Luna stood on a patch of dying grass, overlooking a deep chasm below. This place made her hair stand on end, and if her mane was like most ponies', that would probably be literal. Still, she waited for her information, as she could not act without it.
A few moments later, a shadow blotted out the slowly sinking sun. A pair of winged silhouettes descended upon the waiting monarch. She looked up to them, shooting a quick bit of magic up which bounced harmlessly off them. “Not changelings” she thought. She asked the larger of the two figures, “A bit slow, don't you think, captain?”
Midnight landed next to her, offering her a salute. She simply waited. “Apologies, princess, Owl Eye here had some troubles locating me in that maze,” he said.
“It's fine. Your report?”
Fletch landed next to the captain, wasting no time jumping into his briefing. “The field was generated by Shining Armor and Princess Cadence, knocking the bulk of the invading force to these coordinates,” he said, reaching into a saddlebag and pulling out a map indicating a particularly sickly looking marsh.
Luna looked over the map and nodded. “How is Celestia doing?”
Fletch frowned slightly. “Princess Celestia engaged Queen Chrysalis in a direct magical clash. Her beam lost and she sustained minor injuries, but they were enough to take her out of the fight.”
Luna was surprised. “She defeated my sister head to head? If that's true then I certainly don't want to take her head on by myself, I'm no match for Tia in sparring matches. Of course, her tussle with my sister and the power of that barrier spell may have weakened her, but it's best not to take chances. What of the situation in Canterlot?”
Fletch rolled his eyes. “The Solar Guard is back down to normal readiness and, apparently, they're planning to re-hold the wedding in two hours.”
Luna's eye twitched at this information. “Are you serious?”
Fletch nodded, “Unfortunately.”
Her silver armored hoof swiftly found her forehead. “UGH! Of all the hasty, short sighted, ill-conceived, poorly timed, head in the clouds... this is just...”
“Stupid?” Fletch offered, which Midnight immediately followed with a rap on his head. “That's still the princess you're talking about,” he scolded.
Luna wouldn't have phrased it as such, but somewhat agreed with Fletch in this case. She groaned once more in frustration and sighed. “That's Celestia for you,” she relented. This didn't change much, but made her mission that much more imperative. “Looks like our timetables just moved up” she said, levitating the map of the area, summoning an ink bottle. “Do you have a quill, Fletch?” she asked.
Fletch fetched a quill from his satchel and Luna took it, dipping the feather in the ink and marking some things on the map. “Midnight, have the Earth Ponies stay low and use the swamp water for ambushes as an alligator would. Unicorns should take up positions in the trees here, levitating each other up as need be, and disrupt any organized movements with magic, corralling them into position for earth ponies and pegasi to take down and making sure they don't get past this line. The pegasi are to act as interceptors for high flying targets, using the canopy and cloud cover to strike unseen.”
Midnight nodded. “This a harassment mission, princess? Seems all we're doing is keeping them in this central area.” he said, touching a hoof to the map.
The princess shook her head. “No, I'm taking in a smaller task force to handle them, yourself included.”
The large stallion raised an eyebrow. “A bit bold, isn't it? It's out in the open.”
Luna shook her head. “Not with shadow magic it isn't. You'll be covering me personally. Fletch!” she called. Fletch looked up, having been distracted, looking down into the chasm with an expression of dread. “You're on long range support. I want you on overwatch from this position.” she continued, indicating a position several miles away.
Fletch trotted over, taking a look at the map. “Easy enough, any particular altitude?”
“High enough where the air feels thin but not high enough that you'll lose focus from it. Pick your targets carefully and pay attention for the usual signals.” The scout nodded. The alicorn continued “I also want Maria Breeze to come with us, captain. She'll be invaluable for escape and evasion.” She then spread her dark sapphire wings and began to fly, ordering “I want the guard in position in one hour,” as she took off toward a forward position to ready herself for battle.
Midnight and Fletch saluted. They took off at once, wishing to meet expectations and to leave the area as swiftly as possible, a pair of bits shining on the ground where they had been standing.
