Equestrian Darkness: Friendship’s Requiem
Chapter 5: A Princess’s Shame
Before invading the royal castle, Mert’s mind reached out to all corners of Equestria. She could sense that Tarik had retreated to the Everfree Forest, but Abdullah still eluded her. Not wanting to accidently attract the attention of the others, she chose to use stealth.
Like a ghost, she hovered into the castle through an open window, and found herself inside a ballroom, the same where the Grand Galloping Gala was held. Since there were no special events happening, the only occupants were two royal guards who patrolled the halls for intruders. She carefully floated down toward the two stallions, listening in on their conversation.
“So how’s little Candy Apple doing?” asked one of the guards.
“Aw, she’s growing up so fast. In fact, she got her Cutie Mark just yesterday.”
“Oh, what does it look like?”
Before the stallion got his answer, Mert forced her way into their minds. Although they tried to resist, their will was even weaker than Twilight’s will. She easily invaded their minds, causing the two to stare blankly forward in a daze. Mert carefully searched through their memories, invading every private thought they had until she found their knowledge of the castle. Although she did not find any information on the Essence specifically, she did learn that important objects were stored in a safe in Canterlot tower. Armed with this knowledge, she erased their memories of her intrusion, and she flew off, heading toward the tower.
Despite their busy life as the rulers of Equestria, the two royal sisters often spent their free time together. The princesses were lounging in their sleeping chambers, enjoying the summer breeze from their open windows.
Luna lay on her lavish bed, colored dark blue and decorated with stars and planets on the sheets and the headboard. On that particular day, she was looking out at the noonday sun, staring at the sky in deep contemplation.
Celestia was near her own bed, bright red and pink sheets decorated with clouds and suns. She was standing next to Philomena on her perch, carefully pouring a chief-made mix of birdseed into Philomena’s food dish.
“I was thinking,” said Celestia, “since Philomena is running low on birdseed, perhaps we should go out together to collect some more. What do you think? A whole afternoon just you and me hiking and...” She noticed that Luna was not paying attention. “Sis, what’s wrong?”
Luna was snapped out of her daze. “Oh, it is simply that...It is nothing.” Luna averted her eyes from Celestia.
“What’s wrong?”
Luna paused to formulate a response. “That artifact has been haunting our...my thoughts. I am concerned that it will be the downfall of us all.”
“I’m sure it won’t be that bad. The Ancients have remained dormant for millions of years. Surely they would...” At that moment, Celestia caught sight of a rolled up letter on her balcony. “Oh, Twilight has sent me another letter already.” She telekinetically lifted the letter to her eyes and read through it. “Oh no.”
“What has you so concerned?”
“I think you might have been right. According to Twilight’s letter, Spike was attacked by these strange ponies...ponies who can use the power of the Ancients.”
“What?” Luna leaped off the bed. “How can that be? The knowledge to use rune magic has been lost for centuries.”
“I don’t know but we need to...” Celestia froze.
A strange chill ran down the princesses’ collective spines as they inexplicably felt the presence of unholy magic. Luna and Celestia gathered at the window, looking up at the top of the tower where the presence of evil radiated from there like a spotlight.
Nethlek...Pargon...Redgormor...Pargon...Pargon...Xel’lotath...Pargon.
The safe in Canterlot tower was enchanted by Princess Celestia, her power reinforcing the door in an invincible barrier that no other pony could break. However, with the power of the Ancients, Mert’s spell erased the enchantments from the safe with ease. She easily pried the safe open with her hooves, and inside, she found a large gold chest which housed the Elements of Harmony. Next to it was a beating heart in a bell jar.
“Mantarok, you only delayed the inevitable.” She reached for the bell jar but hesitated. “We're not alone. Who dares to intervene?” Before she turned around to see them, she could feel the minds of two earth ponies...and two alicorns.
Sure enough, as she spun around in the air, she saw the royal sisters accompanied by two guards. The guards had sharpened pikes clutched in their teeth and were pointing them at Mert in a threatening pose.
“Kill them all. Aw, so you two must be the royal princesses. We must flee before we’re discovered.”
The guards fidgeted, unnerved by the way Mert telepathically talked to them.
“I don’t know who you are,” shouted Celestia, “but for breaking into the castle and stealing an artifact under royal protection, you should be arrested confined for questioning.”
“Her power is no match for our mistress. I laugh at your challenge.” Mert hovered over the prize she sought like a hungry raptor protecting her prey.
Luna stood her ground with the confidence of tortoise standing against a train, her legs itching to get out of danger. Although Celestia was fearless, Luna’s resolve was quickly fading upon seeing Mert and the reality of her existence.
From across the room, Mert used her influence upon one of the guards.
The guard shrieked in terror as he dropped his pike and clawed at himself. He shook in pain and fright, the illusions becoming too intense. He toppled over on his side and shook with fright.
