to get something before our meeting with the Queen is finished. Now, I need my reports and I still want to know where Calming Seas is,” I said, keeping my tone light, but still with a bit of command to it.

“I’m right here ma’am,” I heard Calming Seas say as he walked into the tent. He was a shorter buck with an almond colored coat, his mane the color of the sea with eyes that matched. Cold Front was my best friend, but Calming Seas was my favorite teammate…next to Geoff that is, but that was for other reasons.

I smiled as he walked past me, a scroll under his wing. “What did you learn from the castle?”

“Celestia’s planning something, but I couldn’t find out what. I was able to sneak into the throne room a little while ago and I overheard her saying something about some crystals she can use to defeat the Queen,” he said, laying the scroll down. “I also mapped out where her personal guard is and was able to poison their water, but I only used a small amount of helix leaf so they will only fall asleep. You said you didn’t want me to kill them.”

Platinum sighed, saying, “This matches the numbers I got from our scouts half an hour ago. We also found another fifty unicorns just north of the castle, but I think they’re only a rear guard. Also, one of our scouts who went to follow Celestia’s guard captain didn’t report back in. He’s now classified as M.I.A. with the possibility of being K.I.A.”

A regal voice flowed through the tent opening just then, Queen Nightmare Moon herself walked in, her mane of darkness flowing around her as she looked down at all of us. “If I know my sister the way I think I do, then she’s most likely hiding The Elements of Harmony down there. She believes that she can keep them from me. As if I needed their pathetic power after what I’ve gained.”

We all made a quick bow to her, then I said, “My Queen, what if Celestia is trying to trick us into thinking that she’s hiding them. What if she’s planning on using them against you?”

“Then my sister’s a bigger fool than I thought. She cannot wield the elements without me, even if she could, it would cost her dearly. I also know that thanks to the power I’ve gained, she’s no match for me now. Once we storm the castle, I will finally take complete control of Equestria,” Nightmare Moon said, cackling.

That sound made me shiver in fear. I was loyal to Luna for all the help she’d given us over the years, and even like this, she was still my queen, my princess, almost like a mother to me. But it was still unsettling, that wasn’t the Luna I knew. I could still remember the days when she used to laugh with her sister, when she would bring the moon to the sky, when she was happy. Over the years though I’ve watched her slowly fall into a deep depression over the ponies in Equestria who couldn’t appreciate her beautiful night sky. Maybe, if she wins this war, she’ll come back to us and stop sinking deeper into that dark place she was currently trapped in. Though I know deep down that she wasn’t going to become our Luna again.

We all bowed again to her crossing our right forelegs over our chests saying as one, “May the Night forever run free!”

Nightmare Moon grinned down at us all. “My children, you have served me well for all these years. Now I’m asking you to help me take back what is rightfully mine. Will you stand with me!?”

“Good, now go prepare the assault. We strike at the witching hour,” Nightmare Moon said.

With another bow, we all started to head out of the tent, I was leading my unit out when Nightmare Moon said, “Moon Light, I’d like a word before you set out.”

“Yes, my Queen,” I said, stopping next to the tent flap as the rest shuffled out.

Geoff stopped on his way out and leaned down to nuzzle my cheek for a moment. “I’ll see you soon.”

I smiled at his warm affection, watching as he followed Cold Front. For a moment, I remembered the day I first met him. Many years ago, when I was guarding Princess Luna on a trip to the Griffon Empire. Geoff didn’t like me much back then, we both were head strong and believed in our respective leader’s way of seeing the world. I almost blasted his head off that day when he said something derogatory about unicorns. But after that trip I was sent back a few more times on behalf of the Princesses. Well Cold Front and myself anyways. We told the Griffon Empire that we were on a diplomatic mission to set up trade agreements with Griffonstone, in reality, we were hunting down a runaway pony who’d stolen something from Luna.

Geoff was the Captain of the guard back then and assigned to watch over us while we were in their lands. At first, I hated having the griffon follow me around, but over time I came to respect him. He showed me a lot of the beautiful sights around their land. He explained a lot about their culture and their beliefs. I spent six months in the griffon lands hunting down that pony and a few others that followed him and over time I developed feelings for him. On the last night I was there, a few hours before I found and killed the pony I’d been hunting down, Geoff took me a to a place he loved going to when he had free time. A place called, Aurora’s Twin Peaks. It was a sight like none I’ve seen in my life, and that was when he told me he loved me. Since that day my heart was his, I knew it always would be until the day I died or even longer than that. If their belief in reincarnation was true, then I’d find him in every life. He gave me hope that the future was bright and good, even during these terrible times. Even when he was banished from his homeland for sharing so much with me about the griffons, he never blamed me.

“You always get that far away look when you’re around that griffon Moon Light,” Nightmare Moon said.

I jumped then looked back at her terrifying presence. “My heart beats for him my Queen.”

“I know it does and that is why I have let you continue this relationship with him even though I find it strange. I remember what it’s like to fall for another,” Nightmare Moon said.

“’Tis a story for another time. Maybe once I win I’ll have time to tell you about it. For now, I have a job for you,” she said.

“I know you do, ever since I took you in when you were a filly, you’ve always been loyal. That is why I am entrusting this to only you,” she said, starting to pace around the tent, her horn just brushing against the top fabric.

“It is two things I need from you. The first is I am sending you into the Castle with Moonflower. Once inside, you two will steal the Elements from my sister. You need to make sure nopony sees you. If Celestia finds any of my Children of the Night near her throne she will kill you herself,” Nightmare Moon said.

My eyes went wide for a moment. “I didn’t think that Celestia was capable of killing anypony.”

“She does not like to, and she will almost always do her best not to end a life. But she knows that my power is greater than hers, she will do what she must to keep the Elements safe,” she said, looking back at me. “I know I said that I do not fear her being able to use them, and I’m sure she can’t. But I will not risk my life on a hunch.”

“You will then kill the traitor within this unit. I believe that it might be Moonflower. She’s been questioning my power since I took this new form and I don’t like it. So, once you are in the castle, I want you to watch for signs that she is a traitor, and if so, I want you to end her life,” Nightmare Moon said.

It felt like my heart stopped as she said those words. I looked up into those turquoise eyes and saw nothing but anger in them. Luna…Nightmare Moon was asking me to kill a member of my unit, somepony I grew up with, she was like a sister to me. Why would she think Moonflower was the pony who betrayed her? Moonflower was kind-hearted, she’d always been loyal to Luna…always. I mean yes, she was worried that Nightmare Moon was acting different than we were used to with Luna, but I can’t see her being the traitor...I know she’s not the traitor.

If I say no, she’d kill me here and now, so I did the only thing I could, I bowed my head. “Yes, my Queen, it shall be done.”

“Good, now begone and start heading toward the castle, you have five hours before we start the final assault,” Nightmare Moon said before she walked out of the tent.

It took me a moment to move, it felt like my hooves were made of butter as I finally was able to force myself out of the tent. It only took me a moment to find Moonflower who was going over the battle plan with Geoff. I made my way over to her, saying, “Moonflower, I need your help, we have a mission.”

“The rest of our forces and the others can deal with that, we’ve got something more important to do. Our queen wants you to come with me and watch my back,” I said, then looked over at Geoff. “You’re second in command while I’m away. Platinum Sky will lead and I need you to make sure the others listen to him. Can you do that for me?”

“I do as I must, you make sure to stay safe while you’re away. Just make sure you come back to me in once piece,” he said.

“I don’t understand why she’s sending me, Cold Front or one of the others would be better on a mission to watch your back than me,” she said.

“True, but you’re one of the best stealth operatives we have, even better than me and where we’re going, I’ll need stealth. Now get your stuff and let’s go, we don’t have long,” I said.

“Yes ma’am, I’ll be right back,” she said, running to her tent to get her things.

When she was gone Geoff came over to me, asking, “You look scared, what’s going on?”

“You can tell me anything my love, we are bonded and we keep nothing from each other,” he said, referring to the ceremony griffons had in place of marriage. It was hard to believe that that was six months ago now.

“I know, but this is an order from Queen Nightmare Moon, I can’t talk about it until later. Just please let it go and if I can tell you about it later I will,” I said.

“Moon Light, something’s wrong, I can tell. What did she ask you to do?” he asked.

I looked over at Moonflower who was just coming out of her tent and felt a stabbing in my heart. “I said before, I can’t tell you.”

He followed my gaze and let out a soft sigh. “I understand,” he then pulled me into a hug, whispering, “If what she told you what I’m thinking, then you need to watch your back. She can’t find out the truth…not ever.”

“I know my love, just…keep everything here going smoothly and I’ll see you when this is all over,” I said, doing my best to hold back my pain.

“If you have to…you know…put an end to Moonflower to keep the rest of us safe…than make it quick, she deserves that much at least,” he said before letting me go.

“I’ll….try,” I said, backing away from him and turning to Moonflower who was just getting back.

“Good…let’s go,” I said, heading toward the path that would take us around to the castle in the distance.

“To the castle, we’re going to steal The Elements of Harmony. Nightmare Moon wants to make sure Celestia can’t use them. Once we’re done with that, we’ll be heading away from here to make sure Celestia can’t get to them. We have five hours before she starts the assault,” I said as I pushed past the guards to our camp and headed into the dark woods of the Everfree.

“But how are we going to be able to do that? Celestia isn’t like most ponies, she’ll know we’re in the castle. Even if we can get around her wards and her magic, how do you plan to steal something we know she will have close to her?” Moonflower asked.

I let my horn glow, my magic a pale white, saying, “I’m one of the most powerful unicorns to ever be born in Equestria since Celestia and Luna themselves. I can get around her magic, so stop asking me stupid questions and let’s get moving, we don’t have a lot of time.”

