The Cult of Luna

by Starlight Shadow

Chapter Two

Starlight stirred, glancing around at everypony. Most were still sleeping, some had taken out a book and were reading. The foals had even slept on top of each other like puppies. She noticed the faint blue glow of a unicorn's magic and went over to one of the foal's cots. A small filly was making something out of string.

"Hey, what do you have there, little one?" The filly jumped and opened her mouth, presumably to scream, but closed it again once she realized who was speaking.

"I'm making bracelets. String ones. I brought my scissors and things from the old camp." She wasn't very talkative, as she then immediatly went back to manipulating the bit of yarn. Make a loop, tie a knot, make a new loop. A chain of knots.

"What's your name?"

The filly paused in her work again. She looked as if she was trying to hide annoyance. "It's Firefly. Firefly Spark. I've seen you before. Why don't you tell me your name?"

"Starlight Shadow. What's your special talent?" She gestured to the lantern that adorned Firefly's flank.

"Illumination spells. Lighting up my horn, and everything related to that kind of stuff. I can even make little fires you can carry around with you." Her expression took on a flicker of pride. "Your's?"

"Flying and navigating at night."

"I guess that makes us friends now. That's a cool talent, by the way. And fitting, considering you're one of Luna's High Priests."

"Yes, I am. Aren't you a Neophyte?"

"Mhm."

On the other side of the room, the Lunarseer continued to roll around and stir with each passing moment, obviously not accustomed to sleeping in huge, stone chambers. Patient then sat up sharply, eyeing the room and wiping sweat from his forehead with a hoof. He turned to his right and spied the two ponies under an illumination spell.

Patient wobbly got onto his legs and waltzed over to the two mares, who were busy talking among themselves. He got close and smiled as the two of them look up.

"What brings you two up so late?" The Lunarseer calmly asked, yawning like he actually had some sleep.

"It was my fault. I was reading, and then Starlight woke up and saw my illumintaion spell, then she came over to see why I was up so late, and then-" Starlight slapped one hoof over Firefly's mouth.

"It's alright! No need to apologize. It's not like I've had any sleep here, either." Patient chuckled quietly.

"I love how I got more sleep than you, and you got your own cot." Starlight also laughed. Firefly's eyes shot wide open in warning, insolence wasn't tolerated-she knew this all too well-then she remembered that Starlight was a higher rank than she was.

"You can go ahead and take it. That cot's way too soft for me, anyways." The Lunarseer yawned again.

"Is 'too soft' even possible?" Firefly inquired. "I'll take it if you don't want it, Starlight."

"No, I think everypony's waking up anyways."

Indeed, many of the others who'd been crammed in the small room were yawning and stretching, and those who hadn't were being woken by the others.

"Alright, everypony. We've got a decent day's work today." Patient looked out of the stained glass window at the rising sun, the symbol of an empire which he hated with a furious passion They all did.

"Curse the Solar Empire. Damn them to Tartarus for every eternity there will ever be!" Patient roared, raising his hoof into the air. The followers soon did the same.

"Damn them to Tartarus!" The crowd before him screamed, raising a hoof and hopping out of bed, sprinting out of the room and off to the armory. Everyone had left except for Firefly and Starlight.

"And that is how you rally a party, ladies." Patient smiles and followed his disciples with a controlled trot.

"Well. We'd best get going." Starlight quickly double-flapped and flew out the door, Firefly scrambling after her.

Within five or so minutes, each member of the cult had ran into the armory, standing at formation before Patient Care, who strutted down the line and back again. Torches flickered throughout the room, while a fire burned furiously in the back corner of the almost empty room. A pair of gothic cathedral-style stain glass windows streak through one of the walls catty-corner to the fireplace, letting in the sunlight.

"Now that we're all here, we can continue our unarmed training like we've done at the old camp, only we have more space to do so...and we have the ability to go into Hufgrund proper and order some weapons." Patient rattled off a few things that were on his mind at the moment while he waved a hoof, telling his followers 'at ease'.

"I'll bring a few others and go into town." Starlight flew above the others, raising her hoof.

"Alright. You can take whichever ponies you need." Patient was pleased with the High Priestess's commitment.

Starlight took her hit squad and headed out, whle the rest stayed.

"Now, the six of you...come closer into a circle." The Lunarseer calmly ordered, as his followers, well, followed.

"Today, until we get weapons, we'll be learning how to buck at the opponent. When you're disarmed, the most powerful weapon is your hind legs. They're deadly, hard, and damn effective." Patient recites, almost like he's said all of this before.

"We're gonna be practicing on air for now, so let's get warmed up!"

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"For such a small town, this is a nicely sized market." Starlight mused. Stalls of all sizes and colors were scattered around, various merchants with different accents and creeds hawking their goods. No blacksmith in sight, however...

"Speak of the devil, and he doth appear. Right when I think there's no blacksmith here." Starlight hurried over to a blacksmith's tent, the blacksmith himself being a buff unicorn stallion hammering away at an anvil with his magic. He turned and spied the group of ponies.

