[Present Day]
I slipped through the castle in the guise of Princess Luna, doing my best to look like I was in a hurry but not rushing. A rushing Princess would cause panic, which would bring guards and Celestia, and I only wanted to see one of those right now.
I had maybe eighteen hours before Luna reformed, or was reborn, whatever it is alicorns do. Plenty of time. I clip-clopped my way through the marble hallways of the castle, following directions I’d been given by a servant when I asked where ‘my sister’ was. The alarm was still sounding, so I probably should have expected to be directed to the throne room. Luna did all her planning there as well, way back when.
When I entered, Celestia’s head shot up, relief painting her face when she saw ‘her sister’. “Luna, you have no idea how glad I am to see you.”
I tried to smile back, doing everything I could not to growl at her. “And I you, sister.” I could hear a whispering around me, coming from nowhere and nothing.
kill her kill her kill her
Not yet, I thought. She suffers first. The whispering quieted down, barely audible but still there. “Tell me, sister, what is the cause of all this alarm?”
The whispering grew louder the second she opened her ugly mug. Celestia grimaced as she spoke. “I’m afraid one of things I sealed away a thousand years ago seems to have broken loose.”
“Which one?”
Celestia tilted her head to one side. “I believe he went by ‘Spy’. He worked for Nightmare Moon. I really don’t know all the much about him. You probably know more than I do.” She gave me a small smile as she spoke. Was she on to me? No, the disguise was perfect. They always are.
“He was never very forthcoming about his abilities. He simply showed up on day, gave a passphrase and asked to serve her.” I walked over to Celestia. The whispering grew louder with every step.
kill her kill her kill her
“He is a master of stealth and trickery,” I said, ignoring the words. But that didn’t stop me thinking about it. How to do it? So many choices. Fire doesn’t work. “He wields knives with unparalleled skill, as you know-” I paused as Celestia shifted uncomfortably, no doubt remembering the feel of my blade between her wings. That was always an option, but it wasn’t enough. “He has a third weapon he uses only rarely. I personally never saw it’s use, but he claimed it could kill anything that bled.” Decapitation? No, too quick for her.
Celestia frowned. Her horn, I decided. I’ll break it off and stab her with it.
“What do you say to gathering the Elements? Would they even work on such a creature?”
I frowned, pretending to think, then actually thinking. Would the Elements work on me? They had the power, certainly, if they could work on some of the other things in the garden, but she didn’t use them on me last time. Maybe I should try and steal one, just to be safe. I was a foot away from Celestia now, and just itching to stab her between the eyes. The voice was a whisper no longer, pounding through my mind like thunder.
kill her kill her kill her
Celestia sighed, looking down. “I think we should gather the Elements, just to be safe. But I do not want them anywhere near that thing. They are too pure to stand being near that creature for long.” Whats this? She was no longer the Bearer? “And I do not like the idea of Twilight near so horrible a creature.” Okay. This Twilight, whoever it was, was going to die. Celestia looked back up at me. “I will summon the Elements. Check the garden, see if anything else has come free.” She walked passed me, and the voice rose even louder, becoming a command from on high.
KILL HER
My hand twitched, almost drawing a knife as she walked away, her spine inches from me. I could do it. I was fast enough that she would never see it coming. But it was the middle of the day, the height of Celestia’s power. She would be back within the hour. So I let her pass, and planned how to break her.
Celestia values some things above all others. Her sister, her little ponies, and her country. I didn’t have anything that could put either of them down for good, and bringing down a regime as loved as hers would be hard, and I didn’t want to wait. I wanted her broken, her spirit crushed and heart shattered. Which meant her little ponies had to die.
And I knew just where to find help. I went to the garden.
[One thousand and two years earlier]
I was doing my best to sneak across a battlefield while wearing red and being a good two feet taller than everyone else there. It was surprisingly easy. Well, maybe it isn’t surprising when you have a watch that turns you invisible. It didn’t last long, but as long as I took regular breaks no one was going to see me.
While I took those breaks, I thought of what Princess Luna, the horse I had met, had told me about her sister. The jist of it was, I had to assassinate a nigh invincible, quasi-immortal goddess of the Sun and, because things like that don’t stay dead, I had to do it a lot. With the moon in the sky, I’d need to do it around once every two days and each time, it was going to get harder and harder.
Of course, I did tell her it’d be no problem. I don’t know why. It sounded like quite a lot of problem. A least three metric fucktons of problem, probably closer to four. Well, I do know why I said it. You can’t tell a nigh invincible, quasi-immortal goddess of the Moon that, sorry, you can’t help her. That you lied to her. That upsets people, even horsey-people, and when royalty gets upset, people end up with very short haircuts.
