Lieutenant Shining Armor was moving through the hidden passageways that honeycombed the palace. With it being both the Summer Sun Celebration and the coronation of the two sisters, Sunset Shimmer and Twilight Sparkle, security was heightened. He knew that at the top of the hour the two sisters would be coronated, then Princess Celestia would move out to the balcony for the noontime ceremony would commence where Celestia would fly up high in the sky, being silhouetted by the sun and put on a magnificent display. It was a day of celebration and cheer, but it was also a day of security and logistical nightmares...especially today.
Shining scowled under the guard of his helmet as he recalled reading the security briefing this morning that came in from the intelligence ponies.
Unknown and unidentified half-dragon spotted near the palatial grounds. When approached by security detail and ordered to identify itself, it simply vanished. According to the guard ponies being debriefed, it simply "dissolved into thousands of bugs and flew away". If seen attempt to identify and place a tracking tag on it. At approximately oh-three-hundred-forty-five there was a report to the local constabulary about a fight in midtown. When the constables responded, they encountered two groups of unidentified ponies, numbering thirteen in total. When the constables attempted to disperse the combatants, they were attacked. Two constables were reported injured, none life-threatening. The local constabulary quickly relayed what happened to a local guard station. An initial flyby by a pegasus scout reported that nightmare cultists and shadow cultists appeared to be having some sort of territorial dispute. When two eight guard teams moved into the area, the combatants had seemingly vanished. Evidence of a small-scale, but intense magical fight was documented. Magical burns to sections of walls and roadway, patches of blood, but no bodies or injured individuals were discovered. Initial sweeps turned up residue of dark magic, a single pouch of a black crystalline substance and an onyx ceremonial dagger were found and identified. Reports of unidentified ponies sighted near the passageway leading to the northwest tower were reported by cleaning staff at oh-five-fifteen, but a sweep by security ponies turned up no sign of intruders
Shining Armor didn't like those reports. He didn't earn his lieutenant rank by being a captain's son and resting on his laurels, unlike Blueblood did. He had earned it by being vigilant, showing initiative when threats revealed their ugly head, and by acting above-and-beyond what was needed for a pony of his station and rank. He was very soon to receive a promotion to the elite Family Guard, all he needed was a letter of commendation from his ranking officer and the approval from the princess. He'd put in a request for his commanding officer to review his file and determine if he was eligible for a letter of commendation, but that was something for future Shining Armor to worry about. Present Shining Armor was currently moving to a secret door that was equidistant to both Celestia's throne and the throne room's main balcony. There was a gut feeling gnawing at him, something was off and he couldn't quite put a hoof on it.
Knightly Armor stepped out of a side passage and gestured to his son. "Lieutenant Shining Armor, there's something I need you to see."
Shining paused and looked over at his father. "Captain? Is this something you need a member of the Sol Guard for help? Isn't this a matter for the Family Guard?"
***
The Royal Guard was made up of five different units, all separate from the Family Guard. The Sol Guard, an all-unicorn regiment and the oldest of the guard regiments, was composed of individuals who were highly skilled in defensive magic or disabling magic, who were the original protectors of Princess Celestia. The Jet-Stream Guard, an all-pegasus regiment who served as scouts and fast reaction specialists. The Wild Wood Hunters, an all-earth pony regiment that was the newest regiment of the royal guard, having formed three hundred years ago when a group of bounty hunters that operated near a forest outside of Whinyapolis called the Wild Wood lent assistance to Princess Celestia after her chariot was downed by a wild weather phenomenon called a storm burst. The Billhooks, the oldest guard regiment, right after the Sol Guard, who were originally formed by a civilian militia armed with billhooks and other farming implements after the Moon Revolt, helping protect the princess' procession up to the Canterhorn from bandits and nightmare cultists after she was forced to abandon her old home in the Everfree Valley. And the Witch Hunter Union, the smallest of the royal guard regiments who specializes in hunting down and capturing or eliminating practitioners of the dark arts, dangerous magical beasts, and documenting and containing or destroying dark artifacts. The Family Guard pulls from the best of the best of the five previous regiments, whose job is to protect the princess, her daughters and their personal residences.
***
Knightly Armor gave a frown at his son. "Don't make me pull rank on you, colt. You know the guard treatises as well as I do. Right now it is a request, don't make me make it an order. There's something you should see." He gestured down the hallway he had just come from.