"Aah, a new customer, yes? Welcome to the finest warrior's wares in Hufgrund--" The blacksmith was cut off by Starlight raising her hoof.

"Your little jingle won't be necessary. We'd just like to order some weapons. Nothing in particular, just weapons that allow us to rearrange a pony's face."

The blacksmith pony thought for a few seconds, hoof resting on his black facial hair.

"I have just the thing! Lemme get it out for you." The blacksmith walked into his tent and pushed out a cardboard box.

The group of ponies looked inside the cardboard box and found several wooden clubs, each of which were studded with steel rivets around the beating-area of the stick.

"Those will do just fine. Oh, and we'd also like that." She pointed to a fine silver crossbow. "And plenty of arrows."

"I can do that too." Blacksmith smirked, shoving the crossbow and a quiver of bolts into Starlight's saddlebag.

"That'll be one thousand, eight hundred, and fifty three bits." The blacksmith grew a manure-eating grin.

Starlight tossed a bag of bits onto the old wooden box that served as a counter. The blacksmith looked up at her own smirk, then back at the bag, then up at Starlight.

"You were saying?"

The blacksmith looked up at the group of hit-ponies and grinned wider. He then spoke after a long pause...

"Danke! Kommen Sie wieder!" His rotten yellow teeth show as he spits happily onto the ground.

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"Good, good, keep those legs up!" Patient Care shouted at the ponies bucking away at the wall in front of him.

Patient looked back at the door to find Starlight and her Hit-Squad carrying a box of wooden clubs, adorned with steel rivets for extra pain.

"Ah, perfect! The weapons have arrived!" The Lunarseer giddily stopped the followers from bucking at the hard stone wall and they trotted toward the box, each grabbing a club in their mouths and returning it to the wall, taking violent swings at the air in front of the wall.

"Easy, now! We need that wall!" Patient orderd. The cult stopped.

"Later, we'll be filling bags with dirt and using them as practice dummies, but for now, we'll have to go out into the courtyard and practice on trees. "

"Excuse me Lunarseer for interupting your practice." Nightshade spoke as he walked into the group. "But bags of dirt and empty blanks of air will only get you so far in a fight. I can offer you an...alternative."

"Holy fuck, I forgot you were here!" Patient almost jumped at his voice.

"What kind of alternative?" A member of the cult piped up behind the Lunarseer.

Starlight shushed the foal and turned toward Nightshade. "What do you have to offer?"

""I can offer you a lifelike alternative. I assume I have your permission?"

"Of course, Nightshade. What do you have in mind?" Patient asked, curiously gazing at the humanoid figure in the doorway.

"Watch and see what your Goddess may deem you worthy to learn." He spoke as he raised out his right hand. All was quiet as a sutle green aura slowly enveloped it.

Soon six dark shadows slowly boiled up from the ground and began to take a pony-like form.

"It is done, these shadows are nothing more than your own; but they have a small will of their own and will be able to fight. When you are done for the day Lunarseer and I shall teach you this in return for a small favor."

"This seems...excellent! Cultists, beat the living manure out of these shadow freaks!" Patient ordered his followers, who charged head-on into the shadow ponies.

As the cult beat the tar from the darkness envoloped creatures, Patient walked up to the humanoid and spoke.

"What is this favor that you need?"

"Hmmm, worry not for now as you still train, my shadows will slowly reform for you to do as you wish till I dispell them. Find me in the Eastern Loft of the castle and follow the music." He bowed deeply from his hips to the Lunarseer before continuing. "Till later Lunarseer". And with that walked back into the hallway.

Patient took this as his cue to continue training.

"Come on, you lazy pukes! These shadows have the ability to fight back! You don't want to be caught with your plot hanging in the wind, do you? No? Then fight harder!" Patient continued to urge his followers to club the shadowy blood from the false ponies.

"Um, Patient?" Starlight flew up to the Lunarseer. "We still haven't set up proper dormitories yet."

Patient Care comitted one of the greatest face-hooves of all time.

"How about we go and fix up the old ones?" Starlight suggested. "The old inhabitants left some wonderful things behind. All we need to do is clean everything up."

"That's...not too bad of an idea, actually." Patient gave the trademark 'not bad' face to his High Priestess as they ushered the other cultists to leave the room with them, leaving the quivering, bleeding shadow ponies on the floor to heal and stand at permenant attention.

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"I think that'll do it." Firefly yelled over the sweeps of brooms, the creaks of wood furniture, and the yells of the Lunarseer givng orders.

"I think so, too." Starlight flew into the air above the busy ponies. "Everypony! We think that's enough!"

Everypony ceased in their work, then glanced toward the Lunarseer.

"Thanks to the lot of you, this is now a decent enough space to live in!" Patient laughed, as slight 'whoops' and 'yeahs' echoed through the cult.

"Let's clean up some more and call it a day."

Author's Note:

Second chapter done! We're planning on pumping out a new chapter of this every night we can set up a livewrite. Moon Mother's Mercy!

Comments

[SteelyThePally]

Wait. Lemme see if I got this right. Patient Care said 'Curse the Solar Empire.' So, Equestria is under civil war? Nice work. And one more question: Is this dead?