***

It took almost two hours to reach the secret entrance into the castle, thanks to the guards Celestia set up all over the woods and the grounds. I wanted to teleport right to the spot once we were close enough, but Celestia or one of her unicorns put up a ward to block teleportation in and out of the castle. So, instead, we snuck past everypony. It was pretty easy for Moonflower and myself, since we both exceled at stealth. We arrived at the bottom of the castle near the back and sat there for a moment. This was one of the oldest parts of the castle, right outside the foundation there is an entrance that led right into the dungeons.

“How do we know nopony’s there?” Moonflower whispered as I felt along the wall for the groove that would open the door.

“I’ve already cast a few spells around the area to locate anypony. The stone walls don’t block my magic, so I know that nopony is in the dungeons right now,” I said as I found the spot I was looking for and pulled.

With a hiss of air and a small rumble of stone scraping against stone, the wall pulled open. As soon as it was open I cast a spell on myself giving me the ability to see in the dark. I called it my Cateye spell, something I came up with a few years back. Lucky for me too, because the tunnel in front of me was pitch black. But in my sight a blue haze filled my vision and now I could see into the darkness.

“As I thought, I don’t see any traps or guards. Come here,” I said. She did and I cast the Cateye spell on her as well. “That will only last for an hour, let me know if it starts to fade before that.”

“Yes ma’am, but this isn’t the first time you’ve cast this spell on me before,” she said.

“I’m just trying to be careful, also I’m putting up the sound ward,” I said, casting the spell around us both. It would stop any sound from going more than a Meter or so. This way I could still talk to Moonflower without any wandering guards hearing us.

I checked the belt with my knives and the leather armor I always wore then nodded. “Yeah, let’s get going. We only have three hours left.”

Slowly we worked our way up the tunnel until it came to another door that would take us into the lower dungeon. Using another one of my spells, I unlocked the door. Still nopony was around that I could tell, well not guards at least. There were a few ponies down here. Mostly ones that broke the law, and I knew a couple of Luna’s fighters were here too. I’d have to hope that they didn’t wake when we passed their cells.

“Moon Light, I think we should take the servant’s stairs on the other side of the dungeons,” Moonflower said.

I winced as she said that. “That way will take us past the stone cell, you know how much I hate going by there.”

“I know, but it’s the safest path and you know it. Just don’t look at the cell when we go by and you’ll be fine,” she said, leading me toward the staircase.

Following I asked, “Are you sure? I mean you know that whatever is in that cell can tell when a unicorn is close. Luna and Celestia both told me to keep as far away from it as I can.”

“I know, but as I said, it’s the safest route. Now hurry up, I don’t want to wake the other prisoners in here,” she said.

As we moved down the hallway, I couldn’t help wondering why Nightmare Moon thought Moonflower was a traitor. She didn’t like what Luna had become, but she wasn’t the one sending information to Celestia. I knew who the true traitor was in our group, and I didn’t have the courage to say anything. If Nightmare Moon found out, everything would be lost. I’d have to do what she told me to, that was the only way to keep myself safe…for now at least.

As we passed by cells with sleeping ponies in them, I started to feel a deep chill come over me. It wasn’t too odd since I was in the deeper and darker part of the castle that the sun hadn’t been seen in a week, but this chill was more than just that. It’s too familiar to be that. It’s the same kind of cold I felt the only other time I came down this way. There was a creature in a special stone cell. One that Celestia and Luna locked away fifty or so years ago.

“We’re almost there,” Moonflower said as she passed by the massive door to the stone cell.

I was shivering now, the cold sinking down into my bones. I was just passing the door when a voice called out to me. It was dark and cold, it was a nightmarish accent resembling the zebras from Rome, “Little ponies in the hall, to what do I owe this late-night call?”

We both froze as the voice rolled over us. Moonflower looked back at me, her eyes wide with fear. “What was that?”

“It is rude to ignore one such as me, even if I make you want to flee. I have felt dark times fall over your land, what has happened under Celestia’s Command?” the voice said with a dark chuckle.

I looked over at the door where I saw something slowly pushing though a crack in the stone. “I don’t know what you are, but you’ve been imprisoned here for a reason, don’t bother us monster.”

“Moon Light, we should get out of here.” Moonflower said taking a few steps back from the stone prison.

“I find it interesting that you two fear me so much, when you do not even know who or what I am,” the voice said.

“It is not as easy as you might think to keep that game going, I tire of it. Now I believe I asked you a question young mare. What has been happening in Equestria over the past week?” it asked.

The darkness flowing out of the crack shot out and took hold of my forelegs. “I did not say you could leave yet unicorn, now tell me what has been going on.”

“Let me go!” I said pulling on my magic, then I felt my body freeze up as the darkness took hold of my horn.

“All I am asking is for some information, I have been trapped in here by Luna’s magic for some time now, but as of late I have felt her magic growing weaker around this cage I am in. Either something happened to her magic or she is letting me out finally. Give me what I want and I will let you go,” the voice said.

Moonflower moved closer, saying, “Luna has undergone a change, she’s gained new power and is now going by the name Nightmare Moon. She’s been keeping the moon in the sky and blocking the sun for a week now!”

“For now…interesting, your power feels…different than other ponies I have met over the years. So much light inside you, yet I can feel a bit of darkness deep down. What is your name young one?” he asked.

“Moon Light…I like that name, and your power is unlike anything I have felt before. If it was not for the power I created, I would have loved to take some of it from you, but sadly…” he said letting me go. “Your power has too much light in it for my liking.”

“One day I hope to show you who I am. I am sure that day will come sooner than you think if what I feel in Luna’s magic is true. I will be able to escape this cage soon I think and continue on with my mission. Thank you again for the conversation,” it said.

“If you really want to find out, then you will need to do the research. I will however give you one hint. Look in your history for the zony who almost destroyed the zebra homelands. When we meet again, you WILL know my name. Now be gone,” he said, and with that, the darkness flowing out of the crack in the stone cell vanished and the presence of that creature went along with it.

Moonflower took in a deep breath. “We need to get as far away from that thing as we can.”

“I agree,” I said, pulling my eyes away from the stone cell and letting them fall on Moonflower. “We’ve lost enough time as it is, we can worry about that thing later. For now, we have a mission to complete.”

As I pushed past her to head up the staircase just beyond the doors to the prison, Moonflower asked, “Are you sure we’re doing the right thing Moon Light?”

I didn’t stop, forcing her to follow as I said, “I’m not sure what’s right or wrong anymore. All I know is that I have my orders and I’ll do as I’m commanded just how you should.”

She followed as we snuck further into the castle’s depths. The prison was the farthest point from the throne room, making it so we’d have to push past guards and servants as we moved. Fortunately, the spell I’d cast over us earlier hadn’t faded yet. It made it easy for us to move fast without our hoofsteps being heard. It also made it easier for Moonflower to talk as we went.

“I’m worried about Luna’s judgement. I know she’s always resented the love Celestia gets from the rest of Equestria, but to keep our lands in an eternal night?” she said as we came to an intersection of hallways.

I peeked around the corner of one and noticed two guards working their way down the hall, luckily their backs were to us. I pulled my head back, saying, “We’ve talked about this already, I’m worried too, but now’s not the time to be talking about this again.”

Before she could say more I moved around the corner and cast a spell on the guards. At once, both of them slumped to the floor, both in a deep sleep. Once they were down, I lifted them both in my magic and pulled them closer. As I did, Moonflower came around, asking, “What are we going to do with them?”

In answer I opened the door to a supply closet where some of the castle’s rations were kept and dropped both guards inside. I closed the door and sealed it with a spell. Once that was done, I said, “They’ll be out for hours and once they’re awake, this will all be over. Now let’s get moving.”

This time Moonflower kept quiet as we worked our way down the halls. For the next hour we slowly made our way closer to the throne room, having to deal with a minimal amount of guards. All of them I put under a sleeping spell before hiding them in a side room or putting them into a chest or whatever else I could find. Normally getting from the prison to the throne room would only take about twenty minutes if you hurried, but since the two of us had to keep ourselves hidden and hide guards, it was slowing our progress down quite a bit.

Finally, I was able to see the corridor that led to Celestia’s throne room, with two guards keeping watch at its end. This wasn’t good, if two guards were at the end of the hall then that meant that Celestia was in the throne room. Thinking about how many guards we ran into just getting here, made more sense. There were guards down the hall as well and more in front of the doors and a few in the room itself. With the battle so close, I figured that Celestia wouldn’t be here. She should be readying her troops for the assault she knew was coming. If Moonflower wasn’t with me, I could’ve gotten in with no problem. I still could, but I still didn’t truly know what side Moonflower was on. Would she stand with me if she knew my true intentions or would she call me a traitor herself and try to kill me?

“We aren’t getting in that way,” Moonflower said from next to me, looking down at the guards.

“Only the secret entrance that leads to the upper balcony, and even then, we don’t know if guards are posted there. Even if we could get up there, with Celestia here, there’s no way we can get our hooves on the Elements,” Moonflower said quietly.

I racked my brain for a plan, something we could use to get past the guards and to make sure Moonflower didn’t suspect anything. I needed her to keep thinking this was a real mission until the last moment. Then it hit me and I smiled. “I have a plan, but you need to trust me.”

I smiled wider. “When I give the signal, I want you to fly to the secret entrance to the balcony that overlooks the throne room. Once you’re there, wait for me.”

“I can’t tell you, now just get going, you’ll only have about five minutes,” I said.

She gave me a scared look for just a moment, then nodded. “Okay, but don’t get yourself killed.”

“I don’t plan to,” I said as she flapped her wings and flew back down to the hall. I knew she’d take the long way around to get to the other side to where the entrance was. If the guards weren’t at the end of the hall, we would’ve been fine, but the entrance we needed was just behind an old statue that faced the corridor that led to where Celestia was. Luckily for me, one of the guards was a stallion I knew well.

I opened my mouth as I dropped the silencing spell yelling, “Gold Plate, since when have they been putting you on guard duty?”

