When the Everfree Burns

by SpiritDutch

Chapter 16: Truth, Unconquered!

Twilight Velvet carefully closed the concealed door down the the Chateau la Garde's hidden dungeon, running a hoof along the seam to ensure it was flush. It was hard work illegally keeping a secret prisoner! It had proven hugely troublesome to keep Octavia alive, and it made her wonder at how much resources the hundred-odd of political prisoners under Canterlot Castle (including her husband) must have been using. Complex institutions, taxing a whole empire and gathering resources, just to keep some ponies locked up so they couldn't work for their own survival... how wondrous the workings of pony society were. It intimidated her to consider, but it assuaged Velvet's micromanaging instinct knowing even a divine creature like Celestia had to delegate her work. Maybe some day Velvet would have enough prisoners to justify offloading the problem on somepony else so she could focus on the bigger picture.

"I am getting so carried away today, hoping for tomorrow when I have today's problems to deal with." Velvet hummed to herself. She regarded the unkempt state of the Chateau great hall, with food and drinks abandoned after the guests had been shooed out. Velvet levitated a cup and tea pot to herself and made herself a cup.

Her ladyship wasn't given long to rest. Twilight Velvet’s next affair for the day presented itself.

“Message for you sah!” A child’s voice squeaked. Velvet looked over her teacup to see a little filly courier had let herself in. On second look, it was the filly Foaly Flux sometimes hired. With a deft swipe, Velvet took the letter the courier was holding out for her.

“Is this from Duke Flux or the Old Town then? I've been waiting for news about the Cloudsdalers.” Velvet ripped the letter open.

“What could this possibly be about? Can't Flux sit sight until he's needed?” Velvet initially burned with annoyance. She had more important things to deal with than her mentally impaired cousin-in-law and his flights of fancy.
But wait... Velvet felt her heart flutter. Could it be that one very particular plan of hers, involving Foaly Flux, had finally come to fruition? Yes, yes, it was about time!
"Thank you very much young mis." Said to the messenger filly. "Run along now. I'll tip you later."

The filly ran the way she came.

Velvet took several deep breaths. HISTORY was happening, thick and fast, at her command. Too fast. "By the gods, I WILL hold onto this beast I've goaded." She muttered. She took one more sip of tea, carefully set down her cup, and then violently swept the tea set from the table. She shivered at how her precious porcelain shattered on the stone floor, a real mess. "That time a thousand. I can will it. Then, I shall clean it whenever I whim." She galloped towards the parlor doors.

The maid was just then entering the chateau. "Ah, my lady-" She squeaked and jumped out of the way as Velvet ran past her into the street. "May lady! There's about to be a fight at the Musician's Guild!" She yelled after her mistress.

"About time!" Velvet yelled back. That could wait. Oh, but she had to confirm the Flux situation first.

The maid shrugged and went back to the chateau. "Goodness, who broke the tea kettle? Oh heavens, the cups too!"

Fancy Pants's funeral ended as depressingly fumbled as it had begun. Sel Lech Sabonord, Councilpony Prosser, and most of the castle secretaries had left soon after Velvet, called away for some buisness. After Duke Sharphoof Lightdowser had finished his shameless campaigning for the viziership and sat down, a novice priest mumbled a few words, performed a few tedious ceremony rights, and the service was concluded.

Almost everyone immediately left the temple- only some of the staff and girlfriends stuck around.
Duke Lightdowser and his son emerged back into the sunlight, rejoining with their knights. "Were you paying attention to the eulogy, Risky?" Sharphoof asked the colt.

"Errm, yeah, a little. " Risky shrugged. The earth colt was looking all around, admiring the stately Old Town architecture and ogling the colorful clothes of the Canterlot ponies.

Sharphoof Lightdowser grunted in disapproval. "Some day you'll stand over me, boy, and it would be disgraceful to be lost for words. You'd be wise to start practicing now. Life is very fragile. You don't want to be caught unprepared when death-" He stopped, noticing one of his knights' indiscreetly trying to get his attention. "What?" He demanded.

"Begging your pardon, m'lord and Master Risky, but some ponies came looking for you. None of them wanted to enter the temple so they left messages with us." The Unicornian knight said.

"Some unicorns with neck frills. Speakers of the Estates." His fellow Unicornian nodded. "But, ehh, they're not hardly important. But uh, more important than that, just a few minutes ago a pegasus flew by, Cloudsdale armor kitted, and said there's 'bout to be a fracas at one of the guilds and we should meet Admiral Rain Gnash there."

"The Musician's Guild, the pegasus said." The first nodded.

The Cloudsdale contingent had arrived on the scene, just a bit behind schedule. Unsurprisingly they had immediately started a fight. Duke Lightdowser adopted a thoughtful expression. "Le grande pegasus is here and she is already settling scores with old rivals? She did not have the luxury of them having died already. The Musician's Guild thought? I do not remember why that unassuming guild deserves a pegasus's wrath. But it has been a long time." He grunted a begrudging agreement. "Very well, let us see what le grand pegasus is up to. Be dignified but diligent, my ponies, in the case some parties wishes to make combatants of us." He hid an urge to smirk under a severe frown. "For it is always more product to make combatants of them."

Blueblood and Aurthora had not let the Wonderbolt named Spitfire into the Black Horn Council meeting hall, so she waited on the steps, as some of the Black Horn thugs threw dice nearby.
Spitfire had no idea what was going on, but she had a bad feeling about the whole situation. Her admiral had charged into an unknown and ambiguously hostile city because of a deal with a dodgy unicorn Duke. Now their hostess Twilight Velvet was nowhere to be seen. Why was a fight about to happen? Could somebody explain please?! She had an agitated sort of feeling, like she felt on a patrol of the Cumulonimbus District of Cloudsdale right before a labor strike; Tension and anticipation, aspiration and violence.

Spitfire sighed as she paced the area. She almost wished that there would be a fight as it would certainly be less boring. She eyed the thugs playing dice. "What've you got there? Can't you master find you something better to do than letting you languish with games of chance?"

The thugs looked among themselves, then to Spitfire incredulously. "The dice are for hustling noble colts, not no knights. You'd fight back when we make to collect. I mean, most pegasi are pushovers, no offense, but you're a Wonderbolt."

Spitfire's cheeks burned. "We are not knights, so watch your scoundrel tongue. Cloudsdale doesn't cling to your feudal conventions. The Wonderbolts are a proud order. Do yourself a favor and keep your eyes to yourself. Yeah, like that." Since a fight was not forthcoming she went back to pacing even faster.
The Admiral had the right to assign her meet with Twilight Velvet, not the annoying lackies. Surely she wouldn't be blamed if she wandered off too look for the Velvet mare elsewhere as long as she made a good faith effort; Instead of following Blueblood she should have stalked the other henchponies, that black-furred earth mare or the freaky mare in the maid uniform, who could have led her back to Velvet. Alas now she'd have to search on her own.

But wait, who was that? A dozen armed and armored ponies were crossing the alley, thirty meters away, looking very determined. Very armored in fact, some in plate metal and carrying halberds. Some even had guns! Those ponies were almost certainly the princess's retainers, the Imperial Household Guard. Spitfire froze in place, following the IHG knights with her gaze- As soon as the admiral had told her squadron they would be entering Canterlot, Spitfire had mentally wargamed various scenarios where a confrontation with the IHG could happen. While she was currently isolated, with the dubious Black Horn Council ponies ghosting her, thankfully the IHG were completely disinterested in her. She was not their target.
Spitfire was happy to let the IHG cadre go by until she noticed a thirteenth pony: It was the black-furred mare from before trotting right behind the heavily armored knights. Who's side what that mare on?

Spitfire nudged one of the thugs. "Who's the dark earth pony with the eye mark?"

"Mis Iillor is a heavy. Heard she did Barley Bale in." One thug said.

The other thugs hissed that explanation down. "No, she's like some kind of mule, but she's Lady Velvet's step-daughter too or something."
The rank-and-file clearly had no clue.

Whatever was going on, Spitfire knew it had to be direly important, not only for herself, but her squadron. Her heart skipped a beat as she involuntarily imagined those guns turned against her wingponies- If it meant protecting her 'Bolts she had no right to be afraid in the face of these armored ponies. Abandoning her trepidation, Spitfire jumped into the air and flew into the path of the column of IHG knights.

Dropping unexpectedly in front of an IHG column was a bad decision. Before Spitfire could even say a word the knights advanced toward her, preparing their weapons and pointing their guns at her. "Stand down, Cloudsdaler!" One of them ordered.

"Hey hey, I'm unarmed! I just wanted to ask what you guys were doing." Spitfire protested, retreating back a few steps. She immediately regretted her own brashness. She'd braved guns before, but that was against worker mobs with bad aim, not trained knights. "I'm a Wonderbolt under Admiral Rain Gnash."

"Exactly. Turn around and space your legs. Keep those wings where I can see them too." The shouting knight, a yellow pegasus stallion, continued. "You will be under detention until the situation at the guild hall is resolved."

"Ehh? So there really is going to be a fight at the guild hall?" Spitfire balked. "Hey, look, this is a misunderstanding. The admiral is just trying to arrange a meeting with a local, Twilight Velvet. We're not looking to fight anypony." Especially not when the 'Bolts only had their flight armor, and the IHG had plate armor.

"I said turn around!" The knight growled. "Try to fly and we'll-"

"Hold it." A new voice on the scene. An armored unicorn stallion, with white fur and a blue mane spilling out from under a zischägge pot helmet, pushed to the front of the group of knights. "What does Twilight Velvet have to do with this?"

Spitfire sighed, exasperated. "How the hell should I know? I just got here! Look, I'm sorry I got in your way, sir..."

"Shining Armor." He said. "Unfortunately, we will be detaining you." He was shorter for a stallion, but still taller than her as he advanced right up to her. "I'm sorry to have to do this, but you're something of a hostage now. It might be the only way to bargain for the safety of the guild and Canterlot citizens."

Spitfire groaned. "Aw buck. I'm never going to hear the end of this."

"If the situation defuses by itself, we can pretend it never happened." Shining Armor offered a slight smile. At this gesture the rest of the knights began hurrying along their original path. "But seriously, try to run and I'll have to attack you." He ushered Spitfire along after the knights.

"You're Imperial Household Guard, right? Our admiral's got a sword almost exactly like yours." Spitfire said. "I know she earned it, so you must know how to use it too. If there was going to be one pony that can draw their sword faster than a purebred Wonderbolt can fly, it might be an IHG bucker, ehh?"

Shining nodded along absently. "I guess so. In friendlier times we could test that idea."

Calmer times. A meaningless idea. There would be no calmer times. Let the world become ever more chaotic and fraught. The fragile and facile order which ponykind called peace was going to break soon. The world was going to be rejuvenated by Moon's prophesied world of a war of all against all.

Illustrious Valor was not an ideologue. She had heard all the sides, and though she was by disposition sympathetic to what her lady Moon had taught her, she had never fervently taken to it. The foundation of Celestia's civilization, like working, hierarchy, politics, and social responsibility bored her to tears. But the ephemera that made civilized life tolerable, like truffle snacks, pretty dresses, sculpted gardens, and zesty cocktails, made her almost as happy as destruction and murder.
Was it the way things were meant to be? Were ponies really meant to live lives in accordance to this divinely ordained stability and peace? Or were they meant to struggle and stuffer to advance their dreams?
Iillor wasn't sure yet, but the answer felt close at hoof.

So she trailed behind Shining Armor's band of knights like any other curious onlooker would, paying little attention to the brief confrontation with Spitfire, but consumed by her own thoughts, imagining what was to come.

Spitfire noticed Shining Armor glancing back at Iillor, still following them, before he ushered Spitfire onward.

"What did you say your name was mis?" Shining asked.

"I don't think I did say, sir." Spitfire snickered. "I am am entitled by the laws of Cloudsdale to the right to be addressed as dame or sir, but you can call me Captain Spitfire."

Shining Armor scrutinized the patches on her armor more closely. "Oh. You really are a Wonderbolt captain... Now I'm damn surprised it wasn't the first thing you said back there. Well, uh, I suppose that saves an argument with your sergeant. I can only echo my earlier sorriness about all this." He mulled over his thoughts for a moment. "But... it's all the more odd. What is your buisness with Twilight Velvet? Does she have something to do with this buisness at the guild hall?"

"Should I know that? This is my first time in your city." Spitfire snorted. "If the captain thing doesn't phase you, you must be some kind of officer, right? Well, even if you're not, you should know better than to second guess weird orders."

Shining Armor almost laughed, taken in by the mare's jokiness. Strangely cavalier for a career solder, not only to her orders, but her arrest as well. "No comment, Captain Spitfire. It would be bad form for an IHG knight to speak dishonorable insinuations against an alumnus like your admiral."

Spitfire affected a shrugging motion with her wing. "Dunno what you mean." She locked eyes with him for a few moments. "What was your name again?"

"Shining Armor." Shining said.

"Sir Shining Armor, I hear gunfire." Without warning, Spitfire launched herself into the air, her wings carrying her away at daunting speed. "I'll let you detain me again later!" She yelled back, nearly lost in the whistle of air around her.

"Damn Wonderbolt!" Shining swore. He'd barely unsheathed his sword before the pegasus was gone. He angrily slammed the weapon back into place. "Don't just gawk, follow her!" He yelled at the other knights. "She's heading to the Musician's Guild. If there's gunfire they're already fighting!"

The group of IHG knights began galloping, as fast as they could with their armor and weapons, the remaining blocks to the Old Town thoroughfare. Shining was right with them now, his heartbeat pounding in his head. Hopefully that pegasus was just lying, and she hadn't heard gunfire. Hopefully all the alarms were wrong, and nothing was happening.

But his heartbeat, breathing, and the clatter of armor was still overpowered by a series of cracks in the distance. Yes, gunfire. Then, getting closer still, pony voices crying out, pained and angered. Whips of smoke were starting to drift above the tops of the townhouses.

