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// Chapter 1: The Sunset 
// Story: Thorns by Night 
// by Pyrus Nightwrite 
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Nightmare Division Tip #7: Speed and Reactions. You must live as if you are constantly at war. Trust that there will always be somepony hostile to Princess Luna. Never let your guard down and always be quick to react when Luna is attacked. This pony can come from anywhere, and be anypony, including, but not limited to, any member of the standard EQA or another Princess and her own guards. The only ones who can be trusted are those among your ranks who have sworn to Luna herself.


(Suggested background: http://www.rainymood.com/ )


Chapter 1: The Sunset

Fluttershy, credited as the caretaker of Discord, had reported him missing the week before. She could not find the newly reformed God of Chaos anywhere, and feared for him. If we had only listened, maybe we could have found him, trapped by Chrysalis, Queen of the Changelings, who had taken Fluttershy’s form and used it to lure Discord to control him with his own deep set love. I have to admit, that Changeling is smart… and now she controlled two of the greatest magical forces in Equestria, Hatred and Chaos, as well as receiving large amounts of Love from Discord himself.

That stormy morning, Discord was found. He actually made himself known, banging on the door to the castle, demanding and begging to see the princesses. As he is kinda one of the most powerful beings in Equestria, the guards didn’t have much of a choice. The princesses were in all gathered in the court room, the three that could make it, as Princess Cadence was occupied at the Crystal Empire. We couldn’t make out exactly what she was saying; magical telepathy can only do so much. The only thing the page in charge of cross-castle communication could manage to make out was that Cadence couldn’t make it. 

I was doing my job, being invisible behind the scenes as Princesses Luna, Celestia, and Twilight interviewed Discord and asked him questions. The room had been cleared of all except the other guards, the gods and goddesses, and me. I had my reasons to be there, and nopony but Luna knew I was there in the first place, so I saw no reason to leave.
I had to do the other part of my job very quickly after the door had been shut.

Chaos literally erupted from the chair that Discord sat upon. The nearest ponies, Celestia and two of her personal guards, were enveloped with him in a cloud of smoke. Lightning crackled inside the smoke, bathing the area in light and blinding me each time the cloud exploded with light. By this point, another of the Darks, Moonrock, had placed himself between Luna and the cloud, and Twilight had already been surrounded with her own guards. The cloud soon dissipated, revealing two stunned looking ponies in Sun-Guard uniforms and a brutal burn in the floor.

The two guards were not stunned for long, and immediately lashed out and attacked Princess Luna. Thank the Princesses for Moonrock’s massive body. The sheer black earth pony had been given muscle enhancing spells from Luna herself, and used his size to body block our Princess. I showed up a second later, body slamming the white unicorn, knocking him aside and out cold.  Moonrock pinned the brown pegasus, and knocked him over the head with his giant hoof.

The entire brawl between Moonrock, me, and the seemingly insane SolarFlares was over in less time than it took for Princess Twilight to panic. Screaming, she ran to the black burn on the ground, and started an assault of questions to nopony in particular. “Where did Celestia go?” “Who are you two?” (which was directed at me and Rock) “What did Discord just do?”

*SLAP*

Twilight fell to the floor. None other than Princess Luna stood above her, offering a hoof to help her up. “Get a grip, Sparkle!” Luna said with force. Twilight stumbled to her hooves as Luna continued “I don’t know what just happened exactly, but we cannot waste time panicking. Instead, let’s focus on what we do know.”

Twilight took a deep breath. She turned to me and Moonrock, and glared. “Only if you tell me who these two are.”

“Twilight Sparkle, are you sure you don’t know? You yourself have several ponies quite like them, all standing around you.” Luna replied with the smallest touch of laughter.

“…Wait. These are your guards?”

“I have a name you know. And a gender. And a mind. A mind that really doesn’t like to be referred to as ‘these,’ your majesty.” I spoke with the calm of those well trained in the art of acting bored. I knew that I would pay for it later by the way Luna glared at me, but it was worth it to see the new royal’s face.

