//------------------------------//
// The Necromancer and the (K)Night 
// Story: Split Second 
// by wille179 
//------------------------------//

	The students filed into the classroom in single file, as all good students did. Quickly and quietly, they all filed into the cavernous lecture hall, the finest and most decorated room in the entire institution. You’d think it was the throne room of the Storm Emperor, but in truth, the cobalt blue walls were built solely for the use of just two professors.
From a door on stage left entered, Dr. Sparkle, Phd., Md., Archmage, Supreme Mistress of Books, Commander of the Paper Army, and great Knower-Of-Things. Applause broke out; ponies cheered at the mere sight of her. To actually be taught by her was the highest privilege in the land. 
Passing a withered, potted fern, she placed her trusty grade book on a podium shapes like a crystal tree. “Thank you for such a warm welcome,” Dr. Sparkle, Phd., Md., etc. said. “And I’m glad to see so many excited faces ready to learn. In this class, you’ll be learning-”
She continued to speak, though only sounds came out, minus any meaning. The audience did not care in the slightest. The same enthralled expression dotted each of their identical faces, save for a single dark blue mare in the back row.
As Dr. Sparkle spoke, tangerine-colored lightning flashed outside. The thunder shook the entire auditorium, rattling everypony within to the core. The vibrations spread outward from their, tingling their lips and their loins.
“I’m proud to announce that we have a guest speaker with us today! Joining us is Thornecrovitar, Devourer of Worlds!” Dr. Sparkle cheerfully announced. As Sparkle turned around, the back wall and blackboard - which had been covered in meaningless scribbles -  vanished just before her eyes would have seen it. Where the wall would have been lay a hazy boundary suspended in the air, beyond which was the entrance to an impossibly large cavern.
In the cavern was the biggest, fiercest, and most terrifying dragon to have ever existed. The class didn’t care, still eagerly watching even as the dragon let out a bone-chilling roar. They didn’t care that his cavern was filled with the skulls of beasts and ponies alike, hoarded as if they were jewels. And, with the exception of the dark blue mare, they most certainly didn’t care that he would occasionally pluck a screaming pony out of a pen and viciously devour it.
Sparkle turned back to the class, unconcerned with the behemoth behind her. “Pop quiz! Raise your hoof if you think peanut butter is the best food ever.” Almost the entire class raised their hoof in the same instant. The mare in the back, seeing that the overwhelming majority of the class was answering that way, also raised her hoof.
The only pony who didn’t raise his hoof, a white stallion in a sea of gray ponies, was promptly singled out by Sparkle. “Steeple, you fail. Thorn?”
The massive claw entered the room. A single talon dwarfed the teacher, and the shadow plunged the whole room into darkness, even though the shadow should have only covered the front half. The claw lowered and plucked the visibly distinct stallion out of his seat.
“I banish you in the name of Celestia!” Steeple proclaimed as he was carried off by Thorn’s claws.
“Shut up, pathetic mortal,” Thorn drawled. Tossing him into his gaping mouth, Thorn crunched the stallion’s body, which popped like a blood-filled water balloon.
An excessive amount of blood gushed over Sparkle’s body. It successfully gave her that wet-mane look that stallions found oh-so-sexy. “Any questions?”
The blue mare raised her hoof. “Dr. Sparkle, why are dreams important?” As she spoke, the world seemed to solidify a somewhat noticeable amount, though nopony but her actually noticed.
“Dreams are a vital part of the sleep cycle,” Sparkle answered as if the question was actually relevant to whatever topic she had planned to teach. “They help you organize your memories and confront or resolve your inner turmoils.”
“Correct, Sparkle,” the blue mare said from where she stood, which was now right next to the necromancer. “And denying yourself your dreams is only hurting yourself.”
“What do you mean?”
“Look.”
Both Sparkle and Thorn really looked at her. “Princess Luna!” they shouted in unison, finally recognizing her for what she was. Then, looking around the auditorium and skull cave, they both realized what was going on.
“We’re dreaming,” Thorn stated.
“Indeed,” the night princess confirmed. “And, in spite of the spell I cast on you at the gala, your dreams were both amazingly difficult to find and equally tricky for us to penetrate. The state of your mental defenses are commendable, Sparkle, Thorn. That said, you shouldn't try and suppress your dreams; it's not good for your mind, and you'll eventually dream anyway.” Luna waved a hoof, gesturing to the dream.
The dream world faded away, swiftly being replaced by that of a particular donut shop in Canterlot, one that all three of them knew. Biting into her sprinkle-covered pastry, the no longer blood-covered Sparkle then said, “So what happens now?”
“Nothing much, in truth,” Princess Luna answered. “I was curious as to when your vacation was scheduled to end. I seem to recall signing your departure permission slip, but the return date was strangely left blank.”