Both stallions looked over at me with wide eyes. The taller one who was Gold Plate said, “Moon Light?”

I let magic flow through my horn as I said in a sweet voice, “Intruder? Now that just plain hurts, last time I checked I was always allowed in here.”

Gold Plate started walking toward me with the other guard, saying, “Moon Light, you know you can’t just wander into the castle like this.”

“Sir, what are you saying? She’s working with Nightmare Moon!” the other guard said.

“Shut up! Trust me, she’s a friend,” Gold Plate said as he drew closer. “Moon Light, drop the spell and come with me. Princess Celestia will want to hear your report.”

“Sorry Goldie, but I’m kind of on a mission here,” I said, then cast a memory spell over the other stallion followed by a slight sleeping spell. He hit the ground with a loud thump.

I interrupted him. “I don’t have time, now listen closely, I have to get into the throne room and I can’t have any of the guards seeing me.”

“No, I haven’t. Now shut up and listen to me. I have a plan, but I need to get into the throne room first, I’m not going to hurt Celestia or anypony else, but if I don’t get in there soon, this war will be lost. Moonflower is already on her way there now and I need to make sure she trusts me,” I said quickly.

“You’ve trusted me since this whole thing started and I haven’t let you down yet. All I need you to do is act like nothing happened when I go into the secret passage. When that other guard wakes, make sure he’s back at his post and act like he just fell asleep,” I said.

Gold Plate looked down at the sleeping guards. “He won’t remember seeing you?”

“No, I took that memory away from him. Now can you help me?” I asked in a hurry knowing that any second now, Moonflower would be near the entrance and she’d be able to overhear me.

“Fine, but if you try anything, I will have you killed. Do you understand me?” he replied.

I allowed myself to chuckle. “There isn’t much you could do to me, but nice try. Now get back to your post, I’ll be quick.”

“You’d better be,” he said, turning to start dragging the guard back to his post.

“Thank you,” I said and pushed past him. I checked down the corridor that led to the throne room and saw more guards, but none were looking my way. So, I turned to the left and headed for the statue. I just arrived at it when I saw Moonflower fly down from the dark shadows over it.

“I cast a memory spell on the guards, but hurry, they’ll wake soon and we don’t want to be seen,” I said as I pushed a spot on the statue and watched as it slid to one side, revealing a narrow staircase on the other side.

We both started climbing up them, the statue closing behind us. It wasn’t very far to reach the top, that led to a narrow hall that went over where the guards were posted and into the throne room itself. This passage was created just for ponies like myself. It was a way for the assassins to reach the Princesses if we needed to. To make reports or get orders without any other pony seeing us. There was another entrance of course, but it was located in the courtyard where I knew soldiers were posted.

A few minutes later Moonflower and myself found ourselves in a small loft area overlooking the throne room. This place was mostly hidden from the ponies on the ground level. It was only here so certain ponies could listen in on what was going on below or if Celestia or Luna wanted to get a break from the day or night duties they both held in the past. Up here they could rest without being bothered by the castle staff, but still be close by if they were needed. It was the perfect place to hide while we waited for our moment to strike.

Recasting the silencing spell over myself, I moved to stand next to Moonflower so she could hear me. “We’ll wait here until we know we can steal the Elements. The battle should be starting soon and I’m sure Celestia will want to be with her troops when it starts.”

“Not a bad idea, let’s just hope Celestia doesn’t come up here to rest while she waits,” Moonflower said, creeping closer to the edge of the overlook to see who was in the throne room.

She jumped back almost as soon as she reached it as Celestia’s voice echoed up toward them. “General, do we have any more information about when my sister will attack?”

A deep stallions voice responded, saying, “Our scouts say Nightmare Moon is readying her forces as we speak. We saw some of her Children of the Night with the troops. We think they’ll strike within the hour.”

A long sigh came up toward us from Celestia as she said, “I truly hoped that my sister would see reason and stop her eternal night. Sadly, she is too lost in this strange power she’s received.”

Another voice came up toward us, a mare, “Princess Celestia, I’m sure you’ll be able to bring her back to herself. You’re the most powerful pony in all of Equestria.”

“I am powerful yes, but Luna is just as strong, but with her transformation into Nightmare Moon, I don’t think I can best her anymore. She is letting hatred fuel her magic and I cannot fight against that,” she said.

“What about the Elements? I’m sure with their power you can do something against Nightmare Moon,” the mare said.

“Only as a last resort. Even if I could wield them, I would still need my sister to make them work at full power,” Celestia said.

The stallion spoke again, “You’re acting as if there is nothing more you can do Princess. Should we just bow down to this mad pony and let her take over, keeping our lands in eternal darkness?”

“You will watch your tone with me General, that mad pony is my sister. Yes, she may not be in her right mind at the moment, but I know that she is still Luna, no matter what she calls herself now,” Celestia said in a booming voice.

“He didn’t mean anything by it your Highness, it’s just that it sounds like you’ve given up,” the mare said.

“Maybe I have…” Celestia said slowly. “But still, even if I do not see a way to win this, I will still try. I have a plan, but I don’t know if it will work.”

“Then all is lost, just remember that if I fall, I want all of you to surrender. It is the only way to make sure more lives aren’t lost,” Celestia said, sounding sad.

“If The Children of the Night are with her, then you will fall General. They are the best fighters in Equestria,” Celestia responded.

The mare spoke up again, “I don’t believe that, they are just four pegasi, a unicorn, and a griffon. How can they be stronger than your royal army?”

“They have been trained how to fight since they were foals. I do so hate to repeat myself, but seeing as you still don’t understand General, I’ll tell you again. The Children are Equestria’s shadows, the killers in the night, trained to fight the battles for our great land. You two are the only ones who know who they are and if you fight them, they will kill you both. Moon Light, their leader, alone is almost as powerful as I am. So, I ask you to please do as I ask and surrender if I fall to my sister. Do I make myself clear?” Celestia said, her voice filled with power and authority.

“Good, now go make sure we are ready for the fight to come and leave me be so that I might prepare,” Celestia said.

They both responded again with a quick, “As you wish your Highness,” before leaving the throne room.

Moonflower looked back at me and said in a quiet tone, “She is alone, we should act now.”

“No, Celestia is still strong and even I can’t take her by myself,” I said as I watched Moonflower.

Her eyes went wide as she said, “Moon Light, you have me with you. Keep her distracted and I can take her out. Once she’s gone, we won’t have to worry about the coming fight.”

“We aren’t killing Celestia, even if we could. That job is for Luna not for us,” I said getting angry.

“Her name is Nightmare Moon now Moon Light, why do you keep calling her by her old name. She isn’t the same mare anymore, she isn’t the one who raised us anymore, she is a queen now,” Moonflower said angrily.

I felt my own anger reaching a peak as I said louder, “That’s the problem right there Moonflower, one minute your talking about how this whole thing is wrong, the next your back to defending what Luna’s become! Let’s not forget you also called her Luna before we got here, so don’t you dare call me out on it.”

“What we are doing is wrong, but I swore myself to fight and protect Princess Luna, now Nightmare Moon. Just because I don’t agree with what she is doing doesn’t mean I’m going to betray her,” Moonflower said with a hiss of anger.

“You’re contradicting yourself again Moonflower. She isn’t Luna anymore and I swore to protect Equestria and Princess Luna. Nightmare Moon isn’t the same pony. She’s taken over our mother’s mind and body and made us think she is the same pony, but she isn’t!” I yelled, then felt a stab of fear in my chest realizing I said too much.

Moonflower looked at me with shock as she took a step back. “Our Queen was right.”

“I was hoping it wasn’t true, but she suspected it was you this whole time. That’s why she wanted me to go with you. I’m sure she told you I was a traitor and to kill me right?” Moonflower said.

“How do I know you’re not just trying to mislead me. Maybe you are the traitor,” I said, trying to defend myself.

“I guess we’ll find out. First though our Queen gave me a mission a few hours before she told you to go on this mission. She said that she was going to tell you that I was the traitor and to kill me if I showed signs of betrayal. She said that if you tried to kill me I was to give you this,” she said, pulling a scroll out from her satchel and tossing it to me.

If you’re reading this, that means you passed my test and are still loyal to me as you always have been. I do hope that you didn’t kill Moonflower because she is working for me to make sure you are not our mole. If you passed, then I am happy to know that you are still with me.

If you are reading this because you are the one who betrayed me then, what happens to you next is a rightful punishment for what you’ve done. Goodbye Moon Light. Remember that the night will always run free!

I looked up from the scroll just in time to see Moonflower coming at me with a dagger hooked around her hoof. I could see tears in her eyes as she lunged, her dagger going straight for my heart. Foolish Moonflower, she’d known me since we were fillies, she trained with me, she grew up with me, she knew how stupid it was to attack me like this. There’s a reason I’m the leader of The Children of the Night. It wasn’t because of my leadership skills, or for the respect I’d earned from the rest of my small family. It wasn’t even because of how powerful I was as a unicorn. No, it’s because I was the best fighter in Equestria, with or without magic.

I sidestepped her attack, brought a hoof up taking hold of her extended foreleg and twisting her around. Moonflower was pulled out of the air and slammed down on the floor with a loud thump. She gasped as air exploded from her lungs, the dagger that was around her hoof flying off and skidding across the tiled floor. Once she was down I hit her in the face three times, then flipped her around onto her belly pinning her down. I wrapped a spell around her and made sure she couldn’t move.

Once that was done and Moonflower started to breathe in a deep gasp of air I said, “Next time you want to attack me Moonflower, remember that giving me warning about what you’re going to do is the worst mistake you could’ve made.”

She took in a few deep breaths, then said in a hoarse voice, “You betrayed Nightmare Moon.”

“No, I only did as I was trained to do by Luna. I’m protecting Equestria from evil. You betrayed Luna,” I said.