Shining sighed and followed his father. They wound through passages, down, down, down through the palace. The blocks slowly gave way from the polished marble to the rough cut stones that dated to before the palace, when it was a small unicorn fort that contained the old vaults that now served as crypts for the ancient families. It was rumored that some of the vaults contained the remains of the founders and the pillars of Old Equestria, as well as the remains of the original eight champions who threw down the tyrant.
Knightly Armor slid a stone door to one of the old vaults. Musty air rushed out. "It's in there.", he said with a gesture.
Shining readied his spear and walked through the door. Light spilled though the doorway, allowing him to see around the vault. It was small, much smaller than the dozen or so he'd seen in history books. In the walls were four hutches that were carved out of the living stone, they were deep enough for two ponies each, but there was nothing in those hutches. No moldering burial shrouds, no bones slowly decaying into dust, no mummified remains. It looked like whoever had carved those hutches wound up never using them. On the back wall was an altar carved out of the living stone, on it was a massive and ancient earthenware urn, and something out of place, a rolled up scroll made of new parchment.
Shining walked over and levitated the scroll. Unrolling it, he looked it over. It was a map of all of the secret passageways in the castle, it looked like it was ripped out of several books and pasted to the scroll. "Who would put this here?", he asked slowly turning around, studying the scroll. "Was this done by the tress--HEY!"
The door slid shut. With a thud it was closed tight and with the click-clacking of ancient locking mechanisms, it was sealed.
"Forgive me son.", Knightly said softly after the door was sealed. "I can't have you dying for what I'm about to do. I found out almost ten years ago that not only was Nightmare Moon and Chrysalis real, but they're Celestia's sisters. After I confronted the princess about, she only asked me to do one thing, not protect her, not protect the palace, their residences, the throne room or the royal vestments, just ensure her daughters escape. You're clever and will find the passage out of there. Celestia locked me in on just like this, only the hutches were full of decaying skeletons and I found my way out after three days. You'll get out quicker than I did."
Knightly Armor turned and left the sealed vault with his son inside. He had orders to give the to the members of the other five regiments he trusted the most to take a company worth's of guards and disperse throughout the city, and protect the civilians at all costs. The Family Guard would stand, and on need be, die to protect Sunset and Twilight.
Shining hurled himself at the door, throwing his shoulder in it, trying to break it down. He then tried bucking the door down. He then tried using the spear to pry the door open. He tried using his magic to wedge the door open or blast it down. When all failed, he plopped on his haunches in defeat.
"You sunuva...", Shining screamed as he ripped his helmet off and hurled it at the door. He then took to examining the scroll. He noticed that the pages glued to it were from different books that were different ages, some older, some younger, based on their yellowing and the font of the numbering at the corners. He studied the way the pages were expertly laid out, making an in depth map. It must have taken Celestia centuries concealing these old drawings throughout the various tomes. He noticed a single X that was drawn on a single vault, indicating which one he was in. "You crafty old mule-headed..." He took a moment to look around the vault. "Okay, if I'm reading this right, then I'm here and there should be a passage behind the altar. I just have to...oops!" He accidentally knocked over the old earthenware urn.
It landed on the floor with a clattering crash. Moldering bones, bleached white with age, spilled across the stone floor, along with the urn fragments. Eight gems of differing colors also bounced across the floor.
"Uh...sorry about that.", Shining apologized to the long dead ponies. "Here, let me gather you all up and put you somewhere more comfortable." He gathered up the shattered remains of the large earthenware urn and gently laid them in one of the hutches, in the hopes whatever was going was over, he could have some historians restore this priceless artifact from ancient Equestria. He then gathered up the bleached bones, noticing that each of the skulls had a symbol carved into their forehead. He reverently placed each skull into the hutch beside the urn fragments, then placed the bones by the skulls, hoping that by some bit of dumb luck, he had put the right bones with the right pony. He levitated the gems and took note that the symbol carved on each gem corresponded to a symbol carved into the foreheads of the skulls. He placed each gem next to the skull that had the proper symbol.
As Shining was inspecting the altar for some way to open the passageway behind, he failed to notice the empty sockets of all eight skulls glowed with a pale light. The gems glowed with a faint light, floated upwards and phased through the ceiling of the vault.