Before being found by Princess Luna, Midnight Cloak had been a mercenary, a problem solver of sorts. He made his living by helping his clients deal with ponies and creatures of all shapes and sizes. He was gruff, efficient, and sometimes ruthless, but he was anything but a common thug. He had his own moral codes about which contracts he would accept from which clients.
His resume was a long one, and had included knocking out a gang of Gryphons and taking back their stolen goods, smuggling a shipment of medicine for a doctor whose patients couldn't wait and needed to bypass all the bureaucracy and paying the costs anonymously (which were covered by his sizable paycheck), and even dealing with a parasprite infestation. That last one had wound up costing far more than the job paid, much to his chagrin. Who knew xylophones were so expensive?
One contract he undertook was clearly in the “insane” category: recovering a priceless keepsake from a full grown Dragon's lair. When he arrived at the lair, far beyond the borders few ponies dared cross, he discovered that the dragon was very much awake. He had waited til nightfall, but a waxing gibbous moon had given him far less cover than he would have liked.
Divising a plan that wouldn't require a half a month to act on, he flew over the top of the cave's mouth. Poking his head upside down from cover, keeping a close eye on the dragon's orientation. The dragon was not on guard, and as such would not see something as small as two pony eyes and a forehead sticking out from the top of his entrance.
Fifteen minutes later, the dragon had repositioned itself so that it was facing away from the mouth of the cave, and Midnight seized the opportunity, flying in swiftly and ducking behind a boulder on the dragon's left flank. From here he could see the dragon's hoard at the back of the cave. Once again, he waited for the dragon to look away. This time was more expedient, three minutes later and he zipped over to a variable treasure trove of gold, jewelry, gems, and other assorted objects of great value.
Working quickly, the stallion for hire stuffed a three hoof fulls of coins into his satchel. Hey, a pony's got to eat somehow. He kept a sharp eye out for the target, a sapphire encrusted silver locket, with a cutie mark engraved on it: a snowflake within a water drop. But in a vast pile of riches such as this, it was like looking for a tree carving in an unfamiliar forest.
Midnight checked high and low, zipping about in circles like a housefly trapped indoors, he searched for his target. Not seeing it, he landed and began to dig like a diamond dog possessed. Just then, he felt something was wrong, jumping and taking flight, spinning around to see a massive tail slam him back down into the gold, coins scattering in all directions as he hit the ground.
“Soft metal my flank” he muttered to himself as felt a pain that said that he was going to have quite a bruise the next day. Pegasi were born able to endure a crash that would send most earth ponies and unicorns to the hospital. They had to be to be able to take the falls they experienced during foalhood. The mercenary would be lying if he said that this particular crash didn't hurt, but there weren't any broken bones. Out of the corner of his eye, Midnight spotted a glint of blue and silver. Turning his head in a split second, he saw that it was his target; his crash had exposed the locket and placed him right next to it. He snatched the locket up in his teeth and swiftly rose to the air once more, keeping an eye on the dragon.
The dragon roared, blasting the spot where he had been laying with intense flames, incinerating enough valuables to likely feed a family of four for a year. The pony flew swiftly around the dragon's right flank, but this time the dragon had anticipated his move, swiping at his path with massive razor sharp claws. Midnight tried to evade and managed to dodge a likely lethal blow, but one talon ripped a gash from the right side of his neck down to his ribcage, cutting his saddlebags off and suffering a deep cut to the chest, shaving off part of the bone and leaving them exposed. A second talon had passed above the first, running from the back of his neck down the right side of his back, nearly severing his spine.
Midnight cried out in pain at the two deep wounds he had just received, dropping the amulet, which was now careening down to the cave floor. He lost his concentration, falling to the cave floor as the dragon sent an inferno down below him to intercept. Midnight looked at the bag full of gold and the delicate silver amulet falling toward the inferno and knew he was only going to be able to save one of them, but for this mercenary, there was only one choice.