There was a flapping of wings followed by Celestia’s voice, “She can’t do that right now Moonflower, once this is all over then maybe we can talk about what’s going on.”

I looked up to see Princess Celestia looking down at me from the edge of the balcony rail. I nodded my head, saying, “Princess Celestia, I’m sorry if this goes against your plan, I had no choice but to bring Moonflower. Nightmare Moon would have known something was wrong if I’d gone alone. She ordered me to watch Moonflower and to kill her if she was a betrayer, but it was all a ruse, to make it so Moonflower could assassinate me.”

“Because you’re betraying all of us!” Moonflower said, tears falling down her face. “We trusted you, we followed you, and you’ve betrayed us to the enemy.”

Celestia moved down and bent her head close to Moonflower. “Moonflower, the pony you follow may pretend that she is Luna with greater power, but she is nothing more than a darkness that’s taken over her mind, turning her into a monster. Nightmare Moon isn’t my sister, she is a demon that’s using her body.”

“She is the Queen of the Night!” Moonflower said looking up at Celestia with hatred.

She laughed gently still showing the kindness she embodied. “Yes, she is, but not in the way you see it. If my words cannot convince you otherwise, sleep and I hope that one day you’ll forgive us for this,” Celestia said, her horn glowing.

A second later, Moonflower as out like a light. I released my spell holding her down and sighed sadly as I took a few steps back. “I had no idea she’d do this. She’s been talking for a while now about how Nightmare Moon’s motives are wrong, I was hoping she’d join our cause.”

Celestia sighed. “The Children of the Night have lived most of their lives learning and following my sister, ever since she took all of you from the orphanages when you were all little. It’s not easy to change one’s loyalties so easily.”

“I still haven’t changed my own Princess Celestia, I’m only helping you bring back Luna,” I said bowing a little.

“I know, but I am afraid that nothing can bring her back. The only thing that might be able to are The Elements of Harmony, and without my sister, I don’t think I’d be able to use them in that way. Even trying could kill me,” she said.

“So even if I didn’t take them from you, like your sister wants, we might still lose?” I asked.

She looked over at me with sad eyes. “It is possible that we might fail, but I have a plan, one that I hope will hold Nightmare Moon off for a long time.”

“But…what about getting Luna back?” I asked, my hopes dying at her words. I had only started helping Celestia because she was the only pony I knew that could bring back the pony I looked up to as a mother. “If we don’t get her back, then what will happen to the others…my family?”

“If I win, but we don’t get Luna back, then I hope that The Children will still help me in the coming years,” she said.

“We don’t serve you Celestia, we serve Luna and only her, that is our reason for living. We protect Equestria for Princess Luna,” I said, feeling anger build within me. “Maybe I should just work with Nightmare Moon, at least she is close to Luna.”

The look she gave me wasn’t one of anger, it was the look a mother gave a foal who was acting like a brat, mixed with pity and sadness. “She is nothing like my Luna. She is filled with rage, hate, and resentment. Those feelings are what my sister was feeling at the time she made that deal with the darkness. The only thing that can bring her back is love. Sadly, right now, there isn’t enough of it to pull her from the brink.”

I felt a tear fall down my face as I said, “I just want things to go back to the way they were.”

I felt a wing from Princess Celestia wipe away the tear before it could fall, followed by her gentle voice, saying, “I know, but at the moment, we have to just see what happens and hope for the best. For now, you have a job to finish.”

“No, I don’t, if I finish my mission for Nightmare Moon, then you may not be able to win. No, I will have to think of something to make sure the rest of my team never finds out what I did. Just in case it turns out for the better,” I said, looking down at Moonlight. “I’m going to have to kill her. She’s seen too much and knows too much…”

I saw a glow form around Moonlights head as Celestia said, “Killing your friend will not help at all. I will remove what she learned today and we’ll hope that she won’t ever find out what happened tonight. We’ll let her rest up here until the battle is over.”

“I am, now before we continue, do you have anything to report?” she asked, finishing up the spell.

I wiped away the fresh tears then said, “We managed to make it in without killing any guards, though most of them are in a deep sleep throughout the castle. Oh, and when we entered the dungeons to get in, we were spoken to by whatever you have trapped in the stone cell. There’s a crack in it and something spoke to us through a dark smoke that was leaking out.”

To my amazement Celestia’s eyes went wide as she said in a panicked tone, “How long ago!?”

I had to think about it for a moment before replying, “A couple hours now I think. Why?”

“Mezzanotte, I knew I felt something from him down there…but…with Nightmare Moon and what she’s done…” Celestia said then looked back over to me. “I need you to go back down there and seal that crack before it’s too late.”

“What do you mean? What is that thing?” I asked, remembering him saying something about looking into a Zony.

“There’s no time, just know that whatever he is now isn’t anything we can fight. Not with Luna the way she is now, that cell he’s in is the only thing keeping Equestria safe from his terror,” Celestia said, trotting over to a desk in one corner and pulling out a gem. She cast a spell over the gem until it was glowing with a bright white light. When she was done, she walked back over and gave it to me with her magic. “Place this gem near the crack and it will reseal the cell. Once that’s done, I want you to head back to your unit, we need to make sure that Nightmare Moon keeps thinking you’re on her side.”

I took the gem looking up at her with fear, “Princess Celestia, Nightmare Moon thinks I was the pony who betrayed her. That’s why she sent Moonflower with me, she was supposed to test me and kill me if I was the mole. If I don’t go back with Moonflower then she’ll know something’s wrong.”

Her horn started to glow brightly as she said, “You’re a smart pony Moon Light, I know you’ll think of something. Now I need you to get down there and fix that cell before Mezzanotte gets free!”

“But Princess…” I started to say, then the world around me turned into nothing but golden light as Celestia teleported me away from the throne room.

I found myself standing on the steps that led back to the prison. The torches had gone out and a dark mist seemed to fill the room like smoke. To make things worse, there was a bone chilling cold, when the air should’ve been on the warmer side. I took a step down, then another. Each step was like I was stepping into a frozen lake, pins and needles seemed to be flowing though my body as I got closer to the stone cell.

“I was not expecting you to return so soon Moon Light,” the deep voice from before said.

I pulled the gem I’d gotten from Celestia up in front of me, holding it within my magic, saying, “Celestia told me your name, it’s Mezzanotte.”

“Ah, good old Celestia, how is she doing!” Mezzanotte asked his tone sounding light and cheerful.

“I’m not here to talk, I’m here to seal that prison of yours,” I said drawing closer to the cell and the crack that had grown wider since I was down here earlier.

“Foolish pony of little sight, I believe you have underestimated my might. For you do not know the power I wield, for I have the power to make Celestia yield. I am a creature made by the darkest of night, I come from a place that sees no light,” Mezzanotte said, starting up his creepy rhyming again.

I just made it to the crack in the wall as I said, “You can say whatever you want, but the power I have is from Celestia herself. She’s trapped you in here before and she will do so again.”

I pressed the gem up to the cell, as I did a dark scream filled the prison around me. The darkness seemed to start fading as the gem started to glow brighter. The crack in the cell started to vanish slowly, the gem cracked then broke. I looked at the gem in horror for a moment before the stone cell exploded in my face. I was thrown back into the opposite wall as a dark form stepped into the hole left over where the stone cell used to be.

The darkness pulled itself into a pony like shape, I could see lines on it that were a lighter black than the rest of its body, giving the appearance of stripes. Except for the face, the stripes around its face were a glowing red, flowing into shapes and symbols almost like what I read about a tribe of zebras. They were marked for being followers of the moon. Then there were his eyes, they were nothing more than glowing red orbs on the shadowy face. They gave me the impression that they could look right through me and into my very soul. The last thing that formed on the tall ponylike form was a cracked and jagged horn made out of red and black shadow.

I tried getting back to my hooves as I looked up into that fiery gaze, but something was holding me down. It was like gravity itself wasn’t working right. I felt ten times heavier than normal. I saw a crack appear in the shadow form’s face and heard Mezzanotte say, “Celestia may be strong, but her power is wrong. The Princess of the Sun, should learn when to run. For she is not the one who knows how to keep me in my cage, only the younger one understands the power of rage. This is why I showed her how to find her true power, so she could make the ponies of this land cower. Now I am free, so it is time for you to flee.”

The dark form came closer and said in a lower tone, “Moon Light, I must thank you for this gift. Because without you, I would have never been able to find my way out of that cage.”

“Remember when you told Luna that she should find a way to make the ponies of Equestria appreciate her night? Well she did as you said and came to me asking how she could get more powerful. So, I told her where to find the old zebra tomes about the stars. She has become Nightmare Moon…because of you. Now her power that was helping keep me closed away in that cell is gone. That is why I was able to break free. Everything that is happening now, is your fault. Now I will go out into Equestria and build my power once again. And someday soon, I will return and make this land mine,” he said with a chuckle.

“I will stop you…Celestia will stop you,” I said, even though I was scared of even looking into those dark red eyes.

“I would love to see you try, I really would,” he said, laughing again, then he cocked his head up toward the castle. “Sounds like my apprentice has started her assault. I don’t think she’ll win though, she has no idea what she has gotten herself into. That is fine with me, because with Celestia in charge, I will be able to hide and grow my power until no pony or zebra or alicorn can stop me. Good luck with your small war Moon Light, I look forward to our next encounter.”

“Mezzanotte!” I yelled as his body started to turn into a dark shadow again.

He stopped and looked back at me his red eyes locked onto my own. As our eyes met, something in the back of my head seemed to snap and I felt pain there. It was like another…something was pushing its way through my mind. As it did, Mezzanotte said, “I can see you in there small one, time means nothing to me and I know you’re in there. I give you a warning now, because when we meet one day, I will destroy you and Altair’s little creation. Get to know my power, learn to fear it, because soon, I will be your death.”