Yes, a battle, a battle! Iillor trembled with excitement. Seeing the ponies fighting at the city gatehouse, all those weeks ago on her first night in Canterlot, had afflicted her with adoration for the pitiful ponies who were willing to risk their lives for a purpose. The poor ponies like Shining Armor and Twilight Velvet, struggling up against the bonds of the civilization around them; And even ancillary characters like Night Light, Hauseway, Prosser, or Blueblood, who played out their allotted role with keen awareness of their own mortality. Not like her, Illustrious Valor, supremely smug in her own imperviousness.
Seeing the ponies fight and die had made Iillor appreciate the Nightmare of the Moon's tedious lessons on philosophy a bit more... But she couldn't agree unreservedly with the moon demon. For it was the trappings of civilization, the thing moon rejected the most, which made mortal striving and destruction all the sweeter!

And lo, turning the last corner, they came face-to-face with destruction in progress.

What Shining Armor had expected to see was a company of Wonderbolts butchering lines of bedraggled civilians before the guild hall, hacking them down with their sabers and performing firing squads with their carbines. He had heard of the infamously bloody way Wonderbolts and pegasi gendarmes had quashed the labor movement of Cloudsdale, and dreaded to see those tactics brought to Canterlot.
What he actually walked into was more like a siege... but nothing made sense.

"Sir, what's going on?" One of his knights uttered.

A series of loud cracks rang out, and a chunk of brick was torn from the nearby townhouse.
"Holy hell!" Shining grabbed the nearest knight and pushed him back behind the building. "The shots are coming from the guild hall. Stay covered!" On that order the rest of the IHG knights dove back around the corner or hid behind some upturned market stalls. Another round of sporadic musket fire, louder and closer.
"What the hell is going on?" Shining popped his zischägge helm off to wipe his forehead, drumming his hoof against it nervously. "Was this an ambush? Was that the Wonderbolts in the guild hall or the civilians?"

One of the knights peeked around the corner. "Not really civilians if they're shooting at us, are they sir." She grunted. "There's several shooters up there, mostly concealed... But I don't think they're the pegasi, 'cuz it looked like the bloody pegasi are at a barricade across the street, shooting back."

Shining put his helmet back on and peeked too. "Yup, those are the Wonderbolts on the street."
The whole thoroughfare was a terrible mess, with abandoned carriages, wagons, carts cafe tables, crates of goods, and everything else the citizens had abandoned them at the onset of fighting. The Wonderbolts had pushed together several small barricades from the vehicles and debris, makeshift positions that hid them from the lines of fire from the Musician's Guild hall. "I spot about a dozen Wonderbolts. The rest are probably at the roof level or at the other entrances of the guild hall." He turned back to his knights. "But they're not alone. There's city guardsponies at the barricades with the Wonderbolts."

That met with mix of groans and confused shouts from the IHG knights. "The buck is going on here!" One of them lamented.
More shouts and gunshots from the the street, as the besieged and besiegers exchanged potshots.

Yes, what the buck was going on there? It really, really felt like a set-up. But by who, and against who? Shining had one idea: It was no mistake that Captain Spitfire had name-dropped Twilight Velvet. If Velvet had invited Duke Lightdowser, and also Admiral Rain Gnash, could she have also arranged this? Was there really a plausible alternative?
"We came to prevent violence, so that's what we're going to do." Shining said. He knew it was a ridiculous sentiment now that the musket balls were already flying. There was a sick symbology he couldn't miss that all his knights had weighty weapons and modern guns, but no shields. Perhaps on some level he'd known it would always come down to violence. "Vanguard, take the second lance to the nearer barricade. Try to get the Wonderbolts to stop shooting. You in the first lance, with me to the farther barricade."

A round of affirmatives, as the knights re-shouldered their weapons and prepared to sprint the distance.
At Shining's cue, the IHG knights rounded the corner again but did not flinch from the sporadic gunfire this time. Shining and five others circled around the street, then weaved through the mess of abandoned carts, to reach a group of Wonderbolts and City guardsponies at their ramshackle firing position.

Shining made sure his lance was accounted for and fully behind the barricade, then turned to the pegasi. "Welcome to Canterlot, but not that welcome." He said.

The pegasi looked to one another in confusion. "Huh? Imperial guards. Is this an ambush?"

"Uh, no it isn't ya winghead, 'cuz if it was you wouldn't even have time to know it." One of the IHG knights pantomimed firing his wheellock musket.

"Cut it out." Shining shoved the gun away. On closer inspection, the Wonderbolts were very lightly armed with rapiers, and a couple pistols. "Why are you attacking Canterlot?"

The city guardsponies piped up. "The guild started it! Sel Sabonord tried to talk to them, but the musicians yelled something and then started blasting right away. We scattered, took cover, and returned fire." He gestured with his cosh. "There's like fifty of them in there, armed to the teeth!"

"WHY?! Is it your job to shoot at the citizens of Canterlot? You're policeponies!" Shining was nearly shouting, trying to be heard over the continuing gunfire from the guild hall. "Where's Sel Lech now?" The city guardsponies shrugged. "Where's that Captain Spitfire?" The Wonderbolts shrugged. Shining resisted stomping his hooves in frustration. "This has gotten completely out of hoof. All of you should withdraw immediately. There's a chance at deescalation."

"Hold on there's the captain! Cap! Down here!" One of the Wonderbolts hooted.

Spitfire made a hard landing right beside Shining, using his shoulder to pull herself back up. "Whew, they've got archers on the roof, so keep your head down. There were casualties in the alleyway around the back of the building but that's all blocked off now. The cads are concentrating on frontal defense."

Shining took a steadying breath, then grabbed Spitfire by the wing with his telekinesis. "You have some explaining to do, dame Spitfire."

Another Wonderbolt, a stallion with longish blue mane and paler fur, swooped down to land right beside his captain. "Hey asshole, we don't know what's going on either! Let her go or your captain will hear about this!"

"Butt out Soarin! This is my squadron, and my responsibility now." Spitfire braved twisting her wing to push the pegasus stallion away. "I flew the perimeter and asked all my 'Bolts. Admiral Rain Gnash has ordered us here because she thought there was an insurrectionist leader's weapons cache, which was going to be used to outfit an urban paramilitary for an attack on us."

Urban paramilitary?? The only group that could possibly fit that description were the Black Horn Council. "If that was true why weren't the Guards or the castle alerted?"

Soarin snorted. "Everypony knows how corrupt everything is here. Hell, I heard every one of you IG are nepotism cases. The aid de camp is, like, the brother of the Princess's secretary."

Spitfire slapped the Wonderbolt with her free wing. "I gave you an order to butt out! Look, Sir Armor, corruption is what it is. Admiral Gnash either wanted the weapons for herself, ie for us 'Bolts, or she wanted to show off our muscle to that Duke."

Shining released Spitfire's wing. The gunfire from the guild hall had tapered off, and the return fire from the barricades had stopped completely.
Again things didn't add up. Why would Rain Gnash think a random guild was storing weapons for the Black Horn Council? And why would Gnash try to disarm the Black Horns if she was on Twilight Velvet's side? "I'm still missing something." He muttered.

Without another word, Shining vaulted over the barricade and started walking towards the Musician's Guild.

"That's where they're shooting from you know!" Soarin called after him.

Keeping a confident, even pace, Shining Armor crossed the open space to the front steps of the tall neoclassical edifice, keeping himself calm as a few shots rang out from overhead. He felt dozens of eyes upon him, and indeed there was a pony with crowbow and musket hiding behind every columns of the hall's pronaos. The guild ponies were tense, shivering, and Shining was unable to read their emotions as he approached.

"That's close enough." One of the defenders shouted, their voice eerily calm and monotone given the chaotic surroundings. "Deliver your terms, worm. Be too coy and we will kill you in the Mistress's name."

"I have no terms. I am ending this riot." Shining said, trying to balance authority and empathetic appeal in his tone. "When the Wonderbolts are disarmed and detained, and the guardsponies are sent back to their lodges, you must put down your weapons. Then we will tend to the wounded, clean the street, and conduct interviews to find out why this has happened."

The monotone pony stepped out from behind a column. He was mostly in the shadow of the vestibule, and wore a flowing black cloak that covered his torso... But what Shining could see of the stallion shocked him. Stitches and scars covered the pony's head and neck, with different colored fur at every spot, as if he were a quilt sewn together from tatters. The stallions eyes were different colors and, most horrifying, different sizes, as he seemingly had to keep a permanent sneer to hold the smaller eye in his skull.

That was when Shining realized something was much, much more wrong than he'd thought. The pony in front of him should not exist, should not be alive. The sinister plotting that had maneuvered him, the Wonderbolts, and the guardsponies was therefore not a mere force of opportunistic politics.

"Those sounds like terms, worm. You presume to trespass against the Mistress, then additionally bother her. That your blood would profane these steps keeps you alive, just long enough to beg the Mistress's forgiveness and try again." The monotone pony proclaimed.

Shining had nothing to say, nothing he could say, locked in awe of the horrible creature in front of him and all the things it was revealing to him. For now that he was so dreadfully convinced he was in the midst of a grave and supernatural evil, his mind cast about to connect it to other things: Fancy Pants and Barley Bale's murders, the irregular movement of the sun, the nonsense factional political struggle, or- or-

"You stupid motherbuckers. Do you think you can flout the laws of this land, then cite your dainty 'mistress' as an excuse?" Iillor derided. "Come out quietly and you might receive the empress's mercy."

Iillor?!? Shining stared at the mare who had snuck up behind him, mouth agape. The earth pony regarded the guild ponies with such earnest rage, a deep scowl and wide red eyes fixed on the monotone stallion.

"That's right, you idiot peons. Lay down your weapons right now. It's time you begged for your lives, 'cus the time of the Stars in Canterlot is over." Iillor decreed.

Too shocked, Shining's mind was lethargic to notice what Iillor's words had done. The monotone pony pulled a dagger out from under their cloak and lunged, driving the weapon into Iillor's ribcage.

"NO!" Shining howled, now shocked into action. He drew his sword and hacked at the monotone pony's nape. "Desist!" The stallion was knocked forward onto his face by the blow, and though his spine was showing he began to push himself up to rush at Iillor again.

Iillor did not idly take the blow this time, ripping the dagger from her ribs and slamming it into the monotone pony's throat. "Didn't work last time, won't work this time." She mocked. With a huff she drove the dagger even farther, meeting the wound Shining had dealt and levering his spine over. The stallion staggered back, trying to push his neck and head back into place with a hoof.

Shining did not dwell on the horrific sight, as more attacks were coming. The other guild ponies emerged from behind the columns, aiming their bows and crossbows Iillor's way. "Get back to safety!" He yelled, shoving Iillor towards the barricades. The first few arrows sailed right over their head. One bounced off Shining's cuirass, and another off the top of his helmet. A crossbow bolt stuck itself at the ridge of his barding, grazing his skin. As soon as they were out from under the pronaos, the gunners on the upper floor also started firing. Iillor yelped several times. Was she hit?!

Moments later they were behind the barricade again. "Bucking hell! Some covering fire would be nice!" Shining roared, as he maneuvered Iillor to the very back. Moments later the IHG knights began firing with their wheellocks, adding to the noise and chaos. The gunfight was more intense than ever.

"Whew that was fun." Iillor gave a little laugh and stretched her limbs. "Sir Armor you were amazingly heroic. If your little pink princess says it's okay, can I be your mistress?"

Shining tore off his zischägge helm for the last time and threw it to the ground in a mix of adrenaline, frustration, and rage. "Fuck!" He kicked the helmet for good measure. "Fuck!" He paced, barely able to think.

Iillor smiled guiltily. "Is that a no?" She laughed nervously, glancing over to Spitfire and Soarin who were watching. "Shining, you may not like how we got here, but now this is just what you have to do. The Guild Mistress, who that pegasus admiral thinks is an 'insurrectionist leader', goes by Phyte. She coordinates a network of cultists and assassins that operates through the Musician's Guild. The three dead mares Lyra, Octavia, and Vinyl, were close associates of Phyte and the guild." Iillor's red eyes, that caught the light in a strange way, tracked Shining as he paced. "This is the best chance of assaulting this haven of sin and putting an end to Phyte. Everypony is looking to you to do it."

Shining stopped pacing.
His blood boiled with anger. Ponies were dead and dying now, and many more would die, to assassinate some mare he'd never heard of before?! It was probably all lies anyway!
There was no sign of the mortal wounding Iillor had taken between her ribs, nor of the arrows or musket balls that had struck her. When Shining read her expression, he saw her mask of excitement and dread, her anticipation of what he would do. But when he looked into Illustrious Valor's eyes... Villainy. Yes, he was sure of it now. Evil. An evil no less than the monotone sewn-together pony under the pronaos.

And behind Iillor, a few hundred meters distant, were three figures, observing the situation play out: Newly minted Captain Sel Lech Sebonord, Duke Sharphoof Lightdowser, and a portly pegasus he assumed to be Admiral Rain Gnash. Evil, devious ponies, probably not supernatural, but cloying tyrants, surrounded by their servants and pawns, who were responsible for murders in the name of ambition.
A most foolish thought then entered Shining's head, that he wished his mother were there too, to look into her eyes and judge her as well. He wished to re-see the whole world with the clear sight. What else, what truths, what lies, had he missed?

Cadence... I always acted so cocky at the most inappropriate times. When I'm truly tested, I have always been found lacking. Cadence I am a weak pony that needs alicorn guidance. Tell me what my duty is. Princesses once and for all, please come save us mortals from ourself. Save me...

The rage and adrenaline subsided. "I see." He said. Constant, deafening gunfire. It made his ears hurt.
Surely he didn't have to do this?!? He couldn't even slightly pretend that it would be upholding his oaths to the empress. Princess Celestia had looked him in the eye and deemed him worthy, once during his knighting, and again when Hauseway was accusing him. He was about to order lethal violence against a guild whose charter, like all Canterlot charters, was signed by the princess herself. He would be using the knights sworn to protect the princess and the empire against the latter.
Oh, but it was not like he hadn't been manipulated into political errands before. Compared to disrespecting Cadence by shutting down her court, what was killing a few ponies? The guild ponies had shot first too! The guild had betrayed their covenant with the princess by targeting her knights!
Yes, Shining was going to have to do it. He saw it in Iillor's red eyes. If he backed down, and fell below her esteem, he would become her enemy. He be all their enemies... And Shining was not ready for that. Or at least, less ready than he was to kill.
Decided but not resolved, Shining turned to the other knights. "Flash, I appear to be missing my sword. Please take both lances and retrieve it, then arrest the pony named Phyte for its theft."