As the guard convulsed violently on the ground, Celestia tried using her magic to help him but to no avail. She could only watch helplessly as blood was oozing from every orifice of the guard. With his sanity drained away into an incoherent mess, his constitution suffered. Like a fish out of water, he flopped onto the ground until his organs failed and he lay still in a pool of blood.
Celestia and Luna stared with their mouths agape at the dead guard before them. They had not seen such violence in over a thousand years.
Her anger rising, Celestia turned toward Mert, lowering her horn in a threatening posture. “How dare—“ She cringed in pain as she felt Mert’s influence already eating its way at her sanity. She fought to regain control, but Mert’s powerful telepathy dug deep into her mind.
“Sis, what is wrong?” asked Luna.
Luna’s voice seemed muffled to Celestia’s ears as the hall began to melt away before her eyes. By the time the hall was completely gone, Luna’s voice seemed distant like an inaudible whisper. The light of the hall was replaced by an endless blackness that was suffocating and lonesome. All around her, she felt like someone was staring at her. Her ears caught the sound of whispers.
“It’s not real. It’s not real.” Celestia repeated that mantra over and over again.
“Not real?” echoed a voice in the darkness. “I beg to differ.”
She recognized that voice. She turned her head from side to side, searching frantically for the voice’s point of origin. “You can’t be here, you were turned to stone. You can’t be real.”
“Quite the contrary.” In a flash of white light, Discord materialized in front of her, but he was rotted like a corpse. His skin was discolored and peeling away, revealing exposed muscle. His eyeballs were missing, staring at Celestia with empty eye sockets. “If this wasn’t real, than I wouldn’t be able to do this.” Discord grabbed her horn and tore it off with a cacophonous snap. He unceremoniously plunged the horn into Celestia’s chest.
Celestia fought to break free of the hallucination, but the pain was too real to ignore. As Discord drove the horn deeper, Celestia could feel her body growing stiff. She looked down in horror as her body turned to stone from the wound. Her body screamed with agony as every cell became hard and stiff. She tried to let out a cry for help, but her lungs suddenly became stiff. Her body was as hard as stone, but her mind was awake to feel the agony. Her brain was trapped in a lifeless shell, unable to turn away from Discord’s grinning face.
Outside of the nightmare, Celestia was on her side, barely moving, her lifeless eyes gawking out into space.
“Sis!” cried Luna.
The other guard also stood aside, watching helplessly.
With one princess down, Mert forced her will onto Luna.
Luna convulsed as her senses began to fail. Before her eyes, the halls turned into a monochrome green. She fought to resist the intrusion, but she was just as helpless as her sister. Despite her fears, she knew she had one choice. We cannot allow her to escape. For the future of Equestria...we must use that power. Desperate, her horn glowed as she built up her magic, fighting to maintain control. Much to the surprise of the guard and Mert, three red runes appeared under Luna’s hooves.
Antorbok...Redgormor...Chattur’gha.
A bolt of magical energy shot forth from Luna and struck Mert, knocking her back and releasing her hold on Luna.
Tarik was in the Everfree Forest when he felt Luna’s spell. He paused out of curiosity. It was a Chattur’gha spell he felt, but he knew that Abdullah was nowhere near Canterlot. His power could detect the magical energies of any living thing except Mert and her magic, but if Luna was using rune magic, then Mert could be there, too. With a glow of his horn, he teleported to Canterlot.
Narokath...Santak...Xel’lotath.
Luna could feel her spell restoring her sanity. The distortions that Mert’s power caused faded away. With her focus back, she stood her ground as she prepared for another spell.
Mert anxiously fidgeted when she detected Tarik appearing outside Canterlot. She knew that he must have been drawn by the spell Luna casted. Unable to sense Abdullah, she knew that it was essential that she finish this fight quickly before she draws more attention to herself. Turning her focus away from Luna, she worked her will into the lone guard. Rather than drain his sanity, she superseded his will, controlling his mind and body.
Mert was barely able to dodge Luna’s second magical attack spell, managing to swerve aside in mid air. She retaliated with her own spell.
Antorbok...Magormor...Xel’lotath.
Luna’s eyes darted back and forth, wondering what Mert had done. She was so focused on what was in front of her, she did not notice that the spell enchanted the guard’s pike, causing it to glow green with power.
Like a puppet, Mert compelled him to raise his pike against Luna.
Luna saw the blade coming down. She dodged it, but the blade struck her horn. Powered by Xel’lotath, the pike cleanly cut off Luna’s horn with a loud snap, causing it to clatter onto the floor. Luna was so surprised by the sneak attack, she backed away from the guard as if he was a zombie. She stood there for a tense few seconds, prepared to fight her own servant.