He started to laugh again as he cast a spell. “I am talking to your soul!” There was a flash of light…and everything went black…

As the darkness pulled at me, I felt my mind split, almost like another version of me was trying to pull away, but I was trapped. There’s not enough power, too much to take in, I...can’t get free! Shadow…Moon Light…Shadow…Moon Light. Courier, leader, friend, sister, follower, hero, demon…who AM I!? Which body is the one that belongs to me? The short mare that’s seen too much death and destruction, or the mare of great power who betrayed her Princess to save her land? I’m…not sure, both paths feel right, yet both feel wrong.

As I think about this problem, my mind seems to fracture and that memory seems to start all over again…

“Shadow! Shadow, listen to me, follow my voice,” I heard a zebra mare say from somewhere deep in the darkness. “Listen to my voice Shadow, remember who you are, do not let the dream crystal keep you trapped. You are Shadow Star, you are The Courier, not whatever memory you are stuck in. Let go of the power and come back to the ones who love you!”

“I…can’t…who’s Shadow, GO AWAY MEZZANOTTE!” I yelled into the everlasting darkness of this nightmare.

“Come back to us Shadow, I know you can do it!” I heard her voice say again. This time, I knew who it was, Empress Sheena. No, I don’t know anyone named Sheena, do I? If I did, then she would have to be a Zebra, but Empress, the Zebras don’t have an Empress…but no that’s not right, The Kingdom does.

I took hold of that voice and used it to pull myself slowly out of the nightmare I’d been trapped in for what seemed like years. As I did, my mind seemed to slowly pull itself back together. Now I could see what was me and what wasn’t. I wasn’t Moon Light the leader of the first Children of the Night. I’m Shadow Star, the distant granddaughter of the last leader of The Children. Yes, that’s it, I’m Shadow, my parents are Grimoire Spell and Nightshade. I love Aura Bloodtalon, my best friend is Stardust Night, my other friends are Wingnut and Wind Thrasher. That’s right, now I remember. As I finally pulled the last of who I was back into one whole. The world came back to me…my world…The Wasteland.

oooOOOooo

The fall of Nightmare Moon, what a stupid name, I didn’t even get to see the fight between her and Celestia. It was all about that Moon Light pony who used to lead The Children. It’s like a shitty book that acts as if it’s about somepony famous and their life when all it’s about is someone who interacted with them and changed THEIR life instead of something interesting about the famous pony. I hate the past.

Slowly I opened my eyes. Dim lights nearly blinding me as I woke from that damned memory crystal I’d found in the old bunker. My head felt like it had been split in two. I groaned and put a hoof to my head. “Why do I feel like a hell hound just used my head as a punching bag?”

A moment later Sheena and Aura’s faces came into view, both looking tired and worried. Aura placed a hoof on my face saying in a relieved voice, “I’m glad you finally came out of that thing. I thought you were going to be stuck in it forever.”

“She would have too if you had not gotten her to me Aura,” Sheena said. “Shadow, how are you feeling?”

I groaned. “I just said I feel like a hell hound used my head as a punching bag. Isn’t that a good enough explanation of my pain level?”

“I am not surprised, you used just about all of your magic while trapped inside that crystal. Here, let me get you a brew that will help with the pain,” Sheena said, reaching back toward a table and picking up a bowl with a funny smelling goo inside. Why is it always goo?

“Is that one of those gross kinds of brews that taste like snot, or is it the good kind that makes me want to keep drinking more?” I asked as Aura helped me sit up.

“I will have you know, that I did not brew this myself, one of our zebra doctors did, and the taste is not that of snot…more like burnt socks, but it will help,” she said putting the bowl into my hooves.

I groaned. “Gee when you put it like that, I think I’d rather just deal with the pain.” But I took the brew anyway. She was right, I think. I’ve never tasted a burnt sock, but if I had, I wouldn’t be surprised if this is what it tasted like. Luckily for me, it wasn’t the worst thing that’s ever gone into my muzzle. Not, even, close. After I got it down and held back my gag of disgust I managed to ask, “How long was I in that thing?”

“Four days,” Aura said as she stroked my mane. “We arrived here yesterday and good thing too, because I was having a hard time keeping you hydrated and I had no idea what to do. I knew you shouldn’t have gone into that stupid crystal. You’re not powerful enough to use one, you said yourself that only powerful unicorns should enter a memory crystal.”

I frowned. “Ouch, I’ll have you know that I’m no weakling,” I said, my head was already starting to feel a lot better. Yay for nasty, but amazing zebra cures.

“Shadow is right, she is not weak Aura, but Shadow you should also remember that you have gone through a great ordeal over the past week. Your magic is not strong right now, especially after whatever happened while Aquila had your body,” Sheena Said.

“Yes, Aura told me everything while we were waiting for you to wake. I was able to pull you out of the crystal a few hours ago, thanks to some old books I have found about them. I will say, I did not expect to see Aura again like this though. I thought a new Enclave pegasus was trying to escape to The Kingdom until I saw you on her back,” she said with a laugh.

“Yeah, I’m still getting used to it,” Aura said, running a hoof though her mane. “I miss my talons, but at least this mane is soft. So, there’s perks.”

I leaned up and kissed her lips softly and smiled as I felt her shock, then her body shiver a little. “I still think you look cute, but I’m not saying I didn’t like you as a griffon.”

She smiled a little. “I’ll admit, there are some nice things about this body, though flying is still weird. How do pegasi get around on such small wings?”

“Couldn’t tell you, that’s a Stardust question,” I said, sitting up more. “Damn, so we lost four days because of that memory crystal?”

“Yeah, you’re a big fat idiot and we all know it, but it’s fine now that you’re okay. We had to stop in The Kingdom anyway to drop off two letters from that crap you’re delivering for Bottle Cap. I also took care of three other settlements on our way here for you. So, don’t worry about them,” Aura said.

“So, you just flew down into random settlements and made deliveries for me? I’m surprised you didn’t get shot at, most ponies would’ve thought you were Enclave,” I said.

She shrugged, “I just put on a duster that Captain Gunny had in his ship and hid my wings from them. We landed the ship each time, made the drop off’s, collected the caps, and were off again. Honestly, your job is fucking easy.”

I rolled my eyes. “Being a courier is, but being The Courier isn’t the same.”

“Yeah, yeah, if you say so,” she said waving a hoof. “At least I’m still taller than you.”

Sheena laughed a little. “At least you are taking your new body with a bit of humor Aura.”

“Trust me, I’m still pissed, but I can’t change it, at least not yet. I’m just gonna do my best to live with it,” she said.

“Not really, but we did hear a few rumors that some things have been happening in the clouds. Not sure what yet, but Sheena said that they got reports about most of the troops in the Twin Cities heading back up to Nimbus,” Aura said.

Sheena sighed, saying, “We do not know anything just yet. This all happened a day or so ago. The only thing we have heard is that your father called for all troops to head back to the clouds. If we find out more, we will be sure to get you the information. But I believe that you will be able to find that information out for yourself. At least a lot faster than my husband or I can.”

“I agree, but I think you should rest for another day or so before we head out. You just came out of a nasty memory crystal. By the way, did you even learn anything useful in there?” Aura asked.

I remembered Mezzanotte speaking to…me through the crystal, but I also didn’t know if that was really part of the memory or my brain melting from the over use of magic. So, I answered, “I’m not sure yet. It’s hard to wrap my head around what happened in there. It was like I was Moon Light, the first leader of
The Children of the Night. I felt everything she did, I could hear her thoughts, feel her emotions, I was her. I’ve never felt anything like that before in my life.”

“Yeah and neither do I. If I ever have to go into one again, I will make sure my power isn’t feeble. At the end of the memory each time I started to feel like myself, but then it would suck me back in,” I said, stretching my legs a little. “Now, enough about this memory crystal, we should get going. I’ve been away from home for too long.”

Sheena looked me over for a moment then shrugged. “As long as she does not overdo her magic for a few days then I see no problem with it. Though I do wish you two could stay for a little while. It is nice to see you both again.”

“Yeah, I know, but Grim’s expecting us back soon and with two more deliveries to make for Shadow we don’t have much time to spare anyway. Even though I’d like her to rest more,” Aura said.

“I guess you are right and I do not like Captain Gunny being in The Kingdom for too long. Every time him or his crew come here, there is always at least two fights and something always seems to go missing,” Sheena said.

“Did Gunny hear somepony sayin’ Captain Gunny’s name? Ya wouldn’t be sayin’ nothin’ bad about him would ye?” Gunny said as he came into the room. His eyes fell on me and he beamed. “Ah, look Starshine is back to er’ old wakey up self der isn’t she? Good, cause Gunny need’s to be headin’ off and teachin’ his new crewmate how the Bitter Cob be workin’”

“Don’t ye be talkin’ bout Gunny’s rear end now Shadow… er something, now get ye tiny butt outta bed. Gunny has a schedule to keep,” he said.

I looked over a Sheena and gave her a thankful smile, “I’m glad you helped me get out of that thing. Thank you.”

“Shadow, you are a friend and you have done a lot of good for The Kingdom. You can always count on our help here whenever you need it,” Sheena said, helping me out of the bed. “By the way, I am giving you tablets with a few herbs in them that will help your magic come back a little faster. With what you have gone though, you will need them.”

I looked over at Aura, then asked Sheena, “Do you know a way we can fix Aura?”

The look she gave me was one of pity as she said, “I am sorry Shadow, but killing joke is a mystery to most ponies and zebras. I have heard of ponies around The Wasteland trying to find a cure for it, but nothing has been found that works. I think the only ponies who would know something would be The Enclave.”

“Shadow, it’s okay. I’ll get used to this in time and honestly, it’s not that bad being a pony. As long as I have you, we’ll be okay,” Aura said, her voice still not what I was used to.

“I may not need to, but I want to. You may say you’re fine now, but one day you’re going to start missing your old body. And when that day comes, I’m going to make sure you’ll be able to get it back,” I said.