Immediately understanding the decency-preserving euphemism, senior knight Flash Sentry gave a salute. "Sir!" He looked around him and got solemn nods from the other knights. "At your order, as always Sir Armor. Hopefully this is for the good of the realm."

"Hell yes! Guess it took the 'Bolts showing up to get you IG off your asses, eh?" Soarin snorted, earning a quick wing slap from his captain. "Oww! Okay, okay, I'll coordinate the flights on the roofs. 'Bout time we did this." He launched into the air, zig-zagging through the air to the concealed position of the other Wonderbolts.

Spitfire shrugged. "I'm not sure what's going on here. I just follow orders. After this, maybe I'll get the liaison with Twilight Velvet. Whatever you're going through, Armor, I uh, hope it gets better. If the Admiral takes over as IHG captain I'll put in a good word for you." She motioned to the Wonderbolts behind the barricade. "Alright gentleponies, dispersed assault on their gunners at the upper levels. Keep them from firing out of those windows, but don't advance too soon. We don't know the terrain and those IHG boys have the plate armor."

Flash Sentry pushed his visor down and readied his halbard. "My first big action and it's against civilians. Oh well, that's what happens when the Wonderbolts are in town." He nodded to Shining Armor. "On your order, sir."

They were really going to make Shining say it. An unintentional thing, just a formality, but it burned Shining to know that his culpability in the events to come was inescapable. "It has to be done. The princesses nor anypony else will save us." He said.

"Uh, okay then." Flash concurred. "Let's go! Urraaah!"
The five Imperial Household Guard knights emerged from behind the barricade. They advanced a few steps, fired their wheellock muskets, then charged towards the entrance of the Musician's Guild. A few moments later the knights behind the other barricade charged too. Then all twenty Wonderbolts flew up from the street and the rooftops and swooped down on the all the windows or flanked the guild ponies facing off the IHG knights on the ground.
The screams of violence and terror reached a crescendo, as armed and armored knights faced off against the defenders. The guild ponies had no way to harm the trained soldiers bearing down on them, where their skill at subterfuge counted for nothing. It was everything Shining Armor had feared; It was murder.

Iillor was watching too, far more delighted than Shining was. "If you value mercy, Lord Armor, then the sooner the fighting ends the more quickly we can render aide to the wounded." She lied.

Shining didn't say anything. He couldn't stop watching. The IHG knights had stepped over the first rank of downed guild ponies to reach the front entrance and were going into the guild hall. The Wonderbolts had found the least defended upper floor entrance and were assaulting in force as well. Captain Spitfire threw Shining a wave before following her soldiers into the building.

"You know, this will be a big cloud over me lifted. I'll have nothing to hide from you after Phyte is gone." Iillor continued. "I was kinda crass with my earlier offer, but I meant it earnestly, you know. I think you're a very special stallion."

"From the first night, I knew something was off about you. A strange mare with strange manners shows up out of nowhere. I'm such an idiot for not trusting my instincts." Shining mumbled, finally facing her. "I don't trust you. Since I value trust in my relationships, that makes things difficult for us, Mis Valor." He finally started to follow the knights into the guild hall. "I was a hubristic fool. I thought I had the edge over you and I can't even express why I believed that anymore."

"Because I'm a carefree provincial commoner and you're a self-serious urbane noble knight. We're on opposite ends of your pretty little empire's social hierarchy and you trusted that if I ever got uppity that your 'system' could be used to discipline me." Iillor giggled. "There's a couple reasons that you were deluded. But yeah, you should've trusted your instincts."

Shining didn't answer right away. Yes, Iillor was mostly accurate about what his conceit had been. How expansive was her deception though? Was there anything accurate about her identity? "Do not count on me keeping your company long enough for you to reintroduce yourself."

"I totally get you're upset with me. I'm still on your side, not just as a friend, but as a pony." Iillor said. "I really am just a country girl looking for fun in Canterlot. As for this mess..." She nodded towards the dead and wounded guild ponies they were stepping around. "I didn't think a solution this bloody would be necessary. I think Lady Velvet was feeling the pressure and pushed for a quick solution to Phyte."

Clearly the signs were pointing to Twilight Velvet being the hinge that had brought things together, but that absolutely did not absolve the individual ponies she'd maneuvered. But what this earth pony, with no clear ambitions unlike the others, have to gain from the violence? "Before you started helping my mother, were you somepony else's agent?"

Iillor have him a pitying, patronizing look. "Like who, Shining? Your captain, Hauseway? Or Fancy Pants? Or maybe you imagine I was spurned by Phyte and I'm trying to get back at her."

Though Shining had gotten plenty of abuse from mares throughout his life, he really wondered if Iillor's glib sarcasm was going to drive him over the line. "It would be plausible I would imagine that, if I had any idea at all who this Phyte mare even is. I'll have to ask her when I see her." He glared at Iillor. "Actually I have a lot of questions for her."

That drew a laugh from Iillor. "I don't know why the bureaucrats kept you in the dark. Most of the other Imperial Council ponies knew about the true nature of the guild. Maybe Prosser or Hauseway thought they were keeping you safe."

Oh right, Councilor Prosser had said he knew the true identity of Fancy Pants's killer, but had to keep it secret! Had Prosser been alluding to Phyte? That idea incensed Shining until he thought about all the things he had done with the same paternalistic logic. Keeping a pony safe sometimes meant keeping them ignorant, right? Considering how unsafe he was feeling now, maybe that logic was flawed after all.

With Shining leading the way, they passed through the battlefield that the Musician's Guild had become. The knights had advanced through the front half of the ground floor, leaving dozens of injured or dead musicians. Pianists, cellists, players of all kinds of woodwinds and percussion, slaughtered defending their home. Besides the weapons the guild ponies carried, the guild itself seemed innocuous, with nothing to suggest either a weapons cache or a cult.

Some of the guild ponies had surrendered and been shuffled into a side room under guard. "Hey, Sir Armor!" Flash Sentry waved them over. "Your sword, sir."

"Thanks I guess." Shining grunted. The same weapon he'd brought to end Candence's court. He felt stupid for wanting it back. "Any signs of weapons caches or this Phyte mare?" He asked, turning the heads of the sullen POWs.

"They have some nifty stuff. One of the bleeders back there tried to ambush us with a blowdart, and another with a grenade of some type. That was exciting, but otherwise there's nothing at all cache-like." Flash reported.

“This is a vaunted institution you barbarians are destroying. Our conservatory has stood for centuries. It will last for centuries longer." One of the guild ponies said quietly.

Flash shook his head. "I'm starting to believe the cultist thing the mare was saying. They fight like hell and talk so weird." He said. "How did something like this last so long in the heart of Canterlot, and in the Old Town of all places! I don't even know what to say."

"Then don't." Iillor raised a hoof. "It's gotten quiet."

It had indeed become quiet. After the nearly constant shooting, screaming, and killing since they arrived at the guild hall, it was now so silent. The wails and moans of the many wounded was the only sound. As soon as the last knight lowered their weapon, so began the work of dragging to wounded out and reorganizing.

Shining recognized many faces among the casualties, strangers he'd see in Old Town, or players for the various courtly events around Canterlot. "One pony, two pony, three ponies dead. This is over thirty fatalities and double that in wounded." Shining estimated.
The only good news was that none of the IHG knights had been seriously injured. That would make it a bit harder for Hauseway to summarily discipline him over the affair, especially with Rain Gnash in angling for the captaincy. Shining couldn't predict the fallout from the dead civilians until he knew who Phyte actually was.

Spitfire, Soarin, and some of the Wonderbolts descended from the upper levels. "Cool, I see you've pacified most of them." Spitfire admired the amount of blood covering the knights' weapons and armor. "You IG have a bad reputation in Cloudsdale, but you're alright by me."

What a sickening endorsement. All the snide slander of the Wonderbolt felt true when a one-sided slaughter was the kind of thing that won their approval. "Don't celebrate before you fulfill your precious orders. You owe your admiral an insurrectionist." Shining quipped.

"Before you bother asking this lot, none of the ponies we would find up here are Phyte." Iillor said. "She's hidden down below."
Hearing this one of the POWs jumped up and charged Iillor, trying to impale her with his horn.

Shining stepped into the way, fatally striking the attacking stallion with a sword to his head. "Mis Iillor, don't tease away our time and the lives of these ponies!" Shining said, anger bubbling up again. "Show us the way."

"I'll gladly show you the way. Hey you all, we're going into the catacombs!" Iillor chirped, but she did not provoke any of the other POWs to attack. "Volunteers only, fellas. It's going to get gnarly down there."

Iillor danced ahead, into a room they had already been. By the time the chosen party caught up with her an unseen passage had been opened up, a narrow stairway going down under the foundations of the building. A new dead body lay nearby- It was another pony with mismatched patches of fur sewn to their body.

"This is pretty weird. I'm guessing this isn't normal even for Canterlot, aye? So how'd the earth pony know about it?" Spitfire wondered out loud. She was starting to catch on to the supernatural terror hiding just out of sight as well.

Iillor answered with a smile, then led the way down the stair into a gloomy hewn-rock tunnel, illuminated only by the unicorns' horns.

This was a completely different environment than the neoclassical guild hall above. The further they went, minute after minute, the colder and damper it got. The knights and Wonderbolts, energized and gutsy after their victory, were gradually infected by Shining Armor's dread. They began to wonder why they had never heard of Phyte before, and whether it had been better that way.

"This sure goes a while." Soarin feigned a yawn. "We've got to be under the center of the plateau by now, you know, the area where the buildings are denser."

"No, still under Old Town. The passageway curves subtly." Iillor whispered, jittery and eager.

Spitfire huffed, her pegasus instincts screaming in such claustrophobic confines. "So we're spiraling out from that stair?"

Iillor laughed. "No, no, more like spiraling in. We had to torture a certain grey mare near to death to find out how to access this secret path, so you ponies could follow me. There's still more hidden, root-like branching tunnels behind false walls, all along here. If that intrigues you, then once Phyte is gone we can go so much deeper and find what they hid centuries ago. Deeper we should go..."

They quickly lost track of time. Half the knights turned around to help with the prisoners and wounded on the surface. Shining probably would have written off Iillor and followed them, but he had to see this through. He had to uncover why Iillor really wanted Phyte dead, and what Phyte would say about it. He prayed, foolishly he knew, that this would be the last secret necessary to understand all the bizarre things happening around him.
And perchance, he could end his headache with Illustrious Valor at the same time. Maybe that meant arresting her too. Maybe that meant something else... "Velvet knew you were better at hurting ponies than you let on, Mis Valor." He inferred out loud. "So, whatever you are supposedly going to tell me after Phyte is dealt with, you already told my mother."

Iillor whistled softly but supplied no excuses for herself.

"For real, who is that mare?" Spitfire grumbled from behind him. "Wait, hold the buck up, Twilight Velvet is your mom?"

"Ha ha, I bucking knew it. Nepotism and Canterlot are pretty much synonyms." Soarin snickered.

"Address Sir Armor with some respect, Wonderbolt. He's bested foes a lot more impressive than the Cloudsdale mobs." Flash Sentry barked.

Maybe in a less oppressive atmosphere Soarin would have laughed at the lambasting. Instead he mock bucked at Flash to try to make him flinch. "You Canter-loiters who stay grounded together really stick up for one another, huh?"

"By Sir Armor's leave I'll redress your insults to us, Wonderbolt. Then you'll find out what a true knight uses his wings for." Flash shot back. "Captain Spitfire please reign in your subordinate before he ends up poked by somepony's polearm."

Spitfire shook her head. "Don't you dare sodomize my 'bolt, soldier. Give me until we're out of the tunnel and I can biff him properly."

"That will be soon. We are coming up on something." Shining spotted light up ahead, a dull yellow glow in the distance of the passage.

"Finally something new to target. No hard feelings, right fellas? I was just bored." Soarin said.

"The sword itself incites." Flash Sentry nodded.

The yellow glow became more distinct, and soon Shining realized he was looking at a few dozen candles and lanterns- The room around them was a taller, more cavernous dome, its walls the same stone as the tunnel they were emerging from. The cavern was adorned like a noble office: Cabinets full of papers, display cases of curiosities, sealed clay pots, wire birdcages, various paintings, and rolled up carpets were shoved against the arcing walls of the room. The middle of the cavern was blocked by several huge piles of scrolls and stacks of papers, reminiscent of a badly-organized library or bureaucratic station.

"I've seen these before." Shining nudged one of the birdcages. It was the same design as the ones in Octavia's hideout in the abandoned apartment! Well naturally Octavia, a musician, would have a connection to the guild. Wait... Lyra Heartstrings, before becoming Fancy Pants's agent, had been a part of the guild as well. And was the mysterious Vinyl a musician as well? Maybe Iillor was being completely truthful about the nature of the guild. Shining felt damn stupid for not making the connections before, and felt upset at the idea some other investigator had suggested it but been shot down by the councilors keeping it secret.
"All these scrolls are valuable evidence. Keep those candles away from them."

There was a shifting, whining sound from the other end of the cavern.
"Do not touch what does not belong to you, worm." A monotone mare’s voice echoed through the room.

Spitfire drew her weapon. "One last dirtbag to ice."

Soarin snickered. "I'll give you this one in lieu of the slap I owe you cap."

Shadows shifted on the far wall. Shining counted four ponies, discernible by profile against the flickering candlelight. By Iillor's ecstatic expression, he guessed one of those ponies was Phyte. "Hello. I am Sir Shining Armor of the Imperial Household Guard. In the name of the princess I order you to surrender."

"Oh ho. You order me? In the name of the princess? Ignorant sun slave. Lady Moon was right about you. You mortals." There was a flash of anger in the mare (presumably Phyte)'s voice. "I see the other case as well. You are led by power and death, as Celestia dictates."

Iillor stepped forward. "Power and death is a nice turn of phrase. Yeah, I've heard you Star bastards can turn a pretty word. Do you practice in the mirror, or just to your bitches?"

"A meeting months in the making, and that was the introduction you came up with? I expected better, Nightmare. Perish." Phyte intoned.

Spitfire's ears perked. "Movement, overhead! Ambush!"

Shining Armor unsheathed his sword just in time to deflect a sword blow from a pegasus that swooped down at him from the roof of the cavern. Another killer, a unicorn, jumped out from one of the cabinets and began throwing darts at him. Shining cursed and ducked his head under his hoof, regretting having tossed his helmet away. A dart bounced off the barding on his leg, letting Shining scoop it up and throw it back. The killer was startled at the return throw, and Shining closed in and fatally slashed and stabbed him back into the cabinet.

