Luna soared through the skies, her grace equal to that of a mighty eagle. The Sun was shining and only a handful of white clouds were floating around.
However, this quickly changed. The clouds gradually grew darker and darker and in the distance she saw a big mountain. The mountain in the distance grew bigger and darker.
Several clouds were swirling around its tip, each and everyone one of them as black as coal. Thunder rumbled in the clouds, almost as if they were trying to warn anyone who approached.
Luna landed on one of the black clouds and began to inspect the area surrounding the mountain.
The local greenery, if you could even call it that, consisted of black stumps and wilted remains of what could possibly have been plant life at one point in time.
The lack of colors reminded Luna of the moon’s barren landscape. A cold shiver went down her spine and she shuddered at the memory.
“Death’s rest… A fitting name indeed,” Luna mumbled. “Of all the places in the world. Why would the dogs choose this?”
“Probably because no one is stupid enough to come here,” a voice said from behind.
Luna’s horn began to glow. She slammed two hooves into the cloud and a bolt of lightning shot out just above the intruders head.
“Shit!” the intruder yelled in surprise.
She quickly turned around and laid eyes on her unexpected guest. Whoever it was, was wearing a long black cloak that covered its body and its head completely hidden by the hood.
Several black tentacles shot out of Luna’s horn.
They disappeared into the cloud and quickly made their way towards the hooded one. They burst out from inside the cloud and wrapped themselves around their prey.
The hooded one tried to free itself, but the tentacles had been too fast. “Hrng!” it grunted.
Its pathetic attempt to flee was sight that Luna enjoyed and it caused a smirk to paint itself upon her lips. “Don’t even bother! They have anchored themselves into the cloud and there is no way for you to break free.”
“Damn it!”
After a few brief attempts to free itself the stranger gave up and allowed the tentacles to force it down against the cloud. It growled and looked up at Luna, its eyes filled with rage. “Perenni infernum, canis!” it shouted.
The second its words reached Luna’s ears, a tentacle whipped it across the face, probably leaving a mark, but its hood hid whatever damaged might have been done. It growled again and its eyes slowly made their way to Luna’s face.
Her horn was glowing and her face displayed an angry frown. “Such insolence. How dare you talk to me that way?!”
The intruders eyes widened. “I’ll be a turkey’s uncle… It’s nice to see that some ponies still know our old tongue.”
“Silence, Griffin! You won’t talk unless spoken to.”
“Who says I’m a griffin? I might just be an oversized chicken! Bukuck!”
Luna took offense to the griffin’s lack of respect and despite her better judgment, she was starting to get annoyed.
Her horn began to glow again and the tentacles tightened themselves, adding enough pressure to break the griffin like a twig. “Let’s try this again shall we?” she said behind gritted teeth.
“Hng! Ow,” it grunted. “Whatever you say, Princess.”
“That’s better. Keep that up and I might loosen the grip on your pathetic body. What are you doing here? And if you know what’s good for you...don’t bother lying.”
“Can’t a guy just fly around for no reason?” he said with a smirk. Luna’s horn lit up again. His eyes widened in fear and his smirk melted quicker than an ice cream on a hot summer sidewalk. “Okay, Okay! I’ll stop joking around!”
The light around Luna’s horn faded. “I have already shown you a great deal of mercy. This is your last chance, pigeon!” she said with a hint of venom in her voice.
“Alright! I get it.” The griffin cleared his throat. “My name is Shiv and I work for the SGDST. We are a group of individuals, with special talents. And we work for special customers that pay us a lot. Our current mission was to verify your being here and also find out why. Any other questions?”
`Interesting. I really want to know more about this group, but sadly my time is limited and I need to get going,´ Luna thought.
A smirk formed on her lips and she stifled a laugh. “You have been most cooperative, Mr Shiv. And as a reward I’ll tell you why I’m here!”
“Huh?... Say what now?”
Luna cleared her throat. “It has come to our attention that a group of rebel diamond dogs have taken refuge inside this mountain and it’s my mission to take them and their leader back to Alpha.”
“Sorry for asking, but why would they send a princess to go after a group of lowly diamond dogs? It seems a little overkill. I bet some guards could have take care of this.”
“That’s true, but these are not normal circumstances. The dogs have kidnapped a rather large number of unicorns and it worries me.”