He was stalling. Pegasi uncomfortable with flying would normally start to panic and fight gravity for dear life, but experienced flyers knew better. Midnight accelerated downward, grabbing the amulet and pulling up in one fluid motion, leveling out just above the flames threatening to roast him. The saddlebag was not so fortunate, turning to ashes in the blink of an eye.
This dragon was determined not to let Midnight go, and unfortunately for the pony, he had no idea how fast a dragon could fly. Steeling himself, Midnight launched himself toward the stone at the other end of the cave, soaring over the dragon's head. He quickly flipped over a hundred and eighty degrees, landing on the wall with his hooves. Mustering as much strength as he had, he sprang off of the wall and gave a mighty flap of his wings, aiming straight for the dragon's head, the dragon having a hard time following his movements. Just before contact, Midnight flipped around once again, and delivered a powerful buck to the dragon's head. Midnight hovered there for an agonizing few seconds, fearing nothing had happened. Then the impossible, the dragon's eyes rolled up in its head and fell over unconscious.
Midnight landed, panting but satisfied, adrenaline coursing through his veins, numbing the pain of the wounds. But even if he couldn't feel them, he wasn't dense, and the growing sanguine pool beneath him made it all too clear that these wounds would need to be treated, fast. His eyes fell upon the glowing, molten metal in the treasure trove, and upon a large steel shield. He picked up the shield and tossed it into the blazing hot metal. He pulled the steel away by the cool handle after a short wait, the shield glowing red hot and the gold on it having been cooled by the colder metal, once again solid. Gritting his teeth and suppressing a yell of pain, he pressed his wounds against the scalding surface, one spot at a time, cauterizing the wounds.
With one final look to the knocked out dragon, Midnight took off, locket in tow. Midnight arrived at the client's residence in Cloudsdale several days later.
The client was a mare with a pink coat and a mint green mane. She insisted Midnight come in and get something to eat. Not having eaten in half a week and not one to pass up a free meal, he accepted. When she got a closer look at the stallion, she was shocked and offered to take him to a hospital. He declined, insisting that the food and his agreed upon sum was enough. He hated hospitals.
As he was eating a wonderful carrot salad, the mare opened the locket, revealing a picture of a smiling alice blue filly with an azure mane and sapphire eyes, with a cutie mark of a white snowflake within a blue water drop. An engraving on the other inner half read
“Happy Birthday Mommy
Love, the Best Weathermare Ever!”
The mare began to cry, thanking him numerous times for retrieving the locket and writing him a check.
That day, he “forgot” his payment on the table.
Several years later, Midnight found himself sitting in a Canterlot prison cell, having been accused of assault on a noble. Much to his surprise, not a typical officer came up to interrogate him, but a royal princess. Even more surprising was that this wasn't Celestia, but her sister, only having returned home two weeks before. He knew about her through the grapevine, anypony in his line of work had to be very well connected.
“So, what's the special occasion, princess?” he asked in feigned apathy.
“WE BELIEVE WE ARE THE ONES WHO SHOULD BE GIVING QUERIES, ARE WE MISTAKEN?” the alicorn boomed.
“Yeah, that's definitely that rumored 'royal canterlot voice', and the rumors don't do it any justice” he thought, his ears ringing. He had a splitting headache already, and it had been less than five seconds. And then there were the unnecessary plurals, not to mention being stuck in a small room so the sound didn't dissipate much. This was going to be a long night. “Fine, ask away, your highness,” he replied, bracing himself.
“WE HAVE BEEN INFORMED THAT YOU STRUCK A PONY SEVERAL TIMES AND BROKE THREE BONES IN THE PROCESS” she stated.
“Stuck up conniving jerk had it coming” he said plainly, wanting nothing more than to devour a bottle of ibuprofen. Yes, definitely going to be a long night.
“HOW SO?”
“Just two words, thank Celestia” he thought. “The scumbag was extorting from my client,” he began, “and so he hired me to get him to stop. At first I busted in and tried to scare him straight, these rich noble types usually have spines made of jelly. No offense.” he said, immediately regretting uttering something that required a reply.
