As usual, the Royal Guard is a day late and a gold bit short, just the way we like it. Foalishness… we have always been here, and we are never leaving.
Our Queen was a very busy mare on the night of the Summer Sun Celebration when she banished Celestia. Not only did she taunt and torment your little sister and her friends, but Nightmare Moon was already reshaping Equestria to her desires. Her most favored ponies in her past life in Equestria were her Shadowbolts, a team of pegasi who could fly, fight and die to do anything she demanded, who would stop at nothing to fulfill their mistress’ every desire.
I should ask my dear teammates the stories of their recruitment some night… but for now, you can consider yourself privileged to hear mine. The powers of our Queen are considerable, and it was no effort at all for her to locate the best possible candidates for herself that night. Strong, fast, loyal to the Night…
I was laying in bed, how pathetically little there was to do during the day when the Guard would strut around in their perfectly-gleaming gold armor, curtains drawn so I did not notice the unexpected onslaught of nighttime. And then my apartment was invaded… A cloud of ink flowed into the room from everywhere. There she stood, tall and enormous, dark and beautiful.
“Good evening, Charger… care to lend an interview to your new Queen.. Nightmare Moon?”
I didn’t believe it for a moment.
“Oh, you think you’re clever,” I growled, sitting up fast, wishing I’d taken the stereotypical advice of sleeping with a knife beneath my pillow. Instead, well. Distract, and reach for the heaviest thing at hoof. ”But I’ll not serve some unicorn conjurer of cheap tricks and illusions, I don’t believe in old mares’ tales!” I gathered my bedsheets and hurled them at her to blind and bind; racing to the side to yank the cheap bedside lamp from the wall, wielding it as I curved my wings to come from an unexpected angle to swing, to crush it over their head. It felt good as it shattered with such force; not that I’d started this fight, but I was going to finish it. Alright, I’d started it, but they they broke into my home first!
Hurling their seemingly-insignificant form to the floor and booting my hooves into their ribs repeatedly, whatever expression of triumph upon my face melted away much as their body did, the form beneath me dissolving away. The laughter of the pony it belonged to rang out throughout the room.
“Yes, you have spirit. And you have… skills. They serve my will, now!” And then came the most pain I’d felt in my entire life. For once I was thankful that the furniture in my apartment at the time was made of cheap wood, if it’d been made out of proper hardwood my body would’ve broken irreparably first. Maybe. Little was beyond Nightmare Moon’s powers…
Smashed about like a ragdoll, helpless in the grip of Nightmare Moon’s divine magic, I cried out in terror the likes of which I’ve never felt ever before or since as I could not resist, could do nothing to stop the way I was assailed. By the time she was done within a short minute or two, I swore there was nothing left unbroken within the bedroom, and my body felt at the edge of life.
“If you’re finished, you may kneel and call me Queen.” She gave a pleased glare down with those piercing cyan orbs. It felt like a challenge, a matter of life or death. Upon somewhat shattered limbs, I forced myself up… and then down upon my forelegs, pain-wracked wings splaying out in as close to proper fashion as I presented myself.
“You’re… all you said you were and more.” My head toppled forward, unable to stare up at her any longer. ”My Mistress… My queen. Nightmare Moon.” I’d sooner die than say it if it didn’t feel right, but it did. I held no love for Celestia and her flawed kingdom, riddled with cracks that ponies fell through beyond her light. The night had always suited me better, and with such personal attention, how could I refuse? I was flattered, moreso than I was battered. And I was inches from death.
“Then rise, my brave Shadowbolt, and see what you’ve become.” Embraced again by Nightmare’s magic, this time I felt warm, like my entire body was being hugged with care and love, raised onto my hooves once again as the agony melted away, bones sliding back into place and melding together where they were broken… An odd sensation I’d rather not feel again, but better than dying.
And then in the shattered fragments of a bloodstained mirror that I’d just been smashed into, I gazed long and hard… I looked good. I’d been no fan of the Wonderbolts, too poor as a young colt to afford one of the limited seats in Manehattan’s cloudiseum. There were better shows in town anyways, races far more exciting, across hard buildings of brick and steel and down narrow alleys… but that’s a story for another time.