Flash Sentry was in the most trouble of the group, pinned to the ground wrestling with a cloaked unicorn that had tangled his halberd up with a flail. Shining bucked the attacker off his knight, and when the unicorn rose Shining hacked at his spine until he stayed down.

"Thanks. I've got the pegasus." Flash wheezed. That claim was put to the test when said assassin pegasus swooped on him, smacking Flash's helmet with the sword. "Damn!" Flash staggered back. He pulled the flail off his halberd, but as the pegasus made another attack Flash judged the flail the better tool, hopping up and catching the pegsus on the body with the star. The pegasus lost of control of their wings and smashed into one of the wire birdcages. The pegasus stood up, but soon found himself stabbed through the chest by the point of the halberd.
"Whew, bloody well handled. Fine soldiering, Sir." Flash shakily tucked his halberd back under his wing. "Damn, by head's going to be ringing for days from that one."

Spitfire and Soarin had survived their assailants too. Spitfire looked like she had taken a hit on the withers which her light armor had only barely protected her from, and she was disfavoring her back leg.
"Not too bad, IG. I still don't think that polearm can reach as far as I can fly." Soarin joked.

Shining was not going to banter. While he wasn't looking, Iillor had also dispatched an assassin- the victim was folded in half lengthwise.
But the enshadowed figures at the far wall had stayed still. How sick, Shining thought, that they voyeuristically watched the killing just like Rain Gnash or Sel Lech had. "If that was your last gambit, it failed. It's time to surrender yourself. I can promise you an impartial trial."

That angered the voice of Phyte again. "Ooh, ah, yes. Magisterial trial. That's what you give to those who you bother to leave alive. But at the core of it, whether any particular guild mare survives to sentencing is random, arbitrary, or contingent. Why did my Lyra, my Octavia, and my Vinyl not have their trial?"

So this mystery figure really was an associate of the dead mares. Against his better judgement Shining was going to get sucked into a conversation where Phyte was in control. "Expired, obviously. My condolences. I heard theories they were innocent of Fancy Pants's death." He couldn't fail to notice Iillor snickering as he said this. "That's not going to repeat itself. We are all sworn to uphold the princess's justice, so that means the princess's judgement. Once you surrender you are protected by the laws and decrees of her highness." Every time Shining mentioned the princess, the shadows on the far seemed to flicker ever the more agitatedly. "With a petition you could likely put your case in front of Princess Celestia herself."

"That damnable alicorn. That DAMNABLE alicorn! I can not even bear the thought of pretending you worms subdued me to bring to her." Phyte snarled.

Soarin was getting impatient. "You can have it his way, yada yada. Or you can have it our way, badda bing. Either way your body's going to the princess." He waved his rapier suggestively.

"Can't have it all your way anymore, Star. Chose." Iillor spoke up. She advanced into the middle of the spacious cavern. "You could listen to the unicorn and the pegasus. Or you could listen to the little old earth pony and kill yourself before we have to abase ourselves with your blood, you Star bastard."

One of the shadows on the wall peeled itself away, stepping past the candles and meeting Iillor at the center of the cavern. It was a unicorn, with all the fur of his face cut away, so a muscled skull was all that held his eyes and tongue. "You're no earth pony. In the name of the mistress-" The unicorn gargled, unable to articulate well without lips. His horn lit up with magic, and a small dagger was levitated from out of one of the piles of scrolls. "I will sacrifice you, Nightmare."

All the attention of the room was inexorably drawn to that little dagger, its details obscured by the low light, which nevertheless glinted and glowed with an unnatural sheen. Shining felt a sudden chill and his heart began to race, and the sword in his grasp felt almost too cold to hold any longer. "Watch out! That's a cursed weapon of some type!"

"Don't intervene or I'll kill you next, Shining." Iillor growled.
The faceless unicorn slashed forward and Iillor jumped back just in time. He growled and slashed several more times, but Iillor kept retreating. However, seeing she had almost backed into Shining, she tried to circle around, but the faceless unicorn intercepted and nearly caught her with a stab. Overconfident, the unicorn tried to close in, but with lightning speed Iillor got between him and his dagger and headbutted him. The unicorn reeled back, trying to keep his telekinesis to stab Iillor in the back, but she kept up her aggression, wrestling him down and subduing him with head and hoof strikes. Within seconds the poor unicorn was a flattened mess, and very dead.

"Damn mis. If you don't want her, Sir Armor, can I? Heh heh!" Soarin stepped forward and scooped up the dagger where it had fallen. The effect on him was immediate: Soarin began convulsing, dropping the dagger and falling over. He croaked and dry-heaved. Spitfire was immediately at his side, dragging him away from the fallen dagger and sitting him back up.

Phyte's voice began to laugh, going up and down registers like odd bells. "You fools have no idea what you are dealing with. Why did you bring these ponies here to die with you, Nightmare? I have drawn this out, but am no closer to understanding."

"Because I like to see ponies strive, you Star bastard. Look at them- Feeling out the edges of heaven, like a blind mare at the edge of a cliff. I find it really charming." Iillor explained. "If you're in a hurry to die, don't dilly-dally on my account."

Not for the first time that afternoon, Shining wondered what the hell was going on.

Two more of the shadows stepped up from the far wall. They were patchworks of fur and, shocking, bore both wings and horns mismatched with the rest of them. "Those words are old and decrepit, Nightmare!" The twin pseudo-alicorns said in unison, their androgynous voices unnervingly slow. "They died a thousand years ago when we banished the Moon's Nightmare. Pony dreams are nothing before the largess of the princesses. Their salvation is apotheosis." The twins paused, straining for several seconds to spread their wings to full wingspan, then after grunts of effort, lighting their horns with orange-red magic.

"This is the only way ponykind will outlive Celestia. If you let them rely on their own dreams the ponies you cherish will perish from this world." Phyte said.

With fascination and horror, the ponies looked upon the mutilated alicorn-like creatures. "This is high sacrilege." Flash managed to blurt out.

"We're in way over our heads." Spitfire acknowledged, glancing towards the tunnel back to the guild hall.

Iillor was less impressed. "Here's the weapon's cache you were after, Wonderbolt. An unholy host, using a Star's magic." She nodded towards the cursed dagger. "Go on, try out your top-of the line dogs on me, dog."

The twins wrestled their wings back down and advanced. The first pseudo-alicorn picked up the dagger but began to seize and gasp as Soarin had, barely able to stand upright. After several seconds of violent struggle against their own skin, the creature fell forward on its face and breathed no longer.
Undeterred, the second pseudo-alicorn grabbed up the dagger and held it aloft, challenging Iillor. "This 'unholy host', bearer of their mistress's power, will overcome you, Nightmare." It sing-songed. To demonstrate its own durability, the pseudo-alicorn slashed its own chest. An absurd jet of blood spurted out, before strands of red magic emerged from the flesh to stench and close the cut. "I will sacrifice you."

Iillor shook her head. "Naw, I'll sacrifice you." She contorted her neck down and reached far down her throat with a hoof. She stood that way for a few seconds, a completely impossible pose, before pulling her leg back out- A small cloth bundle curled in her hoof.

Shining watched awestruck. No, no... Phyte and her cultists were calling Iillor by 'Nightmare'. Surviving the stabs and bullets, freakish strength, and now impossible anatomy... that mare...

Iillor unwrapped the cloth bundle, layer by layer, revealing the second dagger. The oppressive chill in the room doubled, and Shining began to feel a heightening vertigo and nausea. He could not bear to look at the showdown, but nor could he look away. Every moment, pulses of evil energy seemed to emanate out from the daggers, irradiating the ponies and withering them in body and soul. Not one, but two cursed weapons?! That place, dark with swirling eddies of candlelight, did not feel like the same world anymore.

"En garde, ain't it." Iillor said. She crept forward, passing her dagger from hoof to hoof. The pseudo-alicorn levitated their dagger with crimson red magic. The duelists circled, experimentally poking or prodding, but never getting close to one another, both uncertain if they could attack and get away unscathed. It was more like a back-alley knife fight than any honorable duel.

The setting and combatants were alien and bizarre, but the form of the fight was familiar to Shining. "Iillor, you're holding it way too low." He uttered, still unable to tear his eyes off the awe-ful weapon. "You won't have time to defend your face. You might have to hold it in your mouth."

"I told you not to intervene!" Iillor shouted.
The pseudo-alicorn took this moment to strike, and in the exact way Shining had warned, aiming to strike Iillor's face with a high thrust. Too badly positioned, there was no way Iillor could block, and the enemy was too close to dodge away from; She was about to be hit!
But Iillor dissolved into mist, and the foe's dagger sailed through empty air where the earth pony had been moments before. Everypony, even Phyte, gasped. Iillor's dagger did not fall, but held aloft by a deep red magic, glided forward and stabbed the pseudo-alicorn twice above the shoulder.

"By the gods!" The pseudo-alicorn screeched, batting away Iillor's dagger with a wing. Red magic from her horn and skin bubbled around her profusely bleeding wounds, but acrid black magic also there stirred, roiling and smoking. "Nightmare! I will kill you!"

A shadowy form gathered in front of the pseudo-alicorn and raised Iilor's dagger in its etherial hoof. The wounded pseudo-alicorn tried to tackle and stab the figure, but passed through its misty body again. Iillor's dagger spun around in the air and caught the pseudo-alicorn on the belly and groin. The psudo-alicorn screamed incessantly, trying to parry and stop the mist-borne dagger, but it continued the gutting until most of the psudo-alicorn's stomach and intestines were on the cold cave floor.

The mist floated back and re-coalesced into the shape of Iillor, a wild grin stretching her features. "Gotchya. I could have done you with a butter knife, but the Star's blade makes it quicker. Look at your salvator, Phyte. All its insides are on the outside, for all of us to see that it has the same bits as the rest of the mortals."

The pseudo-alicorn, fighting against the malign magic dissolving it from the wounds, desperately shoveled its organs back into place to let the healing magic work. "The secrets of dreamers and heavens have I heard... but... not enough..." The evil of Iillor's dagger, blessed of a Star's power, was just too much for the creature, and it gradually struggled less and less. Once again Phyte's dagger clattered to the ground.

"Yeah, sweet dreams. Piece of shit." Phyte snorted.

There was just one more shadow on the far wall, watching by candlelight.
"That is Shale's blade." Phyte's voice was tenuously calm. Every single servant she had was now dead or captured. Now she had to face the powers arrayed against her alone. "How did this come to be?"

Backed off from their deadly purpose, Shining felt the intolerable aura of the daggers partially abate, enough for him to concentrate and speak more. "It's time to surrender yourself, for real."

The shadow on the wall approached. They saw the outline of the red mare now, freakishly tall, levitating one of the candles to herself. Her body was spindly, and her mane and tail were long and unkempt. Her eyes glowed maroon, darting between the ponies.
"This makes me ache. Intolerably ache. This is how the Celestiaan felt when Everfree burned.” The mare said, her voice like frosted glass.

Iillor threw back her head and laughed. "You arrogant witch, why should these ponies care how you feel. Stop talking and get ready to die."

"Wait." Shining said, then more firmly. "Wait. I am the officer of the Imperial Court. You will stand down, Mis Valor, and let this mare surrender herself." Since the red mare had so far made no move to grab a weapon, Shining felt safe to sheath his sword, signaling his intention. "You have a lot of explaining to do."

Phyte's attention fully went to Shining. "The knight lieutenant... And Twilight Velvet's spawn. I should have followed through my threat to wipe her lineage out."

"You sure should have. Who do you think lent me Shale's sacrifice dagger?" Iillor mocked. "You stupid Star. You were tricked over and over by a menopausal mother of two."

Soarin had recovered enough from the ordeal of touching the cursed weapon to stand on his own. "What the buck is a Star? What the buck are you? What's going on here?!"

"I am the superior class of life on this planet, one of the elder siblings of mortalkind who trace their heritage to the Tower of the Bard. Everything you have despoiled so far are emanations of me. You stand before an hour in her glory, conqueror of Heaven's fiefs. Stumbled, you have, into a lady such as you have never met, and never will meet again." Phyte chanted. "The pretensions of the alicorns will stumble, and I will yet stand. You will wain too, Nightmare. You have undone our charity to ponykind but I will sweep you aside and resume the work."

Iillor laughed some more, then turned very serious. "I'm going to turn you inside out."

Whatever supernatural nonsense was going on, Shining had committed himself to extracting his answers. That meant stopping the fight, which meant physically placing himself between the hostile mares. "I ordered you to stand aside, Iillor. Do so, or I'll arrest you too."

"Buddy you're going to get attacked again." Soarin sighed.

Shining strode up to Phyte, his back to Iillor, and hoped that his presence would deter the earth pony from trying to attack. Iillor had been very quick and vicious, with her body and with the dagger, but she didn't have much precision. As long as she worried about hurting Shining, Iillor would sit still. "Nopony is waining before you explain some things." Shining said. He wasn't pulling off his demanding attitude while wincing through the waves of dark discomfort that still filled the cavern. "What other assets do you have in Canterlot? They will all have to be processed."

Phyte, nearly as tall as Celestia, looked over Shining, her mane tickling his nose. "Pitifully little now that I am being bossed around by a unicorn whelp. For over a century, I presided over the largest haven of Star devotees in Equestria, the second largest in the world. I had the empress's sanction to rule, to co-opt and use you mortals' murderous impulses and demands, to research your salvation." Phyte did not blink, Shining noticed. "Torn away from me! Bit by bit! What UTTER humiliation. I can barely express it. I even had to seek assistance from a dreamer!" She lurched, and for a moment Shining though she was going to strike him, but she had instead raised her hoof to point accusingly at Iillor. "Like you mortals, I suppose I was coddled by the norms of safety and security that the empire was meant to bring. I did not for a MOMENT imagine you ponies would tolerate and even abet a monstrosity like her!"

Not that Shining had felt bad for Phyte (just for himself), but that admission let him feel a measure of satisfaction for destroying her followers. "So this really was a twisted death cult! I refuse to believe Princess Celestia knew or sanctioned any of this. You'll only escape the executioner if you don't put up any more resistance, period. If you fight back any more, you will die, one way or another."