However, the guard just stood there, shaking his head as if he had awoken from a deep sleep. “Your Highness, what happened?”
Luna turned her gaze toward the safe but Mert was gone. She looked down upon Celestia, lying brain-dead on the floor. With her shame and guilt overriding the royal protocols she had lived by, she wept like a little foal.
While Luna and Celestia were confronting Mert, Twilight escaped back to Ponyville where she gathered her friends to tell them what happened. With such powerful creatures on the loose, they agreed that they needed the Elements of Harmony to fight them. They traveled to Canterlot Castle, but by the time they got there, they found the place in a state of panic with royal guards running every which way.
“What’s going on?” asked Twilight as she and the others stood at the main entrance.
A royal guard skidded to a halt before Twilight. “Someone attacked and injured the princesses.”
“No way,” said Rainbow, her mouth agape. “But how could that be?”
“Are they all right?” asked Rarity.
“Princess Luna lost her horn during the fight. Princess Celestia has been put under some kind of hypnosis. She’s now lying catatonic in her bed.”
“Mert,” said Twilight grimly under her breath.
“What was that?”
“Nothing. Take us to Princess Luna. We have information that might help identify and capture the attackers.”
“Follow me.”
The guard led them through the chaotic mess of the castle, leading them up several flights of stairs and into the royal bedroom. There, they found Princess Luna standing beside Princess Celestia who lay in bed, unconscious.
Luna looked up at her visitors, her face sad and regretful. “Come in, Twilight Sparkle. We are glad thou came.”
The six friends approached Celestia, staring down at the sleeping form of the princess with morning and loss straining their hearts.
Fluttershy crept over and fixed the bedspread like a worried caregiver, making sure Celestia was tucked in.
“What’s wrong with her?” asked Applejack.
“She was placed under a terrible hallucination,” said Luna. “I know magic that could save her, but we won’t be able to help her until our horn grows back.”
Twilight cleared her dry throat before speaking. “Princess, I know who did this to Princess Celestia.”
“We know, too...It was the doing of a pegasus named Mert.”
“What?” Twilight stared at her in disbelief.
“We know more than that. We know there are two others, Abdullah and Tarik, who seek the Essence of Mantarok.”
“Why do they want that heart?” asked Applejack.
Luna felt her throat tighten. “Each of the four Ancients have what is called an Essence, which takes on the form of a statue. The heart you found belongs to Mantarok. These Essences are what allow the Ancients to work their will into our world. It is also the source of their power. After Mantarok bound the other three Ancients, he imprisoned Mert, Abdullah, and Tarik, The reason why they are after the Essence of Mantarok is because they need its power to undue the binding spell on their Ancients.”
“But...how do you know all this?” asked Twilight.
Luna felt her throat tighten further, fearing how they would react to the truth. “1,000 years ago, we...” she decided to try dropping formality, “I was given a...book.”
“A book?” asked Twilight. “Who gave it to you?”
“No one did. It just appeared. The book informed me about the Ancients and their magic. I eventually gained some mastery over their power with my alicorn magic. However, that power corrupted my magic and it turned me into Nightmare Moon.”
As Luna spoke, the full gravity of the situation weighed heavily on the six friends. They quietly listened to the princess. Even Pinkie was poker-faced throughout.
“But what happened to the book?” asked Rainbow.
“It disappeared after I was banished to the moon.”
Twilight paused to take in all this new information. “But if you knew all about the Essences and the three ponies this whole time, why didn’t you tell anyone?”
“I was afraid.” A tear ran down from Luna’s left eye. “After 1,000 years away from home, Celestia still forgave me, but she never knew of the terrible power I had mastered. Using rune magic is a terrible crime, and I was afraid she would divine the truth if I told her what I knew. I was concerned she would hate me. But if only I had known Mert and the others would break free of their bonds...It is all my fault this happened.”
“Don’t cry, Princess,” said Twilight. “We forgive you.”
Luna wiped the tears from her eyes and maintained her composure. “Thank you, Twilight Sparkle, but we have no time to waste. I will order the guards to give you supplies and saddlebags. You are to go after Mert and use the Elements of Harmony to stop her and the others.
“But how do we find her?” asked Applejack.
“The other Essences should be buried in an underground city in the desert, not far from Appleloosa.”
“But what would happen if Mert finds the other Essences?” asked Fluttershy.
Luna grew stern and cold as she spoke. “Then all hope will be lost.”
Deep within the desert, Abdullah was quietly meditating. His sharp ears could hear the commotion Mert had caused in Canterlot. Abdullah knew where Mert was going. He could steal the Essence from her, but he did not know where Tarik was because Tarik’s magic cloaked himself from Abdullah’s senses. Rather than a full on confrontation, he chose to meet his rivals at the underground city. He sprinted off into the desert, traveling at speeds even a pegasus could not beet.