//------------------------------// // The Past is Prologue Part 2: Chant of the Unliving // Story: Lanterns of Equestria- The Blackest Night // by Moon Chaser //------------------------------// The Past is Prologue Part 2: Chant of the Unliving by Moon Chaser (DA CrazymikePrime) “Is that all of the civilians?” an imposing blue pegasus with yellow mane and tail in a gold helmet asked Sergeant Major Silver Shard as his detail of guards came into the Night Flight Memorial area. The tall pegasus had a scar across his neck running from his jaw to his shoulders on the left side. The helmet on his head, like Silver Shard’s had a crest made of his own mane. The emblem on his chest was not of the cemetery guards but the symbol of the Royal Guards of Canterlot. His rank insignia marked him as a Captain of the Air Guard of the retinue of Princess Celestia herself. “That’s all that we found, Captain Brass Hat. Anything left in this place must be one of those…things, sir.” The grey earth pony panted a bit. The sting in his chest from his encounter with Private Breezy Blaze was fading slowly. Captain Brass Hat looked out over the Memorial area while he contemplated his next move. The Night Flight Memorial was a black marble edifice that looked like a large chest of drawers with a peaked roof over it. The pulls of the drawers were silver and the names of the deceased were carved into the drawer faces and the letters inlaid with silver. In front of the mausoleum, standing in the garden plot, there was a statue of three pegasi with a large silver tablet at its base. The outer edge of the statue garden bed was a low curving retaining wall faced with smooth black marble into which was carved scenes of pegasi fighting changeling ambushes and Griffin incursions. The flowers of the statue garden were white and blue, forming a pattern like Princess Luna’s cutie mark. Crystals were imbedded throughout the monument to simulate the stars in the night sky, and all the silver elements were polished to a mirror finish. There were four benches in the memorial garden where the four rescued ponies rested and waited to be evacuated. The entire memorial area was enclosed by a high stone wall with three gates allowing access to the funerary monument. All gates were locked and guarded by a team made up of all pony types, earth ponies making the phalanx, unicorns providing magic assistance and pegasi in the air acting as air cover and eyes. “I don’t see Private Blaze,” the captain of guards asked his Sergeant Major, “Where is she?” Silver Shard removed his helmet and looked at his commanding officer’s cobalt blue eyes. “We’ve lost her, sir. She’s…she’s become one of them. From what we’ve seen here today, that means they’ve killed her.” The earth pony was stone faced, but looking in his eyes told Brass Hat the truth, Breezy’s death had hit his Sergeant Major hard. “She attacked us, sir. When we had them held off from saving the last two civilians she spoke to me.” The stallion shivered. “I’ve never felt or seen anything like it.” “Ok…It’s time to get out of here. We’ve got a job to do,” Brass Hat stated flatly. “Sergeant Major, get the troops ready. Hollow square formation two ranks deep, fire lances outside in the first rank, magic in the second. Non-combatants in the middle, pegasi over the square as air cap. Use the garden wagon for wounded and civilians. Make sure everypony has firecans; use those only when we have to. We’ll use the lance fire to push back…the foe, and then use magic to hold them off while we advance and repeat. We head out the main gate. Everypony alive goes! We’re leaving in five.” “Yes, sir. Good call. We might get cut off and we will have to fight our way out,” the grey-coated guard opined, looking at the guarded walls of the memorial garden. Brass Hat nodded his understanding while he looked at the four pony ‘survivors’ he and his guards had saved. Looking at three of them, they were just average ponies to him; a turquoise green unicorn with a silver mane, Oak Rake the earth pony gardener, and a colt just in school. They were the last civilians his guards had managed to save; now they just had to get out. The Sergeant Major glanced at his commanding officer, noticing where the captain’s glance was focused “The blue bat pegasus is…” “…I know who he is, Sergeant Major. I’ve known him since I was a foal. He saw me born.” As he began walking toward the white-maned, blue bat