//------------------------------// // 21. Deja Vu // Story: The Last Nightguard // by Georg //------------------------------// The Last Nightguard Deja Vu no mere storm swept us from the sky shaken like a mouse in talons of the hawk the strong and weak alike driven before sun and moon like fledgelings -- Killianthian the Upsworn, High Talon of Griffonant It was like facing the strongest storm he had ever experienced, with the blast of magic scourging through his body in an unstoppable blast.  He could taste colors, hear shapes, and touched the inestimable source behind the mere physical.  The Elements of Harmony looked at him in some indescribable fashion, piercing through his willpower like he was a child and holding him to the light as if he were some interesting bauble that twinkled in the light. Then ever so slowly, the sun pouring down on the Royal Gardens began to soak into his grey coat again, and the world once again made sense, even though it was still painfully bright. “No physical changes that I can see,” mused Eb out loud, stretching membranous wings out to either side and giving them a trial flap.  He stretched, struck a foreleg-stand with his wings for stability like the griffon had been teaching him, then rolled back to his hooves and did a practice spin-kick.  “No changes at all, except the dark magic inside me seems quelled for the moment.  I can still feel it, but it no longer claws for dominance.  Perhaps it is tamed for a while, and—” The featureless expanse of healthy grass in the Royal Gardens lawn bore obvious witness to the power that had been released across it.  Whatever moisture had been in the vicinity was long gone, and the flattened dry blades of grass left wisps of steam around each of the Bearers of the Elements, all converging on Ebon Tide’s location and the smear of vitrified earth around him looking like a dark mirror.  Twilight Sparkle and her friends were not injured, but were stretched out on the sun-warmed grass, twitching weakly.  He nearly called out for assistance except several pegamedics were already on the move and mingling among the exhausted heroes of Equestria, although they did not approach him. All he could do was get in the way, so Ebon Tide moved over to the hesitant princess in charge, who was sitting nearly rigid on a nearby rise in the lawn.  She swallowed once when he approached, but did not acknowledge his presence in any other fashion, which made the dark magic inside his gut congeal like cold tar.  Celestia never impassively allowed anypony to approach without acknowledging their presence and indicating in a subtle fashion if they were welcome or should return sometime later.  Now, she simply sat, as if the real Princess of Equestria were a thousand years away and this was but an empty shell. “Your Highness?”  Eb kept his voice low so the nearby Guards and the Bearers of the Elements would not hear.  “It’s over now.” “I didn’t want to,” murmured Celestia in a near whisper.  “She gave me no choice.” It shocked Eb right down to his tailbone.  Celestia sounded so broken, like a plate that had been glued together long ago and given one small bump.  In his career, Warleader Ebon Tide had dealt with more than one soldier in nearly the same mental state, but to have a princess come apart like this was a far different cabinet full of crockery. “You did what you had to,” said Eb into her ear.  “Now you need to keep going.  You are our princess, and everypony looks to you.  I’ll walk with you back to your chambers and you can lie down for a while until it is time for you to lower the sun.  You’ll feel better then, I promise.” “You promise?”  Celestia shuddered and leaned against Eb, colder than any amount of fall air could account for.  “A thousand years.  It is so long.” “You did it,” said Eb almost under her breath.  “You saved your sister and brought her back to rule at your side.  You are the Royal Sisters once again, together forever.  Now you need to stand up and walk back to your chambers with me.  You’ll feel better after a little rest.” “Some rest.  Yes, of course.”  Celestia stood back up, gave a slow nod to the Bearers of the Elements, then turned to leave.  She walked in slow, careful steps across the lawn at his side which gave Eb enough time to look over his shoulder and make determined eye contact with Shining Armor, who had been supervising the Royal Guard security detachment. “That’s it for now,” announced Shining Armor abruptly to the few guards who were not busy with other tasks.  “See my sister and her friends back to the palace so they can take it easy for the rest of the day.” “I’m okay,” protested Twilight Sparkle weakly.  She was staggering to her hooves with Applejack at her side providing a boost and to keep her from sliding sideways on the steaming grass.  “I just need to do some follow-up experiments, Shiny.  It will only take a few minutes…” It was a tiny spark of good in Eb’s trip back to the palace with Celestia striding alongside, seemingly nodding and turning corners without any attention to the outside world.  For one terrifying instant, Eb had been afraid that the Elements had slain one or more of the heroes.  Still, the way the six mares had been devastated precluded any more attempts to purge his magical malady, particularly with the way that Celestia had reacted. On the surface, Princess Celestia did not appear to be anything other than distracted by some inner thought, but Ebon Tide had served under Her Highness for many years, and he could see the terrified child beneath the facade of her stoic expression.  Quiet reassurance while they walked seemed to help, and Eb breathed a sigh of relief when her bedchambers door closed behind them. “You’re safe, Princess.”  Eb guided Celestia through the room in the direction of her massive bed, taking it slow and not making any rapid motions to startle her.  “Just lie down and rest until this evening.  I will stand by your side and awaken you at the appropriate hour for your duties.” “So many dead,” murmured Celestia. She stepped out of her golden slippers while she walked, much like she had done probably every uncounted evening as she approached her bed.  “Eclipse was a tower of strength, held them together.  You would have liked him.  So busy I almost never saw him.” It brought up a thought that Eb could not help but think.  “I don’t recall any of the Guard with that name, nor any other pegasus of station within the castle.” “Names have always troubled me,” whispered Celestia.  She stopped by the bed and rested her great horned head against one of the cloth-draped posts.  “They come and go so fast, leaving me all alone for decades, centuries, forever.” “You’re not alone now,” said Eb with as much encouragement as he could muster.  “Luna has returned to your side, and she shall never leave you alone again.” “D’wanna be alone.  It’s bad.”  Eb was caught completely flat-hooved as one huge alicorn wing encompassed him, dragging him onto the snow-white covers next to the cold shivering bulk of Her Highness.  “Stay,” she murmured.  “Plz.” * * * Hours later, the door to Celestia’s bedchambers opened with no more noise than a drifting butterfly, but Eb had been watching with narrowed eyes for the expected arrival.  Princess Luna did not announce her presence, but instead peered around the doorframe with only one eye visible. There was an exceedingly long pause.  Then a blink. After a time, Luna vanished back out into the other room. It seemed suspicious, but perhaps she had simply been overwhelmed.  Then again, it took quite a bit to simply whelm Luna.  It was not until Eb saw the door glide open again and an object was eased into the room… “A photo-graphic camera,” murmured Eb to himself.  He could easily remember their visit at Sprung Sprocket’s store where a weedy-looking minotaur had gone on for far too long about aperture settings and focal lengths before Luna had purchased several of the devices for further experimentation. Trapped beneath Celestia’s weight, Eb could not escape the relentless clicking of the device, nor the embarrassment when Luna began to remove photo-graphs and examine them. “Entertain thyself another time,” managed Eb from his captivity.  “Tis’ time for your duty, since your sister is unable.  Go forth and lower the sun so that night may be brought forth.” “I’ll get it in a minute,” murmured Celestia in Eb’s ear.  “I’m comfortable.” “Lying slug-a-bed with thy Guard.  The shame.”  Luna clucked her tongue as she approached the bed, but Eb could still see an element of tension in her eyes.  “Doth this have anything to do with the magical display I did see this after noon when I was attempting to doze out of doors?” “I’m sorry, Luna” came out almost as quickly as Eb’s “It was my fault, Your Highness.” “No,” insisted Eb.  “Mine is the fault and mine alone.  The Elements of Harmony were used to quench the dark magic which still seethes inside of me.  It is still there, but quiescent at the moment.” “Then you bedded my sister,” started Luna with a poorly hidden smirk. “If this is the answer to keeping thy magic under control, we suppose a loan of our Guard to thee for snuggles no more than two or three times a week may be permitted.  Although…” She couldn’t do it.  There was no way she should do it.  But Princess Luna put the camera down on a table and slid into Celestia’s bed on Eb’s other side, making an alicorn sandwich out of him. “It has been many years since we have taken a mortal lover,” purred Luna, cat-like.  “Perhaps we should share him likewise, one for the morn and one for—” * * * Ebon Tide awoke with a start, still in Celestia’s bed but without the Princess of the Night in attendance.  