“ANYWAY, back to my original point, Twilight Sparkle. Let’s focus on what we know and then work from there.”

“I’ll start,” I barged in again. “Discord and Celestia just bucking disappeared. Then her guards attack Luna. And I know that brown pony. He wouldn’t just attack Luna like that.”

“I appreciate your sudden part in this conversation, Roseshadow, but I need to talk to Twilight personally here. Form a plan. So… why don’t you go check the doors or something?”


(Suggested BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJ-QLl5qjLg )


“I don’t think we have time for a plan, your highness. In fact, we have about ten seconds before the entirety of the Flare Division floods into this room. And they don’t look too happy with us right now.” Moonrock called urgently. 

Instinct kicked in, and I bent into an ‘at-ready’ position. Another instinct that I had gotten from training. My forelegs bend down so my face is low to the ground and my wings whip open, ready to dive in any direction. Twilights three guards each take a position too, though they are more focused on protection than attack, unlike me. The biggest, a male unicorn, took point in front of the Princess and lit his horn up, while the other two smaller females took to her right and left shoulder. Moonrock braced himself against the door. Luna jumped into the air right away. Two seconds ticked by painfully. Then two more.

Then the door exploded open. Moonrock was flung back behind me, and I launched forward. A single thrust from the wings, and I was already slamming the first guard in the head. I dodged a panicked flail from the pony behind him, and slipped underneath him on my back. I gave that unicorn his first flying lesson via hoof to underside kicks, and then spun to kick the legs out from underneath a third. Just like the training, I mused to myself.

Bolts of magic blasted ponies all around me, flying from the horns of the three unicorns that surrounded Twilight. Sensing that there was about to be too many angry ponies very near me, I cartwheeled back onto my hooves and then jumped into the air to meet Luna. “Moonrock, try to buy us some time!” She yelled down to the black coated stallion (who was just finishing bashing two pony skulls together), and then used some magic to shove the small army that was the Flare Division back into the hallway and close the door. ‘Rock threw himself against it and slid the lock into place. 

“Requesting permission to disappear once this door opens? Even I can’t take on the entire Flare Division.”
“Granted,” Luna said shortly, then to me, “Roseshadow, cover my tail.” I gave a salute mid-air, and fell into a protective following position. “Everypony else, while I know I can’t give you orders, I highly suggest you follow me!” Blasting open the entrance to the castle’s east wing, she hit the ground running and bolted through the door. Twilight and her guards found the suggestion to be a good idea and followed.

“Just one question, Princess,” Twilight yelled from behind me. “Where in the world of Equestria are we going?”

“The only place I can think to go. A library.” Twilight grinned at that, though I doubted she understood the same way I did. Books can only go so far when it comes to pony vs. pony fighting.

I heard a smash echo through the room behind us. I later learned that it was the equestrian army, those who were not picked to be in any of the four elite divisions as I was, bursting into the main hall, responding to the alarm. Clueless as always, they did the only thing they could. Attack those threatening them and Equestria. And when the collective EQA are in the same place, not even the elite Flares can stand against them. Moonrock did his disappearing act, and the EQA swarmed the flares. The brawl was over in minutes, which tends to happen in battles with a 25 to 1 pony ratio.

Of course, we at the time thought that we were about to be Flare target practice. Those who could fly took off. I busted a window, and we took off into the rain. Twilight instructed her guards, all unicorns, to do whatever they could to “Round up the others and meet me at the library in Ponyville.”

It is not a long flight to Ponyville, especially for one as trained as I. But in the company of two goddesses, you have to fly pretty fast to keep up, and even faster to protect. The storm made high flying impossible as nopony likes being struck by lightning, and the rain made it rather difficult to fly at all. I was winded before we were even half way there, and I nearly crashed into our destination during landing. But we got there, and we were safe. That was what mattered.

We were safe enough to make a plan, anyway.