//------------------------------// // Chapter 4 // Story: The Last Stand of Twilight Sparkle's Personal Guard // by Type_Writer //------------------------------// Chapter 4 Restrict the Wandering Gaze that looks hither and yonder for some flashing thing that easily catches a pony’s fancy in one moment, but brings calamity in the next. For the eyes are never tired of seeing, nor are they quick to spot illusion. A pony whose gaze is corrupted is like a warped mirror that has traded beauty for ugliness and ugliness for beauty. Instead, fix your eyes to what is edifying and what is pure, and then you will be able to recognize the profane monuments of Discord. -First Stricture of Seven, of the Overseers Energy flowed through her. Every single vein was full to bursting, every follicle on her coat stood on end, every molecule of her body was energized. Twilight Sparkle had been dead for an eternity, but now… ...Now she was ALIVE. Her eyes shot open as every colour in the electromagnetic spectrum blew through them like a full speed locomotive, as every wound, every scratch, every scar knitted itself back together as though it had never been touched, leaving her unblemished. Her horn exploded, and then rebuilt itself, and the magic flew through her with an even greater intensity now! Her spine felt like it was unkinking itself as her legs painlessly reassembled themselves, popping back into their rightful places, and then she could feel her hooves and the energy flowing through her frogs, and it all felt wonderful! She glanced down, and saw that her friends could all feel it too, this energy that made her feel like she could do anything and everything, and her gaze moved to the end of the room through a frozen tableau of death and metal. A blue filly lay there, like a discarded puppet, coated in black goo. The filly was beautiful, but would be even moreso without all that goop on her, so Twilight reached across the entirety of the room, and picked her up, holding the filly in her hooves. She began pulling the goo off her like a suit, but even with her limitless power, it remained steadfastly stuck to the filly’s fur. The filly opened her eyes, and Twilight saw they were like the moon, and that she had a mane like the sky, and she knew that she needed to separate her from the goo, which had grown a screaming, horrible face of it’s own, and placed over the filly’s own. She pulled harder, but it wasn’t enough, until something landed on her back. Even more power flew through Twilight as wings of fire extended from behind her, encircling the room, and she finally had enough to remove the goo. It wasn’t a perfect separation—spots of purest black were still attached to the Filly—but it was enough. The goo screamed, trying to reconnect, but it would never get that far. Twilight felt a claw extend from her hoof, the claw of a Phoenix, and she used it to crush the goo into nothingness. In an instant, Twilight knew her job was done, and she felt the floor beneath her hooves as the energy from her galvanization faded, though not completely. Something bounced off her chest as the Leader of the Overseers slapped their crank-guns down. “I said, cease fire, dammit! That’s Sparkle you’re shooting at!” Twilight still felt amazing, her mane settling back onto her unblemished fur, and she felt a miniscule weight on her head. She tilted to let it slide off, but it ignored gravity, so she simply plucked it off her head herself. “It” turned out to be an Electrum Tiara, decadently decorated with her cutie mark, a six-pointed star built into it as a gem set into the crown. Glancing out at her friends revealed they had all gotten similar adornments, though as necklaces as opposed to tiaras. Their cutie marks were proudly displayed on them as well, the gems within reflecting the colour of their eyes, which were all sparkling. From the first moment Dash’s hooves set down on the carpet of the Observatory, she spun, and wrapped Applejack in an incredibly tight wing-hug—with, Twilight noted, her perfectly-healed wings, which seemed to be in even better condition than they had been before. All she could see of Applejack was her stetson sitting on top of Rainbow’s wings and her hindlegs poking out of the bottom. Nearby, Fluttershy had retrieved the rune from earlier to glance at it, and slid it back into the folds of her scarf as soon as Twilight saw it. She smiled, trotting towards her. “Guess it really was good luck, huh?” Suddenly, she was blindsided by Pinkie, who practically tackled her with the force of her hug. “Whoo! How’s it feel to come back from the dead, Twilight?” She grinned, for the first time in about a week, and replied, “Really, really, good! Uh…” She paused. “I… Died?” Pinkie’s face screwed up. “Yeah… Blood everywhere, broken everything, real messed up. But you’re better now! They even cleaned up all the blood!” Twilight blinked. “They?” “The Elements of Harmony, silly! Or if you ask Rarity, the Elements of fabulousness. All I know is, using ‘em felt better than sex!” There was a horrified shout of “Pinkie!” from Rarity’s direction, and the former grinned. “Whoops! Gotta go talk at Rarity some more! You should go talk to that Overseer person, before they arrest Luna!” “What?” Twilight spun around to find Pinkie was wholly, and unfortunately, correct. The Overseers had advanced on Luna, and she galloped to