It took me a few hours to sneak across the warzone, and in all that time the moon didn’t move an inch. I was nearing the edge of the camp, and could see a sentry there, scanning around for any signs of movement. He didn’t see any. As I snuck up on him, I felt something fall into my hand. Taking my eye from the guard for a second, I saw it was a knife. It was fairly fancy, with a design carved in the blade, an ornate wooden hilt and a curved gold guard. I glanced back at the guard, and moved close. When I was right next to him, my hand started moving by itself. It spun the blade around, so it was point down, towards the ground and then, faster than I should rightly be able to move, I was grabbing the guard and sinking the blade to the hilt into his throat. I could hear him trying to raise the alarm, but all that came out was a gurgling sound as he began to drown in his own blood.
And then the body vanished. I didn’t even have time to worry about that, as my suit began to move, shifting over me like it was filled with coked up ferrets. And then it stopped. Nothing had changed that I could see. I kept looking, so I wouldn’t think about the thing I just ki-
Nope, not thinking about it. In fact, I’m going to not think about it over there.
I walked through the camp, doing my best to remain hidden when I caught sight of my reflection. A horse looked back at me.
I looked down. Nope, still had two legs. So, I just looked like a pony. That was, okay. I could work with that.
I was so very, very confused.
In started walking through the camp again, not trying to remain hidden, but not trying to be seen either. Just a regular, ordinary talking pony, going about is regular, ordinary talking pony business. I walked around with no real destination in mind. I was pretty sure where I had to go - the most important things are always in the centre. But I had no idea what to do when I got there. I mean, I wasn’t going to kill anything el- nope, not thinking about it.
I could come clean, tell this Princess Celestia that the enemy was sending assassins for her. I mean, she probably already knew that, and even if she believed me she’d have no reason to keep me alive. But it’s not like I had any other options. None I was willing to consider, at least. With that in mind, I went towards the middle of the camp.
I got a few looks, and even a couple of waves, but no one stopped me. One even winked at me. I honestly couldn’t tell if it was male or female. Hell, I didn’t know what I was disguised as. It wasn’t like I could stop and check in the middle of camp.
It took a few minutes of wandering, but eventually I found my way to the nicest, most heavily guarded tent in the camp. Either the Princess was in here, or they had a lot of booze. Either would be good.
The guards outside the tent didn’t even blink as I walked towards the tent. I was about to head inside when a shimmering wall of energy sprang up inches from my face. I paused, then frowned. I looked to the guard on my right. “I need to see the Princess. Now.”
He looked over at me, then turned forward. “Nopony is to be allowed in. Orders from the Princess.”
“I have information she’ll want to hear.” The guards just ignored me. “Look, if the Princess doesn’t think this information was worth disturbing her, I’ll take whatever punishment she sees fit to give me. But I think she’ll want to hear this.”
The two guards looked at each other, then one on the left nodded slightly. The barrier vanished and he disappeared inside the tent. He came out a few seconds later.
“The Princess will see you now. Make it quick, and make it good.”
I nodded, and went in. I felt the barrier spring into place behind me.
The inside of the tent was fairly dark, but that didn’t hide the winged unicorn laying on a pile of cushions in the centre. She was white as fresh snow, her hair all the colours of the sunrise, shifting in a breeze I could almost feel.
I was struck with a sudden, inexplicable urge to kill her.
kill her kill her kill her
My voice was shaky when I spoke. “Your Highness,” I said, dropping to one knee. I didn’t even wonder what that would look like as a pony, but it must have been okay because she didn’t mention it. “I bring word of an assassin, sent to kill you.”
“Another?” she asked, her voice less surprised and more confused. “Has my sister not learned that no such scoundrel in the realm can best me? But I should not let myself grow overconfident. Tell me, Sure Strike, what you know if this blackguard, and how.”
kill her kill her kill her
Why wouldn’t that voice shut up? It was pushing it’s way into my mind, destroying everything in it’s way. Thinking hurt when I heard it, I found it hard to breathe, I forgot to blink. The world faded away except for the thing in front of me and the knife that found it’s way to my hand. Maybe if I killed her, the voice would stop. It’s not like I was really killing her. It was more like knocking her out. Yeah, she’d be fine. It wasn’t murder. Besides, it’s not like she’s a person.
“He is a master of disguise,” I said, rising and taking a step forward. It’s not murder if they don’t. “Capable of impersonating almost anything.” Another step. Her side was to me, her head pointing away. It’s not murder if they come back.. “A master of stealth, he can be anywhere.” A third, final step. I was right next to her, but I don’t think she knew that. The cushions muffled the sound of my steps, my voice masking the rest. It’s not murder if the voice stops. “And he is always right behind you.”
She stiffened as my blade slipped into her back between her long, soft wings.