//------------------------------// // 102- Dakshinamurthy // Story: Changing Expectations // by KKSlider //------------------------------// The Nightmare had been across the entire town, until they finally trapped it within a dilapidated home on the outskirts. The old timber frame was rotting away and had begun to lean to the side. The plaster walls had cracked nearly everywhere, and at other places holes let the elements into the interior. Said interior was filled with rotten furniture, wood splinters, broken glass, and other refuse. The Nightmare was currently fighting off the thestrals in what was once a respectable kitchen. Now, all it prepared for dinner was its own wooden components for the termites that had infested the doomed structure. Elder Mind twisted a piece of scrap metal that was once part of a sink into a spear. Then, she channeled Essence of Sulking into the metal, causing it to faintly glow blue. ‘Let’s see you shrug this off, vermin!’ Elder Mind propelled the piece of metal forward, faster than an arrow. The metal impacted the wall next to the cornered shadow’s head. The sudden impact stunned the creature and despite the Elder’s miss, it created an opening for Elder Sanguine. She swung her double-bladed axe, cleaving off a portion of the amorphous creature. It screeched in pain as the shadows evaporated from the severed portion, revealing an insectoid leg. Its screech continued into a hiss as a sickly green beam exploded from its horn. Elder Bulwark shoved Sanguine to the side and held one of his two shields up, intercepting the beam. Elder Mind could feel the ancient shield’s enchantments protests as it redirected the energy away from the shield. The rays from the beam scattered around the room. Where it hit, the wood and plaster discolored, fractured, then collapsed under its own rotting weight. Elder Mind even saw a beam hit the stone remains of the kitchen’s fireplace, and watched for a moment as the stone discolored and weathered away. When the screaming Nightmare passed in front of the kitchen’s broken window, Elder Blood embedded two daggers into its back from her position just outside. It let out a pitiful wail as it staggered and fell to the ground. It thrashed as it fell, rending gouges around it into the soft wood and splintered kitchen counters. Focusing on ancient spells, Elder Mind entrapped the Nightmare’s fleeting essence before it could cast any spells or other Rot trickery. It would not do well to let the hunt go this far, only for the monster to get away, or worse, jump ship and find a new target for possession. But without those mythical Elements of Harmony, there was only one way to remove a Nightmare infestation that had reached this level of corruption and manifestation. “The time is now!” She yelled to her tiring comrades. “Destroy it while it is weak!” Elder Blood’s remaining daggers smashed into the floor around the Nightmare. Elder Bulwark pressed his two shields against two of the daggers, creating a yellow spark between his front legs. The spark vanished, but the light it made did not. The yellow glow then suddenly exploded in size, creating a ring of light around the Nightmares, above the embedded daggers in the ground. Waiting a few moments for safety, Elder Mind let go of her efforts to keep the Blighted One trapped and still and instead prepared herself for the banishment ceremony. “As Two became One, the night’s darkness was cast away,” She hummed. “As Dark became Light, the hunters became the prey,” Bulwark joined in. “What was given to us, we pass to you!” Elder Soul muttered through a full mouth. She flicked her head to the side and drove her glaive through the yellow glowing barrier, stabbing the Nightmare through it. Mind felt the ground vibrate as it screamed, but no noise escaped the amber glow. “Upon our oaths, we once more renew,” Elder Sanguine panted as she shoved her own weapon through the barrier, causing the Nightmare to contort inside and bleed black blood. All Elders sung the final line together, “As long as one thestral stands, to the last shadow we shall pursue!” With a thundering boom, the ponies were all thrown back– and in Blood’s case, into the neighboring building outside– from the Nightmare. Elder Mind crashed violently into a wooden cabinet. The old furniture collapsed entirely upon her, though there wasn’t much left of it to bury her at all. Mind coughed as dust, rot, and who-knows-what-else filled the room in a hazy cloud. She pushed the debris off of her and slowly got up to her hooves. “Did we get it?” Somepony said. “I don’t feel it’s cursed presence,” Mind announced after clearing her lungs as best as she could. She stumbled forward, pulling herself clear from the remains of the cabinet. She bumped into the kitchen counter and slowly walked forward. The dust was settling when Elder Mind came across the black burn mark that now covered half of the kitchen. “Hahahaaa! That really gets your blood flowing!” Elder Blood yelled from outside. “I feel like I’m forty years younger!” Her scarred muzzle appeared in the remains of the windowframe, a grin plastered on her face. “I can’t believe we missed out on this! Pah, who needs peace and quiet when we be badflanks!” “Bulwark could have,” Sanguine spoke