Luna nodded understandingly, answering “NONE TAKEN FOR THE MOMENT, BUT BE WARY TO WATCH THY TONGUE, LEST THOU MISTAKENLY ANGER US.”
“Just send me to the moon already, at least it's quiet there,” he thought. “Anyway, the sadist just starts laughing and burns a check and a proof of payment right in front of me, saying that my client must have forgotten his payment that day so he couldn't possibly let him off the hook, and was late and was going to charge interest.”
“WHAT DID YOU DO?” Luna inquired, now a little revolted at the noble's behavior.
“I broke three of his bones, grabbed a bag of the swindler's bits, took off out the window and tried to duck into a shadowed ally, and promptly crashed into a meandering mailmare, attracting the attention of every guard in a quarter mile” he grumbled.
“DO YOU REGRET THIS?”
“Yeah, nopony's ever been able to blindside me before, let alone accidentally. It's downright embarrassing.”
“WE MEANT YOUR ACTIONS AGAINST THE NOBLE.”
“Not a damn bit. Listen, princess, I have every respect for what your sister does, and I'm guessing you're the same way. I'm sure you and your high and mighty guard are just fine for most of the garbage that happens. Heck, I'd say that you keep things almost creepily peaceful. But there are some cases where playing nice isn't enough, so you have to trick or bludgeon your way through it. This noblepony had no record of his crimes, and was freely taking away pony's livelihoods. My client couldn't go to law enforcement because nopony would be able to pin a bloody thing on him, so he came to me, because I'm willing to do whatever is necessary to protect my clients.”
Luna flashed a devilish grin. “IT IS FUNNY YOU MENTIONED THE GUARD, YOU SEE, WE ARE LOOKING FOR PONIES OF A CERTAIN KIND TO JOIN OUR LUNAR GUARD”
“So Celestia and you want-”
“THAT WE WAS SINGULAR,” the blue demigoddess interrupted. “WE ARE LOOKING TO RECREATE OUR GUARD, A FORCE ONLY SEEN IN THE CORNER OF THE PUBLIC'S EYE, NEVER IN FOCUS, TO PROTECT EQUESTRIA FROM THE SHADOWS BY LESS CONVENTIONAL MEANS.”
After the concussion of the princess's booming voice wore off, Midnight found himself interested “And you thought of me?”
“WE BELIEVE THE TERM THESE DAYS IS 'YOUR NAME CROSSED OUR DESK', AND YOU CAUGHT OUR ATTENTION. WE HAVE RECORDS OF YOUR PAST ACTIVITIES AND FOUND THEM INTERESTING.”
“Uh huh. So, how long a jail sentence would I be looking at if I don't accept?”
“FROM THESE RECORDS, LIKELY SOMEWHERE BETWEEN SEVENTY TWO AND THREE HUNDRED AND SEVEN YEARS,” Luna answered in a tone that, if it hadn't been so loud, would probably have been teasing.
Midnight shrugged. “Okay, Princess, you've got yourself a guard,” he said matter of factly, secretly wondereing if the guards would be issued hearing aids.
He never regretted it. Well, except for the first few months of the Royal Canterlot Voice.
The hour had passed and the Lunar Guard was assembled and ready. Luna, Maria, and Midnight were approaching the center of the marshes under cover of Maria's invisibility spell. The marsh was putrid and foul, rotting plants and leaves in the water giving it a nasty odor. Say what you like about Everfree, it never had this kind of stench. Midnight was a little wary of this situation, it felt too direct. “Is it just the three of us, Princess?” he whispered.
Luna made some gesture, but nopony would ever know what it was. “No, we'll get another three,” she whispered. Maria whispered “You're getting all cryptic again, Luna.”
“I don't see anypony” the captain whispered back. Luna was glaring at him, but of course that was lost on him. Maria spoke up. “Of course you don't see anypony, we're invisible! That's kind of the point.”