“Wait, what are you saying?”
“I’m saying that there is no rush for you to return, although your brother and your student do miss you terribly.” Luna took a sip of her ultra-black coffee. There was no particular flavor, as it distinctly lacked cream. “As for my sister, I took the liberty of having a long, forceful discussion with her about the treatment of a particular national hero.
“She has seen reason, and has rescinded both the orders for your capture and all standing punishments,” Luna concluded.
Sparkle’s eyes were as wide as dinner plates. “Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! You’re the best, Princess Luna.”
Blushing from the praise, Princess Luna said, “Yes, your praise is much appreciated. However, there is much we need to discuss still, and I would rather us converse face-to-face... is that the right expression? Yes, I think so. Anyway, it behooves us to speak on the matter quickly. Sparkle, Thorn, I will see you when you awaken. But for now, sleep well.”
With a nod, Princess Luna stood, flapped her wings once, and vanished into a swirl of dreamstuff. The dream, now without the Night Princess’s presence supporting it, faded as Sparkle and Thorn passed into the next stage of sleep.





Luna's eyes popped open, rapidly blinking away the fog of sleep with practiced ease. However, her stomach churned uncomfortably. It wasn't that the narrative of Sparkle's dream had particularly disturbed her. Luna had seen worse, and without morality or logic dictating dreams, she couldn't rightly judge a pony by their dream avatar's actions, but she could somewhat fault them on their memories.
She could still smell the blood. And while dreams often had smells due to the memory associations, you couldn't fake something you didn't know. Conversely, you couldn't not dream details you did know. Luna wouldn't ask, but the level of detail of Sparkle’s dream made her wonder.
After a quick brush of her mane, tail, and most importantly, her teeth, Luna stepped out of her chambers and approached the guard stationed outside. “Please quickly find and, if necessary, wake First Lieutenants Ironwood and Shining Armor, in that order. To Lieutenant Ironwood, tell him to meet me in the front garden of the castle immediately after preparing himself for an aether warp. To Lieutenant Shining Armor, alert him that his sister has been located, and that she is in good health.”
“Right away, your majesty.” The guard saluted and galloped off to complete his task. Luna then turned and leisurely trotted in the other direction. Approaching a large gold and white door, complement to her black and blue one, Luna rapped her hoof three times on the sturdy wood before slowly opening it.
Inside, Luna spotted her sister, tangled up in the sheets in an undignified heap. Luna snickered, muffling it with her hoof, before walking up to her sister. Tapping the alabaster alicorn, Luna said, “Awaken, ‘Tia.”
“Mmm...” Groggily, Celestia roused herself and disentangled her limbs from the mass of sheets. “Lulu?”
“I have located Sparkle, and am heading out to meet her,” the dark blue alicorn explained.
Celestia sighed, relieved. “Thank goodness. How is she?”
“Stable,” Luna replied. “I believe she will be receptive to our offer.”
This time, Celestia’s sigh of relief was significantly more pronounced. “What a relief. Thank you, Luna, for talking some sense into me. I fear that, in my haste, I had nearly created Equestria’s next greatest threat.”
“Do not relax just yet, Sister. Her loyalty to this country and our ponies hangs by a thread. Now, if you will excuse me, I have a mess of yours to clean up.”
Celestia nodded. “You are correct. Good luck, and have a safe trip.”
Luna turned around and walked to the door. Just before she exited, she paused and opened her mouth as if she were about to say something. Then, without speaking, she closed her jaw and continued forwards.
Taking two successive left turns, Luna approached the tower balcony. The moment she felt the cool October air brushing across her fur, she spread her wings and took flight, silently gliding down to the garden below.
Landing, she strolled towards a particular patch of flowers, this one filled with vibrant lavender Monkshood. Despite its highly poisonous nature, Luna did really love the delicate blooms. Walking past that, she strolled through the moonlit garden, taking in the sweet scents of the flowers. Unlike her sister, whose grace did not translate to silent steps, Luna moved without sound, little more than a shadow in the night.
The barely audible hoofsteps thus did not belong to her, but the red-eyed Night Guard approaching her. “Your highness,” he said, bowing slightly.
“Lieutenant Ironwood,” Luna said, “I trust you are ready to depart?”
“Of course, your highness. And thank you for the warning,” he replied, fanged teeth visible as he spoke. His leathery wings flexed slightly before retracting against his dark armor.
“You are most welcome. Come, grab my hoof and we will depart.” Ironwood did as commanded. The moment his hoof contacted his princess’s, an attractive force firmly secured the limbs together, exceeding his strength and ability to separate them. Bracing himself, Ironwood clenched his teeth and forced his eyes wide open and focused on Luna and nothing else. Luna, feeling that he was secure, activated her personal variant of teleportation.
