The Last Nightguard
One Last Shard of Darkness
“To our last breath, to the last drop of blood in our bodies, to the end of our days we shall serve thee. Forsaking all other oaths and titles we shall serve thee. No harm shall we allow, no blight upon your honor shall besmirch the Crown while we stand, united in your defense as brothers through life and unto death.”
—The Iuramentum e sangui, First Oath of the Equestrian Royal Guard
Night had long ago been the time of fear, where ponies hid in their houses and the beasts of darkness had free reign over the land. In the modern era of civilized towns and glowing lights, Night’s fangs had been blunted and claws trimmed until it was a domesticated creature, no more feared than a housecat or fat guard dog. There had been one recent exception to this progress when Nightmare Moon once again rose into the Night sky, promising to rule forever over a world of darkness.
Twilight Sparkle and her friends quickly put an end to that monster and brought a new princess back to rule at Celestia’s side. The event happened so fast in fact, that many cities across Equestria did not even know what disaster had been narrowly averted by the Elements of Harmony.
Ponyville knew.
Having Nightmare Moon appear in your own town hall in front of every citizen was an event that nopony would ever forget. Having Princess Celestia appear a few hours later with her sister at her side did little to induce amnesia over their initial terror, even with cake and punch from Pinkie’s inevitable welcome party. After all, that kind of memory has a tendency to linger, and all the cake in the world will not scrub it away.
It turned out other things from that terrible Night could not be erased by the Elements of Harmony either.
As Night once again enfolded the tiny town at the bottom of the mountain, it was not unusual for Ponyville’s newest librarian to be seen out on her balcony, engrossed with her telescope. The small town was slowly getting over the shock of Princess Luna’s return, and compared to that, having a new librarian was fairly normal, although she was slightly abnormal even for a Canterlot unicorn.
The ponies of the town would have been far more concerned about her sanity if they had been able to listen to Princess Celestia’s most promising student as she scribbled with intense concentration (and many exclamation points) in her notebook.
“Oh, no, no, no! Spike, this is wrong! It has to be wrong! There can’t be any traces of Nightmare Moon left! The Elements of Harmony cleansed her! I’ve checked everything now! If there’s any of Nightmare Moon’s essense left in the moon, it could reinfect Princess Luna everytime she raises it! All of Equestria could be in danger! Spike, take a message! Spike?”
A snore was her only response. Tracking it down to the source showed a baby dragon snoozing against a short stack of books, with one tome drawn up over his face like a blanket.
“I suppose…” Twilight Sparkle gathered up her notes and stuffed them into her saddlebags while still worrying out loud without a draconic brake to slow her accelerating train of panicked thoughts. “Spike’s letter might be directed to Princess Luna by accident. What if she’s already corrupted again? What if she’s organizing some sort of coup? Princess Celestia could be in trouble! I have to get my friends!”
And with a clatter of hooves, Twilight bolted out into the night.
With a second clatter of hooves, Twilight dashed back into the library, grabbed her train schedule and bit bag, then bolted back out into the night again.
It was very quiet for a time.
Then with a third rush into the library tree, Twilight scooped up the sleeping dragon and left yet again.
Morning for Princess Celestia as of late was… unusual. Particularly when compared to the mornings of the last thousand years.
It had only been a few days since Luna’s return, and the imaginary visions Celestia had crafted in her head about what should have happened differed dramatically from the reality of the situation. For one, she had never dreamed that Luna would be so timid, so fearful of everything in the castle, and unwilling to even order any of the servants to do anything for her. The proud, self-confident, loving pony she had lived centuries with was gone, replaced by a weak shadow who clung to Celestia’s side much like a real shadow.
But the mixed blessing was not what transfixed Celestia at the moment.
Twilight Sparkle and her five friends were standing in the throne room this morning as dawn’s sunlight filtered through the stained glass windows and cast the room into brilliant shards of light. It should have been a rewarding moment as Luna greeted the six ponies who had freed her from Nightmare Moon, but her sister was pressed tightly against her far side and her most faithful student…
Twilight Sparkle had that distracted frazzled expression that Celestia had often seen after three or four sleepless nights of intense study. It appeared to be contagious since the rest of her friends varied between dozing on their hooves to muted confusion, although Celestia was beginning to suspect Fluttershy’s normal emotional range only went between Fear and More Fear, and Rainbow Dash was trying her best to stay awake.
“So, let me see if I understand,” started Celestia slowly, picking her way through Twilight’s last few minutes of rapid babbling. “The moon still contains a small fragment of Nightmare Moon.”
“No, that’s not what I meant,” started Twilight, only to slow down as she thought. “Well… Yes.”
“And you think the Elements of Harmony should be used on it, just in case this fragment is a threat,” added Celestia.
Twilight nodded. Beside her, Rainbow Dash matched her slow nod as she slipped to one side until her head was resting on Applejack’s muscular shoulder and let out a quiet snore. The noise finally made Rarity distracted enough to quit her in-depth examination of the throne room’s tapestries and pay attention to the conversation.
“A threat?” she echoed. “Um… If you don’t mind me asking, that is. Princess Luna?”