This perfect mockery of the Wonderbolt uniform looked flawless on my body. Purple and black, stealthy colors of the night, clung to me like the shadows themselves… Stylish slashes of yellow to intimidate enemies and signal to allies who knew where to look. Angular goggles that made the darkness sharper, clearer… A winged skull covered up my cutiemark. I spread my wings out and turned, looking from a few more angles, before Nightmare cleared her throat and stamped a hoof.
“That’s enough. We have a very, very busy night ahead of us… Come!” Folding a wing over my back, my Queen took me with her as she teleported away…
Meeting my new teammates was a rocky start. I was offended that Nightshade was the leader, for it was I who had leadership experience… But Nightmare Moon’s word was law. Stratus the ex-guardspony second-in-command rankled me for similar reasons, and his hated white mane and blue coat… I’d never met anypony as utterly, incurably, annoyingly insane as Blueball Blitz, and Starry Skies was a classic gold-digger, here only for her money… But I didn’t have a choice. For better or for worse, we were a team now.
“Now, my dear little ponies, the time where we part ways for a short while comes now. I have already banished and imprisoned my dear, weak sister Celestia, but there’s one task yet that remains. The Elements of Harmony are the only thing that stand in my way,” Nightmare explained, showing vague representations of six powerfully glowing, distinct colored lights. ”And they could be in one of two places… Within the Royal Palace at Canterlot, or within my own Palace, deep in the Everfree Forest, where these foals are going to attempt to stop me… I will deal with them myself.” This image she displayed was far clearer, six ponies preparing to set out into the unknown. My eyes couldn’t help but linger on the spectacular-looking pegasus who darted about with such impatient energy until Nightmare banished the image.
“Now go! Search the palace, and do not stop until you’ve found them! Then the Night will last, FOREVER! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA!” The alicorn’s laughter rang in the darkness long after she’d dissolved into the sparkling smoke we’d come to know. How was I to know then it would be the last time we’d see our Mistress, so soon after our meeting that’d changed our lives?
“You heard her! To Canterlot!” Nightshade snapped, flaring her wings into the air. Had to give her credit then, she had the ‘being in charge’ part down herself too, even antsy little Blitzy stood to attention and listened. And then we flew… together. It wasn’t a race, it was something else, something that felt -right-, that was new to me. Not even Starry was a slouch at this, though Blueball threatened to pull away from us all on several occasions. The cool night air whipped over my masked face, and in the darkness I would not know where to look to see my teammates if not for the way my goggles lit their yellow stripes up.
It seemed as if no time at all had passed before we were at Equestria’s capital, the oh so beloved shining city built upon a mountainside, so only a privileged few could live there, watching the sweat and toil of those ponies who strained to bring their every desire up the steep mountain roads. But tonight was the best I’d ever seen it, pampered proper ponies panicking at the unexpected darkness, running aimlessly about the streets in terror at the rumor that their Princess was no more. Approaching the Royal Palace, it was obvious the Royal Guard was doing little better at holding their fright in, officers -including you, now that I think of it- being not quite the eyes in the storm of chaos they liked to think they were.
There could never be a better time to infiltrate the Palace.
“No killing!” Nightshade snapped as we descended together for an unattended balcony. ”The blood will alert them, give them something to focus on. If we’re like ghosts, they’ll never know we’re here. Now find them!” Solid orders, really. Even as a criminal, I was quite adverse to killing if I didn’t have to, out of both logic and instinctual equine revulsion.
The room we entered was deserted, the night wind whipping the curtains about gently. The palace already seemed messy, ponies had tripped over displays of ancient things in their aimless flight from everywhere to nowhere. Foals. If this was the reaction just what a little darkness could cause, Nightmare Moon would be gravely disappointed in the weak wills of her new subjects. At least it made ransacking the room without the mess drawing notice much easier.
“Whassa Element look like? Izzit shiny?” Blueball Blitz piped up inappropriately while cheerfully tearing a tapestry off the wall. Nightshade only growled, and smacked a hoof to her face in annoyance.
“You’ll KNOW it when you see it, Blueball, if you have to ask, it isn’t it! …Yes, it’s probably shiny…” The commotion however attracted attention, the door flinging open to reveal two Royal Guards with worried expressions on their faces.
“Who’s in there- Celestia’s holy plot!” one exclaimed. I was the closest to the door, we had to move fast, and we did. I considered the switchblade secreted in a pouch of my suit, but orders were orders, and they were good ones worth following. Instead, I pulled an antique vase off a marble pillar, and smashed it over the first’s helmet, dropping him like a bale of hay. The other turned to run, but a pink and purple blur was faster than him or I, Starry Skies’ hoof lashing out in a kick between the hindlegs that provoked a high-pitched shriek from the stallion, making me wince as he hit the floor. Another kick to the head mercifully silenced his pathetic pained noises.