“I guess I should know better than to try and change your mind,” she said with a chuckle. “Well, if you’re feeling okay, let’s get back to the ship and head home.”

I sighed at that. “Home, home sounds nice right now,” I said, then turned back to Sheena. “I wish we could stay longer.”

She hugged me. “I know, but this is the way it has to be.” She pulled away and gave me a bottle with small tablets in it. “These are the tablets, take one before you go to sleep every night for the next few days. You’ll start to feel your magic getting back to normal soon.”

“Oh, and I gave Aura some notes about what I believe your mother is going through with her memory loss. We had time to talk about her condition while you were still out,” Sheena said with a smile.

Aura spoke up this time, saying, “Yeah, you thought you did, but I met with those weird brothers again and they believe that the stone wasn’t used on your mother, or if it was, it didn’t work. The memory problems your mother has doesn’t match up with the stone’s power.”

“What are you saying then? If that wasn’t what happened, then why did mom forget me?” I asked.

Sheena looked at me sadly. “It is because I believe that the kind of magic your mother is using, is damaging her body. I went over everything in my notes, read them for yourself and then show them to your mother when you get back. She will understand them the most I believe. If I am right, she might know a way to fix her own problem.”

“I am not sure, but I believe so,” Sheena said. “Now get going, I hope that everything works out for you Shadow. And please do come visit us again when this is all over.”

“I will, thank you again Sheena…thank you so much,” I said as Aura led me out the door.

“Bout, time ya be gettin’ up. Gunny don’t have all day,” Gunny said as he started down the hall of the medical wing in Sheena’s home.

“Gunny, I thought you weren’t captain right now,” I said as we headed out of the mansion and into the courtyard where I could see The Bitter Cob was waiting with Elliot and Sun Spot on the deck and what looked like two zebras and another unicorn.

“Sunny be givin’ Gunny another chance she did. But ye be right also, Gunny still has to listen to Sunny fer right now. Once he shows he can be trustin’ again, den Gunny will have The Bitter Cob back himself,” he said as he walked up the gang plank.

“Oh, they be the new crew, Gunny needs more help since his last crew only be da twins,” he said.

“And because I said we needed help,” Sun Spot said as she walked over to me. “Don’t let him act like he’s in charge, The Bitter Cob is being run by me still and it will stay that way until I feel like Gunny has earned my trust again. But the new crew was my idea. The unicorn is Isotope, he’s taking over coms and navigation. The two zebras are Zekon and…”

I interrupted her as the second zebra turned around I recognized him. “Khalid! Is that you!?”

He looked at me and the zebra I met in Whinnieapolis trotted over. “Nah, it can’t be the lil shorty from the city? Girl, last time I saw ya, you was goin’ into that big tower, then you went and blew the thing up. I was like DAYUM!”

“I’m glad to see you got out of there. My friend said he was going to help you and your mom, but I never heard anything about if you two made it out for sure,” I said.

“Ah, it’s all cool girl, my momma and I both got to The Kingdom and all that. That creepy dude in the mask said ya’ll told him to come help my momma and me. Ya kept your word and I’m grateful for that,” he said with a huge smile.

“If your mom and you got here safe, then why are you joining Gunny’s crew?” I asked.

“AH shit, well ya see, momma be sayin’ things like,” Khalid said, his voice changing into what I’d expect a normal zebra to sound like. “Khalid, you have to get out of this place and do something with your life. You are driving me crazy.”

I chuckled a little. “She sounds like a fun mom. She just wants you to have your own life.”

His voice changed back over as he said, “Yeah, I know right. She be the coolest momma around y’know what I’m sayin’? I was all worried and shit that she’d need me, but honestly, I just think she wanna spend time with the ol’ zebra who stays next to us. I love my momma and all, but I don’t need to be seein’ her mackin’ on someone who ain’t my pops.”

“Word, did ya see that pony-griffon thing? She be one interesting and hot piece of ass, y’know?” he said.

I looked back and saw that Sun Spot had left me with Khalid to talk with the unicorn. So, I turned back to him, saying, “Yeah, I guess she’s cute and all, but don’t you want to find some zebra to settle down with?”

“Nah, got plenty of time for that when I’m older ya hear? For now, I’m goin’ to enjoy life and get with some freaky bitches while I can,” he said.

“Okay, well I’m not gonna get in your way, but I warn you, Sun Spot can probably kick your ass from here to the moon if she wanted,” I said.

“Probably, but that means the chase will be all the sweeter when I get her,” he said, then looked over at Aura who just came onto the ship with Solstice. “Damn! Maybe I need to rethink who I set my sights on, those two might be even better.”

I frowned. “Don’t even think about it, the grey one’s my friend and the other is my…mare friend.”

“Damn girl, I’m impressed. How’d a lil shit like you get such a sexy thing like her?” he asked.

Right then Sun Spot yelled, “Khalid, get over here so I can teach you what to do when we take off, we’re leaving in a few minutes.

“Gotta go shorty, catch ya on the flip side and all that shit,” Khalid said trotting off.

“See you later Khalid,” I said with a small smile. I was happy to see the zebra made it here and his mother would be okay. When I’d met him, I wasn’t in the best state of mind, but he still helped me.

“Shouldn’t take us long to get to home now,” Aura said as she walked up to me.

“That’s if we don’t run into trouble as we fly,” Solstice said, then looked over at me. “Glad to see you’re up again Shadow, you gave us all a scare.”

“Trust me, I’m happy to be out of that thing too, it wasn’t a pleasant experience,” I said.

“Well, anyway, we’ll be setting off soon and since you don’t have anything to do anymore on the ship, I figured the three of us can settle down in Sun Spot’s room. It’s about time you told us what happened to you while you were away,” Aura said.

“I…really don’t want to relive what happened to me in that cage,” I said.

“Too bad, because from what Sun Spot told me, you haven’t been sleeping much, or at all. Something’s wrong and you need to talk to us about it. I don’t care how bad it was, you ARE doing this,” Aura said, nudging me toward the cabins.

“But…Aura I don’t want to talk about it!” I complained, but it was no use.

“I don’t care, either you tell me what happened so I can help you, or we’re going to have another conversation, one that you really don’t want to have with me. Trust me on that,” she said, still pushing me toward Sun Spot’s cabin, Solstice not far behind.

I sighed and turned toward the cabin pushing the door open. “Fine, but just let me get through the whole thing at once so I don’t have to go over it twice.” Then I looked at Solstice. “And please don’t hit me when I tell you about the role you played in my fun little cage of horror.”

“You’ll understand what I’m talking about soon,” I said as I moved to go sit on the bed. Once they were both settled in on the floor, I took in a deep breath and started. “First, I need to go back to why I tried to kill myself, so both of you understand what was going on in my head…”

***

“That…has to be the craziest thing I’ve ever heard,” Solstice said quietly, her eyes wide in horror as I finished my story about the cage.

“Shadow, I think I understand why you look so crappy right now. No wonder you can’t sleep, with everything you were forced to do, the ponies you had to kill, letting Wind Thrasher kill you…no one would be able to take that easily,” Aura said just as quietly as Solstice.

The airship left The Kingdom hours ago and we were now flying over The Deadlands. It was a large mountain range that separates the Midwest from western Equestria…or The Wasteland I guess. It took me all that time to tell them every nasty thing I had to do to get free. I’d even gone into detail about the other part of Aquila.

“Why would Aquila think you’d become my lover? I mean, yeah you aren’t that bad now that I’ve gotten to know you and all, but I couldn’t see us being a thing. Let’s just say that’s a way my barn door doesn’t swing,” Solstice said.

“With everything you heard in that story, that’s the thing you focus on?” Aura asked.

“Well no, I mean there was a lot of worse things in there, but still, I just thought that was weird,” Solstice stated.

“Honestly it doesn’t matter anymore, it’s said and done, none of it was real. I just need to get my stupid brain to realize that,” I said with another sigh, laying back on the bed.

“Shadow what you really need is to sleep, and not just for a few minutes here or there. You need a good night sleep and some food, you look like a drown rat right now,” Aura said.

“I’m not trying to insult you or anything, you just need to realize how bad you look. If you showed back up in New Pegasus like that and somepony saw you. They would think The Courier was really dead and you were just some pony we put into your old clothes and said you’re The Courier. You have a reputation to keep and ponies in New Pegasus need to know you’re still you,” Aura said.

“I don’t feel like me though Aura, Aquila took that away from me when she trapped me in my own head,” I said, finally sitting back up. “To make things worse, now I have a lot more crap to deal with, after what I saw in that crystal.”

“It was a memory of The first Children of the Night. Their leader Moon Light, it was the fall of Nightmare Moon. Well that’s what it was labeled as, but I think it was more about this monster that was locked up in the castle at the time,” I said, then told them about what I’d seen in the memory, leaving out a few things.

“It’s a memory from over twelve-hundred years ago, don’t read too much into it. If that thing is still out there, then worry about it when you have to. Right now, let’s just worry about getting you back to your old self,” Aura said, moving to sit on the bed next to me.

“I know you can, you just need a little help and we can both do that for you,” Aura said, looking over at Solstice.

“That’s what we wanted to hear. So, first things first, you need to get some sleep,” Aura said, digging in a satchel.

Aura pulled out a small jar with a red liquid inside. “Nope, easier done than said this time. This is more medicine I got from Sheena. She said it will help you sleep and make sure you have no dreams. We don’t have much, but with a few nights of dreamless sleep, maybe your body will be able to cope with what happened and you’ll start feeling better.”

“Is that safe? I’ve heard REM sleep is when you dream and that it’s the most restful part of the sleeping process,” I asked taking the bottle.

“If it’s from Sheena then I’d say so. Just drink it and rest. And don’t worry about the rest of your deliveries, I’ll take care of them while you’re sleeping,” Aura said, getting to her hooves. “I’m kind of enjoying this whole courier business.”