Still trembling like a leaf in a gale, Celestia’s sister peered out from behind the supportive sibling's shoulder, but remained silent.
“What do you remember about the moon, Your Highness?” continued Rarity. “I mean there have been so many theories spread about, and you are entirely among friends here. Twilight, the poor dear, gets so caught up in some of her theories that she might be shying away from shadows, after all. And you were there, so some practical reassurance may calm her down.”
“Go ahead,” encouraged Celestia once it became obvious that Luna was reluctant to speak.
“I… remember little about our moon,” whispered Luna, which gave Celestia a sharp pain in the bottom of her heart at the obvious lie. “Our essence was joined. Time passed in an odd way, like a dream that cannot be trapped or understood. I fought against my darker self for so long, clawing in fear to keep my own mind intact. Even upon my return, I was but a passenger in my own body while Nightmare Moon… did her terrible things.”
With so little to go on and Twilight’s powerful defense of her scientific research, Celestia had to fight back her natural reluctance about exposing her sister to any further trauma. There did not seem to be any other potential negative consequences for permitting Twilight and her friends to use the Elements of Harmony on the moon, and she might have a point.
“If it will reassure my faithful student,” began Celestia in her most comforting voice, “we will do as she wishes this evening. It may be an overabundance of caution, but we should not overlook any chance we have to ensure Nightmare Moon never returns.”
- - ☾ - -
Just because Celestia was going to allow Twilight Sparkle to use the Elements of Harmony on the moon, did not mean she was just going to permit the process to be out of her iron control. Every single Royal Guard available was patrolling the palace, and the entire Night staff had been sent home to prevent curious eyes from the tower windows. Even then, the small group of ponies had been gathered for the experiment in the most private place available outside: smack dab in the center of the Royal Gardens. Evicting all of the creatures who normally made that part of the garden their home was most of the trouble. After all, they too wanted to see what was going on, although Fluttershy was terribly disappointed at not being able to depart with them.
There was only so much preparation one could arrange for the unknown. She had attempted to forget that terrible night for so long. Celestia could feel the terrible roar of that thousand year old memory echoing in every cell of her body as the six friends arranged themselves, facing the moon.
There can be only one Princess in Equestria, and that Princess shall be—
Celestia’s wings snapped open on their own, although she tried to hide her reaction by placing one of them over the trembling back of her sister. Luna had been so filled with rage then, an overwhelming tidal wave of emotions that had crushed Celestia’s normal calm demeanor. The beastial side of her sister had taken advantage of her reluctance to fight, betrayed Celestia’s trust, and nearly killed her! A thousand years of remorse faded the memory, but the bitter arctic chill of suppressed pain rose up from the damp grass around her hooves and the warm wing draped over her sister.
The Nightmare could return for Luna, and for the second time in a thousand years, Celestia knew abject terror.
She could not bear to look at the brilliant rainbow of light that burst into the sky from her faithful student’s location. All she could see and feel was the whirl of the Elements of Harmony around her own body, the feeling of unrestrained power like she had never felt before, and the infantile joy… no, the pleasure she felt unleashing it against the bratty little pest who stole her toys, left her things scattered around the throne room after she had gone to bed, irritated her with whining and complaining. It felt good to finally strike her, even having no idea what that blast of power would do. The corusecating brilliance filled her vision again, tasting of metal and chalk, feeling as if the entire world shifted beneath her with the power, and the overwhelming temptation to reach forward and just grasp it again so she could—
Then the light cut off like somepony had thrown a switch, and she gasped in the resulting sudden silence. Although she could see again, blotchy afterimages still floated across her vision, and the entire garden was suspended in an eerie silence. In front of her, Twilight’s friends sprawled around the garden like drunks, and the nearest guard was still holding a hoof over his eyes, but there was one new pony sprawled out on the close-cut grass.
It was a pegasus, although it took a second look to be certain because there were almost no feathers on his greyish bare wings, and those were the healthiest portions of him visible. Corroded metal from ancient armor flaked away in puffs as the creature moved, the enchantments long gone to dust and the remaining steel turning to powder at the slightest touch. The heavyset frame of a guard from ages past was almost obliterated by obvious starvation, with protruding ribs, impossibly thin legs, and gaunt lips drawn back from exposed blackened teeth, with several of them falling out of its mouth to the ground even as she watched in horror.
But still, it moved and breathed. Worse, Celestia knew who it was, and the knowledge froze her in place like a thunderbolt from the sky had smashed into her horn.
“Celly?” Luna’s voice was quavering and barely audible from where she huddled up under Celestia’s wing. “What is it? Don’t let it hurt me!”
The noise attracted the gaunt spectre’s attention, and it glared past Celestia with red eyes, bringing its full attention to the cringing form of her terrified sister. “Traitor!” it hissed, staggering up as far as it could on those stick-like legs, like some sort of starved corpse animated by raw hate and bile. “Die!”
Then it collapsed into a pile of loose feathers and drifting grey hairs, looking more dead than alive except for the slight movement of its skeletal ribs.