The Night Guards were the finest military police Equestria had ever seen, Darkheart mused. Strong, cunning, and brutal, they had made quite a reputation for themselves. Now, once again, it was time to remind the denizens of Nightmare Moon’s empire that dissent will not be tolerated. It was up to him and his police ponies to bring down their Empress’ wrath upon these filthy, ungrateful Dayborns.
There had been an anonymous tip describing some kind of insurgent operation within the city ghettos, and with Nightmare Moon’s recent paranoia, she had responded with full force.
Darkheart stood in the street, overseeing his unit’s activities. His Night Guards had sealed off the block, and now surrounded the apartment complex. A police pony stood at every entrance of the building, and at his word, they would kick down the doors and storm the building.
The Night Guards had taken their positions, and were waiting for his command. He made a motion with his hoof, and there was a shout. They all bucked their doors at once, the wood cracking at the strength of the blows. They rushed inside and began breaking down individual doors, demanding that all ponies within immediately surrender themselves.
Darkheart grinned as he heard the sounds of ceramic being smashed, doors being broken, the shouting of the police…It was music to his ears. But what made this cadence perfect, was the sound of panicked Dayborns being roused from their sleep.
They were all forced out into the street before Darkheart, stallions, mares, and foals alike. They were still in their tattered night gowns, barely conscious, but fear kept them from being clumsy because of it.
About seventy ponies were emptied out of the building, the police grunts nudging them along with their loaded crossbows. Foals were crying in fear, mares whimpered at the bark of their commands, and the stallions withdrew into themselves, obeying everything the Night Guards said.
Darkheart could smell their terror in the air. The look of full submission, total obedience, utter surrender, seeing these things in the Dayborns enthralled him.
The Night Guards exited the building, and an officer stood in the doorway for a moment, nodding at him. Clear. They hadn’t found any weapons or anything. Darkheart nodded.
He motioned for the several hundred Guards at his command to move onto the next block. They shepherded the captive Dayborns along, threatening them every time they slowed. Darkheart grinned in satisfaction, watching the Dayborns they had just caught, joining the hundreds of others they had captured. Exhaustion and despair were on each one of their faces. It warmed his heart. “It’s about time Nightmare Moon cleansed this city of these scum,” he said to himself.
All the Dayborns were being rounded up. By the time the moon rose again, all their property would be possessed by the government, and all these ponies would be shipped out to the Empress’ internment camps. They would be spending the foreseeable future there. Or at least until the threat passed.
Darkheart couldn’t wait to find out what Nightmare Moon was planning to do with them once they got there. Imprisonment? Hard labor? Death?
He was thoroughly enjoying being in charge of this operation. He looked up at the dark sky, wondering. Perhaps this was Nightmare Moon’s way of making amends for Ember’s disappearance…. He was sure Ember would turn up sooner or later. She often pulled these stunts whenever she felt neglected.
He missed her though.
Darkheart was pulled out of his thoughts when a Guard officer trotted up to him. “Sir, we haven’t found any weapons or any kind of supplies that could be used to drive an insurgence.”
He nodded. “Keep looking. Nightmare Moon wants us to be thorough.”
The officer knelt, and trotted away.
Darkheart sighed. As much as he was enjoying himself, they hadn’t found anything. Oh well. He was going to turn this whole place upside down if he had to.
The Night Guard had finished putting up the “state property” tape on the past few residences, and was preparing to do the same to the apartment they had just emptied out.
“Hey!” a stallion’s frustrated voice could be heard from behind him. “You can’t take all of our things! How the hell are we supposed to survive?”
What the…? Darkheart turned around and saw two of the Guards moving along a Dayborn stallion. He was furious, seeing the state property tape being put up on his apartment. The stallion struggled and shouted, and it was catching the attention of the other Dayborns. “I demand to know what is going on!” he yelled. One of the Guards roughly shoved the unicorn along, cursing at him. “Stop pushing!” he grunted, struggling.
Darkheart looked at the other Dayborns. They were all looking at the scene with the disgruntled stallion and the Night Guards. They were watching to see what would happen.
Deciding that it was time to intervene, Darkheart approached them. This was unheard of, he thought. Nopony has ever resisted.
The Night Guards were trying to wrestle him down, and he began to cry out. “They’re going to take all of our belongings!” he shouted, his voice echoing in the square. “They’re going to send us all away to the labor camps!”