"It is tempting to surrender just to see you flail and fail to uphold that promise. What bitter amusement a real death would be then." Phyte's stare shifted to Iillor's dagger. "A flighty pony like you... harumph. I know your patterns, mortal. You would betray yourself, offering up all manner of ego-defending excuses, while the world plays on as if you had done nothing at all."

Shining felt a flash of anger. "Is my ego at risk? It's your cult I just dismantled. All my shortcomings have been absolved by the princess herself. If your cult is responsible for any deaths in Canterlot you will be made to answer and regret every single one of them. That includes Fancy Pants, Deeper Frie Fellowship, Barley Bale, and any others!"

Shining heard a soft snicker from Iillor. And Phyte, looming over him, also looked darkly amused, her glowing eyes slightly narrowed. "Pony, your Nightmare friend killed Pants and Bale. Did you truly not know?"

"I-"
Shining's heart was beating too loud for him to hear. The lingering nausea, the numbing chills in his spine, the waves of numbness fighting against a stirring anger and indignant confusion...
It made too much sense. Obviously, OBVIOUSLY, Illustrious Valor had killed Fancy Pants, right? She was the pony who had first indicated Octavia and Vinyl at Pant's murder. After Prosser had said, with absolute conviction, that the mares had not been the real killers, Shining should have reexamined everything, including Iillor's testimony.
A strange mare appears from nowhere inserts herself in the most important murder investigation of the decade, then continues to haunt the halls of the castle and the streets of Canterlot... and Shining Armor specifically. A nobody, devious and annoying, but who nopony could say no to.
Prosser had known. The very night of Fancy Pants's murder, Prosser must have seen Iillor and known she'd done it. He must have realized the full extent of her danger, which was perhaps even more than Shining realized, and tried to protect the rest of the castle from her. That meant getting Velvet to hire Iillor to distract her. That meant condemning Barley Bale and Velvet's other enemies to die.
So Phyte, an enemy of both Velvet and Iillor, and apparently of other ponies like Rain Gnash as well, was next on the chopping block. Maybe Phyte deserved it (she definitely did), but leading a haphazard assault that killed dozens of ponies was not the way a righteous pony carried out the princess's justice! The princess-

...

Shining slowly turned to Iillor. "Celestia-" He croaked. "She knew. She knew and she didn't care. I tried to tell her, what Prosser had told me, that the killer was still out there. She was aloof. She left us at your mercy. A- And she always knew." His eyes, wide open, wild, a little crazed. Weeks and months he'd crossed paths with her! Like a tiger, a being able to commit effortless violence, apathetic and unbound by pony morality. His head had been nestled in her jaw and he'd never even realized it.

"Don't worry about it too much. I'm a nice girl, and you're my friend. Just let it happen." Iillor winked.

Engulfed by a cloud of shadowy magic, Shining’s sword wrenched itself from his belt and stabbed Phyte above the sternum.
Phyte staggered, and after knocking Shining away with a sweep of her leg, summoned up her magic, a blinding glow like heated metal that danced around her horn.

"Oh shit! Pull back!" Spitfire retreated to the edge of the cavern, ushering the limping Soarin ahead of her.

"Nay, perish!" Phyte's voice boomed. She flicked her horn, and coursing waves of raging red magic lashed out in every direction. It had all the effects of a messy bomb in the confined space, catching scrolls, furnishings, and pony corpses alight. Phyte followed up with a concentrated beam of magic, a laser lancing forward, that tore into Iillor as her form dissolved to shadowy mist again.
"Nightmare! What about MY hopes, MY aspirations! Are you a slave to the Moon, to not see how much more worthy I am than all the dreams ponykind could ever muster?!" Phyte raged. She looked down at the sword jammed through her chest, and tenderly probed the flesh, wincing and trembling in greater and greater rage. "Look at what I am reduced too: Hunting my own meat." She walked over to the disemboweled psudo-alicorn, levitating her dagger, and began ruthlessly cutting the remaining skin of her erstwhile servant. With each slash, the magical power swirling around her horn burned brighter. Then pausing from her butcher, Phyte yanked Shining's sword out of her chest in a spray of blood and tossed it away. The fatal wound stitched itself closed, and Phyte let out a satisfied grunt.
"My enemies have cut me down to a hock before, but I came back. You are nothing, even with Shale's blade."

Shining groaned and cradled his shoulder; Phyte's punch had dented his armor but thankfully it was not broken or dislocated. But looking around Shining saw he was still in tremendous danger, as growing blazes were expanding all around the cavern, burning scrolls, furnishings, and the corpses. A whistling sound began to grow as the red flame began to suck in more and more air from the passage back to the surface.

"Sir Armor!" Flash Sentry called out frantically.

Shining sat up. It was getting intolerably hot. Any longer in the cavern and they'd all be cooked. "Pull back! I'll arrest these miscreants and be right behind you!" He locked eyes with Spitfire. "I said pull back, damn you! I'm still in charge of this operation."

Spitfire tried to to think of something to quip back but her words were failing her. She... couldn't think, couldn't react! She turned, awed, by the radiating power of the Star, red magic sparking from her horn and fur and setting even more of the room alight. This was a foe she had no answer to. It terrified and exhilarated her.
"You heard the knight. Get topside immediately!" He pushed Soarin towards the tunnel with a wing. "Don't even think about arguing or I'll whip your hide into parchment!"

Soarin replied something but it was lost in the whistling air and crackling inferno. He darted into the passage back to the surface, making small wing hops that let him avoid using his hurt leg.
Spitfire and Flash Sentry withdrew to, but did not enter, the passage behind Soarin.

"Sir Armor, it's hopeless! She's gone!" Flash Sentry yelled.

"There's no reason to martyr yourself you fool!" Spitfire concurred.

Phyte was not idle, however. Quickly glancing about for signs of Iillor, she glided to Shining, blocking his escape. "Pony, you do you know why I have not obliterated you?"

Shining glared at the haughty demigod. "Because you missed." He levitated the halberd from where Flash had dropped it. "The princess orders you to desist."

"She does no such thing." Phyte chortled darkly. "You are the pony smudging you princess's grand designs. Oh you myopic mortals do not fail to amuse even when you act LIKE THIS. This is a wrinkle of the curse of us Stars. What we create is destined to be destroyed, but we can not pass with it.”
Taking her mockery as intent to resist arrest, Shining jabbed at the mare with the halberd, trying to catch a leg and subdue her.
Phyte effortlessly caught the polearm's blade with her dagger and twisted it out of Shining's grasp. "Come now, I have wielded this since before the Celestiaan arrived on this planet. Shining Armor, perhaps it is time that you desist."

Phyte's horn lit up. Before he could move another step, Shining was encased in a sheen of red magic and pulled off the ground. He fought with his horn and muscles but could get nowhere. Phyte was immensely powerful on a level he'd only ever seen with the princesses.

Phyte said softly. “Mortal hooves to work with, driven by an immortal soul. Tell me what you see in an elder sibling like me? Or that child there?" She motioned with her dagger towards the disemboweled pseudo-alicorn. Every time that horrible dagger got close to Shining he was wracked by nausea and pain. "Can you not see a more worthy vessel for your striving souls? The dreamer knows. I am on your side. Can't you see?" She began to tremble in renewed rage. "Can't you see?!"

Shining was on the verge of passing out and was not in any shape to reply to the affirmative or negative.

Phyte regarded him with mixed distain and pity. "No? Or, not yet. Your mother and sister would understand. Given time and context- Ah... but you did so vehemently beg! You have the blood for it, if anypony would."

Shining moaned, fighting to stay conscious. Where was Iillor now to save him?
Where... was Cadence?

For a few long moments, Phyte weighed the options. "Pony, if I kill you, I will incur the wrath of Heaven and the Dreamscape." Her magic burned brighter and her telekinesis dragged an object from the roiling flames on the other side of the room. It was one of the wire birdcages, large enough to fit a pony; and fit a pony she did, dropping Shining into it. "I will have to make what use I can."

In a burst of green fire, Shining Armor disappeared.

"Shining!" Flash screamed and covered his eyes.

Well that was no good, Spitfire thought. She had been assigned to parlay with Twilight Velvet, but instead she had just watched her son get vaporized. "God damn these unicorns." She uttered. Now there was nothing between her and the demon stalking towards her. "High time we beat it." She turned to Flash to find that the pegasus knight had already retreated, galloping full speed back to the surface.

"Come a little closer. Let me see what a Wonderbolt looks like. I need a little taste, a small reminder, of what your race is like. Welcome back to Canterlot." Phyte growled.

“You'll taste death instead.” Iillor's voice echoed around the cavern, full of snide vitriol.

"That mare..." Spitfire tried to catch a glimpse of where the earth pony could be among the flames.

“Foolish Nightmare!” Phyte seemed to share her sentiment. “How many deaths will it take to swat you away?”

“You should be asking how many it would take to satiate me.” All at once, the fires burned themselves out, and the cavern was plunged into darkness. The croaks of the fires and the songs of the winds feeding them died away as well. Silence, darkness, and misery now dominated the cavern.

Through the haze, Spitfire saw two lights. One, nearer, was Iillor's cursed dagger. The other was Phyte's.

"Why me, Nightmare? You are a race a thousand years gone. Am I the first priority target, truly?" Phyte asked.

Iillor whistled a low note. "Yes, then no. I tried to find you my first night back on this earth. I found your shitty kid instead. Then I fucked around for a few months and now I'm back here." She slowly approached Phyte, wary of another magical attack. "I heard you mention the Dreamscape, but your kind doesn't dream anymore, Star. Which means somepony, or some~thing, contacted you; An errant dreamer. You're treading in Moon's garden now. You'll have to double-die for that infringement."

"Hoping to make your nightmare god proud of you? Pathetic." Phyte spat.

Iillor laughed darkly. "Enough talk. Let's have at it, Star."
The 'earth pony''s new assumed shape revealed itself, its horns and eyes beginning to glow an eerie green: An oversized creature, as tall as Phyte, lumbering forth yet utterly silent. At was like a fusion of a pony, a wasp, and a wolf: Compound eyes rested on a head of black fur. It had a curled chitin horns and several sets of sleek insectoid wings sprouting incongruously from a stout wolf-like body. It’s grinning, drooling maw was filled with alternating rows of fangs and molars. "Damn I'm sexy! Think a poke from that dagger can damage a killer body like mine?"

"Yes." Phyte rose her guard.

Thus was the reward for Spitfire's nosy curiosity about Illustrious Valor, to glimpse the abominable creature's 'real' shape, or at least something closer than equine flesh had hidden. Perhaps it was still true that they were both thugs, but Spitfire's mortal masters seemed altogether wholesome after she dared contemplate the horrors who the Nightmare obeyed.
And so Spitfire fled. She ran from the darkness and smoke, as fast as her legs could carry her. Away from the archaic terrors, feuding over who would lurk within the sins of the empire of Ponykind and in the shadows of all those mortal masters so smugly plotting their works.

Above it all, Celestia's ear flicked. Some creature was trying to telepathically send her a message. "Hmm?" She slowly roused from her stupor, blinking for the first time in hours. She had to blink several more times as her other senses gradually returned to her. Ohh, but those southern skies were too engrossing...
Celestia felt the telepathic tickle at the back of her skull. it was coming from- Celestia scanned the Canterlot skyline- the Old Town.

There was smoke rising from the district. Not from any fireplace, or a workshops forge, as she initially judged, no. One of the buildings was on fire.
Was somepony going to put that out? With her enhanced alicorn sight she saw dozens of ponies around the growing conflagration, even some IHG among them, but none moved to douse the flames.

Something was ahoof. "Ahh," Celestia focused on the telepathic tickle as it shot through her once more. It was familiar... "Hmm." That most loathsome vassal of convenience, Phyte, was casting about with her magic, trying to attract Celestia's attention. "Oh yes, that is her charming little guild that is burning." Celestia noted.
Yet the character of the message from Phyte was something altogether more alarmed than one would expect from the Star merely facing a building fire: Dread, dismay, and desperation. It greatly puzzled Celestia to guess the circumstances of Phyte's distress.

The next telepathic message was different: Pain. Celestia was jolted to full lucidity, to experience the Star's anguish, and to imagine from whence it came. If Phyte wanted Celestia's attention, she had it.

The empress of Ponykind was spurred to action.
"Hark." Celestia spread her wings, and all the joints of her body creaked and protested from their first movement in days. Ahh, what delicious sensations! Her body, the enchanted flesh vessel for her divine power, was once again yoked to her purposes. And what purposes? One WORTHY of the will of an alicorn, at last. That she should trod, that she should see, that she should desire, the subjects of those agencies were the most blessed under the sun. Day after day the world provided her nothing of interest, nothing of use, and nothing to compel her. The mystery of the imminence of the southern skies was far more engaging. There was a minuscule chance that Phyte's pain and fear was an occurrence worth an alicorn's existence, when one had been so long devoid from the planet.
Perhaps the time had come.

Sel Lech watched the last stragglers escape the burning Musician's Guild. Nopony was sure who had started the fire: The Wonderbolts began throwing accusations at the Imperial knights, while the knights made insinuations about the Wonderbolts. The glum musicians, chained together awaiting pickup or laying in the nearby triage area, were alternatively chanting and wailing or stone silent.

The portly pegasus, Admiral Rain Gnash, after conferring with a few of her advisers and Wonderbolts, an amusing mix of hushed growls and wild wing gesticulations as she gave her orders, had departed to scheme and assess from a more secluded location. Duke Sharphoof Lightdowser was still on the scene, observing silently every movement, acquainting himself to every detail and every pony. Some civilians and castle ponies had also filtered onto the scene, gawking or doing debriefings. There still was no concrete narrative of why the fighting had started, or what secret had been consigned to the flames within the guild hall.

The situation was about as literal as trial by fire Sel could face without actually being cooked. For that, he would have to brave the inferno for the minuscule chance he could pull more wounded guild ponies to safety. Still, Sel fancied he was handling the situation as best as he could, and some of the city guardsponies at his beck had gone and fetched doctors, weatherponies, and reinforcements to assist with the crisis.

"I promise something like this doesn't happen often." Sel let out a forced laugh. Duke Lightdowser didn't reciprocate. "This whole buisness with the guild has been simmering for a while, and nopony has had the political will to deal with it. I don't want to speak too early, but your arrival might have had something to do with things flaring into confrontation."