Knightly Armor made it back to the throne room just as the sky started to darken. With a quick nod, he sent a silent order to the Family Guard. Several of them moved to hidden doors around the throne room, others moved closer to the two sisters.
The hour of Nightmare Moon's vengeance was at hand. With a shrieking war cry she burst out of the black nimbus that cloaked her form. Hate burned in her eyes and her soul as she locked eyes on her elder sister Celestia, who was standing on the balcony looking straight up at her, materializing nearby was her younger sister Chrysalis...NO! They were not her sisters! They were that weakling Luna's sisters! Screaming wind tore past her ear fins and across her scales. Foaming slather streaked backwards from the corners of her mouth, pulled by the rush of wind as she descended upon her quarry.
Celestia quickly shed her alicorn form, needing her unrestrained half-dragon might to restrain her sister just long enough for her daughters to escape. Sucking air, she unleashed a challenging roar to the nightmare that was currently holding her sister's form hostage.
Just as Chrysalis finished materializing, Nightmare Moon, her scales as black as the moors on a moonless night, slammed into Celestia.
Having one thousand years of preparation under her talons, Celestia rolled with impact and tumbled with the nightmare off the side of the balcony.
The two impacted onto the cobblestone covered ground with great force. Cracks spiderwebbed from their rough landing.
Nightmare Moon, being all wrath and fury, was the first to recover. "Behold!", she shouted, rearing to stand on her hand legs and spreading her forelegs wide. "Behold! Behold! The monument to your princess' hubris made flesh!"
Curling her hind legs under her, Celestia kicked out with her might. "One thousand years later and you still seek to grandstand.", she muttered bitterly. She then turned her attention up to her youngest sister still on the balcony. "Do not sit there like a bump on a log! Do what you have come here for and do it quickly!"
Sunset and Twilight turned their attention towards the balcony.
"That sounded like mom!", Twilight exclaimed.
"C'mon, Shimmering Star! She wouldn't roar like that unless there was danger!", Sunset exclaimed back. "We need to help her!"
Ponies of the Family Guard surrounded the two sisters and started dragging off to one side of the room.
"Unhoof me!", Sunset shouted. "What's the meaning of this?!"
Twilight tried to wriggle and slither and squirm out of the grip of the guards, only to be encased in a magic bubble. She lit her horn and cast a spell to crack open the magic bubble, only for more of the Family Guard to add their magic to it.
"Do not struggle, my duchesses.", Knightly Armor said. "We are following your mother's orders. We are to ensure that you both get away safely."
Several of the Family Guard opened the secret door that led to a hidden passageway. The Family Guard shoved the two sisters inside the passageway.
"Remember what your mother told you. Flee to Ponyville and hide there.", Knightly Armor said through the doorway. "Follow the southern passage until you come to a waterfall. There you will find supplies. Make all haste to Ponyville."
"What will you do?", Twilight asked.
"I will do all in my power to ensure you both safely get away, even if it means my life.", Knightly Armor replied. "Now quickly, go! Every second you delay is a second wasted!" She slammed the door shut, shoved a key into the lock and twisted it, engaging the lock. He then swallowed the key.
Chrysalis, a ripple passed through her black scales with green highlights as she regarded her eldest sister's words, though she still harbored ill will towards Celestia, the white half-dragon had a way of knowing things. She had spent years spying on her sister and knew that she had taken on a naga and a kirin as her adopted daughters. Though Nightmare Moon was the result of Celestia's hubris, something she would pay for, those two didn't deserve the wrath of the nightmare. She pushed open the door that led from the balcony to the throne room and walked in.
The Family Guard formed up ranks and leveled their halberds at the half-dragon, making a wall of bodies and blades. "Halt!", Knightly Armor shouted in challenge. "You shall not step one more paw into the throne--huh?!"
Chrysalis simply rolled her eyes at the guards who were blocking her path. She didn't even bother to listen to the words of the captain, just simply transformed into a swarm of locusts and flew past them.
The family guard quickly recovered from the surprise of the half-dragon essentially phasing past them, repositioned to in front of her, reformed ranks to block her path again. "Halt! You shall not go any--Oh for crying out loud!"