softly from behind them. Mind turned away from the window and saw Elder Sanguine standing next to Elder Bulwark. The old stallion was leaning back against the far wall of the kitchen and holding a shield in front of his face, but the jagged piece of metal that pierced through the shield and went through his skull drained much of the joy Mind had felt at the fulfillment of their holy duties. It was the remains of the spear that Mind had stabbed the Nightmare with. In its death throes, the Rot had claimed one more life. “What a way to go,” Elder Soul whispered jealously. I spat out the remains of bile from my mouth and leaned away from the toilet. My helmet lay on the ground next to me, as well as a glass that now held only ice. “Sir, scouts have found your missing… subjects,” the pony standing guard at the door announced. “They were missing?” I asked after spitting once more. My voice was a harsh whisper since my throat was so dry it was nearly closed up. “Yes. They all evacuated right before the, uh, incident occurred.” I wiped the sweat from my forehead with the back of a hoof and stared at the pony. He was not the same one that had brought me to the sitting room, nor was he the thestral that brought the horrible medicine that made me vomit. ‘Purging ritual, what a fucking joke. The only thing they purged was yesterday’s dinner!’ “And the–” I paused to cough and continued in a quieter voice, “–the changeling that got possessed?” “No news, sir. The hunt was successful and the Nightmare was banished.” I sighed and leaned my head back against the wall. “Anything else?” “I’m sorry, Your Majesty?” “Why are you still here?” “After what has happened, the Elders– the ones who still live, that is– have ordered that your protection is paramount. Sir.” “The ones that still live?” “There were some casualties last night, sir.” “Oh yeah. The Elder that died in the spooky cult chamber.” “Elder Bulwark also died in the line of duty as the Nightmare was being banished. There was also a Corporal who died, Sir.” “All that death for a single minion? That Nightmare didn’t even have a name, how could it do so much damage?” The thestral frowned, “Sir? They have names?” “The big ones do.” “Uh….” I picked myself up from the ground, gathered my helmet with a hoof, and pushed past the guard at the bathroom’s door. “Alright,” I whispered, “I’m done with this place. Done with Nightmares. Done with death. Where’s the way out?” “Sir, I do not think you should–” “Do you have any idea what I’ve been through?” I hissed as I spun on my hooves and got in his face. “I’ve had the longest damned day of my life, and that’s not even including the time I was murdered. I need to find out which of my subjects was killed. I need to get back to the rest of my people. I need to figure out a solution to this whole Nightmare thing, and how they have been hunting my kind to extinction for the past… who knows how many thousands of years! I’ve been–” I broke off into a painful coughing fit. The thestral stood there awkwardly, tasting of frustration. ‘Don’t like being yelled at? Maybe you shouldn’t reach above the chain of command!’ “Sir, you need to calm down! The treatment is still working on you, and there are still vestiges of the Rot in your system. It preys on powerful anger, sir!” I opened my mouth to cuss him out when I tasted amusement from behind me, further down the hall. “You should listen to the doctor’s orders, Your Majesty. Your life was bought with the blood of many. To throw away their sacrifice is to kill them yourself.” I rolled my eyes as I turned to address the pony who was interrupting me. It was another thestral. She was dressed in a fancy outfit that would look alien on anything but a vampire. Black suit, red lining, the whole deal. The only thing she was missing was a pair of fangs– no wait, she had those too. “Your Majesty, I am Elder Sanguine. You may consider me one of the rulers of this Province. I have been dying to meet with you since your arrival. It is unfortunate that said arrival heralded so much death, but that is the way the Corrupted Darkness does its work.” Taking deep breaths to control my anger and get my emotions back in check, I gave her a blank face. “Elder Sanguine, I am King Phasma. It is… a pleasure to meet you. I am sorry to hear about the deaths of your ponies, but I am leaving.” “Leaving? I cannot stop you, Your Majesty, but I would so dearly hope you could stay and chat for a bit. Vallachia offers its finest hospitality to you and your troop, as well as dying for your own protection. I will not be so crass as to hold the deaths of our own over your head, but I should hope you realize the extent we have gone to ensure your safety, and would be willing to at least reciprocate our kindness. I have many questions, Your Majesty, and you have many answers.” “... Fine. I am sorry for not being the most understanding individual, but as you overheard, I’ve not been having a good day myself.” Sanguine nodded, “Quite understandable. One does not escape the clutches of a Nightmare unscathed. Now, if you would follow me, I would like to hold our conversation in a locale more pleasant to the eye.” I followed her as she led the way down the hall she came from. We passed through the lavish