Dawn of a New Age

by GTthe4th


Interlude: Something In the Mist


(Canterlot Castle, several days ago...)

The night was cold and damp with mist from a recent rainfall, but barely a whisper of wind passed through the halls of Canterlot Castle as its faithful Unicorn Solar Guards trudged along, shining their lights into darkened passages and rooms. Their captain, Shield Wall, had increased their number ever since the foreign diplomats had arrived to the city the day before, which made breaking into the Castle more difficult.

But nowhere near impossible.

The stallion’s gazed around a corner at an approaching guard detail, and he braced his back against the wall. They would be on him in moments, but he was ready for them.

Without even a rustle of air, he turned around and pressed his front hooves against the wall, and then lifted up one of his hind hooves to join them. Then, he climbed, his hooves not even making a sound against the smooth white stone.

The guards passed underneath, not even bothering to look up as the stallion slowly crept along the ceiling like some giant spider, peering downward every so often to watch for oncoming patrols. His rich, golden eyes reflected slightly with the light of their horns, but his dangling, wispy mane hid them in shadow. They saw nothing, heard nothing, suspected nothing.

It was almost insulting.

Once the guards were long gone, he simply let go, falling down from the ceiling and landing on the marble floor without even the clop of hooves to signal his descent. He then cast a glance to his left and smirked. The large oak door was right where he had expected it to be, the plaque next to it reading in gilded letters, “Canterlot Archives”.

He knew what lay beyond. It was one of the simplest tricks in the book: deceive the thief and hide the guards behind the doors. The Royal Sisters had learned years ago that the patrols were never enough to guard their most treasured secrets; Starlight Glimmer taught them that. So, security was increased: more guards, stronger enchantments, silent alarms, teleportation runes keyed to guard positions, and Paladins. Lots of Paladins.

But they had not counted on his intellect, his determination, or his desires.

The Princess of the Sun had forgotten him. They had all forgotten him, and his fellows. They had forgotten the ones they had cursed.

His smirk curled into a dark smile, revealing sharpened canines, and he backed away from the door. Taking exactly eighteen steps down the hall, he turned to his left again and pressed a hoof against the wall.

He felt the static, the slight energy of a hidden enchantment. The Royal Sisters were clever, even enchanting the walls to prevent teleporting in. But they had nothing to worry about from him on that front. Being born an Earth Pony made it impossible for him to teleport.

Instead, he simply focused his mind, and walked forward. His ghostly body vanished into ashen dust, then reappeared on the other side, intact and none the worse for wear.

Or rather, not entirely.

He winced, then looked down, noticing the black blemish on his fur as he lifted a foreleg up. The scaly skin underneath was slowly peeling off and rotting away, before vanishing like black smoke as it fell to the floor.

He scowled and lowered the leg once more, knowing he’d have to fix that soon before it became a problem. For now though, he would finish his mission. Looking around, he saw that he was between two enormous bookshelves, each one polished and cleaned to perfection. On each shelf was stacked hundreds of scrolls, all carefully catalogued, alphabetized, and numbered by year and in order of writing.

Each of them bore names he recognized through the ages: Starswirl the Bearded, Clover the Clever, Star Nexus, Love Crafter the Insane, Prince Shining Armor, Mistmane, Stygian the Lost, Nimbus Flare, Light Bringer, Sunset Shimmer the Firebrand, and even the illustrious Princess Twilight Sparkle herself.

The Canterlot Archives housed many of the most powerful spells, formulae, magical theorems, and arcane scribbles known to Ponykind. In another time and in another place, he could have spent hours here, pouring over the ancient knowledge and taking his first steps into becoming an arch-magus.

Instead, he sought only one scroll, the only one of its kind, bearing the one name unlike all the others.

Starlight Glimmer --- student of Princess Twilight, powerful mage, and former dictator-turned-heroine.

Her sole contribution to the Archives was a blackened blemish on her past, but to him, it was a sign from the heavens that Faust smiled upon him. All he needed to do now was reach it: leftmost side of the room, eighth stack, middle shelf, sixth scroll from the right.

Poking his head over a pile of scrolls, he peered at the four Solar Paladins guarding the entrance, and his ears swivelled around to hear the quiet clinking of armored hooves against the marble floor. Another two Paladins were on roving patrol in the Archives themselves.

He grimaced again. He had anticipated that, of course, but he had hoped Celestia had been foolish enough to trust only in her magic, powerful though it was. Judging by the sounds, the Paladins were between him and the bookshelf he needed to reach. That left only one option.

He sighed, low enough that the Paladins couldn’t hear him but enough to show his displeasure. He was going to need a long life leech after this, but he had no choice.

His body crumbled to black ash and melted into the shadows, before reappearing on the other side of the room. But he was not himself. No longer did a Pony stand in his place. Instead, he had taken on a form so hideous, decrepit, and monstrous, it almost made him wonder how Celestia’s mind was so twisted as to bequeath it to him all those millennia ago when she had cursed and tainted him.

His golden eyes were now a dull, rusty red, and his charred face sagged, his wispy black mane now a mess of long, torn hairs. He could not hide very well in this state. He had to move quickly.

Scanning the shelves, he picked out the scroll he had been led to believe was correct. He smiled when the Cutie Mark seal matched the one he was looking for. Miss Glimmer’s mark was indeed one of a kind.

He unravelled the scroll, taking care to not make any noise or damage the paper, and looked at the dark spell contained within. Peering over the edge of the scroll to make sure no one was watching, he quickly read the spell again. Then again. And again. He repeated it three more times just to be sure, memorizing every rune, every glyph, every incantation, every ingredient, and every last number contained within. Once he was certain he could recite it from memory at the snap of a primary feather, he replaced the scroll on the shelf and once more melted into the shadows, reappearing on the other side of the wall outside the Archives. No guards were there to greet him.

Just as he was about to leave, he heard rapid hoof-falls on the floor, and he once more hid in the dark and waited. A team of eight Lunar Guards led by a Pegasus Paladin (Shield Wall himself, judging by the Cutie Mark on his armor) ran down the hall, skidding to a stop at the Archives.

He scowled inwardly. Clearly the Sisters had been more cunning than he had given them credit for. He must have tripped a silent alarm as he walked through the wall. It didn’t matter though; he had gotten exactly what he had come for.

Almost as silently as he had arrived, the cursed stallion vanished into the misty night, even as the Ponies wondered who could’ve broken into the Canterlot Archives and leave without stealing anything.

He had one last stop to make before he could begin the next phase of his plan. The Arcane Archives of Trotsylvania had something he needed; something that would make his revenge against Celestia even sweeter.

The Viper Serum formula.

And this time...he’d throw a little party for the guards as well.