Majordomo.
That was the title that Celestia had appointed to her and by the stars she deserved it. In all her years serving under the Celestial court Twilight Sparkle had been nothing but studious, loyal and hard working. As she sat at her desk in Canterlot castle working her way through the latest set of petitions and reports she gave out a great sigh of contentment. While the Princess herself was away leading the campaign against the usurper she was given the responsibility... no... the honor of taking care of the day to day running of the Celestial Empire. Never before had a pony of such low birth been given so great a responsibility as this. Queen Celestia appointing such a lesser noble such as Twilight Sparkle to so great and lofty a position had been deemed positively scandalous at the time! Now though all those neigh sayers and critics had settled down and shut up though, after all with the Queen half a world away it would be ill advised of them to raise the ire of the de facto ruler. Yes, things were very good for Majordomo Twilight Sparkle-
Across the room the doors to her wardrobe swung open and a short yellow unicorn hopped out. She had a disgustingly short red and blue mane, a bob cut Twilight believed it was called (such a short mane was considered unfashionable on a mare, not to mention the other societal connotations), and wore a long black cloak that covered her body. Her eyes shone with a red glow and a kitchen knife hovered at her side held in a similar magical aura, a bloody kitchen knife. She smiled with a predatory look of glee in her face and slowly trotted across the room from the wardrobe.
"ASSASS-ack" Twilight began to yell at the top of her lungs before a vice clamped down around her neck and began choking her. Her hooves raised to try and remove it but found only a magical aura about her throat.
"Shhhhhhh. Hush now, little Majordomo. I'm not here to cause any trouble, I'm no assassin! Why if I was you'd already be dead," the unicorn giggled as Twilight's eyes bulged in their sockets but she was gradually releasing her hold on the throat. "Now, I'm going to let you go and we are going to have a civil conversation, Twilight, I too work for the Queen you see, and am simply here on business." Twilight was dropped to the down and she began desperately gasping for breath.
"Who... who sent you, who do you work for?"
"Bon Bon, though you may know her as Sweetie Drops," the unicorn muttered nonchalantly. The royal spymaster, nopony knew her by the name Sweetie Drops except for those in Celestia's highest circles. Turning to the door Twilight noticed that her guards had thankfully not heard her cry for help, it wouldn't do for them to see such a pony.
"What...what were you doing in my room? How did you get in here?"
"I was watching you for a little while before I decided to make myself known, as for how I got in here I used the window." The window was indeed slightly open just how Twilight liked it but very few ponies would ever be able to fit through the gap.
"You were in my wardrobe."
"I got here while you were out," that sent a shudder down Twilight's spine. She had been working in the room for hours now, had this...creature been waiting there all this time? The unicorn had made her way to the center of the room and was delicately twirling the bloody knife about in her magic, performing delicate movements and using it to trace intricate patterns in the air, giggling like a maniac all the time. As the unicorn raised a hoof to her mouth to stifle her own laughter Twilight noticed that both her fore hooves were coated in dried blood.
"Have... have you killed somepony in the castle?" the knife shot past Twilight's face so close that she could feel the flat of the blade brush against her hair, with a wet thunk it hit something on the desk behind her and then flew back to its owner baring an apple.
"No," the mare replied taking small bites of apple off her blade. "Don't worry it's-" she broke down into a fresh set of giggling. "Sorry normally this would be the part where I'm meant to say 'don't worry it's not my blood', in this case though.... Don't worry, it's all my blood."
"Why do you want, Miss... whoever you are?" Twilight was having a hard time holding down her lunch. The mare was disgusting, her appearance flaunted Equestrian societal norms and conventions, her manners were atrocious and her behavior... oh sweet Celestia, Twilight had only ever seen this sort of behavior in asylums or on the end of a hangponies noose.
"Lady Eventide Trailblazer, Majordomo. I'm here on business, have some questions for you, need you to escort me to the Starswirl the Bearded wing," Eventide talked as if it was the simplest thing in the world but the spells in that wing were off limit to even the Majordomo herself!
"Then I'm afraid I can't help you, Lady Trailblazer, you and your mistress shall have to wait for our beloved monarch to return from campaign," she spoke the name with nothing but disdain Trailblazer, a trail pony name. How had one of such low birth been granted a title? Talent, a little voicein her head warned her, Eventide might appear mad but it was likely that she was skilled at whatever awful task it was that Sweetie Drops had her carry out. Reminder, don't eat or drink anything while around this mare.
"You seem to have misunderstood the position you are in, Sparkle," Eventide growled. "That was not a request, it was a demand." She felt the magic gently tightening around her throat again and the knife gently caressed the side of her face. "Oh I do like this," Eventide laughed sharply pulling the blade away and making a sudden flurry of lunges with it at thin air. "Such precision, such dexterity! Oh I could get used to this!"
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Twilight begrudgingly escorted the other unicorn through the halls, waving off any guards that the two of them passed, so far she had only seen greenhorns and fresh recruits, if she was going to escape she'd need to wait for some well trained guardsponies to help her.