It took a few moments for him to recognize the low shadows on the wall as the sun nearing the end of its daily trek and in need of Celestia’s attendance, and another few panicked breaths to recognize something else that was going to get him executed if he was lucky.  It really was not his fault, or at least he was trying to think of it that way while remembering ice-cold showers under a thawing waterfall. The door to Celestia’s chambers popped open and Princess Luna strolled in, wearing a most mischievous smirk, and not carrying a camera as Eb’s most recent short and quite detailed nightmare had imagined. “Good eve to you, dear sister.  The time for your pleasant dreaming has passed.  Are we ready to lower the sun so our night can reveal its radiant beauty?”  Luna slowed as she approached Celestia’s gigantic bed and her puckish expression only grew as Eb struggled against the Sun’s strength to cover something quite near and dear to him.  Whatever Luna was planning on saying afterward died in her mouth as she looked, then stared… Then promptly turned away from him with a giggle.  “My word,” she managed after a few moments.  “Well, that still appears to work correctly.  Wood of the evening, we presume, and nothing related to our sister’s embrace?” “Oh!  Luna?”  Princess Celestia sat up quickly in bed, although something that Eb would rather not have caught her eye, did.  “Oh, my.” Finally free of an imprisoning foreleg, Eb grabbed a pillow and froze, suddenly unwilling to press one of his Dread Soverign’s pristine pillows over his most delicate exposed area. With a great deal of not-looking and shuffling, Princess and Guard exited opposite sides of the bed while Luna stood nearby and giggled until she was finally able to speak without laughing. “I was worried, dear sister.”  Luna brushed back a lock of her flowing mane while Eb struggled to regain his normal calm demeanor.  “Our Guards did tell us of thy distraction, and…  I visited thy dreams.  It was most informative, and far easier than I expected.” “Really?” gasped Eb while flat on his belly against the bedroom carpet, then slowed as a realization dawned.  “Wait.  Is this the first time since my return that you have walked the paths of the Dreaming?” “That is beside the point,” said Luna, all levity being cast aside in one moment.  “Our Guards spoke of thy behavior, dear sister, and we… were worried.” “A brief relapse,” said Celestia heavily, as if the weight of the moon were weighing upon her shoulders.  “We did not mean to… this,” she added, obviously at the same loss of words to describe what happened as Eb was at the moment.  “Shall we finish our tasks for the evening and discuss what happened in the kitchens with a few slices of cake and some strawberry sherbet?” “Pass,” said Luna just as quickly as she could.  “We believe a few hours to clear our head out and about will help.  Breakfast will wait until morn, where we can discuss things at our leisure.  That is provided you feel well enough to continue this eve’s slumber without our Guard as a snuggle creature.” “Agreed.”  Celestia lit her horn in the close confines of the bedroom and the shadows began to move as the sun slid below the horizon outside.  In perfect harmony, Luna raised the moon with her own dark magic and the golden glow of sun was replaced by night’s silver glory spilling in through the open bedroom window. “Another thing I feared that would be forever lost,” said Luna almost under her breath.  “And now it has returned also as if it had never departed.” “Yet one more reason for us to appreciate you, Eb.”  Celestia hid a smile as she heaved a deep breath and moved in the direction of her bathroom.  “A cold shower before our bedtime snack, most certainly.  Are you planning on visiting any more discotheques this evening, Luna?” “Nay, I thought it would clear my head if I were to return to the old castle in the Everfree for a few hours.”  Celestia froze in place as Luna continued, “We have heard many speculative tales about it, but they seem so extraordinary that they cannot be truth.  The proof is in the tapioca, as they say, and some observations with mine own eyes shall put paid to any falsehoods.” “The forest is… dangerous,” said Celestia carefully.  “Not foolhardy to visit for our kind, but exhibit caution.  Many of the creatures we knew before have become hostile, and other beasts have moved in.  After our fight, something deep in the forest was broken.  You are taking Eb, correct?” “Certainly.”  Luna eyed where Ebon Tide was still flat on his belly against the carpet.  “With armor, of course.” “Good.”  Celestia let out a breath that it seemed she had been holding far too long.  “Be careful with my sister, Warmaster.  I need her.” “She will be safe, Your Highness,” said Ebon Tide, bowing low.  “You have my word.” ☾ The Royal Breakfast Nook had an open window for the impressive view of Canterlot spread out below, but it was supposed to be accessed by way of a nearby door.  Two tousled and dirty individuals flew in through the window in rapid succession, scattering bits of broken twigs and leaf fragments across the pristine hardwood floor. “Luna?”  Princess Celestia blinked several times and finally settled on giving her tattered Warmaster a discouraging look.  “I thought you were supposed to keep her away from trouble in the forest.” “I don’t think there’s an ‘away’ in there, Your Highness,” said Eb, taking a few moments to discourage a clinging vine that seemed to have some sort of affectionate relationship with his left wing.  After a bite to dislodge it and a quick trip to a nearby trash receptacle, he wiped some glittering pollen from his face and turned for the door.  “I’ll just wait outside and make myself presentable while you two talk.” “Nay,” snapped Celestia.  One royal hoof pointed at a nearby chair next to a pair of very alert children, one batpony and one unicorn.  “Sit.” He did, although Luna took her own sweet time taking her own seat, mostly because she was still pulling quillboar spines out of her rump. “Luna,” chided Celestia.  “Not at the table.” Princess Luna spat a quill into the same trash receptacle and nosed around for any more.  “Tis not your tender rump, dear sister.” It was obvious that Celestia wanted to retort in kind, but turned to Eb instead.  “Your young friends have been telling me what they know of your condition.  In a nutshell, nothing they have found or my student has found has been of any help.  I presume your search of the Everfree ruins is likewise without productive result?” “Regrettably.”  Eb restrained the urge to comment about another possibility that came up during their trip.  If he had died in defense of Princess Luna, his disgrace would be wiped away and his problem resolved.  One of the Everfree’s hungry residents would have also gotten a meal out of it, so wins all around.  It was still an option if he felt the nightmarish dark magic start to gain control, but a last resort to be certain with the poor example it would set for the quiet trusting children.  “I even visited Doctor Hurwitz two days ago, and he was far less than helpful.  He remarked that if he had not seen my progress, he would not believe I was the same pony that he treated a few months ago.  He did refuse to take credit, which is a positive.” “Unique for him, I’m afraid.”  Celestia heaved a sigh, but Eb was quicker on the uptake and knew her well. “Starswirl was worse,” said Eb quickly.  “He at least considered you peers.  Would it be possible to consult his shade?” “I’ve tried,” admitted Celestia in a very small voice.  “None of the Pillars of Equestria are willing to communicate from beyond the Shadowlands.  It gives me scant hope that he may still be alive somewhere, but it is no solution for our problem.” “Likewise, we have sought out the shade of Eclipse to ascertain the reason for his survival,” admitted Luna even quieter.  “Several days have I slept within the Gardens where he is laid to rest, hoping to hear a murmur from beyond.  The problems of today seem to demand solutions of today, I suppose.” “So you’re going to die?” asked Peanut Brittle, just barely audible to Eb’s sensitive ears. “As all mortals do,” intoned Eb.  “It has always been inevitable, and we have skirted the edge of the precipice more than once.” Pineapple Squares abruptly spoke up, his voice startlingly loud in the quiet room.  “Father says our books always balance eventually, but it’s how we spend our life that counts.” Small words from a small pony, but Eb needed that right now.  His whole life had been spent serving the whims of two alicorns with his family patched into the few gaps remaining. “If I have but little time left to spend, would best it be spent wisely.  And perhaps the monkey will learn to sing,” he added, easing himself back onto his cushion and reaching for a flakey croissant to butter. “I… didn’t think we had a monkey,” said Peanut Brittle, craning her neck so she could look at Pineapple Squares’ thick stack of notes. “It’s not a real monkey,” said Eb.  He retrieved a nearby jar of some sort of jam and began to apply it liberally to his croissant.  “It is a metaphor from a fable.  You see there was once a unicorn merchant who was captured by a barbarian camel tribe.  He was about to be executed when he made a plea to the warlord. If his life would be spared, the merchant would teach the warlord’s pet monkey to sing arias.  The warlord was amused and gave the merchant a deadline of one year to accomplish his task.  Every day, the merchant tried to teach the monkey, who did nothing but screech and misbehave, as monkeys do.  