“Quiet!” the princess snapped. There were four weaknesses to Maria's invisibility. First, nopony could cast a spell while invisible or the spell would break, with the exception of Maria, who could levitate and use the invisibility spell. Second, if you touch anypony, the spell will show a silver shimmer glowing brightly like a full moon on the surface of a rippling pond for five to eight seconds, limiting its usefulness in combat to first contact only. Third, it didn't turn substances that came into contact with the invisible pony invisible, as Luna had found out the day she met Maria. Fourth, and most importantly, it did not mean that nopony could hear you!
There in the center was a giant tree, its bark washed away, its wood rotten, changelings swarming all around it. The three of them circled around it, noticing a hole on the other side. “I'll bet you this is it,” Midnight suggested.
“I think you're right. Maria, stay close, when we need to leave I'll signal you and you recast your spell on us and round up the rest of the Lunar Guard. Retreat is always an option, but that's my decision to make. Midnight, stay out of sight, don't attack unless I signal you to or you have a clear opening.” she ordered.
Luna's horn glowed and suddenly, a black mist swirled around, blanketing the tree and everything in and the central area in blackest night. For the Lunar Guard, this was a signal. All across the forest, changelings began disappearing, snuffed out before they even knew what happened, let alone could sound an alarm.
Within the hollow of the tree, Luna spotted her: the changeling queen who had dared to attack her people, to have her assassinated, to impersonate royalty, and worst of all, to harm her sister. This was personal.
Queen Chrysallis was somehow not surprised when her vision snapped to black. “So, it looks like Cocoon failed me as well. Quite an unlucky day.” She did not turn to look for her foe, she knew that such an action was futile in such darkness. “Tell me, what happened to my assassin? Did you kill him?”
Luna's voice rang out in all direction. “He isn't dead, but he isn't among the living anymore if that's what your asking. If I win, you may end up joining him.” The demigoddess of the moon smirked in the blackness. She was calm, despite her anger, allowing the queen to continue to talk. An opponent is much easier to outsmart if they are not thinking clearly.
Fear was a funny thing. It could be used to send an opponent into a defenseless panic, or it could send your loved ones running from you in terror. It was used by both good and evil, in the forms of both deterrence and terrorism. It was a survival instinct, a sensation known to all creatures of any remote level of intelligence, indicating a danger, a thing to be avoided. Luna had learned just recently that it could even be used for enjoyment, that there was a certain joy to be scared, but know that you are safe. Here, though, it was a weapon, used to weaken the mind of a more powerful foe. Whispers in the dark were a primal fear, a powerful fuel for paranoia and madness.
The Queen was infuriated. These petty taunts would normally have meant nothing, but after her failure in Canterlot she was already in a foul mood. “Show yourself, you cowardly child! Your sister could not defeat me, and neither can you!”
Luna let out a laugh that echoed almost demonically. “Tell me then, why should I simply show myself? I'd much rather do something like this” she said. A duke blue light shone directly behind the queen, landing squarely on her back before she could turn around and sending her hurtling through the rotten wood and into the open marsh. Changelings wandered aimlessly about in the darkness, searching for their prey. when suddenly three dark figures shot out of the darkness, totally unobscured, moving at an incredible pace. Chrysallis felt them as they passed right by her and called out to her swarm. “After them, the little princess is mine!” she said. The swarm took off, those in the darkness leaving, all transforming into their targets to try to keep up.
Luna grinned. “I never imagined it would be so easy.” she thought to herself. The swarm on the trio's tail was growing, all the changelings that hadn't been taken care of by the Lunar Guard already joining in hot pursuit, each shape shifting to gain speed.
Luna now undid the spell of darkness, but as soon as she did, Chrysalis was right on top of her, wearing a familiar face: Celestia. “I will enjoy watching Celestia's face as I toss your cold and lifeless corpse at her feet. To lose a sister after just getting her back such a short time ago... yes, that will be delightful. And look at you, about to be drowned in a swamp by the very person to banish you for a thousand years,” she shrieked, a vile grin running across such a kind and loving face.