halls of the castle, and I noticed a theme in many of the paintings I saw. The portraits of thestrals all seemed rather familiar. “Alright, I get it, you’re vampires,” I muttered as I passed the twelfth painting of a thestral in a high necked black suit with red lining, drinking blood from a cup. “Excuse me, Your Majesty? What did you say?” “I said your portraits are all rather similar.” “Oh yes, well, Vallachia is rather insulated. With so little contact with the outside world, we had to look inwards for inspiration. Countless generations of struggling to appear normal, with no identity except one that others gave us. After fleeing to this mountain range and calling it our own, we no longer feared retribution and suspicion. As it turns out, the stereotype the daywalkers assigned to us is rather… intoxicating. It is so exotic and inspired that we more or less adopted it.” “So you got so tired of being called vampires that you started dressing and acting like them?” “Vampires? Do you mean vamponies? If so, then… yes. The idea of how they act, at least.” “That seems kinda weird, don’t you think?” The thestral stopped at a pair of glass double doors that light poured through and pushed them open with her wings. She stepped into the room beyond; an open air garden courtyard. The garden was circular, with a large walkway underneath a roof held by chiseled pillars acting as the far wall. The close half of the garden was made up of the castle itself, with stairs descending along its circumference and ending at the opposite end of the circle. The garden itself was a small collection of short green bushes, purple and red flowers, and small trees on the outside of the path around the garden. Elder Sanguine made for a pair of chairs situated at the side of the garden and sat down on one of them. At my silence, she gestured to the opposite chair with a wing. “Please, sit.” I followed her request and sat down on the chair across from her. It was a wicker chair with a red fabric cushion. Sitting in the pleasant shade of a large-ish tree, the spot was very comfortable. All in all, it was not what I expected. “I was thinking you were going to bring me to some dark catacomb to speak…” Sanguine laughed, “You’ll find that we are normal ponies, King Phasma. Not bats who sulk in the dark and consort with entombed corpses.” “You don’t exactly work hard to make that difference known.” She smiled, “That is a fair observation. We simply don’t care about what outsiders think of us. Now, before I begin asking about you, I believe there was a pegasus who was very interested in learning about you too?” “That would be Daring Do.” “Yes, that's the one. Would you like for me to send for her?” I sat back in the chair and admired the greenery around us. “Yeah. Given her line of work, I think I might be running into her more than once. Best get this out of the way and her out of my way. She’ll never stop asking annoying questions otherwise.” The pony tapped an arm of her chair twice and another thestral silently swooped down from an unseen vantage point, landing next to her. “Your command, Elder?” “Fetch the pony.” “At once,” the armored mare saluted before flying off. “... So, if you Elders rule this place, then two rulers died last night?” “That’s right,” she answered, “An unparalleled tragedy. So much wisdom and leadership lost…” “I am sorry to hear that.” “Every cloud has its silver lining. To die in such a glorious fashion is quite honestly the best way to die for us. Giving your life in the greatest hunt of a generation is something that all of us who still live are just a bit jealous of. Elders Bulwark and Bone will be missed dearly, but their deeds will be sung about for years to come.” “Did they have, I suppose you would call them, apprentices?” “Yes. Unfortunately, Bulwark outlived all five of his own. His teachings are written down, and his apprentices’ apprentices yet live, so his school of fighting may continue. Elder Bone had two of her own. Quiet Cross is likely to be her successor of the two. Though that remains to be proven. To take the mantle of Elder Bone is not an easy feat, and at times the title has gone without a holder due to a lack of candidates skilled enough to earn it.” “Your name is a title?” “Not all Elders. Just the four Aspects: Bone, Blood, Soul, and Mind. They abscond their true names and identities to become the most important and wisest of us all.” “That’s… quite something.” “Quite something indeed. Here comes your pony,” she lifted a hoof and pointed towards the doors we had come from. Daring Do immediately began strutting towards us, stopping right in front of me. She pointed a wing at me, “You!” “Me.” “You! I’ve got a lot of questions for you!” “Okay.” “I… You’re going to answer them?” “Sure.” “Not going to argue? Put it off for later? Monologue?” “Oh just shut up and pull up a damned chair. I think we all have questions for each other, and while I wait for my minions to return, I’ve got nothing better to do than to answer and ask them.” A thestral without clothing– ‘A servant no doubt,’– pulled up a third chair for Daring Do, who took it without taking her eyes off of me. “Daring Do has been waiting the longest to ask her questions, Elder Sanguine, so I think she should