Week after week went by, and most of the warlord’s guards gave the merchant a wide berth so they would not have to listen to the screeching.  One donkey remained to watch every day, and eventually he asked the merchant why he persisted in such an impossible task. “It is quite simple, the merchant said.  I have a year of life that I did not before.  In that year, the warlord could die, the monkey could die, or I could die.  Or perhaps the monkey will learn to sing.” “Erinikus,” said Luna and Celestia simultaneously.  “A real charmer, as I recall,” said Celestia by herself, although Luna looked merely pensive when she added, “Not his real name, of course.  Pleasant lies told on a whim.  I’m unsure if any of his tales had a basis in truth, much like the stories that your young friends have unearthed from long ago.  I’m afraid we will not find a solution there, either.” “So no Elements of Harmony again,” said Eb.  “The hazard to your student and her friends is too great.  There is no answer in the dead, nor stories of the mythical.  Both of you are as useless as—” Ebon Tide cleared his throat and looked at the children, who took it entirely the wrong way. “I can help!” blurted out Peanut Brittle.  “I can!” “No, you can’t,” snapped Eb entirely before his mind caught up with the magical rage in his gut.  “No, wait.  I didn’t mean that.”  He made an attempt at catching Peanut before she darted out the window, but he might as well have tried to capture the air. “We can help,” said Pineapple Squares.  He remained seated at the breakfast table with an untouched piece of toast on his plate, but his eyes were locked onto Eb.  “Nopony ever thinks we can do anything.” “I do,” insisted Eb.  “It’s just I’m frustrated and all this magical anger in me isn’t helping.” “And you’ll die if it keeps growing.”  Pineapple swallowed hard.  “I don’t want you to die.  Nopony does.  Maybe we haven’t found what we can do to fix it yet, or maybe something hasn’t happened yet, or maybe it has and we just don’t see it.  None of that can happen if you give up.” “The child is correct,” said Luna.  She floated a pair of pancakes over to her plate and began slathering them with butter.  “Celestia never gave up on me.”  The buttering process hesitated.  “You didn’t give up on me, did you?” “Never.”  Celestia jerked her chin up from where she had been watching the floor and looked her sister directly in the eyes.  “My confidence did waver at times, but I always knew you would return.” “How?” asked Pineapple.  When he did not get an answer from either alicorn, he added, “I mean somepony told you, right?  How did they know?  Somepony had to know first.  It’s in the books of fables we found, so somepony had to write it.  It can’t be just a fable somebody made up because it came true.” “I can’t help you with that, little one.  I heard it every night and every morning while I was recovering, from every one of my servants.” “Who you said were Eclipse’s multitudinous offspring,” said Luna.  “They knew, and the child is right.  Somepony told them.  Who?” “I wish I knew.”  Celestia retrieved her own pancake and began to apply boysenberry jam.  “The memories are at the other end of a very long tunnel.  Echoes drown it out, because there are so many other voices saying the same thing.  It’s a side-effect of being an alicorn.” “We tend to out-live our mistakes,” said Luna, waving a bit of pancake on her fork for emphasis.  “Or overpower them, depending.  Regrettably, that’s why I tried to ‘fix’ Warmaster Ebon Tide’s problem with dark magic.  Or why Celestia tried to have him sent away to die alone.” “Admittedly, yes.”  Celestia hefted her own fork and dug into breakfast.  “Before Nightmare Moon, at least.  When the minotaur barbarians raided our borders, we foiled their raiding parties in the most humiliating fashion we could in order to unite them under one strong leader.” “When he brought his armies together with all their siege engines and devices,” continued Luna while chewing, “we lit them up into a glorious bonfire and brought him to task in one swoop.  Far easier than chasing tribes all over the country.  Now his son sits in our castle as a hostage to his good behavior.  Well, he did when I gave in to my darker self,” she added. Celestia nodded.  “Later, I found his descendants had crafted many of the devices of our era, from the trains that brought supplies to our mountain city to the elevators which you seemed to enjoy so much.” “Just because I had to press all the buttons for several trips up and down the tower,” murmured Luna.  “You still have not gotten me a ride in one of the griffon airships as you promised.  But we have time.” “So do I,” said Eb, feeling the crushing despair lift ever so slightly as he stood up.  “Pineapple, if you will do me the honor of dining with Their Highnesses while I retrieve Lady Peanut Brittle from where she has fled.  Since no obvious path lies in the direction of my salvation, what little time I have left I would deign spend with the two of you, for your presence calms my dark nature and stills the storm in my mind.” * * * The streets were filled with monsters, terrifying beasts and gaudy things that Ebon Tide had no words for.  They were all small, relatively harmless individually but gathered in packs to hunt their static prey all across the entire city with their powerful cry rising up above the blowing wind and the rustling of dry leaves. “Nightmare Night, what a fright, give us something sweet to bite.” Eb was supposed to be a guardian tonight, but he was unsure what he was guarding the children against as they screeched and scurried about from door to door.  Indigestion, perhaps.  Headaches from the dazzling array of costumes most certainly. Pineapple Squares had settled on a cardboard Royal Guard costume with a bright blue helmet frill while Peanut had transformed into some sort of tentacled monster with paper streamers and a considerable number of bright blue glittering eyes glued on apparently at random.  Then there were other young ponies in the group he had ‘volunteered’ to guard, wearing far more elaborate guises than the simple black armor Eb had drawn from Guard stores.  Some of the children had even tried to emulate heroes from his own era, from a rather chubby Smart Cookie in a plumed hat to a Starswirl the Bearded jingling along the path with his cloak constantly slipping to one side or another, and the fake beard nearly falling to the child’s knees.  There were even windigo in a different group headed the other direction, with the smallest child practically invisible inside his all-encompassing sheet as he floated in pursuit of his tiny friends. To be honest, the glowing eyes of the costume left Eb with a cold chill that did not fade for quite some time.  Some of the disguises were just too real this evening. As much as Eb had recovered his original energy and some more, as well as enough hair to actually get his mane trimmed down to his usual stubbly burr, his ability to keep up with a dozen cheerful small children was severely lacking.  Guards could be led, but all he could do with Peanut and her companions was attempt his best to keep up, a task much more difficult than herding cats.  At least he had some vague notion of their general direction and a bag of his own to carry, although the weight was beginning to drag.  He had made the rather unfortunate declaration that he preferred apples and oranges instead of candy in bar form, and all of the small monsters had promptly organized a somewhat involuntary trade with him, so now his bag was bulging to the top with a fruity bounty that he would have taken as a magnificent gift when he was young. “Mister Tide!”  Peanut Brittle came zooming over to him, trailing a few paper tentacles that were starting to come loose.  “Stuffy got stuck, really stuck in a rosebush and he’s gonna miss the big speech about Nightmare Moon over in the park!” The words Nightmare Night and Nightmare Moon were far too close to be a coincidence, but Eb had not considered the story of Princess Luna’s betrayal to be a fair topic for a fall festival, or at least until now.  He had been so busy with research into his past that he had not even checked the content of the celebration, and since Princess Luna had flown to Ponyville this evening to spend time with Twilight Sparkle and her friends, he had a lurking suspicion that she likewise was unaware of the connection. Still, there did not seem to be any haste needed on his part, since he could always collect his information after the fact.  Likewise, the evening had been quite safe and they were supposed to meet the childrens’ parents at the nearby park afterward, so there was no need to hold the majority of the children away from an anticipated speech while he untangled a single child from a bush. “Peanut,” he commanded sternly. “Take Pineapple and gather the other children.  If you can keep them together, I see no problem in making the relatively short journey to the park over yonder while I free your companion.” There should have been some sort of confirmation from the child that she would stick with her flock for the short trip, but Peanut was gone in a blur by the time Eb reached the end of his sentence, and he could see the youthful stampede begin instants later.  The missing child was trivial to find, since the bush in question kept flailing as Flufflestuff tried to find a way out that was not blocked by sharp thorns, and Eb tried to keep a frown off his face as he observed the situation. “I’m sorry, Mister Tide,” said the small earth pony, a blue-green smudge in the shadows of the bush’s embrace.  