pegasus. Captain Brass Hat cracked his normally serious face into a little smile. “My father is in that mausoleum, you know, Shard. Night Flight is family. I know that old war horse!” The captain removed his golden helmet as he approached the bat winged pegasus. The stallion of the night was imposing even by the standards of the royal guard, his long legs ended in a hooves shod in silver like the rest of the memorial, his long white mane and tail were each tied into four braids. Only the bat wings of the pegasus were slightly wrong; they looked knurled and arthritic. At rest they folded over the cutie mark which Brass Hat knew was a chevron-shaped boomerang flying in a swirl with stars. “ Boom! It’s nice to see you again. I wish it were under better circumstances.” The captain raised his hoof at the dark blue pony to bump in greetings. “Jingles!” The night pegasus smiled with shining white teeth as he returned the hoof bump. Brass Hat smiled at hearing his old nickname while thinking, ‘Still doing that, huh, you old army mule’. “I wanted to meet you here, just not like this.” The old veteran looked around at the guard ponies preparing to move and taking final checks before asking, “What’s the game plan? You’re getting ready for something. Do I need a fire lance to help you out?” Brass Hat chuckled, “Still ready to scrap after all these years. Ha! Dad would split his sides laughing.” The guard captain turned to look at his troopers beginning to assemble for march. “We’re moving in about five minutes. Hollow square…” “Prongs and pillows with feather heads, right?” the old bat pegasus asked, using old army slang. “Heh. Yeah, that’s the drill. Can you keep the civilians in the middle with you? I need someone to watch their rear ends and keep them from panicking.” The pegasus captain was scanning the scene with his eyes, making sure his ponies were in readiness to move out. “All right you lot, get ready to fall in over here when…” Silver Shard’s voice barked over the two pegasus’ heads. “Any idea what caused this whole thing, Boom? I’ve never heard of this kind of thing happening before, even when Discord was loose.” Brass Hat donned his helmet and made another quick scan of the memorial park, stopping to look at one of the pegasus statues. “No. I didn’t see anything, since I was in here placing flowers on the graves for the full moon tonight. I heard some weird buzzing sound and crazy voices, and then all Tartarus broke loose.” Boomerang Blitz thought for a moment, searching his memory of the time at the cemetery.” I don’t think I heard any kind of necromantic spells, it was more like calling out somepony’s name.” Brass Hat was still looking at the Pegasus statue on the left of the memorial while he spoke, “We’ll worry about that later; I’ve got to get everypony out of here alive before I can even hope to make a report about any of this.” The guard captain shook his body, checking for lose armor fit. “Lieutenant Flamestrike is in town now raising alarm about…” There was a slight buzzing sound and then… Small, black, hoop-like objects appeared. As they swarmed around the memorial park area they seemed to glow with darkness and trailed a kind of unlight as they streaked around. The guards paused in their assembly to stare at the strange things that acted like parasprites in flight. The objects seemed to speak with a strange haunting voice as they swirled around the pony guards assembling for battle. [=FLESH=] [=FLESH=] [=FLESH=] [=FLESH=] [=FLESH=] “You mean like that?” Brass Hat asked Boomerang Blitz with apprehension in his voice. The black points of darkness seemed to be looking for something, searching with senses unknown to the ponies watching the spectacle. All at once the small, black, pallid objects flew straight at the mausoleum. They pierced the face of the structure, leaving small holes bored in the marble facing of the drawers where the remains of the Night Flight were interred. Chunks of black marble fell to the ground. Over the sound of clattering stone eerie voices spoke: [=Solaris Summers Mitchell of Equestria=] [=Joseph Summers Mitchell of Equestria=] [=Holfaz Schuh Messing of Equestria=] [=Idress Regarre Ferro of Equestria=] [=Blyth Shores Teller of Equestria=] [=RISE=] The face of the mausoleum exploded. Shards of black marble flew out from the memorial, striking plants, walls, and ponies with jagged shards of the smooth stone. Guards jumped as streaking