“What’ll you be doing Solstice?” I asked as Aura kissed me, then headed out the door.

“I’ll keep an eye on you. Sheena said that if you start showing signs of waking early or a dream’s coming through, then I have to wake you up with another potion,” Solstice said.

“I thought this was safe…ish. Wait how are you gonna even know if I’m dreaming anyway?” I asked.

“It is, but she still wants you to be careful,” Solstice said, pushing me onto the bed to lay down. “To your question about how will I know you’re dreaming, it’s easy, your body language will tip me off. Now drink up and go to sleep.”

“Yes mother dearest.” I smiled then drank the potion down. “Oh, that’s…earthy. Why do all these things have to taste bad? It’s like sour candy dissolved in dirty dishwater that somepony spit in.”

I never heard what she was going to say after that, because right then, my eyes closed and sleep finally came. It was just like they said, I didn’t have a single dream, or a nightmare as I slept. For the first time since I broke out of my cage, since I took back my wreck of a body, I got a full night’s sleep. When I woke again, my mind felt clearer than it had in over a week. My body had more energy and I finally felt a little like my old self.

When I woke I found that I was still laying in the bed, Solstice was sleeping on the floor next to the bed snoring as loud as Stardust does and I could feel the airship still moving along at a quick pace. The sounds of the new crew moving around on deck, the shouts of Eliot as he gave orders to them, Captain Gunny’s laughter, and Sun Spot yelling for him to shut up.

I yawned then stretched as I got back to my hooves then poked at Solstice. She groaned then opened her eyes, wiping some drool from her cheek. “Oh, hey Shadow, I guess I must’ve fallen asleep.”

“It’s fine,” I said as I looked at my Pip-Buck to see what time it was. My eyes went wide as I saw that I’d been sleeping for around twelve hours.

“Better than I have in a while and I’m hungry,” I said, rubbing my belly as it rumbled.

“Yeah me too, what do they have on this thing for food besides alcohol?” she asked, walking over to her set of power armor that was sitting in one corner.

“Biscuits mostly and some random Wasteland food,” I said as I watched her get into the bug like armor. “I was gonna ask you before Solstice, where did you get that armor? Did Violet give your old armor back?”

She nodded, lifting the visor so I could see her face, “Yeah, after I helped them with a fight while you were off being crazy, she let me have it again.”

Once she was in the armor we left the cabin and slowly walked toward the main deck. As we did, I asked, “Do you ever miss being back at home?”

She looked over at me. “All the time, Stratus is a beautiful place and I miss my friends…well my one friend, but still yeah I miss it. What I miss the most is my parents though. I’m sure my mom’s worried sick about me right now.”

“My mom brings it to a whole new level. She acts like she’s going to lose me one day. She’s always going on about some curse on the family and how she can’t stand to lose another foal,” she said with a sigh.

“Another foal? You mean you had a sibling at one point?” I asked as we made our way over to the ship’s galley with no one attending to it, not that I was surprised or anything, there aren’t enough crew members.

“Not that I know of no, when I asked her about it she just tells me to leave things be. Either she lost a foal right after birth or had a stillborn. I’m not sure, but if I try to bring it up, she’ll change the subject and make herself a cocktail,” Solstice said, taking a couple biscuits.

“So, your mom believes there’s a curse on the family? That’s funny because Aura’s family and mine are the same way,” I said.

She rolled her eyes. “I’m not surprised, all of the descendants of The Children are like that. Well, all but one that is.”

“Wait you know that you’re a descendant of The Children of the Night?” I asked.

She shrugged, “I’ve known my whole life. It’s no big secret in my family. We have old pictures in our house of my distant grandmother Cloudy Nights in our home. She was one of the biggest believers in the curse next to Night Stalker himself.”

“Odd, because I thought she lived to be really old,” I said as I took some biscuits and a dried apple.

“She did, but she also suffered a lot until her final days. She went a little nut at the end I believe. She was in pain for most of her older life from some strange illness. She lost two of her children to sickness, lost her first husband to an attack in The Wasteland, her second husband died from assassination, and her last one, the one who she had my family’s line with killed himself. Mom says that one day she was found in her room dead, she’d put a bullet through the back of her head. She was almost ninety years old and she still managed to kill herself in the end,” Solstice said sadly.

“Most ponies don’t, my family’s kept it secret for a long time. She was very depressed for most of her life,” she said as she sat down on the deck to eat.

“Does your family know a lot about The Children of the Night?” I asked, sitting next to her.

“Not about Night Stalker or Greta, but my mom knows a lot about our family and Thunderlane’s too, surprisingly, maybe a little about Lightning Dust after Night Stalker was banished,” she said.

“What happened to Thunderlane?” I asked. “I heard something in one of my mom’s memories that Greta killed him?”

“She might as well have, she found him a couple of months after Night Stalker was banished. She attacked him while he was on patrol and killed his entire squad. Then she threw him into a vat of something, not sure if it was taint or radioactive waste, either way, he managed to make it back to Stratus with the help of another Enclave patrol who found him. He told them what happened while he was being taken to a hospital. Later he died from the damage done to him from the stuff he was thrown into. His oldest son took over after that and tried to start a small war against Greta’s Talon company, but it didn’t go far. He was pulled from power after the first attack and almost branded himself for going against the rest of The Council,” she explained.

“Damn, so Thunderlane didn’t hold power for long after Night Stalker left,” I said.

“No, he didn’t. After Night Stalker’s betrayal and after how Thunderlane’s son acted. The Enclave as a whole passed a law that made it so that Night Stalker’s family and Thunderlane’s wouldn’t be allowed to hold power in the Enclave for at least a hundred years after that. Lightning Dust herself helped pass the law while she was in Thunderhead and she would’ve lost her power too if she hadn’t divorced and renounced Night Stalker beforehoof,” Solstice said.

“You sure know a lot about what happened back then,” I said, eating another biscuit.

Solstice shrugged. “My mom’s worked in intelligence for a long time, she’s also a historian. I grew up with her talking about things from the past.”

“Doorstop told me, he had me send a letter to her a couple weeks back,” I said.

“What that Doorstop’s your uncle? Yeah, I found that out the day before Aquila took over. I take it you knew too,” I said.

“Yeah, I knew since I first met him, well kind of. I knew mom’s brother was named Doorstop. When I met him, he reminded me a lot of my grandpa, so I thought he must be the same pony. I wasn’t sure though at first, not fully. I finally asked him about it while we were helping the cadets in The Kingdom,” she said with a little smile.

“You two are a lot alike, I don’t know why I didn’t see it sooner,” I said.

“We’re not that much alike. I don’t practically scream at everypony,” she said, giving me an offended look.

I laughed. “You are to, you’re both brash, tough, and thick-headed. Though I’ll admit you’re not as loud.”

“I guess you’re right, but still, I don’t like being compared to him. Honestly, I don’t like being compared to anyone in my family. Mom likes to say I’m a mix of her brother and her. Quick to anger, tough, but also with a soft side too,” she said with a sigh.

“She is, like you have no idea. Even though she’s just as strong, tough and thick-headed as Doorstop, she always tries to find the best solution to a problem. She doesn’t like to yell, she would rather talk it out with somepony than get into a fight. But if she does get mad, damn she’s scary. She can even make my father cower in fear and he’s the bravest pony I know,” Solstice said.

I looked down at my hooves. “Wish I could’ve grown up with a family like that. My whole life has been about me being sick or having Aquila inside of me. I don’t know what a normal life is like, never really have.”

She nudged me with a hoof. “Hey don’t get down on yourself. You can’t change your past even if you want to. You need to just look forward and try to make sure that your future is happy. Anyway, why did you ask about my mom?”

“Oh right,” I said, shaking my head. “I asked because I met a stallion in New Pegasus who said his dad knows your mom. Said something about her helping his father out at the hospital. I didn’t understand why she would be there if she is a historian and works for intelligence,” I said.

Solstice rolled her eyes. “You have to be talking about Kittersfly then. What he means is that my mom helps out there sometimes as a nurse. She trained to be one when she was young then changed her career to what she does now a little before I was born. She still helps out at the hospital from time to time and has a few friends there too. Kittersfly’s father knows my mom more than most. She was in charge of finding intel on the whereabouts of his wife Fusillade when she went missing twelve years ago. I don’t know all the details, but I do know that Fusillade’s squad was attacked or something and she went down in an explosion. For months they tried to find her, since no body was recovered, later she was pronounced dead, but my mom became friends with her family. I’ve known Kitters since I was a filly.”

“He’s a strange pony,” I said, remembering the stallion who ran the small skyport in New Pegasus.

“He’s very strange, but he’s a nice buck. Has a weird fetish with robots, and bat ponies, but apart from that he’s not bad,” she said.

“Eww no, he’s more like a good friend and he’s like twelve years older than me so eww,” she said.

“What is it with you trying to set up your friends with ponies, huh?” she asked, glaring over at me.

“Oh, so we’re friends now huh? I thought you hated me,” I teased more, this time letting a smile come to my face.

“I mean…I guess I haven’t really thought about it. I mean yeah, I did hate you at first. I just thought after the stuff I’ve helped you with, we were just friends already,” she said shyly.

“I guess you’re right, I mean you really didn’t have to help me get back to The Kingdom or help us with Stardust, or help when my mom attacked,” I said with a bigger smile. “Yeah, I’d like it if you were one of my friends Solstice.”

“Yeah, and don’t you forget it,” she said, then started to laugh. It was a nice sound, light and full of joy. I realized then, that I really hadn’t ever heard Solstice truly laugh before. It was... nice.

“I think they’d like you honestly. Dad’s always liked your father as a council pony and respected him for his rank in the military. And you have this whole, I’m a poor abandoned filly sob story that would make my mother fawn all over you,” she said giving me a smile.