start. She’s been brewing the longest.” “Very well. You may ask your questions, Daring Do. I will be patient.” Daring settled into her chair, and her wings settled onto her back. “Yes. I… uh… yes. I’ve been waiting to ask you about a lot of things, King Phasma!” I nodded, “I figured.” “... I never really expected to get this far. First, what business do you have with these thestrals’ Night Mistress?” “Night Mistress?” I asked. “Princess Luna,” Sanguine offered. “Ah, her. Luna and I…. We first met while she was still Nightmare Moon. She wanted me to help dethrone Princess Celestia at the time. I accepted her offer, and marched on Canterlot. Turns out that Nightmare Moon is all bark and no bite, as her promised army was nowhere to be seen.” I directed a stare at Sanguine. “Interesting,” she murmured. “I was not aware that the Night Mistress brokered other allies. As for our absence, we– we would never serve a monster as cruel as Nightmare Moon.” “Answer truthfully, Elder Sanguine,” I told her. Daring was silent, merely looking between us as we talked. “... Very well. We received Nightmare Moon’s message too late, and failed to aid her. Harmony must have intervened directly, as having Princess Luna back is a blessing we did not think possible. So we do what she asks of us without question, to make up for the shame of both working for Nightmare Moon and failing to help Nightmare Moon.” I nodded, “Which brings it back to me. After meeting Luna in person in Canterlot, I was not impressed with my promised ally. I… more or less left her for dead, and moved on with conquering Equestria. Then came my plot to kill my mother, Queen Chrysalis. That… didn’t work.” “You tried to kill the Queen?” Daring asked. “Yes. Didn’t work. I nearly died, and only got away thanks to a last second teleport spell. That left behind my destroyed peytral, and created the assumption of my death.” “Why did you rebel?” “Well Daring, it’s quite simple. I like living. However, there are fates worse than death.” Sanguine nodded, “Fates worse than most realize.” “Yeah. I came quite close on several occasions. Queen Chrysalis was not planning on letting me live peacefully after taking down Equestria. She was going to lobotomize me. So I moved against her in advance. Only, I was betrayed. My betrayal against a future betrayal was betrayed… It makes sense in context.” I noticed that Daring was writing all of this down, “And Princess Luna?” “She saved my life. After I teleported away, a Nightmare attacked me. It… It was bad. I… I nearly became something just like the Prophet. Or, as you both are aware, something like Nightmare Moon or Daybreaker. A possessed being of unfathomable power and potential for evil. But Luna saved me. After I broke her and left her for dead, she saved me. Since then I have… We have talked a lot. I don’t know what she sees in me, but she refuses to let me die. So we have joined forces against both Queen Chrysalis and Princess Daybreaker.” “Against Princess Daybreaker?” “A Nightmare possessed Princess Celestia.” Daring blinked. She stared at me as I tasted fear slowly filling every inch of her being. “No. That’s… No. No! No!” “Unfortunately yes,” Sanguine sighed, answering for me. “The Night Mistress is working hard to get her sister back, with our aid. It seems that the Rot is making a great return to the world.” Daring shook her head, “No. I was there! I saw what a Nightmare does! That’s’ not what Princess C– Daybreaker does! She’s not evil!” I shook my head in turn, “It’s the truth, Daring. Daybreaker is a possessed Celestia. Luna, Cadence, and I are working to free her from the monster that holds her captive. She may be slow to show her real self, but that is not Princess Celestia.” “So all that talk about Division-P and Princess Cadence is true?” “That’s right. Now that you’ve seen just what a Nightmare is capable of, you understand why Luna and Cadence are willing to work with me. The lesser of two evils, I suppose. Though Luna doesn’t see me as evil, just… I dunno, something sappy like someone in need of a friend. Or rather, somepony. Eugh.” “So you and the Night Mistress are close allies,” Sanguine summarized. “Actually, we’re more than that. I’ve only known her for a few months, yet now I can’t really imagine what life would be like without her.” “Wait,” Daring gasped. “You’re not saying…” “I am. We’re dating.” Daring froze, no longer writing notes down in that journal of hers. “The Night Mistress has a courtier?!” Sanguine exclaimed out loud. “She chased after me. First it was Nightmare Moon who wanted to secure… uh, myself, for a political marriage. Then it was Luna who saw herself in me and my struggles. And she has strange tastes in what she considers handsome. Thousands of years of life will do that to you. You either become completely asexual or you open your tastes up to every sapient. That’s my guess, at least.” “What wonderful news!” Sanguine clapped her hooves in excitement, “Oh, by the stars! Our Mistress deserves the happiness and companionship a courtship offers!” “Hmm, I might have broken Daring,” I pointed out as I waved a hoof in her face. She didn’t blink. Instead, Daring fainted, slumping into her chair. “... So, what questions did you have for me, Elder Sanguine?”