Chrysalis hissed out an annoyed sigh and bounded over the guards that had moved to block her path again.
Knightly Armor summoned up his magic and cast a blink. He reappeared in front of the half-dragon, huffing and puffing. Teleportation wasn't his specialty and it took a lot out of him. He was going to do everything to impede this half-dragon until he was sure Celestia's daughters were safely away.
Chrysalis took a moment to regard this captain. "I must say, there is strength greater than Iron in your soul for one such as you to not yield to a sister of Celestia. Now move out of my way."
Knightly Armor, though he was winded from casting the blink spell, refused to give ground. He squared his stance and leveled his halberd. "No."
"I was not asking."
"The answer is still no."
"Very will, if you will not move of your volition, then you will move of my volition." Chrysalis reached out with a paw, grasped the guard by his gorget and flung him aside.
Knightly Armor flew through the air, slammed into the floor and tumbled across the room, his armor clattering. He came to a stop several body lengths away and with a groan, consciousness fled him.
Moving to the door that led to Celestia and her daughter's personal wing, Chrysalis paused at the sounds of the armor clattering behind her. She turned her head to look at the Family Guard forming up ranks behind her. "Unless you want to suffer the same fate as your captain, you will allow me to pass. I am not here to accost you or cause harm to the royal family's abode. I am simply trying to delay the nightmare's discovery of my nieces. You can follow me, but do not impede me or I will move you out of my way by force."
Celestia and Nightmare Moon tumbled across the palace grounds as they wrestled. Pinning the white princess to the ground, Nightmare Moon hefted Celestia over her head and hurled her away.
Carried by the throw's momentum, Celestia tumbled into the bushes and slipped away down one of the many paths the gardeners used to tend the many gardens, hedge mazes and shrub sculptures. She quickly positioned to where she could observe the nightmare unseen.
Nightmare Moon blew a gout of shadow wreathed flames into the bushes where Celestia has disappeared in to, turning them into ash. "I know you can see me and hear me, Celestia.", she bellowed. "You cannot run from your own hubris! Fight me!" She paused, listening and watching. When the white half-dragon refused to reappear, a wicked grin split her lips. She curled her fist and extended a single claw. "Oh, I see what's going on here. You don't wish to harm your dear sister's body. The sister whom you neglected. The dear sister who came to you in tears because of her nightmares and bad dreams. The same dear sister you sent away to live in that drafty tower when her emotional outbursts started to disrupt your gilded galas. The same sister who cried all alone many a night and gave herself to me? And in your hubris you thought you could use the soul-bound gems to banish me? Now you think to hide like a rabbit in the undergrowth from the punishment of your own hubris."
"Don't you dare.", Celestia whispered. She glanced up at the eclipsed sun and silently cursed. If she could stall for a few more minutes, the moon would move just enough to let enough light to weaken the nightmare slightly, a few minutes it looks like she no longer has.
Nightmare Moon placed the claw to her own throat. "If you won't come forth and pay the pennance for your own hubris, then maybe I shall take my pound from Luna's body. Wouldn't you just love that, Celestia? Another block added to your monument of hubris." She began to press the claw into her own neck.
Celestia stepped out of her hiding place. "You win, Nightmare. I surrender." She looked into the hateful eyes that burned like twin turquoise flames of hate. Her eyes stung with tears. "Please, Luna, find it in your heart to forgive me." With that she laid on her belly.
Nightmare Moon sneered as she looked down on the white half-dragon. She prepared to summon chains to bind the white half-dragon when she balked. Something deep in her soul moved, almost like it was reaching out for Celestia.
Celestia felt it too. She looked up at the nightmare made flesh and said, "I'm sorry, Luna. I know it's been too long coming and may be too late. I know I sent you away and drove a wedge between myself and Chrisi. Forgive an old fool who only cared for how others saw her."
Deep inside Nightmare Moon, Luna thrashed and flailed, trying to break free. The part this beast could not kill, that it could not touch, her love, fueled Luna in her struggle to be free. As the nightmare fought back against the younger half-dragon's soul, its wrath and fury dwindled for only a moment, then erupted into a conflagration of unbridled hateful rage.
"ENOUGH!", Nightmare Moon roared. She summoned chains of blazing shadows and bound Celestia tightly in them.