"Ever heard of a pony called Sunset Shimmer?" Eventide asked seemingly out of nowhere as she finished off the last bite of her apple.
"Why do you ask?"
"Just curious."
"She was a coward and a charlatan. Given the opportunity to lead Celestia's armies herself against the griffons she threw the offer in our Queen's face! Apparently she considered such an honor to be some sort of punishment. The cretin." Twilight couldn't help but notice that with every word she said Eventide's eye seemed to twitch and her smile grew.
"Where is she now?"
"Exiled to parts unknown. Frankly Celestia was unduly merciful to the little traitor."
"Good to hear, good to hear. Makes me feel a lot better about what happens next," Eventide must have been half her own age Twilight gathered. How had she never heard of this pony before? Just how young was the spymaster recruiting her agents these days?
"I've seen your type before, Eventide," Twilight said stopping in the hallway. Approaching them were a pair of guards she recognized, capable soldiers and loyal to a fault. More than a match for a thief and secret dealer. "You're the type of unicorn who spent her youth crushing bugs beneath her magic aren't you?" Unsurprisingly this brought a fresh wave of laughter to Eventide, that was fine though, Twilight just needed to keep her distracted.
"Oh, Sparkle! Trying to needle me with little jabs and jibes about my troubled youth? Well I'm afraid you are shit out of luck. I had a very loving childhood, I was raised by a wonderful mare and it was my mother who squashed bugs with her magic, not me." As Eventide kept her attention on Twilight, the Majordomo nodded to the guards, instantly both of them leaped upon Eventide as Twilight mustered a spell of her own to strike down the impertinent-
Blinding pain shot through her head and she collapsed screaming to the ground as her spell fizzled harmlessly into nothing. Before they even reached Eventide one of the guards was gripped in a red magical aura and swung bodily into the other sending both flying into the wall. The aura of magic dragged him back and then slammed him into the other guard again and again until both were unconscious. All the while Eventide stood motionless sneering down at Twilight as she clutched her head in pain.
"Oh you have no idea how long I have been waiting to do that, Sparkle," Eventide cackled levitating her knife back to her and now balancing a sizeable chunk of broken purple horn upon the end of it, Twilight's horn. "Now then, Starswirl wing, fast, no more distractions. Any more tricks and I might have to start getting stabby, are we understood?" Twilight nodded and whimpered her confirmation.
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"You won't get in, the door is sealed against-" the two had reached the locked door of the wing without any further incident, before Twilight could finish informing the madmare that she didn't have a key though the other unicorn simply blasted the door from its hinges.
"Doesn't look that sealed to me," Eventide grinned and gestured for Twilight to step inside. She begrudgingly obliged, rubbing the stump where her horn used to be as she did so. "Oh quit with your whining, it'll grow back." Eventide followed her inside and produced a letter from beneath her cloak. She scanned the details then quickly started counting out shelves and wandered off. "Stay here, I won't be a minute." Twilight nodded weakly and began looking about the room. Centuries ago Celestia herself had deemed the knowledge contained within these walls to be off limits to any but herself, what did Sweetie Drops want from here? Perhaps more importantly where had she found so powerful a unicorn and how had Twilight never heard of her? "Got what I came for, don't worry I'll be out of your mane shortly," Eventide had returned and was carefully hiding a large and very ancient looking scroll within the folds of her cloak.
"Just go, I never want to see you again," Twilight muttered pointing one hoof at the ruined doorway.
"Really, Sparkle? Do we need to work on our listening skills? I said I'd be gone shortly. The two of us still have some business we need to sort out," Eventide licked her lips and slammed the knife down into a table, embedding it into the woodwork and finally letting it leave her magic.
"What do you want with me?" Twilight shuddered, a new fear gripping her heart.
"Honestly? I didn't have anything against you personally, you just bare an unfortunate resemblance to a mare I loathe and despise, but after spending a little time with you? Well you are such a loathsome and snobbish little prig that I really don't mind what I'm about to do."
Twilight froze on the spot, "what do you mean?"
"Story time, Twilight!" Eventide shouted with a worrying sense of mirth. "Once upon a time there was a mare called Twilight Sparkle, she went on lots of wonderful adventures and was loved by everypony who didn't know any better and she was an absolutely awful friend. One day Twilight Sparkle took a knife," Eventide yanked the knife from the table, " and she stabbed it deep into the back of a mare who trusted her unconditionally, a mare who saw her as the only family she ever had," the knife came stabbing down in front of Twilight's hooves and the Majordomo stumbled backwards in fear. "But that's a story for another day," Eventide casually sent the knife spinning across the room and off into the stacks of the library.
"Now, Twilight Sparkle was a very scholarly unicorn and she had some very particular ideas about how unicorns should act, and who they should love and what they should do with their lives. Twilight Sparkle expected every unicorn to want to love magic as much as she did so she took on a young student and began to teach her the wonders of magic!" Books began levitating off of the shelves and floating around the room, gripped in Eventide's magic. "Teleport across the room, Twilight," She ordered.