Lightdowser grunted. "Sir Captain, I think that is a reach. Take caution not to lay problems at my hooves before I am competent to take them up. My arrival was secret until a few hours ago, while I suspect this drama has been long orchestrated." Detecting that his words had been too inflammatory, Lightdowser cleared his throat and tried again. "I have taken a light shine to you, Sir, but if you do not wish to speak early, don't. That is how a wise pony conducts themself, so act thus and I can promise you that your star will rise with mine."

Before Sel could reply there was a chorus of shouts and cheers from nearby. Two more ponies galloped out from the burning guild hall, one supporting the other, covering their eyes and nostrils against the smoke. The Wonderbolts raced forward to meet them and pull them further away from the inferno: It was Flash Sentry, one of the IHG knights, and a Wonderbolt stallion. Sir Sentry was incoherently wailing, trying to push away the ponies trying to help him. The Wonderbolt looked haunted, and only answered the nervous questions of his comrades with blank stares. They were in shock.

A rumbling groan emanated from the guild hall. "It's going to collapse!" Somepony yelled.

Suddenly a dark shape rocketed from one of the upper-floor windows, pulling contrails of acrid smoke behind her. Spitfire made a hard landing near Sel, tumbling forward onto her face and coming to a stop by alarmed civilians. She had ditched parts of her uniform, and the rest was partially burned off. Her face and stomach were red from the extreme heat, but it was better than being totally cooked.

A few seconds later, the roof of the Musician's guild collapsed inwards, sending up a swarm of embers and causing a billow of scalding air towards the too-close ponies. Guardsponies and weatherponies watched carefully to make sure the fire didn't spread.

Duke Lightdowser strode over to Spitfire, who was being helped up by the Wonderbolts and a few citizens. He eyed her up and down, glanced back at Sentry and Soarin, then back to Spitfire. "I presume Sir Armor, Mis Valor, and Mis Phyte have become casualties?" He asked.

Spitfire, unable to stop herself shaking from what she had just experienced, did not look up at her addresser. She wiped her nose and began brushing ash out of her fur. "Buck off." She muttered.

Duke Lightdowser shrugged. He would find out what had happened under the guild hall later. If Sir Armor was dead, the IHG would drift back to their captain, Hauseway. If Hauseway didn't compel his knights to explain, and nor did Rain Gnash, then they would have to be played off one another; Because clearly, something of great importance had been down there, so great that Twilight Velvet had risked her son to die for it.

The duke turned to leave but bumped into somepony. "Oh~" He felt peeved somepony had entered his personal space, and was preparing a rebuke. "Have some awareness-" But even as the words slipped out of his mouth he realized he was not face to face with a pony, but an expanse of white fur and gleaming gold.

Celestia did not even notice Lightdowser. She surveyed the scene, dispassionate, briefly locking eyes with her awed subjects as her gaze passed over them, then disappeared again in a shimmer of silver magic.

The tides of celestial magic conducted Celestia down, under Canterlot, into the dark and smokey hell, where the savage battle was already well underway.
Shrouded in smoke, illuminated by the flashes of magic, Star and Nightmare danced between careful circling and fierce melees.

In the cavern, its every content burned into cinders, it was hard to make out anything even with Celestia's enhanced and magical sight. The cavern was a stew of Dark and deadly magics, and a potent spirit of evil made her feel ill. She was a manifestation of light and heavenly power, and this place was totally opposite to her spheres of power.
Yet Celestia could feel the forces in contention before her, powerful yes, but still much inferior to her own alicorn power. Of course there was Phyte, at whose beck she had come. Then there was something unknown- or rather, less known. It was a presence she had felt in the castle before, radiating dark dream magic.
"This thing is more than a dreamer. It is... a dream in and of itself-" Celestia cooed, amazing by the waves of Dark every washing over her body. "It's that Nightmare."

The nightmare, in the form of a horrible chimera, surged forward, its undulating movement like a mix between a caterpillar and serpent. Phyte, trying to keep range, lanced out with her burning red magic, cutting away part of the cloud of darkness around the dream beast. Iillor jumped and latched onto the smooth ceiling high above, her head twisting around to snarl at the Star.
"You're aim is getting worse!"
The nightmare wound up and launched herself at Phyte. Phyte, her delicate legs moving in unnatural ways, moved aside at the last moment, as Iilor's claws and maw slicing the air where the she'd been a moment before. Iillor slammed into the other wall with a wet slap. It scurried to reface itself, kicking up a new cloud of ash and smoke. It charged again, attempting to adjust for Phyte's dodge, successfully grappling and taking down her foe. Phyte's much smaller form bounded away in a tangle of limbs, and took some seconds of anguished screaming to unbreak herself. Iillor did not come out unscathed, and marveled at how one of the horrible daggers was now stuck in her neck.

"Wither and die!" Phyte screamed.
Celestia cringed, for Phyte was still flailing around telepathically for her attention, apparently not realizing the princess had already come. It was fascinating to see that the Star, a very powerful creature without a doubt, might have met her match.

"In due time, when I have earned it!" Iillor cackled repulsively. "Look upon a new breed, far far removed from the kind of Nightmare you exterminated a millennium ago." Her many eyes slid through her flesh to peer at Celestia, delighting to show herself off in all her mania. "I have cast down all your revelators. Now I AM the revelator. I am the herald. I am a predator without competition and I will feast on the sins of ponykind unending, til my Lady's glory is come again."

Iillor's shadowy magic ignited around her horns and the handles of the evil blades. She let out a euphoric scream and yanked Phyte's dagger from her body, causing the whole area of tissue to explode in burst of black ichor. Her faces yelled for several more seconds before her whole body dissolved into smoke again, reforming in a notably smaller shape with many fewer heads and limbs.

Phyte pushed herself back upright, teleporting the dagger back into her hoof. "Your self-destructive madness can not last!"

Iillor's primary face was now more goat-like, with a long mane of serpents. She was not nervous about losing to the Star; Phyte was cornered and desperate, abandoning all her eloquence without any mortals to impress. The Star was getting slower and more twitchy, signs that the magical current that held her body together were getting weak. Iillor was taking hits too, but was just as fast up to her last breath.
Iillor was a bit nervous about Celestia though. She was immeasurably proud to have the alicorn's eyes upon her, but a primordial dread memory began to creep into her. First, she respected the alicorns as the worthy predecessor to the nightmares, for her Lady Moon was just such an alicorn. Second, every nightmare the Sun Princess had theretofore seen had died to her might, which for the first time made Iillor feel like the prey.

It seemed Phyte noticed Iillor's trepidation and sensed opportunity. She had one last gambit.
Around the room, the birdcages which were not deformed or crushed began to ignite themselves with green fire, casting an otherworldly pallor throughout the smokey cavern. Figures, a half-dozen well armed guild ponies, charged out of the fiery cages with snarls and whoops, to surround Iillor from all sides.

"I thought we were done with the mortal shields." Iillor joked.

A few of the guild ponies pulled out pistols and unloaded into the Nightmare, blasting away some of her horns and limbs. Angered, Iillor lept forward and tore out one of the hapless killers' throat, dragging the screaming pony along while other maws rent and chewed at him.
The other guild ponies began to immediately panic, clearly having answered their mistress's summons with no idea of what they were up against. One of them threw down her weapons and dashed for the exit, only to come to a complete halt upon glimpsing Celestia looming in the smoke.

"Avert thine eyes." Celestia commanded the terrified mortal.

The mare tried to say something, but it was lost, for apparently Phyte had summoned her followers for more than just reinforcement: The guild ponies' heads were seized by red magic as they were pulled toward the Star. Their panic became terror and they fought against the choking telekinetic grasp.
A magical tension filled the air, very similar to the waves of darkness the dagger radiated. Phyte began to grimace and tremble, her fur rising as magic began cracking off her horn. The screams of her ponies died away as she tore away their souls, rebuilding her magical power.

"Witness this Star's power!" Phyte cackled. She pointed her dagger towards her nightmare foe, casting an invisible spell.
Iiilor's whole body strained against itself, her errant eyes began to bulge, and the teeth in her maw began to crack under the stress of her tortured grimace. Phyte was trying to crush her with sheer magical pressure, using everything she'd gained from the sacrifice of her followers at once.
For Iillor it was like being compressed by the whole Mountain on every part of her body. Her shroud of darkness writhed and her limbs cracked apart, for it was too much to keep her whole body together. All of her eyes began to bleed and spasm. But Illustrious Valor had no intention of dying, and had utter faith in her own will to win.

Phyte bared her fangs, pouring more and more force into the attack. "You can not, will not, resist! Any! Longer!"

The noble race of Nightmares would NOT be extinguished by a measly Star. "The Dark Lady gives me STRENGTH." Iillor took one step forward, then another. With screaming strain she reconstituted a horn and began to counter with summoned shadow and dark flames about Phyte's hooves.

What a dramatic crescendo! Celestia found the magical battle of streaming mana, smoke, and fire brilliantly awesome, a deadly but rapturous light show, like being too close to a fireworks barrage. The waves of sensation passing through Celestia, of sinful power radiating off the convulsing, screaming mare-things, and the accursed daggers they desperately clung to, were also a perverse delight, like a uncouth tickle under her skin and along every vein of her body.

"My FAITH drives me. I'm DRIVEN t- to- to..." Iillor's mouth bled profusely, and her hateful words sent flecks of blood and foam across the room. "KILL"

With a deafening howl, the beast charged forward, great masses of shadow dissolving away as she faced Phyte's magic. Phyte did not dodge, and the nightmare monstrosity collided with her and drove her into the cavern wall. Dazed, Phyte lost control of her magic, and weakly tried to push the nightmare away. Iillor sunk her fangs into the's Star neck to drag her to the floor, then savagely kicked her once more in the head. Phyte fell over and did not move.

"Celestia... save... me." Phyte mouthed. She shuddered as she slowly healed. "The suzerain... will excoriate you. She... will save her vassal. To put you down..." She groaned and spat away blood. "Like the dog you are!"

Deliriously ecstatic at her apparent victory, Iillor just laughed. "You have been calling for help, but none has come. Could it be that you're the dog here?" She stepped back from Phyte. "Sun princess, why take in this mangy bitch if you had no care to reform or preserve it?"

With unparalleled horror, Phyte followed Iillor's furtive glance, to see that the nightmare's address was not mere flourish: The princess stood statuesque and silent having borne full witness to the contest. Celestia's glowing nimbus of mane silhouetted her in the otherwise dark corner, and revealed how her judgmental eyes eventually settled on Phyte, what the Star felt as a look of dour disappointment.

"Celestia~" Phyte groaned, her voice pitching into a groggy wail. "Why? You've... forsaken me? Betrayed me?!"

The culmination of battle had ripped away most of Iillor's body, and her chimeric and shambling form staggered back and forth, strange steaming ichor bleeding out of her joints and painting her face, but the monster still trembled with murderous energy. That moment was the culmination of months of detestable patience, and the struggles of her own will. It was with a self-amused pride that Iillor wondered if Shining Armor or Twilight Velvet would be proud of her accomplishments, the way she was for their's.
Ah, wait, Phyte had burned Shining Armor away in one of her birdcages. "Don't bother with this bitch, Sun Princess. You know of her profligate works, those gross fake alicorn things. She even confessed to conspiring with a rogue dreamer. Release her of her oath to you, and I'll carve her up real nice right now. A Star wouldn't survive a sweet butchering by this. Are you an art lover, princess? Don't you want to see how beautiful her guts and blood would look positioned 'round her cave?"

Celestia's gaze moved between the cursed dagger, feeling again its radiant evil, and the accursed being holding it. But still she did not move or speak.

Phyte had been at the mercy of the sun princess before, hundreds of years ago. Facing the Sun princess at the height of her pride and arrogance, Phyte had been compelled to capitulate before the unequal duel killed her. But back then, the princess had needed her, was openly curious of her dark knowledge, and had been willingly convinced of the future benefits of her service. Now things were completely different.
Unwilling to gamble her life on the combined mercy of the alicorn and the nightmare, Phyte desperately cast about with her magic, telekinetically taking last few intact ink pots from her desk. It was warm to the touch and a soft glow surrounded the ceramic.

"Hmm?" Iillor noticed her movements. "Have a will to write out, little bitch?"

Phyte had mostly healed but felt incredibly weak. It took the last of her energy to sit up. "Nay." She croaked. "I have no words but remonstrances, to you nightmare, to you Celestia, and to that whore Moon you call liege and sister respectively. Farewell."
Too late Iillor noticed the dragonfire in the ink pot. Once the cascade of liquid light splashed onto Phyte she was eaten a conflagration of green fire. The Mistress disappeared, and the ground she’d laid on was smashed in the nightmare’s fury.

What comes after life? The Equestrians had their dogma about the course of the dead, of how all souls who remained faithful to the Sun's destiny would transit elysium to join the sun again in a grand chain of causality, a belief which while widely admitted had never fully supplanted the superstitions and folk beliefs of the pony tribes: For mortals sometimes saw the other world in their sleep, of forests of tall pines where souls commuted, and conversed with the dead long gone who lazed within a rustic after-dream.

Shining Armor's brash youth had never let him ponder what awaited him after he died. His relative isolation from his father's extended family, and the total mystery about his mother's, had isolated him from the slow parade of familial deaths that inculcate young colts to facts of mortality, loss, and mourning. As a soldier, whose sword had slain ponies several times, he did not even give the least thought to what he consigning the soul of the victim to: For what use was it, and what could worrying change for them? Most of all, Shining was much more obsessed and anxious about everything else in his life to ponder the deep existential questions about life and death.

And though Shining thought he had died, and then spent several terrified seconds wondering if he was now somewhere that his incuriosity and impieties would be punished, he had not and was not. He knew he was not dead because he still felt the aches and soreness of the battle under the guild hall, and still smelt the smoke in his fur. Also, the total darkness around him, which had at first deceived him about his end, was pierced by a soft glow from somewhere nearby that
reassured him he still had a world to see and eyes to see it with.
Yes, Shining was on a cold rock floor, where Phyte's dragonfire birdcage spell had teleported him. But where? He lifted his head, trying to understand the world around him.