There were many forms of rapid magical travel known to ponykind, all named with the umbrella term teleportation. Light mages usually transformed themselves into light or electricity and flew at incredible speeds to their location. Dark mages made the universe “forget” their location, and then “lied” that they were somewhere else, rewriting their location. Feminine magic pushed the used through a hole in space, creating the distinctive pop of displaced air. And Masculine magic swapped the locations of two regions of space, trading the relative locations of whatever was in there.
Luna’s magic was unique, in that it did none of those things. Instead, she launched herself physically into the aether, the dream realm, which she described as feeling like she was turning inside-out. Within her bubble of real-space, she could carry any number of passengers any distance she so chooses, at the cost of them becoming horribly dizzy from spinning about so much. And though she didn’t know it yet, her spell would become the basis of intergalactic space travel in just about three hundred years.
Ironwood couldn’t have cared for any of that at the present. Currently, he was far too busy trying not to throw up on his princess, who looked no worse for wear. To him, the spell felt like getting hooked above the sternum and getting spun violently through the thoughts and dreams of everypony between Canterlot and Manehatten. Which, coincidentally, was exactly what had happened. Thankfully, he had stopped to relieve himself before meeting Luna thanks to her warning; otherwise, he was sure he would have soiled himself.
Composing himself faster than a normal pony would have from the same experience, the vampiric guard straightened himself up, adjusted his armor, and then nodded towards his princess.
“Come. Sparkle and Thorn are in that hostel,” Luna said, indicating a nearby building, down the Manehatten street they were standing on.
“Hotel, your highness,” Ironwood corrected as they walked towards it. As he sidestepped to avoid a gray pony wearing a gray fedora, Ironwood said, “The word changed a few hundred years ago. Hostel now refers to a significantly cheaper establishment than anything you would find in Manehatten.”
“Thank you, Ironwood.”
“My pleasure, your highness.”
“Ironwood.”
“Yes, your highness?”
Luna rolled her eyes. “There’s no need to be so formal with me when we are alone. I have not changed so much in the last thousand years that I would chastise one of my oldest friends for speaking casually, when I have given standing permission to do so.”
“I’m sorry, Princess... er, Luna,” the ancient vampire said. He rubbed one of his hooves sheepishly against his other foreleg. “I couldn’t be informal with Princess Celestia, and a thousand years of habit aren’t broken overnight.” Chuckling and gesturing forwards, he said, “Shall we?”





Thorn was the first to awaken at the soft rap, rap, rap on the door. His eyes snapped open, and his surprise was strong enough to wake Sparkle through their link. She looked at the clock. 2:27 A.M., it read. 
A voice drifted through the wood of the hotel door, causing Sparkle and Thorn to both tense. “Sparkle, Thorn. I know that you are in there, and I apologise for waking you,” the mare’s voice said. “May we talk? You are not in any trouble, and I will depart if you wish.”
Partially, but not completely, lowering her guard, Sparkle rolled out of bed and limped to the door. Through the peephole, she saw the brilliantly bright soul of Princess Luna and the backwards-burning soul of the vampire, and then she saw their flesh-and-blood bodies. Sparkle opened the door, wincing as the light from the hall flooded her eyes. “Come in, I guess.”
“Thank you,” the princess said, nodding. As she entered, Princess Luna introduced the stallion escorting her. “Sparkle, Thorn, I would like to introduce you both to First Lieutenant Ironwood, commanding officer of the Red Platoon. Lieutenant Ironwood, meet Necromancer Sparkle and her son and assistant, Thornecrovitar.”
Ironwood nodded. “Charmed.”
“I assume that you were actually in my dream? And that you were truthful?”
“But of course,” the night princess confirmed. “And I apologise for the early hour; we had to find you before you woke and started moving again, as you seem so prone to do. Your skill with defending your shared mind is quite commendable, though mildly infuriating given the circumstances. I dare say that most psychics would have great difficulty influencing you.”
Sparkle blinked owlishly at the unexpected praise before blushing slightly. “Thanks. So... why are you here? I... ah... sheesh, I can’t think at two in the morning... uh... sorry.”
“There is no need to apologise when it was I who awoke you,” Luna replied. “Now, on behalf of the Equestrian people, I wish to thank you, Twilight Velvet Sparkle and Thornecrovitar, for your valiant services to this country. Like the Elements of Harmony, you will both be awarded the Medal of Honor. Secondly, on behalf of the Equestrian Judicial system, I wish to apologize for the atrocious mishandling of the situation, and am here to inform you that any wrongdoings of yours prior to this day are hereby considered pardoned. While this has no bearings on any future events, in the eyes of the law, you, Twilight Velvet Sparkle, have done no wrong.”