Luna moved her neck towards her right shoulder. A moment after she did so, Queen Chrysallis felt as if she had been hit by a falling house, sending her bouncing along the water. Luna took to the air, moving her right hoof behind her head and then pointing it at her foe. A blinding flash of white light blasted through the trees, striking the parasitic creature with a literally thunderous boom.
Several miles away, Fletch was grinning, sitting high up in the air on a dark cloud with an astronomical instrument. “Twelve miles away, perfect night vision, and a gyroscopically stable telescope? You've made my job too easy, your highness,” he laughed to himself.
Midnight stood beside Luna, shimmering as Maria's spell recoiled at the contact. “Cutting it a bit close there, Princess. What now?” he asked. Luna frowned. “Now,” she answered, “I finish this.”
A short distance away, the three figures were about to be caught, when suddenly they turned into smoke. Their pursuers, continuously copying their form, screamed in a high pitch chourus of shock as they, too, became nothing more than a clouds of dark energy, all flowing together into one point: Luna.
Chrysallis' eyes widened in shock as her entire swarm disappeared before her eyes. “What did you do?!” she screamed, flying toward the the alicorn in a blind fury. Before she could reach, Luna blasted her with a beam of cyan magic, sending her flying back into the dead and hollow tree.
Luna coursed with a dark magic. “I used a spell a monster devised not long ago. Three magical creatures in the forms of dark pegasi with incredible speed, whose sole purpose was to draw somepony away from the rest, made from the caster's own magic, retaining a certain amount of sapience and sentience. Only the most loyal of beings could resist their temptations for long, but I never expected you to encourage their pursuit. And once your changelings transformed into them, they too became tied to my magic. You made it all the easier, willing to drive your allies away, while mine were by my side the whole time.”
The wounded, parasitic queen growled defiantly, unable to move. “If that's so, then you have thousands of changelings screaming in your mind! Very soon now, you will belong to me.”
Luna shook her head. “No, I'm afraid I'm quite used to mental battles, I have had a thousand years to practice with an evil greater than this, and I don't plan to keep them here for very long. Maria, if you would.” she said, disappearing from sight seconds later.
Luna arrived back where she had been standing before, the dead and dying grass overlooking a great chasm. As she stood on the precipice, a trio of deep growls were heard. The princess looked at the source. “Now now, Cerberus, it is only me.” she said to the gargantuan beast. He could sense the evil in her, as he had hours earlier, only now a thousand fold. “Open the gate now, please,” she said, flying up and patting him on the heads. The dog stepped into the chasm, and cracked open the great skeletal gate, green flames licking through the cracks.
Luna concentrated her magic, giving form to the changelings as she had with the Shadowbolts, using their own magic to fuel the spell as they went screaming but alive down into Tartarus. Luna tossed a large bag of bits down into the gate as the great dog took hold of the giant metal rings and pulled the gate closed. “See you in hell” the demigoddess said, her magic back to normal, flying back towards Canterlot.
It was dusk, an orange glow painting the sky as Celestia's sun lowered to the ground. Luna took that as her queue. She felt her connection with her beautiful silver orb, her prison, and flew higher, hefting the moon into the sky and sending it on its slow nightly course through the heavens.
Luna knew at this point what time it was, she had missed the wedding. She pouted as Fletch flew up to her.
“Miss the wedding?” Luna nodded. “More important business?” Luna nodded again. Fletch flew up just a little bit and looked towards the city. “I think the reception is just beginning,” he said.
Luna squealed a bit. “Great work, owl eye!” she said, giving him a quick hug and flying off toward the castle, teleporting a ways every so often to get a boost. Fletch chuckled and returned to the castle himself, content to wait in the shadows. He didn't like crowds, anyway.
Luna descended to the crowd as she spotted her sister, landing next to her with a smile. “Hello everypony! Did I miss anything?”