her aid. Luna herself seemed shell-shocked, but the Zealots had hauled her into a sitting position before placing a magelock on her horn and cuffing her hooves together. Twilight reached the group as the Lead Overseer read a long, long scroll. “...Mass murder, inciting rebellion, numerous heretical acts too multifarious to be described here, assassination of Princess Celestia, destruction of public property, cannibalism, seven counts of disruption of the day/night cycle, trespassing, escape from imprisionment, and flying in a no-fly zone. The accused shall be interred for a period of no more than one week before judgement by parliament, and...uh…” He paused, but only briefly. “Well, I suppose whoever’s got the throne now. Everything you say is being recorded, and can (and will) be used against you in your hearing. Resistance will result in a stricter-” “Hey! Let her go!” The Overseer turned to look at Twilight, giving her her first good look at his golden mask. It was a single piece of metal, looked like gold but probably wasn’t, and she couldn’t see his eyes or mouth, being that they were both shielded by enchanted glass. “Ah, Dame Sparkle. I regret we could not have arrived sooner to support your own troops. We’ll recover what we can for their families. You were saying something?” Thrown off-guard, Twilight verbally stumbled. “Uh… Right! You can’t arrest her, she’s done nothing wrong!” The Overseer did not respond to this, and she got the distinct impression he was staring at her. He slowly and deliberately looked over the scroll he was holding with his armoured wing, before looking back at her. “One moment, Dame Sparkle. This mask is air-tight, and muffles sound a little…” Using one of his hooves, he pressed the release catch, and the mask clicked loose with a hiss of compressed air. Underneath The Mask, the Overseer was a dusty orange stallion with a blue mane, pressed flat by his helmet. He was also surprisingly handsome, with strong features, and a piercing gaze that scanned her for signs of danger. Briefly, Twilight wondered about all the times she’d seen an Overseer patrolling the halls of Canterlot castle, and wondered how many times it had been him, under his Mask. Attaching the mask to his belt, he held out a hoof, and kissed hers when she took it. “Brother Flash Sentry, Ma’am. Now that I can hear you, run that by me again? Because it sounded a whole lot like you said this mare was innocent, and I know I couldn’t have heard that right.” Twilight frowned. “That’s absolutely correct. Let her go.” “Maybe.” Flash tilted his head. “First we need to check something. Sister Invocation!” Behind him, the Overseer with the music-box on her back turned away from glaring at Luna, and faced Flash. “Brother Sentry?” “I require the use of the True Sight Device.” She nodded, passing him a cylinder with several multi-coloured gems scattered across it, which Flash held with his wing. “What is-” “One moment.” Flash pressed a button, and two arms popped out of the sides of the device, beeping with greater intensity when it was pointed at Twilight. Blinking, Flash shut it off, passing it back to Overseer Invocation. “Strange… Same energy as Celestia, but stronger… Anyway, you’re clear. Tell me again what it is you desire, and I shall tell you why it cannot be.” “Let. Luna. Go.” Twilight hissed, done with the handsome stallion’s antics. He grinned a grin that less-polite ponies would have called “shit-eating” and stated, “I’m sorry, miss, but you don’t have the authority to do that.” “I do.” In an instant, all seven Overseers dropped to their knees, facing something behind Twilight. She turned, and saw only a blood-stained white neck. She followed it up to the head, and her eyes widened. “P-Princess!” Instead of bowing, she instead opted to hug her lifelong mentor, earning a shocked hiss from the Overseers, and a pained one from Celestia. “Twilight!” She gasped. “Mind the leg!” Horrified, Twilight pulled away, and examined Celestia’s left foreleg, which was hanging limply from the knee down. “Sorry, Princess. I didn’t know it was broken.” In fact, Celestia was practically covered in blood in various states of coagulation, numerous scratches, wounds, and… what appeared to be bites? Carefully, she hugged Celestia’s right foreleg, and the Alicorn lowered her head to nuzzle her lovingly, before glaring at the still-bowing Overseers. “Brother Sentry. I believe you were telling my student she didn’t have the authority to do something?” The stallion stood back up, and his Overseers followed. “Apologies, Mother. But this mare-” “Is my sister.” She finished for him. “Drop the charges.” They glared at each other for only a moment, before Flash sighed. “Brothers Lambda and Deflection, remove Nightmare Moon’s bindings.” A moment later, he followed this with, “You know the Parliament’s going to have a damn fit about this.” “I know. I just don’t care.” Flash stood aside, and Luna’s eyes flicked towards Celestia, then down at the floor. Celestia tried to sit, but her lone foreleg shook, and Twilight ducked under her shoulder to help her. As soon as she was sitting comfortably on the floor, she leaned towards her sister. “Luna?” The blue Alicorn’s horn sparked briefly, and she hissed with pain, prompting all of the Overseers to twitch for their weapons, but nothing came of it. Tentatively, like a spooked animal, she