debris fell around them. The two conversing pegasi were the closest to the bursting marble. Captain Brass Hat was hit in his right rear leg and fell down on the injured leg, a second and third shard bounced off his armor, leaving dents, and a fourth, bigger chunk of rock, hit him in his ribs. Boomerang was struck in his left shoulder near the neck and high on his left hind leg. Both ponies growled in pain. There was a cloud of marble dust from the shattering black stone. “Jingles,” the bat pegasus coughed, “you ok?” “Yeah, got one in the rear leg but I think I can walk,” the captain of guards hissed. “Ugh…got one in the ribs too…pretty bad.” “HOw ToUcHInG! mY TwO FaVoRItE POniEs In tHE WOrLd. My gOOd sOn aND My GoOd FoR nOtHiNg FrIEnD!” a strange haunting voice came from the settling black cloud. Brass Hat turned to look at the source of the weird voice; it was so familiar and haunting. “Dad?” he asked in disbelief as his eyes beheld the sight of five pegasi corpses standing before the two living ponies. Their flesh long dead covered them like a form of macabre taffy stretched over the moving skeleton of a pony, their wings’ missing feathers here and there adding to the unreal and decayed appearance of them. Their cutie marks were visible; muted and distorted. Their necks and chest bore a symbol of five rectangles in a line over a triangle in jet black. The smell of their ashen rotting flesh filled the nostrils of the two wounded ponies looking at the walking dead, making them nauseous. “FORM UP YOU LOT! DOUBLE TIME!” somepony was screaming. “Oh, DiD yOu mISs THe OlD sTAlLiOn SOn? DId yOU cOmE To VIsiT Me REstInG iN PeACe?” the horseshoe with wings cutie-marked body asked the awestruck and shocked Brass Hat. [=LOVE=][=COMPASSION=] [=FEAR=] “Ah, It WOuLd Do mY hEArT gOoD,” Brass Hoof said as he began to reach for his transfixed son. ” IF i sTiLl HaD One.” The captain went numb as he felt the touch of his father’s corpse, the dead eyes looking so cold and hungry. “BoOMeRaNG tHe LiAr!” a dead pagasus mare with a faded sun burst and swirl cutie mark roared. “DId yOu bRinG SPiTfiRE hERe To sEe HeR pArENtS aT rEsT? OH tHaT’s rIgHT, ShE CAn’T bE HeRe, sHe’S IN tHe sErViCE BEcAuSe YOu BrOKe yOuR ProMisE tO Me To kEEp hEr OuT! You sON OF a dIAmoND DoG!” “oUr OLd fRiEnd pLaCInG FlOwErS oN oUr GrAveS, hOw SwEEt. DeAd PlAnTs cAN’t MaKe uS EvEN aFtEr WhAt yOu LeT HapPeNE tO Us!” a swooping sea bird over water cutie-marked stallion said with a hoof pointing at the blue bat pegasus. “Summer Fury?!?” the bat pony exclaimed, his catlike eyes wide in horror. “Seagull?!” he felt a chilling sensation in his mind and in his heart. His limbs went weak and he stumbled to the ground. [=WILL=][=FEAR=][=RAGE=][=COMPASSION=] “AlWaYs sO stUbBoRN bOOm, aLwAyS sO dEteRmInEd tO LivE“ .The body of Summer Fury reached out with her hoof bearing something with a glow of unlight. “i’LL tAKe ThaT LIfE FroM yOU tOdAy fOr TaKIng mY dAUgHtEr SPiTFiRe FrOm mE!” The pain in his chest grew stronger as she touched his body. “YOu ShoUlD bE dEAd wITh uS!” “Captain! Colonel! HIT THE DECK!” screamed Sergeant Major Silver Shard as he brought up his fire lance. “NOW!” Both living pegasi barely understood what Silver Shard was saying in time. The two ponies gave in to gravity’s pull and fell to the ground, lying as flat as they could on their sides. As they fell to the ground the undead closed in to finish whatever horror they planned. Then the two ponies heard what they both expected and hoped for. “LET FLY! RAPID!” The grey earth pony screamed the order. “BURN ‘EM!” Silver Shard had gotten the formation ready in the confusion. At his order the earth pony phalanx opened up with all their fire lances. A hail of blazing bolts poured onto the undead creatures, riddling them with burning holes. The mausoleum and the garden around the monsters came apart in chunks. The searing fire was impressive, but the undead did not go down, they just stopped and he almost thought he could hear them laughing. [=FEAR=][=RAGE=] “UNICORNS!” the Sergeant Major yelled over the din of lance fire, “Levitate the Captain and Colonel out of there when the phalanx ceases fire!” The grey stallion looked up at Garnet Stare, who had re-armored and loaded for battle, “Keep those things off our ponies when we let up! When we have everyone, we’re out! Everypony keep up! Wait for my signal.” The Pegasus Sergeant saluted and flew up to her position