“Hmm… That still doesn't justify your being here. There is no way in hell, that you are here only because of the unicorns... There is obviously something you’re not telling me.”
Shiv’s constant lack of respect was really starting to eat away at Luna’s patience and she really wanted to teach him some manners, but there was no time for that. “I think I told you enough!”
“What? You’re obviously going to kill me or somethings, so I don’t see any reason for you to hold anything back… Unless.”
“Unless what?”
Shiv began to giggle. His entire body was shaking and his laugh started to grow in volume. And within seconds his giggle had grown into a hearty laughter.
Luna took a few steps back confused by the griffins action. `What the hell? Did he snap or something?´
Shiv’s laughter grew weaker and he gasped for air, while laughing. He looked at Luna and his laugh flared up again. “Oh god, I can’t breath!” he shouted between his laughing fits.
This continued for a while and Luna’s patience had run out. Her horn lit up and a separate tentacle tied itself around Shiv’s mouth. “Shut your filthy mouth!” she roared.
The tentacle around his beak might have stopped the volume of his laughter, but instead it caused him to snort laugh. Luna gritted her teeth and cursed like a pirate, under her breath.
Eventually Shiv’s laughter stopped and after several big breaths he regained his posture. He looked down at the tentacle around his beak and said. “Hrgmrmghr!”
Luna’s horn lit up and the tentacle vanished. “I got to wing it to you. I haven’t laughed like that in years.”
“I command you to tell me what you were laughing about!”
“Simple. I was laughing at you. You act all high and mighty, but you don’t even have the guts to kill me, you big softy.”
His words echoed inside Luna’s head. “Softy? Softy! Softy!” she shouted.
“Oh, I’m sorry. Did I make you angry, Princess Marshmallow?”
Luna looked straight into his eyes and said. “When I’m done with you. You’ll be praying for death,” she said in deep booming voice.
The force of her voice caused Shiv’s hood to slide off his head. “Oh, I’m soooo scared. What are going to do, blow my feathers off with your disgusting breath?”
Both Luna’s eyes and horn began to glow. A dark blue aura surrounded Shiv’s head and his eyes began to glow with a bright white light. The light continued to shine for several seconds, but once it stopped he fell unconscious.
Luna called the tentacles back into her body and Shiv’s body flopped against the cloud, like a marionette whose strings has been cut.
Luna walked over to the unconscious body of Shiv and scanned his face with her eyes. He had a white beak with a tiny hole in it. His feathers were brown with black tips. And he was wearing a orange headband.
Overall he had a very normal appearance for a male griffin.
“I have many questions for you and you’re going to answer them all, but we need to get going.”
Her horn lit up and she lifted Shiv’s body off the ground, but something caught her eye and she put him down again. Smoke was emanating from his headband. “Hmm, What’s this?”
She grabbed it with her magic and brought it closer to her face. She looked at it, but was unable to determine why it was smoking. It seemed to be made of some kind of metal, but Luna had limited knowledge about it.
“I don’t know what this thing is, but hopefully one of my contacts do.” She placed the headband in a magic pocket. Her eyes wandered back to the unconscious griffin and a sly smile formed on her face.
Her horn lit up again and a blue aura engulfed Shiv’s entire body.
A few minutes passed and Luna took a deep breath. “This should keep you from doing anything stupid.”
She lifted him onto her back and flared her wings. She leapt off the cloud and slowly soared towards the ground.
* * *
Several long hours of constant flight had passed and the hours were growing late. Celestia opened her eyes, blinked a couple of times and let out a long Yawn. She shook her head in a futile attempt to rid herself of post sleep sluggishness.
“Grr,” she mumbled and her horn began to glow. She focused for a brief moment and used her magic to get rid of her post sleep fatigue. She looked around the carriage's inside and quickly remembered where she was.
“Guards, how much further to Axehaven? I’m starting to grow impatient,” she asked telepathically.
“Axenhaven is straight ahead of us and we will reach it in a matter of minutes, my Queen,” the guards answered in a unified thought.
A smile creeped onto Celestia’s face. “Excellent.”
She used her magic to pull back the curtains inside the carriage. She leaned her head forward and proceeded to look out the window.
She saw a big black spherical construct in the distance. This black sphere is the first safety measure. It’s coated in a very rare material that nullifies all kinds of magic.