“Remind me not to piss you off,” I muttered to the smirking Starry.
“In the closet, quickly!” We hauled them out of the doorway into our room, closing the door. Stratus and I shoved items aside to make room for two, and propped the two blissfully unconscious guardsponies up into one another, while Nightshade warily peeked out into the hallway to see if we’d been discovered. Satisfied the Elements of Harmony weren’t in this room, she waved us up. ”Come on, we’re gonna search every room in between here and Celestia’s personal chambers… and then the rest of this moonforsaken castle if we have to!”
Speed, stealth, and surprise were our allies as we tore apart one room after another, sneaking past the disarrayed and distracted Guard where we could, finding creative hiding places for those we had to knock out. A stained glass motif of Celestia and the colors of the Elements was experimentally knocked out of its frame to no effect, the broken fragments discarded. Carpets were torn up to attempt to reveal secret under-floor compartments that did not exist.
Soon only the throne room and the royal chambers beyond were left on our schedule, but one glance told us it was impossible. ”There’s too many,” Nightshade hissed as we backed up, putting a scowl on my face. No, we couldn’t be deterred that easily…
“Blitzy hunnnngwy~” the smallest of us whined in her annoyingly adorable way, drawing glares from us all.
“Shut up you- Genius,” Stratus changed tone in mid-sentence, his grin pulling that ugly facial scar up as the ex-guardspony lit up with an idea. ”The Royal Guard prides itself on responding to any emergency… Celestia keeps the royal kitchens close at hoof, must not be much to do but eat cloudcakes the past thousand years… If we set them on fire, I’ll bet you anything they’ll go running to the rescue!”
“It’s a plan. Let’s do it!” the Captain agreed, and one short, quick flight later we were within the sprawling kitchens of Canterlot Palace. I felt a twinge of jealousy, with a kitchen this well-equipped, cooking dinner personally to help seduce a mare would be so much easier… Instead, we trashed the place, thankful that the cooking staff had already fled far far away in panic over their beloved Princess going missing. Turning the gas spigots onto full blast and heaping aprons and napkins and other flammables into ready-made pyres, and glaring while our hyperactive blue brat helped herself to the half-prepared sweets instead of helping.
“Now back out the way we came! Move it!” Nightshade ordered once she was satisfied with the scale of our preparations. I hurried to get out, having no urge to be burnt to ashes, as did my teammates. ”Stratus, light it up!” Pulling a match from a pocket of his flight suit, the big stallion struck it and threw the tiny torch back into the just-vacated kitchen, tucking his wings in as he ran upon his hooves, to save his flight feathers from being singed… By the enormous fireball that erupted from every doorway in the kitchen, soon followed by billowing black smoke. The panicked yells in the castle grew louder, and by the time we returned to where we’d attempted to enter the throne room from, there were far fewer guards in evidence.
Just enough of them to give us trouble… but we were the best. Nightmare Moon wouldn’t’ve settled for less. And they were just guardsponies… when had I had reason to respect them? On Nightshade’s signal, we burst in together, fanning out all along the walls and high ceilings, to the shock and dismay of the unicorns standing guard while their comrades attempted to put out the flames we’d caused elsewhere with all the water magic they could muster. Swerving between pillars was pathetically simple to me, street signs were so much smaller, and these provided so much better cover against the flurry of magical bolts that were loosed at me. Poor guardspony had to be scared out of his mind to escalate that quickly. Good, we wanted them scared. We were fear, we were the night.
Once close enough, I spiraled around to draw fire… then dove for the deck. So many ponies always expect pegasi to go up, so down came as a surprise. Pushing and gripping the air off of the ground, I blazed the final few meters at the unicorn in an eyeblink, slamming hard into a shoulder-charge against his armored chestplate. That hurt… but it tumbled him off his hooves. I folded my wings in and rolled with him, unfolding a wing to push hard off the ground as I twisted to end the struggle on top, seeing the fear in his eyes as he stared into my goggles. Then I slammed his helmet into the flagstones of his Princess’ throne room until the fight went out of him, dismounting and looking about to see my teammates having success with their own opponents. Shame there was no place to hide them, and their absence would be missed even if there were…
“FIND THEM!!!” Nightshade desperately shouted, giving her fallen guard a kick to the ribs for good measure. She leapt into Celestia’s throne, and groped along the back and cushions of the enormous seat to try and find the Elements, perhaps they were secreted there. The rest of the throne room was pillaged swiftly by us, I tore down a massive hanging banner with a quick flick of my knife, searching the fabric as it fell for any hint of our objective… None. Nor in the rod it hung from, or the mounting hook for that… Nor anything in the pillars, no hidden seam in the stone.