“Shut him up!” Darkheart hissed. How the hell did he know about their plans?
One of the Guards slammed his nightstick down on the stallion’s head, knocking him to the ground. Darkheart watched the Guards beat him down, but there was a murmur among the captive Dayborns. Their fear had solidified, and the look of submission on their faces, turned into one of desperation. There was a spark in them that hadn’t been there before.
Darkheart knew an emergent standoff when he saw one. But he hesitated.
What sounded like a crack of thunder echoed in the square. There was a gasp of shock from the Dayborn crowd. The unicorn stallion that was being beaten down had discharged a powerful burst of magic, far beyond the capability of a normal civilian unicorn. The two Night Guards subduing him were sent flying into the air, landing on the hard pavement with a loud crash. The two Guards lay there, unmoving.
Darkheart was stunned. This was absolutely unbelievable. The unicorn was about to speak again, but Darkheart grabbed his crossbow and fired it at him. Before he could say a word, the arrow went straight through his skull.
The stallion collapsed, bleeding out onto the street. The stunned Night Guards finally found their sense and dragged away the two downed Night Guards. But all the Dayborns had seen what had been done. The notion that the Night Guard was untouchable had been dispelled. Somepony, one of them, had actually struck and possible killed two of Nightmare Moon’s elite police.
With a sense of impending urgency, he flew to the top of a towering Nightmare Moon statue so he could address them all. He landed on the statue’s head, and looked out to the thousand or so in the crowd below. “Attention, Dayborns!”
They all looked up at him. “Disobedience will not be tolerated!” he declared. “We expect your full compliance as you all are to be relocated….”
“No!” a Dayborn cried out among the crowd. There was a loud murmur, and the Night Guards searched for whoever had spoken out. “We’ve had enough of Nightmare Moon’s tyranny!”
The crowd murmured in agreement. The spark that the unicorn stallion had set was now catching fire. Darkheart realized that the situation was critical. “Silence!” he bellowed. He motioned for the police to form defensive ranks around the Dayborns. “The camps are only a temporary measure….”
“Liar!” a pony cried out. “We’re not going to go quietly so you can work us to death in that bitch alicorn’s labor camps!”
There was a moment of total silence. A pony ran out from among the crowd, and barreled into the police ranks.
All semblance of order was shattered.
A hundred others followed, clashing with the Night Guard. Nightsticks flashed as they were brought down on the heads and backs of the Dayborns, but they were all in a frenzy. Shouts of anger rang out in the square. Flashes of magic exploded, scattering their defensive ranks.
Darkheart watched from his vantage point on top of Nightmare Moon’s statue. They had a full on riot on their hooves. He howled over the disorder. “Let this be an example to those who defy Nightmare Moon!” he called to his Night Guards. “Kill them all!”
The Night Guard put away their nightsticks and unsheathed their blades. The police unicorn artillery began to bombard the rioters with their magic, the entire block trembling from the blasts. Darkheart flew above the square, watching the Dayborns being torn apart.
Night Guard reinforcements flooded into the streets, slaughtering the remaining ponies. The black pavement was awash in the blood of dead Dayborn ponies, the neighboring buildings were on fire, and craters from the artillery blasts dotted the square.
Just when Darkheart thought everything was settled, there was an explosion at the base of the massive Nightmare Moon statue. A bright burst flame was followed by a shockwave of energy. There was a cry of alarm from the Night Guards. The Empress’ stone fore-hooves had been destroyed, and the whole thing was tipping over. The police fled as it crashed down, a giant wave of dust and stone debris swallowing up many of his officers.
The wind cleared up the dust, and Darkheart stared in terror at the ruined Nightmare Moon statue. Her fair mane had been shattered, her muzzle broken off, her hooves reduced to rubble, and her entire torso was barely intact. The remnants of her statue lay among the mangled corpses of Dayborn ponies. Billowing smoke obscured his vision as the magical fire consumed the surrounding buildings, smoldering embers being carried by the breeze.
One of his underlings approached him, bowing clumsily. “Sir, what do we do?”
Darkheart was still numb with shock. Is this an omen of things to come?
“Sir?” the officer asked, desperation quivering in his voice.
Darkheart shook his head. “Call the fire brigade,” he whispered. “And contact Nightmare Moon immediately about what has happened here. She’s got to clamp down before word of this revolt spreads.”