to provide cover, seven of her troopers forming up on both sides of her to form two groups of four. The pegasi climbed higher for a better angle and circled above like a form of beautiful flying predator, waiting for the moment to strike. “When you hear the signal from the Sergeant Major, dive at those things trying to take out the old stallion and gramps. Drop it in front of them and on their heads!” she yelled at her flight of troopers. The guards all yelled “yea” and waited for the signal. For a moment there was nothing but fire and wind. Then there was the sounding of a great horn from the formation, its notes heard above the sound of fury and death. The music of the instrument reflected off the walls of the memorial park, amplifying the sound and carrying it up into the air, signaling the pegasi to begin their dive attacks. Garnet waggled her wings and called out to the flight, “On me! DIVE!!” As the first pegasus dropped fire canisters, the earth phalanx ceased fire, holding ready for something to attack their line. The dropped ordinance found a home as the area directly around the reanimated corpses burst into an explosion of multi-colored flames, the sound of the creatures inside becoming a cacophony of horror as the magical fire attempted to purify the earth of their presence. At that moment the unicorn guards, all in unison, levitated the two wounded ponies away from the blazing forms of the walking dead pinned down by pegasi air cover. Quickly but smoothly, the two almost unconscious officers were placed into the garden wagon where the civilians watched helplessly as the walking dead began to break out of the firestorm obscuring them. “Alright let’s get out of here! Fire, shield, then advance! GO!” Silver Shard barked. “Trumpeter blow advance! Where in Tartarus is the medic?” “I’m an alchemist and I’ve done nursing. I’ll help,” the silver-maned, turquoise green unicorn said in a matter of fact tone. She levitated her grey saddle bags open to retrieve potions for healing as she moved over to look at the wounded ponies. Her face was emotionless as she first used her hooves and ears and then her magic to assess the wounds. “Bad internal injuries. Your captain had some serious internal blood loss,” she stated grimly. “Alright, you heard the Sergeant Major, you know the drill!” Corporal Sweet Water had placed himself in the front rank with the earth ponies. He levitated his fire lance and the banner with the insignia for the guards and used it to point ahead of the hollow square to the main path through the cemetery. “Advance!” *** “So how is Raindrops doin’ big brother?” Applejack asked the glowing visage of her brother floating over her ring. The farm mare had left Sugar Cube Corner and made a direct path for home, preferring to walk instead of using the ring to fly.”Has she torn up any of our apple trees yet?” The big stallion let out a small laugh. “She’s good, AJ, a real natural. She flies better than anypony Ah ever did see, and she’s got a good idea of how to make stuff with it.” Mackintosh gave his sister a wry smile. “But mine are more solid.” “Well, ok then.” Applejack smiled. “Ah’m headin’ home right now. I’ll tell more later face ta face. Ask Raindrops to stay for supper. Ah gotta go into town this evening to meet with the Princess an’ the other lanterns.” Mac’s face was emotionless. “You find out what the hay was goin’ on in town about you an’ the reds? Raindrops told me some, and I was sore tempted to thump heads, ring or no.” Applejack smiled a little. ‘Good big brothers are all the same,’ she thought. “Naw, Ah got it handled. Dash is gonna beat some heads in herself and take care of it.” She looked away from her brother’s virtual face for a moment. “AJ, what are you not tellin’ me?” ‘Never could pull that off,’ the orange pony said to herself. “Well, seems RD got mah dander up, and, well, at some point later there’s gonna be a dust up between her an’ Ah.” “Little sister, what’s that mean?” The red pony looked at his sister with a suspicious eye. The farm mare sighed, “It means Ah gotta get better with this here thing if Ah’m stayin in this.” “Are you stayin’?” Big Mackintosh asked simply “Most likely,” Applejack said as she looked out at the mountains and the sky. “Ah’m still a little hazy on what to do.” “Oh yeah, both Raindrops and Ah both checked our rings. That book thingie isn’t in either of ‘em.” “Beg pardon? Say that again?” the