The squid-like head of his costume stuck out of the bush and wobbled whenever he struggled, and the tentacles trailing behind were tangled into each and every branch in his vicinity.  “I had a NuttyOatie-Oat bar fall out of my bag and Stamin accidentally kicked it into the bush and when I went in—” “I’ve seen worse,” said Ebon Tide before the child could get too worked up.  “Let us disengage each portion of your costume individually, then pick up your candy.  Perhaps we can make it to this speech of which Peanut spoke before the speaker completes his lecture.” And Eb had actually seen worse in several military campaigns, because a pegasus falling from the sky tended to aim for bushes regardless of their thorn content.  Most of those ponies had armor, however.  Untwisting the ‘cool squid costume my mum made for me since she’s from the sea’ was a great deal more difficult than he expected, and there were still pieces of candy scattered on the ground when Stuffy grabbed his bag in his mouth and bolted for the park. “C’mon Mister Tide.  I don’t wanna get gobbled up.” “Gobbled?”  Eb took a moment to stuff his own bag of mostly apples into his overloaded saddlebags and followed at a good trot, although Stuffy was leaving him in the dust.  Even picking up his own pace and spreading his wings to fly did not allow Eb to catch the small earth pony before he vanished into the dark park.  He had just landed to take a longer look around at the park and to mentally curse himself for not having scouted out the area before… …The screaming started. In one hammering heartbeat, Eb found himself cast back in time to Nightmare Moon’s rise.  The screams of children, the beating of distant wings, and the darkness pressed around him like a vice.  He darted forward, staying on the ground to minimize his attack vectors, but came to a halt within a few rapid steps as screaming children were scattering everywhere, in the air and the ground.  Battle-tested instincts fought against his ironclad will in order to keep from unleashing an attack on some disguise-clad child, which resulted mostly in him remaining absolutely motionless and observing the swirling chaos for an inordinate amount of time. “Nightmare Moon can’t gobble you all up with all this candy to eat!” called out a powerful female voice, which preceded a swooping of a familiar dark figure down to a landing in front of Warmaster Ebon Tide. Luna had given in to the dark power of Nightmare Moon before Eb.   It brought an icy chill up his spine and slowed his reactions as he crouched to spring, feeling his terrible mistake coming back to slug him in the belly again.  Obviously, Luna’s trip to Ponyville was to disable the Elements of Harmony so she could return to Canterlot and… There was nothing at all that came to mind after that, other than to spring forward and bring down the mad alicorn as quickly and gently as possible.  Endless hours of sparring with his trainers had honed his combat skills to a fine edge, and the leap forward with extended forelegs went like a well-greased machine. Except his target was shorter than Princess Luna, and her reaction to an oncoming attack was not to rear up and block his attack, but to collapse. If there had not been a tree directly in his path, Eb would have been able to roll to his hooves and pivot to block the expected counter, but he got one wingtip caught on a tree branch and pinwheeled through dry leaves and broken twigs, leaving a trail of scattered apples and oranges from his open saddlebags until he found another rather solid tree to stop his tumble. “Ohmygosh, ohmygosh!” chattered Nightmare Moon as she scurried over to where Eb was trying to untangle his wings.  “I’m so sorry!  I saw you in the shadows and thought you were one of the border pickets to keep the children in the park and thought I’d scare you a bit and you scared the holy crabapples out of me and—  Eclipse!”  The young dark mare’s face lit up with an eager grin and she took a step back from Eb.  “That is an awesome costume, sir.  You even have the mane right.” Given a few moments to observe without his nightmarish memories clouding his observation, Ebon Tide began to mentally kick himself for mistaking a teenaged pegasus with the costume horn for the real article.  He could excuse a small part of his mistake out of only seeing Nightmare Moon at a distance and mostly from behind, but he could have killed a mortal young pegasus from his actions, and guilt kept his jaws locked tight before he could say something. “I gotta go chase the kids some more, but I’ll be right back,” bubbled the young mare.  “Stay here.  Please.”  Then she was gone like a breeze, but Eb could track her progress by her cackling laughter and the excited screams of the children she was pursuing.