Celestia wheezed as the chains crushed the air out of her.
Chrysalis was currently picking through Celestia's personal chambers. She paused and smiled at the pictures of Sunset and Twilight when they were still young. She picked up a single picture of Celestia and her two daughters, cake batter and frosting were smeared on their faces as they were in mid laughter. Then she felt a surge. "Ah, it appears your hold on my sister's soul is not so complete." She passed stacks of pictures to members of the Family Guard. "Hide these or destroy them, it matters not. Do what you must to conceal from the nightmare the existence of my nieces."
Chrysalis quickly hurried out into the hallway. She didn't have time to properly conceal Sunset's and Twilight's rooms. Kicking down the doors to their rooms and belched in flames. All of Twilight's belongings were turned to as, but Sunset's seemed to be mostly untouched by the flames. She didn't have time to figure out why, instead she grabbed ahold of the buttresses in the ceiling of the room and tore them down with all of her might. Rubble and dust rained down about the half-dragon, burying her.
The Family Guard looked on stunned at what just happened.
Chrysalis pulled herself out from the rubble, coughing the dust from her lungs. "Go!", she shouted, pointing a dust-covered claw. "Hide or destroy those pictures then protect the civilians!"
Sunset and Twilight ran down, down, down, down through the passage way. The smell of water filled their noses and the roar of a waterfall filled their ears. Soon they came upon where the passageway ended, a waterfall forming a curtain of white water over the entrance. There as the guard captain had said were several packs of supplies. The two quickly looked through the packs, inside was a tent, along with several days worth of food and water, along with some fire making supplies and a couple of knives.
"How are we supposed to get down?", Sunset asked. "There isn't any rope or other climbing supplies."
Twilight hemmed and hawed for a few minutes. "We're going to have to free climb down the side."
Sunset strapped the supplies to her body.
The sound of hooffalls caught the attention of the two sisters and they froze as they looked back the way they had come down the passageway.
Four ponies wearing dark robes were walking down the passageway. Tendrils of smoky shadows billowed out from under their robes.
"Stupid sun-worshipers. Thought they could lock us in the pantry like that and not think we'd find that secret door?", the first pony said.
"Now we just gotta find the way out of this cockamamie maze of tunnels and halls.", the second one said. "I'm sure her dark eminence will like to know about these."
"We just gotta hope no shadow cultists found their way into the palace either.", the third one said. "I heard they don't wash their plots in bathtubs like regular ponies neither. I heard they scrub their plots with snow and--"
"Hold up.", the fourth one said. "Lookie-loo what we got here. A kirin and a naga. Weren't those the two that the white one was making princesses or something?"
Sunset and Twilight gulped.
"Ah, yes. I think her dark eminence will reward us nicely if we bring her--YIPE!"
*crackle* *ka-boom*
The four jumped backwards in fright when a bolt of red magic struck the wall near them, causing a section to explode.
"Run!", Sunset yelled and jumped out into the waterfall.
Twilight jumped behind her.
Nightmare Moon dragged the bound form of Celestia into the palace.
Chrysalis barely had enough time to get into the throne room. She looked at the still unconscious form of Knightly Armor and spat a silent curse when the doors burst open.
Nightmare Moon hurled Celestia's bound form through the air, causing it to land unceremoniously before the dais.
Nightmare cultists shoved terrified castle staff and bound guards into the throne room, and bowed before the nightmare made flesh.
"My dark queen. This is what of the staff and guards we could find.", a cultist with an intricate silver pattern on the hem of his robes said. "There are reports from other squads that they're chasing guards through the passages that are honeycombing the palace."
Nightmare Moon summoned a new chain and began stringing Celestia's bound up from a high buttress. "For your sake, they had better be dealt with in a timely matter."
Once Nightmare Moon had finished hoisting Celestia up, she turned to face the throng of nightmare cultists and imprisoned ponies. "Behold, ponies of Canterlot! Your rightful queen has returned!" When none but the cultists cheered, she put on a faux hurt expression. "What?! Does not my crown count any more? Oh how I've longed to see your sun-loving faces!"
A quatro of four nightmare cultists, their robes covered in dust, stormed into the throne room and bowed. "Many apologies, my dark queen! We were lost in the passages in the castle when we encountered a naga and a kirin. They were the ones who she was crowning as princesses shortly before your arrival. One of them blew up a section of the wall and escaped. We think they went over the waterfall."