stepped out of the loosened shackles, moving with glacial slowness towards Celestia. She stopped a metre away from Celestia, examining Twilight, who suddenly felt distinctly uncomfortable supporting Celestia. She ducked away, and Luna watched her step back. “Lulu?” The mare’s head snapped to Celestia, who held out a hoof. “Lulu… It’s alright. I forgive you.” At this, the tiny blue Alicorn, no taller than Twilight herself, sniffled, and the dams broke. It progressed into open sobbing as she cleared the last metre in an instant, and Celestia wrapped one of her wings around her. (The other seemed to be lacking quite a lot of feathers.) For the first time in a millenium, Luna spoke instead of the Nightmare, and Twilight thought she had a beautiful voice. “I… I am… Sorry… So sorry, dearest sister.... I knew not what havoc the Void wouldst wreak upon mineself… I never should have dared…” She trailed off into simple sobbing, and Celestia nuzzled her. “sh-sh-sh, I know, it’s all right. Everything’s going to be just fine.” Her gaze met Twilight’s, who stood a short distance away, afraid to appraoch. “My dearest Twilight, my best and brightest student, you… you have done the impossible…” She choked up, and forced it back for a moment, “I thought my sister… lost to the Nightmare… That I had killed her, so long ago… But you have brought her back to me, alive and whole.” She closed her eyes. “I… I regret to say this… But the student has surpassed the teacher, and I have never been happier. If I may ask, how long was Equestria without The Sunlight?” “A week, give or take a few hours.” Celestia chewed her lip, doing mental calculations as Luna sobbed against her breast. “One week… Exemplary. There shall be some side effects, but the planet shall heal.” Pinkie appeared from nowhere, startling the Overseers, and prompted Celestia, “Side effects?” Celestia examined the pink pony. “Yes. A week without sun, on the longest day of the year... It shall be a cold year, with several to follow, but it will heal.” She paused. “You remind me of somepony. Have we met?” “Nyet!” Celestia shook her head, and turned back to Twilight, glancing at the rest of her approaching friends. “Ah, but of course my faithful student could not have achieved this feat alone, even with a squad of Overseers. I expect to learn of all of you in detail, my little ponies, but for now… Twilight?” The mare snapped to attention. “You already had limitless resources at your disposal as my student, but now… I am prepared to give you whatever you desire, save the throne itself. Speak, and it shall be so… Yet, know that anything I could give you might never quite repay what you have done for me and my sister today.” Twilight looked at all of her friends once again: Rainbow Dash, so loyal she would take a bullet for her; Pinkie Pie, able to cheer up any situation; Rarity, who would give up everything she owned to make her friends happy; Applejack, tough, dependable, honest; and Fluttershy, the single kindest pony she had ever met. And Twilight completed them. She turned back to Princess Celestia, and smiled. “You sent me to Ponyville to find friends, and I did. But…” She paused, and all of her friends leaned towards her, anxious to hear what she’d do. “...I think more field research is required, if you catch my drift.” Pinkie fired a popper, the last of her confetti, and shouted, “She’s staying!” Celestia smiled as they all came together in a group hug, and Twilight sheepishly continued, “Well, it’d be rude to ask all of you to move up to Canterlot for me, and I’d miss you girls, and I was already staying in the library-” Celestia chuckled, nuzzling Luna again. “You’ve already convinced me, Twilight! I’ll have your belongings brought to you within the week.” She turned back to the Overseers, who had begun sweeping the room. “Brother Sentry?” The Overseer snapped to attention, and bowed, spreading his wings, as Celestia’s voice hardened. “Have your Overseers sweep the castle. Dislodge any Nightwatch you can find, non-lethally if you can. See if you can sneak a tracker gem onto one, I will not allow a potentially-hostile settlement of Thestrals to reside within our borders unchecked. Keep an eye out for survivors among House Sparkle’s Guard. Recover what you can.” The stern mask of the war-goddess faded, replaced with a motherly tone. “And for Faust’s sake, Flash, put your damn mask back on. I trained you better than that.” As the Overseers galloped away, she brought her head back down alongside Luna’s. Her little sister whispered, “They are different than I recall.” “Yes, yes they are. Honour has been replaced with pride. I don’t like it either, but many have changed since you were here last.” She paused. “Lulu, I seem to be unable to reach my beloved star; ‘tis a veil over it that reeks of the void. Do you still have control over that?” A moment passed as Luna’s horn glowed, and she nodded. “The veil hath been stricken from existence. One of many remnants of The Nightmare we shall scorch from the planet.” Celestia smiled. “Have you enough power to help me raise the sun?” “...Mayhaps.” Princess Sol Celestia smiled, and closed her eyes, the picture of serenity. “Then we shall bring the day together, Lulu.” Both their horns glowed, together, and the new day dawned through the windows, spreading across Twilight’s face, and those of her friends.