It seemed like he was in another cave, but it must have been much much much larger than Phyte’s cavern. The soft glowing light revealed only the edge, a smooth rock wall that had the barest suggestion of a curve inwards horizontally and vertically, giving Shining the impression that beyond the light the vast space stretched for kilometers and kilometers in silent darkness.
But that great vast darkness was not totally empty, for ahead of him beyond the edge of the illumination in what couldn't be seen but as fuzzy suggestions of form were titanic statues, still monuments like cyclopean grave pillars.

"What..." Shining mumbled, retreating from the dark ahead of him, and the enormous statues looming within, to the source of the light. He backed up until he bumped into something behind him, then sank back to the ground.

He struggled not to cry, cradling his snout under his hoof in a faux-contemplative slouch, his eyes squeezed shut, trying to keep it together. Now that everything made sense, it was all so intolerable, so humiliating, repulsive to everything he thought he knew and understood. Shining lamented his stupidity and ignorance, for what consequences it would have on the future of Canterlot and ponykind. He was a failure. Equestria would suffer because of it. He hadn't even earned a martyr's redemption.

And what deeds of redemption could be performed from this cold black hell he found himself in? He had been teleported, obviously, but to where Shining could not guess- But the dimensions of the vast dark cavern, far dwarfing any excavation of pony history (that he knew of), suggested a deep and primordial barrow the like of which had sheltered the tartarian brimstone monsters in aeons past.
After so much chaos, confusion, and violence, Shining was stranded somewhere utterly dark, utterly quiet, a sepulchral denouement to a failed confrontation with the evils under Canterlot. It did not matter that he was not dead, for he was in a grave, far out of the way, so he would not meddle in either mortal and supernatural politics any longer. Not that he had been the least obstacle for the gruesome forces working out their plans over ponykind...

What could possibly be done? Shining had been caught blindsided, but even with full knowledge and all his strength and wit, he probably still would have lost.
Of all the bitter feelings that overtook him, worst of all was the persistent anguish at the idea that Celestia had known all along and done nothing. She had watched him flail uselessly then trip into this peril with the utmost apathy.

All he could do was sigh, but at least he didn't want to cry anymore. What was done was done. He had lost.
"It's up to other ponies now." Shining mumbled to himself. "Avenge me, mom." Oh, but Twilight Velvet was at least as much to blame. No, no, from what Iillor and Phyte had said, Twilight Velvet was the MOST responsible, for having positioned and prodded her dubious allies into their disastrous confrontation. "And why? Why? Just for power? Just to make us suffer? Mother, what would have become of me, for better or worse, without your scheming? Is this your mercy, or your hatred?" When he closed his eyes, he couldn't help but see Velvet there, turned away but looking back at him, grinning and snickering with ironic satisfaction at all the things she knew but he did not, making ready her acts to guide his life far beyond his own ability to control. What she had desired had come to pass. By god, she was more his master than the alicorns. Very soon, all of Canterlot could suffer the same domination. Twilight Velvet was ascendant.

Regardless, his dark contemplations did not make his current location or the implications thereof any clearer. He could bemoan his fate forever (very tempting), or he could do something.
Do what?
Shining didn't know. He didn't... care. He didn't care anymore, about the things that had seemed so so important mere hours before. Celestia and her nation... Buck them. Let some other pony hold up that teetering self-destructive state and all the monsters it harbored.

But there was still Cadence... right?

Yes. Maybe.
So Shining reluctantly pushed himself to his hooves, holding on to a tenuous will to live and hope for the future. He remembered how he had laid so much of his fears and anxieties at Cadence 's hooves, and how easily she had reassured him. If there was a chance for Shining Armor to live, it lay with the princess Cadenza.

"The first thing to do is ascertain my situation." Shining sighed. The thing he had bumped into and had been leaning against was a cabinet, utilitarian but carved with modern ornaments, supporting a mix of wooden bins and glass cases. Beyond the cabinet toward the cave wall were more like it, along with some display cases and tables, arranged in a few rows, with a magical lantern hanging above it all. The setup reminded Shining of the castle alchemy lab, and indeed the devices and powders and fluids on the tables and shelves suggested a laboratory of some kind.
Shining began to inspect the inventory more closely, but things were not so simple as a mundane alchemy lab. There were strange and unfamiliar devices, dusty stone tablets, aged scrolls, and many many vials of liquid in all the hues of the rainbow.
But the most disturbing item was a row of low stone slabs, huge flat cuttings of smooth rock, that had been pushed up against the cavern wall. The monolithic slabs were as large as a queen's bed, and indeed across each there was a set of white sheets concealing the unmoving profiles of pony bodies. It was a silent mortuary, but as part of a whole laboratory ensemble Shining Armor could only draw the darkest inferences.

"Necromantic experiments?" Shining had never been a part of a city guard raid on a necromancer, but they did happen occasionally. Overzealous students, self-taught wizards, or grieving commoners were the most common perpetrators. Such ponies never had a lab of such size and sophistication, nor access to so many corpses (there were at least a dozen of the stone slabs), so it was natural to assume the lab was an extension of the rest of the secret facilities under the Musician's Guild.

Ignoring the rest of the lab, Shining cautiously approached that miniature mortuary. The rank stench of rot hit him, causing his eyes to water. He pushed back the fabric cover of the first body. A familiar face stared unblinkingly up at Shining Armor. Then, slowly, the corpse's eyes moved to identify the newcomer.

"That answers where the rest of the body went." Shining dropped the sheet and backed away.

A whoosh of moving air, and then a crunch. Shining whipped around to see Phyte laying on the cavern floor at light's edge, bleeding profusely.

What to do now, Shining wondered. He had no weapon, and felt too woozy to attempt any offensive magic. At best he could trample Phyte which, considering what magical prowess she had displayed before, he eschewed predicting she could stay conscious longer than he could. So, Shining watched her slowly rouse, and begin dragging herself along the smooth cave floor towards him and the lab.

"Unharmed, I see." Phyte said, her weak voice a far cry from the enchanting melodiousness it had had before the battle. There was an obvious bitterness to her tone, but as she paused and examined Shining's dour expression, even as glittering blood continued to drip down her snout, her expression softened. "Not unscathed, though. A blessing of silence has finally reached you."

These ugly creatures loved seeing ponies miserable. "I can talk if I wanted to." Shining finally said.

"Why has that want fled you, pony? Am I no longer worth the arrest and trial by the Celestiaan's laws?" Phyte snarked. She resumed her crawl. The trail of strange seepages she left behind her shimmered and evaporated away unnaturally quick.

Apparently not. Shining now understood what everypony else had already known, that she was more protected by the empire than he was. He was very very late to the lesson that if a pony wanted to pursue justice, however they interpreted it, there was no substitution for personal will and force of arms. The law was just an illusion. "You appear to have come away badly from the meeting with Mis Valor." Shining remarked, conjuring as much venom as he could for his words, which was not much. "It'd be too much to hope that she could follow us here."

Phyte grumbled. "Be a good mortal and cower in the corner a while."

He did not. "This is another of your little hideaways.” Shining observed. "I apparently misunderstood when they called you the leader of a death cult. Do you lay with them too?"

“Puh. Spare yourself these moralization. I make no pretense to uphold mortal taboos. Challenge it if you dare." She paused to spit away the blood pooling in her mouth, but did not speak further, inviting a response from the stallion.

The helplessness that Shining felt did not, as it normally did, agitate him to resentment and anger. There was absolutely no chance he could rectify the world, just using his will and discipline. He understood that now. Not even Cadenza's calming words could have bolstered his sense of agency.
Ponykind existed, lived, and suffered at the whim of the monsters. Shining had always known that, for such was but a rephrasing of the dogma of Celestia's empire. It had been, on some level, the single comfort he felt in his restless pursuit of dutiful service: Celestia was truth, light, and justice. The extent to which the ponies, warmed and guided by the sun's light, enjoyed their own dreams and free will, was a gift and a test, to separate those worthy of grace from those who squandered or even rejected Celestiaan peace and justice.
Now dogma seemed so obviously, obviously wrong, and the proof was the awful 'Star' before him. What was right and what was wrong? Were Shining Armor's most earnest feelings of love or revulsion reflections of truth, or just deceptions foisted on him by an empire and alicorn that served Phyte's flourishing much more than it did his. Even torn apart as she was, Phyte was confident in her superiority over him, and over all mortals.

So... Maybe it was time for Shining to reexamine his other core beliefs? Nah, maybe later. "Go to hell." He sneered. "I'm proud of the life I've led. Even when I was wrong, I tried to do what's right. How about you challenge your presumptions, since you're out of house and home."

Phyte at last averted her eyes. "What an annoying family." The Star pulled herself to the base of one of the cabinets and grabbed a small vial from it. She struggled with the cap then, impatient, smashed the vial on the floor to desperately lap the glowing blue contents. Phyte began to seize from suppressed squeals as her wounds magically healed.
"How painful." Phyte let out a deep sigh, intact but tired. "Let it be heaven's will I never suffer such a bruising for another five centuries. Not all mortal discomforts can be so easily abandoned as mortality itself. Or at least, not while keeping a body as beautiful as mine." She stretched and lay down on the broken glass.

The absurdity of the situation wained as the renewed danger became much, much more apparent. Shining was now completely alone with the monster. She had pulled her punches before, but the state of the bodies on the stone slabs proved there were many grievous tortures the Star was capable of inflicting on him.
Since Shining had already written off any hope of violently confronting Phyte, his choices were essentially reduced to: One, running off into the vast darkness of the cavern, hoping there was something out there to shelter him; Two, stick around the laboratory and await her judgement.
"I still have questions, Mis Phyte." Shining said.

Phyte let out a rumbling sigh. "Am I meant to entertain you?"

It would be very rude to kidnap Shining and then ignore him. "You will deal with me some way or another. I have to get out of here. You might have been evicted from Canterlot, but Illustrious Valor is still there." Shining paused. "And so is Twilight Velvet."

Hearing the names of the two mares who had humiliated her so badly made Phyte shiver in shame and anger. Still she gathered herself and replied with a fanged sneer. "You aim to succeed where I failed, to stop their plot."

Shining bit back the urge to mock her. "No."

"Pony, I kept you from burning, and kept myself from flattening you." Phyte drew in a long breath and, sighing for strain and agitation, bushed herself onto her hooves. She pushed her mane away from her eyes, so with her regained composure she looked just as grand and menacing as she had before her sound beating by the Nightmare. "You are not satisfied with the immense boons heaven has given you. You croon for more, more, more to please your avaricious souls. It is no wonder Celestia has condemned you all." She approached Shining. "Ask yourself, pony, whether it behooves you to have a Star believe you to be in her debt."

A bargain then, Shining thought. "I'm not interested in replacing your dead servants, Mis Phyte. However, if you're offering a simple trade, I'm willing."

Phyte flashed her teeth. "Ah, very good. If I deem you especially earnest in your intentions, I could teleport you back quickly enough that they don't replace you among the Imperial Knights." She snickered darkly. "Even if you refuse to lay a hoof on your friends, I can think of plenty of uses for a pony in the castle."

No. "I'm not going back just to be an IHG knight again." Shining said.

Phyte stopped snickering. "What do you mean."

"My comrades saw me die. If they've replaced me, forgotten about me, and let the political upheaval sweep them along to the next distracting crisis, that's all the better for me." Shining said. "I want to go back covertly."

Phyte stared at him, letting the deep silence of the cavern surround them for several minutes. "You wish me to turn you into a little guild pony, Sir Armor?"

"I have unfinished buisness. I can only do it if they think I'm dead." Shining said. "I won't let you 'turn me' like the patchwork ponies you have there-" He gestured to the stone slabs. "But I'm broadly amenable to other things."

Phyte was still confused by his decision. "You've been here nary ten minutes. Pony, you are a knight in a very prestigious knightly order. You are of a cadet branch of a highly regarded ancient dynasty. Your sister is a direct agent of the princess. These things are very important to your pony society. To give it up, just because you were tricked by that nightmare hussy... Are you a moron?"

"It's not about Illustrious Valor!" Shining snapped. "It's not about her, you, or any of the scheming politicians. It's about my princesses! She, they, lied. She lied to me, us..." He paused, suddenly overwhelmed. "She lied to us, and I've been living in that lie, and fighting for it, and..." He sighed, trying to to show weakness in front of the monster. "And I don't know how my life proceeds from here. I've died, pretty much. But I know there's something I'm missing, a fundamental truth beneath all the lies, that can still be a guiding light for all the ponies like me."

Phyte slowly shook her head. "You really are a poor, poor moron. Pony, do you think any of the other soldiers who saw what you saw are as deeply affected as you are? No. They're going on with their life, 'duty', and so on." She reached out with a hoof, to pat Shining on the head with sarcastic affection. "How can I resent a mortal like you, for ruining my life? I had might as well resent a hound for urinating on a prize Maredian rug. You just don't know any better. Ahh, alas." She backed away, her expression firming. "But that means I have no use for you. You would be a liability to me, even if you attempted to earnestly pursue some errand I had given you. You are just too sentimental."

There was a sound out from the darkness, a voice. "I'll take him off your hooves."

Phyte whipped around, nearly knocking Shining over.

"There's no need to be alarmed. It's just me." The voice came again. It was a female voice, sounding on the younger side, yet slightly raspy. Shining felt a shiver, for there was something strangely familiar about the voice which he could not quite place. "I detected the dragonfire reactions and then heard the voices. I apologize for eavesdropping, Guild Mistress Phyte."

"Oh." Phyte sighed and relaxed. "It has been a foul day. I thought that the nightmare had followed me."

"Ha ha ha, yeah, that would have been very bad for you." The female voice grew louder as its owner got closer and closer to the edge of the light, moving silently, for it did not have ponies hooves; Shining saw the bipedal form of a feline, completely obscured save for her padded orange paws projecting under her flowing black dress and headscarf, who shuffled out of the immense darkness of the cavern, from the direction anti-clockwise along the cavern wall. "My condolences, by the way, for all your followers. I know a loss like that can be hard to bare."

Phyte nodded morosely. "It will take decades to build up a presence from one of the chapter branches. The Nightmare even destroyed the experiments."

"An abyssinian?" Shining queried silently, baffled at the newcomer. The great cats of the east of Sahella, an inquisitive but isolationist race, very rarely visited Equestria. But Phyte treated the bipedal creature seemingly as an equal. "Another Star?"