Nightmare Moon tapped a claw to her lips. "Hmm...what have you been up to, Celestia? Who are those two? And why were you crowning them as princesses?" When Celestia refused to answer, she flicked a paw at her. "Bah!"
Suddenly Nightmare Moon flinched in pain. "Augh! The sun has come out from behind the moon! Block the windows!"
Sunset tumbled head over hooves as the current spun her around and around. She lost any sense of which way was up and struggled to untie the knots on the packs that were weighing her down.
Twilight surfaced. "Sunny Bunny? Sunny Bunny? Sunset?" She took a breath and stuck her head back under the water, seeing her sister struggling with the packs tied to her body. Popping her head back up, she took in another lungful of water and dove down.
As Sunset struggled with the packs, her lungs burning, she felt a mouth go over her snout and blow some air in. This slight respite helped the burning sensation in her lungs. She continued to struggle with the knots.
*thunk*
Twilight saw Sunset's head hit a rock and her body go ragdoll. Her sister's limp body was dragged down by the weight of the waterlogged packs as the current dragged her across the bottom. She struggled with the knots before the need for air drove her to the surface.
Twilight broke the surface, gulped down a quick lungful of air and dove downwards again. She struggled with the knots for a moment before fishing into the packs. She found one of the knives, wrapped her tail around it and pulled it free.
Once the last of the packs were free from Sunset's body, Twilight wrapped the lower half of her body around her sister's and swam for the surface. Breaching the surface, she swam hard and fast for the shore, dragging her sister with her.
Twilight heaved herself and Sunset onto the shore. She quickly checked her sister over, she wasn't breathing. "Come on! Breath! Breath!" She coiled her body around Sunset and constricted.
*hakgh*
With gurgling coughs, Sunset expelled the water from her lungs and sucked in air.
The two sisters dragged themselves further up the bank and draped their bodies across along the ground. They looked up as the moon began to move from in front of the sun.
"We need to get out of here.", Sunset said. "Where was it mom said we were supposed to go?"
"Ponyville.", Twilight answered. "I don't know how long it will take as I was forced to cut the supply packs away so I could get you out of the river."
"It's south of Canterlot, so we go south."
The two sisters took one last longing look back up at the city atop the Canterhorn, not knowing if they'll ever see home or their mother again, then turned away to the south to begin their long trek.
As evening set in, a dozen unicorns used their magic to push the sun below the horizon, even though it breatly drained them as Nightmare Moon would not let Celestia do her heavenly duty.
Nightmare Moon was walking through the hallways of the palace. She thought on how it appeared that Celestia's study had been recently ransacked, and there were those two rooms. One had been scorched with fire until nothing identifiable and the other had been collapsed recently. "What are you trying to hide, Chrysalis?" She paused and turned to a cultist standing guard in the hallway. "Bring me Chrysalis." The cultist bowed deeply and ran to complete the order.
Chrysalis was currently flying away from Canterlot to the south as a swarm of locusts. It would only be a matter of time before Nightmare Moon found out about Celestia's two daughters. She needed to find them before the nightmare made flesh found out.
***
Knightly Armor was currently sitting in a room bound to a chair. Nightmare Moon was pacing back and forth.
"Tell me what you know about that naga and kirin, captain."
"Nagas and kirins are two dragon-descended tribes of ponies. It is said that because the dragon blood runs stronger in their veins, they are much more magically attuned than some of the other tribes of ponies."
"I did not ask for a classroom lecture on them, captain. What do you know about that naga and kirin that were coronated by Celestia earlier today?"
"The naga and kirin tribes are much more closely related to the selkie, dryad and draconequis tribes, than to the unicorn, pegasus and earth tribes. All tribes in Equestria are descended from half-dragons, except for the crystal tribe. It is said the crystal tribe is descended from half-elementals that used to dwell in the Frozen North."
Nightmare Moon backhanded Knightly across his mouth. "The kirin and the naga! Tell me what you know! And not some classroom lecture!"
Knightly Armor licked across the split in his lips. "Kirins are wrongfully called lizard-ponies or deer ponies due to their scales and the fork in their horn. Nagas are wrongfully called snake-ponies because of their serpent-like features--"
"Enough!" Nightmare Moon brought her claws up to the captain's throat. "If you won't tell me what I want to know, I'll have to simply drag it out of you."