farmer asked. “That book you found isn’t in our rings, just yours, AJ. You’ve got the only one!” ‘Keeper of the Book of Oa the ring said’ “Well, don’t worry about it right now Mac. After that meetin’ tonight Ah want you and Raindrops ta come to Twilight’s. Ah’m gonna show you a story outta this book that we all need to see.” The green eyes of Applejack seemed to twinkle with a strange light for a moment as the image of Mac faded and she summoned another from her ring. A bubble of green light burst into appearance above the ring, forming a sphere with an image of a small hairless looking biped creature with a slash for a mouth, no nose, two eyes and two stubby round things on the side of its head that might have been the creature’s ears. The being had a long tail that ended in a point. It had thin graceful limbs. The creature in the image was dressed in the uniform of the Green Lantern Corps. [=Avra: The First Green Lantern=] “We all need to see this,” said the first Lantern of Equestria as she stared at the image in the bubble, “especially me.” *** The march to the main gate seemed to take hours, even though it was only minutes. The confining nature of the cemetery gave the guards cover, as the monsters could only attack from certain angles, which allowed the guards to maximize their use of magic and fire lances. [=HOPE=][=WILL=][=FEAR=] The main gate was close at hoof when the ‘honored dead’ attacked, from the air this time. “We can’t stop them!” somepony cried. “They just keep coming back!” another yelled over the noise of the fighting. Another screamed, “They’re playing with us!” “Our magic doesn’t work on them!” a unicorn shrieked. Silver Shard roared, “Keep it together, foals, we’re almost out! Don’t lose your nerve now! At the double quick now!” The formation’s speed picked up, racing for the gate. “Garnet’s getting company, Sergeant Major!” Corporal Sweet Water yelled as he pointed out and up above the horizon as three dead pegasi rose into the air to attack their air covers. “Knock em’ down for the lady!” Fire lances burst fire at the rising creatures, causing them to jink about to make themselves a harder target. The flyers changed targets and descended at the square formation. Seven undead flyers descended through the hail of fire and past shield spells. “INCOMING!” screamed the grey earth pony as he brought up his fire lance. “Stay together!” The sergeant major drew his sword with his mouth and bit into the grip just in time to block a blow from the dead Breezy Blaze with his fire lance. The parrying weapon shattered into splinters and Silver Shard was thrown back on to his hindquarters by the force of the blow. Rear guard ponies were scattered by the other dead flyers that had come with Breezy Blaze. Some of the ponies ran for their lives with a dead pony chasing after them. Others tried to get back into ranks. The chaos was total. “LEaVInG sO sOon? NO wE caN’t HaVe ThAt! ThE dEaD shOuLD sTAy WiTH uS!” Silver Shard felt the same pain in his chest that he had felt before returning as Breezy Blaze touched him. [=FEAR=][=RAGE=] “Oh, nO LoVE foR LItTLe BReEZy? ThAt’S oK, I’ll tAKe yOuR HatE aNd FeaR WitH yoUr LiFe iNsTeAd!”the mocking undead voice said. The pegasus pulled the earth pony guard close to her and raised a hoof over her head to strike. Two more pegasi landed next to the garden cart. The cadavers of Summer Fury and Brass Hoof reached out to strike their desired targets. The turquoise unicorn put off a magic shield over herself and her patients, but one strike from the hoof of Summer Fury shattered the shield like it was made of thin glass. The alchemist fell back into the wagon shocked. Her shield had been useless. “CoMe tO pAPa SoN!” Brass Hoof said approaching the seemingly helpless captain of guards. [=FEAR=][=RAGE=] “StAY oUt OF this wItCH! IT’s PrIVatE! ” The corpse of Summer Fury growled. “IsN’T iT bOOm.” Brass Hat had managed to grab his fire lance in the confusion. He planted the lance right into the face of his dead sire and fired, decapitating the unliving body. He fired twice more into its body before falling back down into the wagon. “Sorry, Dad,” he gasped as he let go of the lance and fell back down into the cart. His leg bandages began to leak blood again. Boomerang managed to kick with his hind legs full force into the face of Summer Fury, crushing her face and skull in. The force of the impact made the dead pegasus stumble away