The second measure is four strategically placed towers, these towers serve as the first level of several offensive measures. They fire massive fireballs at anything in their range that is unauthorized to be there, not even the local wildlife is safe.
These four towers are all connected to a massive orb located deep inside the prison. This orb is a true masterpiece of science, magic and, ancient rune forging. It serves as an artificial mind that never requires any rest or maintenance. And if necessary it can boost the firepower and fire rate of any of Axehaven’s defences. It has several other tasks, but they are highly classified.
This is however only what guards the main entrance. Once inside the city several more levels of security awaits.
The city of Axehaven is located deep underground and the prison part is located so deep down that it’s surrounded by natural magma.
To get inside one must be granted passage by the current warden of the prison. And in order to get that, one must follow a very long and complicated set of rules.
It takes a little over a year to get a response and even if you’re lucky enough to get an appointment, you’ll have to expect to wait at least another 5 years.
“Hmm, the towers seem to have been heavily reinforced and coated with purified direstone. That’s good, perhaps a little excessive, but I guess they serve their purpose far more efficient now.”
She pulled back her head and assumed a more comfortable position. She took a deep breath and tried to relax, but something was itching in the back of her mind, but no matter how hard she tried to scratch, it wouldn’t go away.
She took another deep breath and let out a sigh. “Soon Starswirl. Soon you’ll be back in my service and I’ll have my little ponies safely back in between my hooves.”
She closed her eyes and her mind slowly drifted away.
“Aunty Celestia! Aunty Celestia!” a soft voice shouted.
Celestia opened her eyes and was greeted by a five year old Cadence, who was jumping up and down in an excited manner. Celestia’s heart filled with warmth and a smile filled with joy spread across her face.
She looked at the filly and reached out toward her. She picked up the child, brought her to her chest and hugged her softly.
“Aunty!” Cadence whined.
Celestia released the child from the hug. “What is it, my little angel?” she said with a smile.
“You pwomised to pway in the pool with me!”
“Huh?”
Celestia quickly looked around and realized that the two of them were in the royal garden, next to the pool. She looked down at Cadence and realized that the filly was wearing a pink swimsuit, with yellow flowers on it. “Of course, cutie, but aren’t you forgetting something?”
Cadence sat down on the ground, stuck out her tongue and put a hoof under her cheek. she concentrating hard on what she had forgotten, but after a few moments her eyes began to fill with tears. She looked up at her aunt, her lower lip quivering. “I don’t wemembew!” she sniffled.
Celestia folded her legs and laid down on the ground. She kissed the filly on the forehead and said. “There is no reason to cry, sweetie. Try to remember. What are the things we always bring to the pool?” she said in a motherly tone.
“Umm, Towews, bathingsuit…”
Celestia saw that Cadence was starting to get upset again, so she did the only sensible thing. “Quack, quack,” she said.
Cadence face lit up. “My duckie fwoaties!” she said, her face beaming with pride.
“That’s right! And where did we put your duckies?”
“In the towews!” Cadence stood back up and ran towards the towels.
Celestia watched happily as the filly unfurled the towels and found her duckies. “Good job, sweetie! Now let’s blow them up!”
Suddenly all the colors vanished from the world and everything turned gray. The filly was gone and in her place stood her adult self. She slowly turned around and said something,but Celestia did not understand what she said.
“C, c, can you repeat that, sweetie?” she stuttered.
Cadence’s eyes were glowing red and her horn followed the same path. A red aura engulfed the sun and ripped it from its spot in the sky. “No. Let’s blow you up,” she said in a cold and emotionless voice.
The sun fell from the sky, burning everything that stood in its path. Celestia was at a loss for words and the heat from the sun only grew stronger. She tried using her magic, but nothing was happening.
The sun began to consume the planet and Cadence was burned to ash. Tears flowed down Celestia’s cheeks and she screamed at the top of her lungs, but no sound made it out her mouth.
The sun crashed into her and a great deal of pain surged through her forehead.
“My, Queen, we are under attack!”
Celestia’s eyes popped open and she snapped back into reality. She pulled back the curtains with her hooves and saw fireballs raining from the sky. Her guards were doing everything in their power to dodge them, but the constant barrage made it very difficult.
“What the hell is going on!?” Celestia shouted.
“My, Queen, we seem to have been targeted by Axehaven’s defences!”
“What the fuck are those idiots doing!?” she roared.