A nightmare cultist burst into the room carrying a charred book. "My queen, while my ponies were investigating a disturbance in the incinerators, we encountered a pony throwing things in them. They fled when we approached them. A search of the incinerators turned this up."
Nightmare Moon took the book and opened it up. "Well, well, well! What do we have here?" She pulled out several pictures of Celestia with Twilight and Sunset. "It seems that Celestia knew this kirin and naga." She flipped a few pages. "Oh, and look what I've found!" She pulled out a pair of birthday pictures. "It seems your sun princess adopted those two as daughters. My, my, my! Well we can't have her two heirs running around, now can we? I wonder where they could have run off to? Maybe it's the same place Chrysalis has gone, eh captain?" She leaned in close to Knightly Armor. "You wouldn't happen to know where they've gone, would you?"
Knightly Armor spat in the nightmare's eye. "Rut you!"
As the nightmare cultist went to rush forward, Nightmare Moon held out a paw to stop them as she flicked the spit from her eye. "Tsk tsk tsk! Such unbecoming behavior for one who is meant to protect Celestia and her brood. Though your courage is commendable." She turned to the nightmare cultist. "Brick this room up. Make sure he lives long enough to regret his decisions."
Shining Armor had been watching from within a vent near the floor. He waited until the room was clear before opening the vent and coming out. Using his magic, he broke the bonds holding his father and dragged him into the vent.
Lieutenant Shining Armor of the Sol Guard reporting, sir!"
Knightly Armor looked his son over, pride overflowing in his heart. "Guard, you are out of uniform. What is the meaning of this?"
Shining balked, then looked down at his armor. "But sir, I am in the armor of a Sol Guard."
"You are no longer in the Sol Guard, colt! As of now you are promoted to the Family Guard!"
"Bwha?!" Shining was stunned with what his father had just said. It wasn't unheard of for a pony to get a field promotion, but never to another guard regiment.
"Well don't just stand there with your jaw flapping like a busted trapdoor. Get your plot down to Ponyville posthaste. Duchesses Sunset and Twilight are there. Defend them at all costs." Knightly pulled his son in for a tight hug. "Be safe and come back to me."
After the two parted from the hug, Shining gave his father a quick nod and hurried off.
"Now then, can somepony give me a weapon and some armor? We got a princess to liberate and a family to reunite."
Sunset and Twilight had spent that last three days hiking cross country. They barely slept and ate what little they could forage for. More often than not they marched on with rumbling bellies, stopping only when exhaustion overtook them.
Sunset was having a delightful dream about a neverending parfait smorgasbord when she was shaken awake.
"Sunny Bunny! Look! I found some berries!" Twilight levitated a few bunches of brilliant orange berries in her magic.
Sunset looked at the berries. Her stomach rumbled and she scarfed a few down. Twilight quickly followed suit.
"My stomach feels kinda weird.", Sunset said.
"And I'm feeling kind of dizzy.", Twilight said.
Suddenly the eyes of both sisters dilated.
"Whoa!", Sunset exclaimed. "Look at all the pretty butterflies!" She gestured at things that weren't there.
"Yeah!", Twilight replied. "And all of the pretty rainbow-colored fireflies too!"
The two sisters started running/slithering quickly through the forest chasing hallucinations.
Sunset paused and looked at her sister, who looked like a weird floating octopus and started snorting with laughters.
Twilight looked over at her sister, who looked like some sort of weird bald ape-thing. "Bah-ha-ha-ha-ha! You, should see yourself! You look like a bald monkey!"
"Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha! And you look like a weird octopus-thingy!"
The two laughed and skipped and stumbled and shouted, "Whoo!" as they went through the forest. Because of the effect of the berries, they didn't notice that they had stumbled into a well groomed apple orchard.
What looked like a bush stirred at the commotion. It raised its pony head and looked at the two who were out of their minds on the berries. "Nope!" The odd bush-pony shook its head disapprovingly.