"I can't," she mumbled, "even if you hadn't cut off my horn that spell was forbidden by Celestia herself!"
"Teleport, Twilight!" Eventide roared and fired one of the books into her side, the blunt impact stinging her flank. "Teleport, Twilight, and you can dodge the books!" Another two came spinning towards her smacking her in the face and the barrel. "With a cutie mark like yours, Twilight, it should be a simple matter! Cutie mark magic is some of the simplest magic to master, even a runt like you should be able to manage this!" Book after book smashed into Twilight until she was half buried beneath them. When the barrage ended she felt herself gripped by magic and roughly pulled from the pile.
"Maybe we need to start simpler? After all, Evey, you do have such a stubby little horn." Eventide grinned with unearthly malice and put on a much higher pitch voice.
"Evey? Who are you? I'm Twilight Sparkle..." Twilight managed to stand herself up in time to see a fresh load of books hover into the air.
"Let's see how many books you can levitate, Evey! It's a simple spell, we can use it to practice your magic and someday you might be as good as me! Now how many can we levitate, Evey? Five?" Before Twilight could object five books came flying across the room and slammed into her body. "Four?" Another four slammed against her. "Three? Two? One?" Again and again the books came flying at her. "Oh, Evey, not even one book? Whatever are we going to do with you?" Eventide dropped her pitch back to its normal level and sighed. "I thought you loved books, Twilight? Why do you look so glum? If you want I'll give you all the books in the world!"
"Why are you doing this?" Twilight managed to mutter between tears of pain.
"Because I can, Twilight, because for once in my life I'm better at being a unicorn than the great and arrogant Twilight Sparkle! You want me to stop?" Twilight nodded mutely. "Fine." All of the objects that Eventide had been lifting dropped as she ended her magic. Turning to the door Twilight suddenly noticed there were numerous guards waiting outside the room, banging against a deep red magical barrier that was separating them from her. "Fight me, Twilight," the short yellow unicorn whispered. "No magic, no tricks, just a straight up hoof fight. Me against you, hay, I'll even give you a free shoot!" Eventide lifted Twilight up onto her hooves and then stood proudly in front of her with her eyes closed. Twilight took a deep breath and then putting all the strength she had into her swing punched Eventide in the face. The other unicorn just stood there and didn't move, calmly taking the blow without even budging.
"See that's the difference between us, Sparkle," Eventide chuckled, swatting Twilight's hoof from her face with only a bloody nose as evidence that she had been struck. "Sure, I was no magical prodigy," she slammed a hoof into Twilight's face knocking several teeth from her jaw, "but take away all the magic," another blow this one leaving her with a black eye, "and I'm just plain better than you," the next blow was a sucker punch to the gut and left Twilight gasping for breathe. "Squat little Evey, stubby little Evey, stocky little Evey. Words hurt, Twilight, but you know what? I learned to accept who I was," Eventide turned and bucked twilight across the room sending her flying into the shelves.
"'You should spend less time training for strength and agility and more time studying magic, it's the only way you'll ever get better', care to guess who told me that, Sparkle?" Eventide circled her fallen opponent like a bird of prey, at this point Twilight couldn't even bring herself to try to stand back up. "No? Well no matter. The point is that while most unicorns are either svelte and scrawny little waifs or pudgy little scholars I spent my whole life being compared to earth ponies and pegasi, and I'm okay with that! Now while you consider how wasted all of your talents are the instant somepony cuts off your magic I'm going to make myself scarce. Enjoy your pitiable existence as glorified secretary to one of the must stuck up equines in the history of Equestria."
Eventide turned and made for the door, the guards raising the weapons in preparation. To her side though Twilight could hear an ominous creaking sound, one of the shelves had been gripped in the ominous red magic and was now been pulled down on top of her, every book on it's shelves being dropped onto her body in one great flurry.
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As the sinister looking unicorn approached the barrier Flash Sentry readied his spear, alongside him were eleven of the best guards in all of Canterlot, an equal mix of unicorns, pegasi and earth ponies between them. The unicorn stopped as she reached the barrier and flashed them a twisted looking smile. With a great wave of power the barrier exploded outwards knocking the guards to the ground. Flash and the earth pony Iron Bulwark were the first to recover from the spell and turned in time to see the unicorn disappearing off down the hall, sprinting in the direction of the Majordomo's chambers. Nodding in unison the pair retrieved their weapons and gave chase. The mystery mare was fast and wily, knocking over ornamental suits of armor to try and hinder their passage and putting on a remarkable burst of speed as they closed on her. The mare beat both guards to the room but Flash was just in time to see her leap into a wardrobe and close the door behind her. Flinging his spear across the room the blade pierced the doors and flew through the piece of furniture, likely skewering the unicorn in the process. With Bulwark backing him up Flash quickly removed her weapon from the wood and pulled the doors open. The wardrobe was empty. Perhaps stranger still though there was no mark on the wall at the back of it and the blade of the spear had vanished entirely, severed unnaturally cleanly at the shaft of the weapon. Of the unicorn and the blade there was no trace.