The 'abyssinian' imperceptibly shifted her attention to Shining. "Neither. I'm an Equestrian. I have the shape of an Ulthar cat because I have been abroad for the last few years."

"He doesn't understand, dreamer. His mother has left him totally ignorant." Phyte grunted. She waved the bipedal cat closer. Obliging, the obscured figure strode into the middle of the laboratory, to inspect Shining Armor more closely. The cat was tall- Taller than Phyte, perhaps just shy of Celestia's full stature, but any hint of her figure was lost under the multiple layers of cloth, pinned together with exotic gold and turquoise clasps. "Just look at this sod. Are you sure he's protected by heaven?"

The cat leaned forward, and her snout poked out of her headscarf just enough for Shining Armor to see the orangish fur behind her black nose. Somewhere in there must have been her eyes, staring back at him. But who was this creature, and why did she sound so familiar?
" I'm certain of it. My guest told me." The cat straightened to her full height. "That is why I am offering to take him. Sell his debt to you, to me. You will get to leave Canterlot immediately. I will get some last minute assistance. He will get his answers. Win, win, win."

Phyte considered the offer. "That is very well thought out."

"Thank you." The cat nodded.

"Just one thing." Phyte raised a hoof. "Did your guest come up with this plan? I worry that you might be getting deceived, dreamer. The guest might have suspect intentions for Shining Armor, for which she could have lied about Heaven's protection of him."

The cat did not seem to appreciate Phyte's skepticism, crossing one cloaked arm over the other. "We came up with it together. If you have a concrete accusation, make it to her yourself. She's waiting just over there." She turned to whence she'd approached, where silence and darkness prevailed, and no hint of the 'guest' who lurked and watched the conversation. "But I'll tell you now, Star, that I'm displeased by you voicing these suspicions. I am not under her spell. What's more I trust her more than I do you. Please do not dishonor her further."

Phyte blew off the warning. "If you are under a spell I would not know it, dreamer. I am only looking out for you." She glanced toward Shining Armor. "As for him... Give me your best, fair offer."

The cat uncrossed her arms. "I will try to recover Shale's Star blade and forward it to you. That should give you some leverage as you seek reparations for her helping Twilight Velvet."

Phyte nodded appreciatively. "Very good start. That promise will do for now, but it is merely a promise."

"I have only promises, as my guest and I are very consumed in our work. The Summer Sun approaches more quickly than we thought." The cat said. "Besides, it's a buyers market, Phyte. Would two promises satisfy you?"

"Fine. Then... berate Celestia on my behalf, for what she has allowed done to me. Be it as rancorous as you think she deserves." Phyte growled. "He is all yours."
This bizarre exchange having been made, Phyte began to rummage in the cabinets and shelves of the lab, pulling together various trinkets and vials.

Shining was dizzy again. Who the hell was this cat? "You know me." He said.

"I do." The cat nodded. "Not that closely, though. We used to see each other around the castle."

"That's more of a hint to her identity that she is ever given me." Phyte mumbled to herself. "Don't think you're safe with the dreamer, Shining Armor. She is a deadly sinner, a transgressor against gods, pony, and nature. If you are repulsed by the assembled ponies I have been using, blame her."

"Oh come now, I am definitely less than half 'to blame'. You sourced the bodies." The cat scoffed. "Then, you start using the experiments as slaves. I have held my tongue so far, but I found that tasteless."

"About time you said it. Do you think my practical use of your failed zombies is less objectionable than taking them back apart?" Phyte retorted. "Oh, but what do I know, since you claim to have a direct line to know heaven's intentions." She snarked.

"Again you dishonor my guest, Star. If you have no more buisness in Canterlot, depart forthwith. Without your network, our usefulness to each other is coming to an end." The cat huffed.

"So very typical of dreamers, preferring the other world to ours. I feel a deep relief of being through with you and your experiments. I thought you understood better than the other mortals, and shared my vision of your salvation. In the end you are still a mortal, so still too flawed to see." Phyte grabbed a saddlebag and began shoving it full with the collected trinkets and things from around the lab. Satisfied she had taken the most important things of use or value, the Star approached Shining again. "Shining Armor... firstly..." She stared off into space, not yet committed to her words. "Do not trifle with the elder siblings of mortalkind. You were very lucky that I am a considerate being, and am attentive to the legitimate interests of Heaven. If you wish to test your luck, I assure you there are easier ways to damn your soul than to meddle in our buisness."

The cat chuckled softly to herself.

Phyte continued. "I will excuse myself from mortal affairs for a while. But make no mistake- This is not a signal victory for your kind. Your Equestria is doomed to failure. The unnatural union of alicorn and mortal is about to fracture irrevocably."

While Shining had been content to let her rant, that was too bold. "I saw what I saw, your ponies with horns and wings sewn to their body. Your 'experiments 'are perversions and I'm glad you agree it's doomed."

The cat stoped laughing. "Woah, don't talk about what you don't understand."

"Idiot ponies. You deserve everything that's coming." Phyte hissed, slinking back to grab her saddlebag. "I hope you get to see the Celestiaan laughing as you succumb to misery and death. I hope the nightmare tortures you all for an eternity. Then you'll finally understand how good I was, protecting ponykind, trying to stop you all from being butchered like Fancy Pants was."

"You have some nerve! You mutilated him!" Shining galloped over and yanked the sheet off the body on the slab.
It was another construct of stitched-together body parts. The thing possessed Fancy Pants’s head, but the body of a beige pegasus, and a spectrum of fur from numerous other ponies. One of the hindlegs was Pants's, and his mark with the surrounding skin had been stapled into the correct spot. Like Shining had seen on the other 'experiments', a patch of fur was missing where incisions were made into Pants's throat, and a bulge was present where foreign materials had been shoved in.
Shining could bare not to look at the grotesque assemblage but for only a few seconds, nor its alert but silent stares, so averted his eyes back to Phyte. "Don't even bother with your rationalizations. You're an enemy of ponykind, and therefore of me."

"Fine! I'll gladly bear that charge." Phyte seethed. "We immortals, who have defined ourselves in relation to you fleeting mortals, have no need of you." She suddenly became saddened, trying to hide a pained expression. "What a fascinating idea it was, my Musician's Guild. But even ideas must die eventually, and brilliant songs go silent.”
Her saddlebags secure, Phyte levitated a vial of roiling green liquid, inspected it, and popped it open. With a last look of regret and resentment toward the mortals, Phyte poured dragonfire over herself, and the cavern was illuminated sickly green long enough for her body to burn away.

The cat let out a hearty laugh. "Ha ha! Farewell to her, not. Congratulations on doing what ten generations failed to, and kicking her ragged-y ass out of our holy city."

One monster was gone. But what, or who, was the newcomer? Shining wasn't out of hot water yet. "If you're as much of a fair-weather-friend as you seem, I'm not going to like having been sold to you." Shining remarked. He dropped the sheet back over Fancy Pants and snatched up the nearest sharp object, a pair of surgical scissors. "Keep your distance, abyssinian."

"Relax. Unless you think I was lying when I said Heaven is protecting you, you have nothing to fear." The cat said, her tone loaded with sarcastic irony. "I'm an Equestian, a comrade, I promise."

Yeah right. "Not all Equestrians are my comrade." Shining said. He inched closer to the cat, holding up the scissors like a sword. "My friend Illustrious Valor was an Equestrian, and so was any other criminal I've had to execute in service of old duties." That voice, it was so infuriating! Why couldn't he remember the name behind that voice? "Who are you? Why did Phyte call you a dreamer?"

"I'm just a humble sinner, and like I said, I've been abroad." The cat said.

"Didn't anypony ever tell you that prayer and confession can wash away your sins?" Shining quipped. "But if you're party to any of Phyte's crimes, you've got a lot to answer for. I'm still in damn uniform and I won't let you hurt Equestria."

The cat was silent for a few moments. What hidden expressions of solemn contemplation or indignation were hidden hidden under that scarf? Though this foe was not immortal it did not mean Shining felt comfortable about his chances against this mysterious antagonist. "There's nothing you could have done. Not for Fancy Pants, or any of your nightmare friend's other victims. Nor for any of Phyte's victims. Phyte spoke true: You're out of your depth, Shining Armor."
She backed away from Shining, retreating to the edge of the lantern light. She palmed one of the last few dragonfire vials which Phyte had left as she passed it. She waited for Shining to lower the scissors before speaking again. "The rumble in the Musician's Guild served as a blood sacrifice, of sorts. Thus, your goddess Princess Celestia has come awake. She is about to leave the city. We will be on our own." She pointed to the slabs and the bodies thereupon. "It will be us ponies against Heaven and hell."

"What do you mean by that?" Shining asked pointedly.

The cat seemed disappointed in Shining's lack of understanding. "I thought it was fairly obvious what those words meant." She thought to herself for a few moments. "It's been almost ten years since I was in your position, realizing that my faith in our alicorn's rule was pointless. Either from sheer stubbornness or determination, you're still on your hooves, where I was moping and sobbing for a week before I started thinking." She gesturally tapped the side of her head, briefly showing a furred digit. "And what a burdensome thought I had to think, because I was the first pony to have to bear the weight of the future. Your mother, your sister, and now you have since smacked against reality, like I did. Every one of us has had to confront the question: What comes after Celestia?"

No, no, Shining couldn't bear to hear such blatant heresy said out loud, when he knew in his heart it was the natural conclusion of his apostasy. "I- I don't care about that right now. I'm just trying to sort myself out. I have my own future to worry over."

"That's fine. Anything else and you would, by degrees, be getting in my way. I'm not out to make enemies with you or anypony else. I'm already wracking my brain thinking of a way to avoid war with Twilight Velvet." The cat shrugged. "Since you're a smart pony, I'll simply leave you with my main thesis, which is a thoroughly moderate proposition, for you to compare my vision against the other mares': Once Celestia has torn herself free of Heaven, I will beseech the Sun for a new solar princess, who will lead us through a few hundred years of prosperity at the very least." She bowed. "Consider it, Shining Armor. I will return to you for the next trade." She melted into the deep shadows of the cavern.

"Hey!" Shining ran after her, coming to a halt a few meters into the darkness. But the patter of her paws, and the swish of her robes, were nearly silent on the stone floor, and he could not track her. The cat and her unseen guest were gone. Shining sighed and returned to the lab.

Hopefully the isolation would last. Shining slumped over, exhausted and mentally drained. He was probably more alone than he had been in years, with nopony he could count on to help or hear him. No Canterlot, no IHG, no friends or family. It was oddly comforting, knowing he could not be reached, but equally terrifying, that the world could be burning up there and he could do nothing to help.
Up there... Shining had inferred from the conversation that the vast cavern he was in was underneath Canterlot, but without a clue to its relative depth between the surface and hell. Not that it really mattered, since everypony was zipping around with the pilfered dragonfire.

Now that he was sitting still, Shining felt the chill of the air in the cavern. He levitated one of the sheets off the corpses- the still dead ones, not the ambiguously dead Fancy Pants- and wrapped himself with it. He didn't feel at all hungry or thirsty, though a good bit of him was sore and sensitive from the fighting and the fires. He could sit there and think for days.

And as the cat had promised, the burdensome thoughts crashed down on him.
Princess Celestia's listless silence atop the tower was ended, it was claimed... But it did not mean a rejuvenation of imperial verve and spirits like everypony had hoped. No, Celestia was going to leave Canterlot, abandoning her ponies in every way that mattered.
But abandoned them to what end, or for what benefit? Perchance the mysterious draw in the southern skies, which had enraptured their princess for months and months, was about to be manifested.
Despite a deep, primal fear of the unknown path both he and ponykind would be charting, Shining felt a shameful satisfaction of having chosen the right time to be disillusioned. That being said, it had taken a real slap in the face in the form of the revelation about Illor.

Oh Illor, oh Illor. With Phyte gone off to who-knew-where, the nightmare was probably greatest danger to the lives of the ponies of Canterlot.
Well, that wasn't a guarantee. Shining still had no clue to Twilight Velvet's intentions. Plus, the interlopers from Unicornia and Cloudsdale had proven their willingness to kill with minimal hesitation. What a mess...

But Shining couldn't do anything about any of that. Nor was he sure he wanted to. As a knight, he served the princess and her empire, and as hollow as that felt now it had imbued Shining with both a responsibility and the power to care for the ponies around him. But now? He had died. He was responsible to and responsible for nopony. Shining's duty, most of all, was to sort himself out. Fortunately or unfortunately, that meant concert with the cat.

Yes, the unknown 'dreamer' cat and her unknown 'guest'... The less thought out them, the better. The moniker of 'dreamer' filled Shining with a sense of alien repulsion, as did any consideration of the form or nature of the 'guest'. It was just another frontier of secrets, to horrify him and drain him of all remaining naiveté.

Trying and failing to fight back sleep, consciousness dwindling, Shining saw visions dance across his tired imagination. He saw the shapes of unicorns and pegasi and earth ponies, and abyssinians and great sphinxes, hippogryphs and zebras, and at last the wings and horns of alicorns. He began to mutter. "Cadence, my princess... That feeling I had... That feeling I clung on to... is gone." He said softly to the dark. "My loyalty is passing from me, and things I dare not think of remain."
He violently fussed with his mane though the wraps of the sheet. "Oh Cadence, oh Twilie. If you were here... If..." Shining teared up.

Maybe sorrow was the right feeling. A lot of ponies had died that day, who had not needed to.
The other feeling, more appropriate for a pony with the will and agency to live in the world as more than a pawn to others, was anger. Thus anger soon found Shining, and his shivers became more violent as he was shaken out of his drowsiness.

It wasn't right. Shining wasn't confident in all his ideas of virtue and vice anymore, but he knew it wasn't right. A good, just world wouldn't end up like this, and put him in the situation he was in. Could there ever be a greater deception than what Celestia had perpetrated against ponykind: to tell them that under her extended tutelage, wardship, and protection their virtues would flourish and souls would be protected, but to let vicious monsters prey on them, then to leave when their need was most? It wasn't right. It was a fraud!

So damn the princess! Let it all fall apart. Maybe that was the greater justice: An Equestrian empire that existed to perpetuate alicorn power, it seemed, had to be destroyed. Not that the morality of such a thing mattered if it was going to happen anyway...
If an apocalypse was inevitable, Shining might had as well feel happy about it.