from the wagon. He grabbed the fallen fire lance with his teeth and discharged the weapon into the body of Summer Fury. Burning holes rapidly appeared in the carcass of his old friend. The bat pony then looked around and saw the sergeant major prone under the horrid monster about to kill him. “Corporal!” he cried as he fired at Breezy Blaze. “Save him!” Sweet Water cried as he directed the earth ponies to fire at their former friend. Shot after shot poured into Breezy Blaze as she gripped Shard with her forelegs. Holes started to appear as she launched herself into the air, carrying the earth pony with her, laughing madly as she rose into the sky. Sweet Water waved for the phalanx to cease fire. They could hit their comrade and kill him or hit the creature Blaze had become and cause the pony to fall to his death. “Get him back with magic!” the guard unicorn said as his horn began to glow. He reached out with his power to try and snatch their sergeant major back from the monster. All the unicorns joined in, but to no avail; Breezy Blaze had moved beyond the range of their magic too quickly. “By Celestia’s Mane, she’s never been that fast!” the disbelieving unicorn gestured to the trumpeter. “Blow pursuit for the air guards.” The unit’s horn sounded a musical command. Sergeant Garnet Stare looked about to see the dead private flying away with Silver Shard in her ghoulish grip. The pegasus waggled her wings, acknowledging the order, and yelled at her wing pony to follow. The pegasus guard attempted to peruse, but the dead guard pegasus was too fast for her, and now other things were rising into the air, other dead pegasi. “We’re really outnumbered and no ground support,” she muttered. She dropped her armor, getting ready for a mad dash at Breezy Blaze, only to see with her sharp eyes the sergeant major wave her off weakly. There was a sudden explosion of colored fire that enveloped the living and his dead carrier. The swirls of magic fire fell to earth like shooting stars cast down from the sky, the two ponies breaking apart as they fell and struck the ground. With tears in her eyes Sergeant Garnet Stare of the Royal Equestrian Air Guard reluctantly left. As she looked down over the gruesome landscape she could see that most of her unit had gotten out, but with a high cost. She came in for a landing next to the garden wagon where Corporal Sweet Water was trotting. The guards were heading to the barracks. The pegasus landed and began to trot with the Corporal. “The sergeant major?” he asked. The red-eyed flyer shook her head. “Fire Can,” she said with tears in her eyes. “How’s the captain?” The unicorn looked over at the still, gold-maned pegasus. The white-maned bat pony and the turquoise unicorn were over him, trying to tend to his wounds. “It’s bad. Mare nursing him says internal bleeding and she doesn’t have any potions that can help.” Sweet Water glanced at the pegasus. “Guess you’re in charge now, ma’am,” he said, looking at the formation struggling to stay together. Garnet Stare shook her head. “No thanks,” she said and then looked back over her rump at the cemetery, seeing here or there dead pegasi fly above the wall. “They let us go, you know.” “I know.” The Corporal of the guard stared into space. “That’s what really frightens me. What can we really do to stop them?” The unicorn looked at the ground for a moment then back to the sergeant, “I heard them speaking or chanting something while we fought them. I couldn’t make it out over all the noise. I wonder what it was?” The sergeant visibly shivered. “I heard it up above, it was a chant, more like a promise.” The flying mare sweated and her eyes were wide in terror as she remembered what those undead monsters had chanted. “I heard what they call themselves. They’re called Black Lanterns. I heard them tell it to a civilian we could not save, but that chant they had was the worst…ur!” The pegasus ‘ ears drooped and her wings opened in nervousness and anxiety “…I’ll never forget it.” She spat at the ground. “What was it?” Sweet Water asked. “Look if you want to forget about it…” “No,” Garnet said quietly, “you should hear it. Everypony should hear it. The Celestia-cursed thing is chilling.” She closed her eyes and took a deep breath and began to recite: “The Blackest Night falls from the skies, The darkness grows as all light dies, We crave your hearts and your demise, By our black hooves, the dead shall rise!”