Sirius galloped down the street, Arcturus following closely behind. They had left the diner where they had met Doctor Pharus, and were desperately thinking of where Sapphire could possibly be.
Necron knew what they were up to, and was doing everything he could to hinder their search. Reality and dreams had been meshed together as vivid hallucinations blended seamlessly into Sirius’ perception of his surroundings.
Differentiating between what was real, and what was insanity, became increasingly difficult as the night progressed. His perceptions of time and space were manipulated, thought processes were becoming incoherent, and his memories were being sabotaged.
This was full on mental warfare. Arcturus galloped alongside him. “Sirius! I think I may know where Sapphire is!”
A memory played out in Sirius’ head. Arcturus was sitting in a hallway, terrified. He was staring at a slightly ajar white door at the end of the corridor. A flayed, bloody hoof was reaching out, calling him in. Pain radiated in Arcturus’ mind, desperately issuing him a warning. “My subconscious was trying to keep me out of that room!” he exclaimed. “It wanted to protect me from whatever was in there!”
“Do you think Necron was keeping Sapphire in there?” Sirius paused, his thoughts frozen. A memory intruded into his thoughts. There had been tufts of red and orange hair lying outside that door….There was only one pony he knew who had such hair coloration. Ember….
How many ponies was Necron keeping in there?
Sirius’ apartment building came into view as they galloped, but he noticed something off about the place. It seemed like a dark shade had come over the brick infrastructure. The windows looked bleak, morose, maybe even haunted. The sky overhead became overcast, blocking out the moon. The streetlights were flicking uncertainly, and only the gentle whispering of the breeze could be heard in the night.
Arcturus and Sirius stood in front of the door, but fear kept their hooves rooted to the ground. The body of a white pegasus had been crucified over the doorway. Large stakes were embedded in his belly, neck and hooves. Smaller nails perforated the bones of his wings, keeping them spread out on the brick walls. He looked like an entomologist’s display, a framed butterfly with his body pinned and spread out on the canvas.
Blood dripped from the muzzle of the pegasus, his white fur stained with streaks of gore from the impalement. His golden mane was limp and covered his eyes, a stake rammed into his throat forcing him to keep his head up. The stallion groaned. “Sirius, brother, please don’t go inside.” He coughed up blood, his blue eyes bloodshot. “Necron will hurt you. Stay away….”
“Cepheus,” Sirius whispered. He felt tears in his eyes. “Who did this to you?”
Cepheus lolled his head, looking down at Sirius. “You did. Or you will, in time.” The stallion suddenly jerked up, ripping his wings free from the brick wall, bits and pieces of the bony membrane remaining on the wall. He began to rip the stakes out of his torso and hooves, blood gushing down. He collapsed onto the ground with a sickening thump, and looked up at Sirius. “Will you deliver me to Nightmare Moon like this? Will you rip off my wings and wrap them around your neck like a trophy? Will you gouge my eyes out, so I can’t look at what you’re doing to me? Will you carve open my chest….”
“You’re not real!” Sirius screamed, tears streaming down his face.
Cepheus began to drag himself towards Sirius, the movements of his body unnatural and disfigured. “Nightmare Moon has ordered you to bring her my corpse.” Cepheus grunted in pain. “Will you kill me like you killed Mother?”
“Shut up! Shut up!” Sirius cried.
“Our entire village was wiped out because of you,” Cepheus whispered. “Your petty desire for retribution led to the death of so many innocent ponies. You lead the Night Guards straight to our home when you Dreamwalked in Mother’s mind. It’s all your fault….”
Arcturus leapt forward, put his hoof down on Cepheus’ neck, grabbed his head, and with a single movement, snapped his neck. “Snap out of it, Sirius. Necron is playing with your emotions.”
Arcturus opened the door to the apartment building. Their residence was on the penthouse, all the way on the top floor. How could they possibly make it through without Necron overpowering them?
Sirius swallowed, and followed Arcturus inside. Stepping through the door, there was a squishing sound. The carpet was soaked. He lifted his hoof up, and saw that the bottom was covered in blood. There was a terrifying shriek that made Sirius' heart race. Sapphire was screaming in agony, begging for the pain to stop. The door slammed shut behind Arcturus and Sirius, locking itself.
Sirius stared up ahead, his heart hammering in his chest. They were trapped. Necron’s maniacal laughter could be heard echoing in the dark hallways. “Your suffering is just about to begin.”