I leaned back into the railing. “Yep, it’s what got me though my teen years in the stable.”

“You’re still in your teen years you weirdo,” she said with another laugh.

“Yes I am,” she said, getting back to her hooves and stretching out then adjusting the helmet of her power armor and pulling the visor back down. “Enough talk, I think it’s time we did something fun.”

“We have too much time to just lay around this ship, I think we should get some training in. Aura’s still having a hard time with her new body and I’m sure you wouldn’t be against some extra training,” Solstice said, nodding her head toward Aura who was talking with Elliot.

“You know what, that’s a good idea,” I said, getting up and following her.

***

For the next few hours, Solstice helped Aura and I with some Enclave training techniques. I honestly didn’t do that well since most of it had to do with flying and stuff like that. Though I did learn better ways to take on a pegasus. One good lesson was one I should have figured out by now. A pegasus’ wings were their strongest and weakest point. They could do a lot because of their wings, a lot like a unicorn with magic. They could even use them to hold weapons that earth ponies couldn’t, but if you took out a wing during a fight or injured it in any way. Most pegasi would be helpless. Just as if you broke or damaged a unicorn’s horn, we would be helpless…most of the time.

The reason for this is because most of The Enclave learn how to fight from the air. They don’t normally teach their pegasi how to fight on the ground because most Enclave don’t go to the surface. It reminded me of lessons I had with Yaksha and mom, even Vervain about how I had to learn to fight without my magic, just in case I found myself without it someday. I enjoyed watching Aura learn how to fight though. She did good with a lot of the stuff Solstice was teaching her, but she still had a problem with weapons. She was born with talons and was used to having her digits to use the weapons she was trained on. Hoof to hoof she excelled at for the most part, but put a rifle in her muzzle and she couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn. I could see the killing part of the joke now, if we were attacked, Aura wouldn’t be much help. Not until she learned how to fight all over again.

When we finished Aura went back to exploring, Solstice took to the air to scout with Sun Spot, Captain Gunny was passed out drunk on the quarter deck and Elliot was flying the ship. The rest of the crew members were busy with their new duties, so I went over to a quiet spot on the aft of the ship and decided that it was about time I listened to the recording Laser Light gave me. I’d remembered that I had it when Solstice was talking about her family and of Kittersfly. She told me she made a few of them and this was one of the first ones she’d made twelve or more years ago when she first escaped The Enclave. So, I popped it into my Mark II and started to listen.

The recording was about an hour long and went over how Laser started her life in The Wasteland. It didn’t tell me much on how she ended up here, but did give me a good insight into the way she had to adjust to her new life. From learning to fight the strange monsters she ran into to a fight she saw between what had to be Red Talons and some Fiends. At the end of the Recording she talked about how she first met Yaksha, when she found Coven, the same small town my friends and I went to after the Red Talons fell. Strange to think that just over a decade ago, Laser met Yaksha, and in a similar way to how I met Laser Light.

I rather enjoyed listening to her story and how she found herself in this new lonely life in The Wasteland. When it ended, I decided I’d ask to hear the rest of them when I saw her again. Slipping the recording back into my saddle bags, I stretched. When that was done I pulled the bottle of tablets I’d gotten from Sheena and took one. So far, my magic wasn’t feeling any different, but I was sure in time it would get better.

I pulled out the notebook Sheena gave me and started to go through her findings. It didn’t take long to read, but what she’d come up with for a theory made my hooves shake. From what Sheena wrote, the way my mom used magic was doing something to her body. From all that Aura must’ve told Sheena about Mom’s problems over the years, she was able to figure this out. Mom having problems with having a foal, to the way her mane was turning gray at a young age, then to her memory loss. Mom’s body couldn’t take the strain from the unnatural flow of magic that was passing though her. Sheena believes that if mom kept it up, her body would eventually deteriorate enough and fail, and she’d die because of it.

The thought of that scared me. I’d just gotten my mother to start trusting me again, now I could lose her forever. All over the strange magic she used to fuel her spells. I was gonna have to show this to her when we got back to New Pegasus. For now, I’d have to hope everything would work out for the better. So, after putting the notebook away, I got to my hooves and went over to get more food and some water. The cloudy sky was getting dark and as I walked closer to the food barrels, I noticed a light to the southwest. Ignoring my stomach, I went up to where Eliot was steering the ship, asking, “What’s that light in the distance?”

The Pony-griffon looked down at me with a smile. “Have you been away from home for so long that you don’t recognize New Pegasus?”

My eyes widened as I realized that I did know where I was. In the distance standing tall and proud was The Lucky Horseshoe. It’s like a lighthouse beacon to The Wasteland, my Wasteland telling it that New Pegasus was still there, still strong, still beautiful. I never once thought I would be excited to see that shithole of a city again. I looked back at Elliot, asking, “How long until we’re there?”

“About twenty minutes or so, Aura should be back soon, she flew down to an NLR camp we’ll be flying over soon to make your second to last delivery then we head to Freedom to get The Queen her delivery and that will be that. Your trip and your payment to Bottle Cap will be finished,” he said with another smile. “Sad too because Sun Spot and I are gonna miss you.”

For a long moment I just watched as the city grew closer, the rest of The Strip coming into view as it did. It was amazing to see it again, I couldn’t wait to see how the rest of my friends were doing. I wanted to see The Queen again and Sugarbuck, check up on The Shadow Talons, see my uncle again, talk to mom now that she knew I was her daughter. I wanted to hug Stardust and Wingnut, give Byte a hard time, but most of all, I wanted to apologize to Wind Thrasher and hope that she forgives me for the wrongs I’ve committed.

All of those feelings died when Aura landed hard on the deck, panting hard with wide blue eyes. I ran down to the main deck, asking, “Aura what’s wrong?”

“The NLR’s Camp Gama is gone…everypony there’s either dead or fled. Steel Rangers attacked only a few hours ago from what I can tell. And Shadow…Sapphire’s there right now, with at least fifty or so of her Steel Rangers,” Aura said. “I only got away because I caught them by surprise, but they thought I was Enclave and opened fire.”

I ran to the railing and sure enough, not far ahead of us, I could see the smoking remains of the camp and Steel Rangers roaming all over the area. A few of them pointed up at the ship high above, one even tried to shoot a rocket at us, but it missed, we were out of its range. Either that or his missile launcher was crap. I looked back at Aura, asking, “How do you know Sapphire’s down there?”

“I saw her, she had her helmet off, she changed her mane color again and stuff, but I know it was her,” Aura said. “I need to contact The Shadow Talons. The Steel Rangers are too close to our new territory and we haven’t made a treaty with them yet.”

“Fuck this,” I said lifting my Mark II and switching to the intercommunication system. This time I didn’t contact Byte, no I picked the other channel on it, ‘Pip Buck 3000 Mark II SL’ I brought it to my lips once the connection was made and said in an angry voice, “Elder Sapphire, I hope you’re getting this. This is Shadow Star and I think it’s about time you explained to me what the fuck happened to Elder Appleslice!”

A second later Sapphire’s voice echoed out of my Mark II, “Shadow Star? I could’ve sworn you died over a week ago. I guess Mr. New Pegasus isn’t always right about what he reports.”

“Cut the crap Sapphire, tell me what you did to Appleslice and why did you’re Steel Rangers attack that NLR Camp?” I asked angrily.

“Oh, I’m guessing your close. Are you in the crappy looking airship overhead? I’d say I’m surprised you’d take a ride with a nutcase like Gunny, but we ARE talking about you. You really aren’t in the best mindset after the crap you’ve pulled since I saw you last Shadow,” she said, her voice also filled with a bitter anger.

“You don’t have the right to call me out for my wrongs Sapphire, you’re the one who killed your last Elder. And for what? Power?” I yelled.

“Don’t talk about things that you don’t understand child. I had good reasons for killing Appleslice. Trust me if you knew what she was really like, you’d have done it too. As for me taking power, that was more Star Paladin Noodle Cup’s idea not my own. At least I haven’t been going around destroying towns and buildings because I’m angry at the world,” she said.

“Fuck you Sapphire, I don’t need a pony like you telling me off for that shit, I live with enough guilt over both times I used that weapon,” I said.

“Maybe you do, maybe you don’t, still, it sounds like we need to talk. How about you come down here and we can talk this out like adults. One on one,” she said.

“I’d rather blow you up with the plasma canons on this ship,” I said, growling with each word.

“Shadow, if you don’t talk to me now, I’ll have my rangers blow that thing out of the sky, then if you survive the crash, we can talk then. Or you can make this easier on yourself and meet with me. I want to know what you did to Box Tape, what happened to Cartwheel, why you stole that super weapon, and when we are done talking about that. I want to know where the filly from Trotston is, because she has something that belongs to me,” she said, her voice full of anger.

“The Mark II’s don’t belong to The Steel Rangers. You’re lucky you have the one you do, now answer me or I’ll just let my new friends kill all of you and then I’ll take back the Mark II I gave your elder in the first place!” I yelled.

A deep menacing voice came back this time as Sapphire said, “Meet with me on neutral ground, or I’ll have The Steel Rangers I have stationed in Freedom destroy the new Shadow Talon’s base, and make sure they kill every griffon that tries to escape. I know how much you care for the run-away Red Talons, and The Queens. I’ll go after them next and so on until Freedom is run by The Steel Rangers. I may even go pay a visit to that Alicorn colony in Frosty Summit. I’ll admit I’ve always wanted to kill one of those things before. Now what do you say Courier? Do you want to dance? Or do you want to talk?”

[FOOTNOTE: LEVEL UP!]

NEW PERK ADDED!

Explorer: From your many travels, you’ve sure got a lot of locations marked on your map. You’re love of travel has caused you to also miss a few things along the way. So, Stable-Tec has taken the liberty of adding all undiscovered unique locations to your map.

Fallout Equestria: Falling Shadows

by Drako Moon

Chapter 61: Torches