As the volume of smoke billowing from other parts of the palace began to thin, our distraction was running out, our time running short. ”Into her chambers, quickly! It’s the last place they could be!” Yes, there were so many countless rooms yet to search, but our opposition would surely only grow worse soon now that we’d violated the most important parts of the palace. Stratus simply burst the door to Celestia’s quarters open with one heave of his large body as Nightshade ordered.
The “Ooooh”s from Starry and Blueball were audible enough to make me want to facehoof if I wasn’t so busy. The sheer opulence of the private rooms of the Princess of a thousand years was beyond my wildest dreams; silk, gold, and gemstones everywhere the eye could see. We ripped the room apart like common burglars in an apartment. Nightmare Moon would surely want to redecorate to her own tastes, anyway… Out of the corner of my eye I could see Starry Skies unable to stop from helping herself to a pocketful of what would fit.
Then a wail of despair pierced the air, and I realized it came from my own throat as well as that of my fellow Shadowbolts as the perfectly-aligned windows in Celestia’s quarters lit up and glittered with the first rays of the rising sun. It was impossible, no, it could only mean one thing. We’d failed. The Elements of Harmony had been found and used against Nightmare Moon, and Celestia was free. There was a sudden hammering upon the doors that we’d heaped discarded royal things before.
“They’re in there! Open it up!” an authoritative voice bellowed. Hooves thundered upon the doors to Celestia’s quarters, making them shake and bow inward. We exchanged glances, meaningful even through the goggles. We just knew.
Turning and flaring our wings together, we lofted ourselves into the air as the door burst into splinters and spellfire. A heavy iron portcullis began to slam down to block the balcony Celestia so loved to look upon her daytime skies from, and we flew with desperate speed. Before the cruel spikes could crash down into their sheaths in the stone floor, all five of us were through…
… and into the waiting hooves and spearpoints of the Royal Pegasus Guard. Still, there weren’t too many in position yet, the sun having risen and the Guard’s spirits rallied only so shortly ago, and we found the gaps in their thin formation and broke through them. They gave hot pursuit, and soon more joined them, armor gleaming in the sunlight, and our dark suits could not possibly contrast any better against the morning sky.
Sticking together as best we could, we dared not turn and fight, having never practiced team tactics with one another, got to know one another’s tells to know when to turn back and help pick off pursuers after an attack run. We might be individually the best, but we weren’t yet the team we needed to be. And we’d never get to be that team if we didn’t get out of here without ending up in the dungeon…
Guards to the right of us, guards to the left of us, guards to the front of us, armor flashing and gleaming in the sunlight when we whirled around the corner of another fancy mansion into an intersection, our pursuers surely hot on our tails. And this time they didn’t have holes in their formation big enough to fit five ponies through.
Nightshade turned in midair, hovering for a moment. ”We WILL meet again one night! Shadowbolts, SCATTER!” The Royal Guards’ trap began to slam shut, but five shades of darkness starbursted out every which way to escape. Spearpoints bristled in a wall before me, but I dove for the deck, trading altitude for speed, making then have to turn to face me… and when a mistake was made, I flared my wings out, twirling up and around, reaching a hoof out to shove aside the guardspony before me’s spear, tucking my wings in to keep them from getting fouled, while my other hooves kicked at those of his wingmate covering the space above him. Passing in between them successfully, I cast a glance over my shoulder to see the scene descending into chaos as the Pegasus Guard had to adapt from chasing one squadron to five separate ponies with no luck, no screams of a Shadowbolt captured or skewered on a speartip… It was all I had time to do do, before I threw myself into my escape full-speed.
Alone and with the Guard hot on my tail was so much more familiar to me, I had a few more maneuvers I could pull this way, but this was Canterlot, not Manehattan. I’d need more than just fancy flying to get me out of this… But that’s a story for another night!