A dryad stallion with three apples hanging on its hindquarters came from around a red barn. "Consarn it all! Last thing we need is a couple o' hippes outta their gourds on goof-berries!" It walked over to the bush. "Don't just stand there like some sorta bit o' dead wood, Big Mac. Make sure they dun hurt themselves." The dryad raised a hood-branch to his mouth whistled loudly.
A pair of young fillies, one with tree branches sticking out of her mane and tail, the other with leaf-covered branches for wings, ran up.
"Apple Bloom, Scootaloo. Y'all run into town and fetch th's doc. tell 'em we got a couple o' ponies on goof-berries runnin' 'round."
"Yes ma'am.", the two fillies said in unison and ran back into the barn. A moment later they were both standing on a scooter, the filly with leaf branches for wings was steering and propelling it as she flapped her wings, leaving a dust trail behind them.
The dryad looked around. "Now where did they..."
The bush-pony gestured off in the distance, then started plodding slowly.
"Consarn it all!", the dryad stallion exclaimed. "They went in th' direction o' Fluttershy's. If'n anypony knows how cleanse anypony o' goof-berries, it her. Well come on, Mac. Let's see if'n we c'n catch'em 'fore they scare the otter outta that selkie."
Sunset and Twilight were skipping along chasing things that only they hallucinated when they heard some singing. Sneaking along the ground, they peeked over the edge of the bank of a small stream and saw a yellow and pink otter singing a hauntingly beautiful wordless melody.
The two ducked back behind the bank.
"Let's see if that otter has any jelly radishes.", Sunset said. Or at least that's what she thought she said. In reality she said, "Bleeg glom lomminity nose."
Twilight drooled at the thought of bleep-bloop-gloop-glorp and nodded.
The two hopped down next to the singing otter and Sunset said, "Bling blominuu?"
The otter let out a little scared squeak and dove into the water.
Sunset and Twilight came over to where the otter had dove into the water. They looked at their reflections and started having giggle fits.
*sploosh*
The stream exploded in a fountain of water. A massive sis-legged green bear rose up out of the water and roared.
Just like that Sunset and Twilight came down. They hugged one another. "Aaaaaaaaaaaah!"
"No, Harry! Bad water bear!" The yellow otter sprung up and landed on the water bear's snout, scolding it. "We don't attack...wait...a kirin and a naga?! Oh my goodness! It's been so long since anypony's seen one of your kind!"
Sunset and Twilight blinked.
The yellow and pink otter hopped off from the water bear's snout and in a flash of light turned into a pegasus mare with a yellow coat and a pink mane. "I hope Harry didn't hurt you.
*bleurgh*
Sunset emptied the contents of her stomach onto the side of the creek.
The yellow pegasus sniffed the vomit. "Oh my. Did you two eat the orange berries in the forest?"
*blahgh*
Twilight emptied the contents of her stomach.
"Oh my. It looks like you did."
"Fluttershy!", the dryad shouted as he ran up. "Did either o' these two...waitaminit! A kirin and a naga?!" He shook his head back and forth a couple of times. "Did these two hippes all hopped up on goof-berries cause ya any problems?"
"Oh, hi Applejack! No, they haven't caused me any problems. And I don't think they're hippes. Look at their manes. Too clean. I think they got lost and ate some goof-berries because they were hungry."
"Great! City folk.", Applejack muttered. "We gotta get'em to th' doc an get'em th' antidote afore they start squirtin' outta both ends."
"I think it's a little late for that.", Fluttershy replied as she gestured to the whose stomachs were now making weird loud sounds. She pointed off in a direction. "There's some nice bushes for you both to go behind."
Sunset and Twilight shot off like twin bolts of lightning.
***
"Ugh! I never want to see another berry again!", Twilight said.
"I think I pushed last year's Hearth's Warming out of me!", Sunset said.
For twenty minutes they had fertilized the bushes from both ends. When their stomachs had calmed down enough, the selkie known as Fluttershy had given them some nectar from a little blue flower, that helped with the remaining nausea. She then turned back into an otter and slipped into the water. Singing came from downstream.
"Is she going to be alright?", Sunset asked.
"Who, 'Shy? Yeah. Selkies are very skittish. They charm fish an' frogs an' whatnot with their songs ta eat. But she's unique, she sings ta calm animals, 'specially for the past few days since that weird eclipse.", Applejack replied. "So what brings a kirin an' a naga to the l'il town o' Ponyville?"