Picking her jaw up off the floor, Sparkle asked, “Are you serious?”
“Completely. Which brings me to my third point. You and Thorn are both invited to a private dinner this evening at the castle, where my sister wishes to apologize for her behavior personally. As for my fourth and final point, I will let Lieutenant Ironwood explain.”
“Thank you, Princess,” Ironwood said. “Now, know that I am fully aware of what your former punishment was supposed to be when I say this, and know that I am also excruciatingly aware of the implications of what I am about to offer. I would also like you to know that nothing will change if you reject this.
“As the leader of the Red Platoon vampire coven, and as a First Lieutenant of the Night Guard, I request a temporary alliance with you and your son.”
Sparkle sat down, though collapsed might be a better word. “Can... can I have a moment to process all this? It’s a bit much...”
“Take your time,” Princess Luna said. “There is no rush.”
Sparkle laid down on the floor and Thorn, in his baby form, climbed onto her back. Pressing his abdomen against the back of her head, he pushed his fragment of their soul as close to hers as possible and opened the link so that they could converse silently.
Ironwood watched as a myriad of expressions crossed their faces, from elation to worry. It was odd, he felt, seeing an entire conversation - and an emotional one at that - happening completely without words or gestures. Finally, he saw the necromancer and her son’s expressions turn resolute, and then a little less so, before they spoke again.
“You wouldn’t ask that lightly. Something’s happened,” Sparkle stated.
Ironwood corrected, “Something is happening.”
“Then we accept,” Thorn said while Sparkle nodded.
Luna smiled.
“...on three conditions.”
“And what would those be?” the night princess asked.
“First, Savior stays with us.”
Luna nodded. “We weren’t planning on separating you from your brother, Thorn, or Sparkle from her son.”
“Good. Second, we can quit the alliance at any time.”
“Acceptable,” the lieutenant said.
“And third, We officially answer only to Princess Luna and Lieutenant Ironwood.”
The old vampire looked to the even older alicorn for approval. When he got it, he replied, “Again, that is acceptable.”
Switching speakers, Sparkle said, “Then we have a deal.” As she stood back up, she commented, “I’d shake your hoof, but my prosthesis is still under construction back in Fillydelphia and I can’t quite balance well enough yet.”
“That is fine,” the Night Guard said. “How are you? I heard that you fled from the hospital just a day after Discord was resealed, and a day after losing a limb.”
Sparkle grinned. “I’m fine. I heal fast, especially with Thorn helping it along. My magic was a bit messed up though, which means I couldn’t regrow the leg, only seal it shut. Even now I’m still only at 90% of my spiritual strength. Now though, I’m at the point where unless I first chop off the remaining stump, I won’t be able to regrow my leg, hence the prosthesis.”
“I see. Necromancer Sparkle, might I ask you a question about your abilities?”
“Sure.”
“Is it true that you can make blood wine? I tasted it once, many hundred years ago, and I’ll never forget that sensation, and I was wondering, might I taste it again? Just once?”
Sparkle’s eyes narrowed. “You do realize that blood wine is precisely why I never allied before, right?”
“I know.”
Sparkle looked him over. In the dim light of the room, her horn’s aura looked even blacker than a cloudy night. To Thorn and Ironwood’s sensitive noses, the scent of blood filled the air, though only Ironwood was sensitive enough to tell when it had transformed into blood wine.
And yet Sparkle hadn’t moved, and he saw no open wounds on her body. So where was the scent of blood wine coming from? 
When Sparkle puckered her glossy red lips, he realized what she had done. Trembling, he said, “You do realize that I am a married stallion, right? And that I am on duty with my princess standing right here, right?”
“And?”
A feral expression crossed his face as his willpower broke. Freely offered blood was more powerful than regular blood, and freely offered blood wine was the most potent of all. With the few drops on her lips, he wouldn’t need to feed for several months at least.
Just as he finished thinking how long he could go without thinking, he found himself admiring the taste of the inside of Sparkle’s mouth. The untrained observer - and likely even a trained, aware one - wouldn’t have seen him move.
As the room went from tepid to steamy in ten seconds flat, Luna blushed at the display and extended a wing in front of the baby dragon’s eyes. She cleared her throat.
It was not very effective.
She coughed, louder.
It had no effect. Hastily shed armor clattered to the floor.
Sighing, the princess scooped Thorn up with her magic and trotted out of the room. Closing the door behind her, she set Thorn down on the hallway floor. “I am not used to that sort of thing happening outside of a dream,” the princess commented.
Thorn simply face-palmed. “She does realize that I can’t close the link when she gets like this, right?”