Chapter Three
The cult continued to clean for the rest of the day till night started to fall, many of the younger members quietly grumbling about their fatigue to one another, while most were content to get something to eat and head to bed.
Starlight headed into her own room. It was quite nice. Firefly had made one of her portable fires in a jar, which changed color depending on what time it was. There was a large window with her telescope for stargazing, and Inky even had a little nest of blankets. The black cat mewed as her owner entered the room, and Star petted her with one wing. Her bed was nice too, with dark blue sheets. Just as she started to get settled in, there was a soft knock at her door.
"Hmm? Come in." Another series of soft knocks followed soon after.
"I said you can come in." Starlight said, an annoyed edge to her voice. Still the door didnt budge, and the only answer she recieved was one more soft knock on the door.
She threw the door open, coming face to face with one of the shadow puppets they had been messing with earlier that day. A line split where it's mouth would have been and showed a maw lined with razor sharp death, it spoke to her as if whispering through a thunderstorm.
"My Highlord, the one you name Nightshade requests your imediate presence. Follow me and do not fall behind." It then turned and started to walk off.
Starlight flew after the creature. "Where are we going?" It didn't answer, but kept walking through the many corridors in the castle, slowly moving torward the east side of it. Starlight continued to follow, continuing to wonder what was at the end of their walk. As they continued, she started to hear a piano playing a soft tune she didn't recognize, and the closer they got to the Eastern Loft, the louder it became. Eventually they stood outside a grand door that led to the loft itself, the shadow she had followed stopped and looked in her direction, waiting.
"Um, can we go in?" Its mouth reappeared for it to speak again.
"Open." it tillted it's head at the door as it spoke.
Starlight pushed open the large door, the piano's soft tune enveloped them both as they walked inside, at the end of the single long coridoor was a large pipe organ where Nightshade sat playing. The Shadow indicated for her to stop when they got a few feet from him, it walked up and bowed. Nightshade turned around his cloaked head looking at her then back at the Shadow.
"Who is this?"
"One of the leaders of the Cult as you asked Highlord."
"No, I said bring me the leader, uh sometimes I wonder if you just try to annoy me on purpose. I apologize for the interruption Miss Shadow, he was supposed to bring me the Lunarseer but you may stay if you wish, it may concern you as well. And you, go get the Lunarseer. Now!" It hissed at the shadow who quicky ran out of the room.
"Um, no, I'd rather go back to my room, I'll be seeing you, sir." Starlight backed up slowly, then bolted for the door they entered through, literally flying through it and the door slamming shut with a bang. She fled through the maze of corridors they went through, dashed into her room, and curled up on her bed, quaking slightly. Inky meowed in concern, brushing Starlight with her tail. Star waved the cat off and fell asleep without getting under the covers.
**********
"Scaredy pony!" Elm teased his friend, Riona, for being skittish about the abandoned castle they stood before.
"I am not! Quit it." But her own words sounded hollow.
Elm laughed as they walked through the darkening forest, eyeing the many creepy-crawlies of the night that surround the old, dirt path to the ancient manor. Elm soon found an acorn underneath his front hoof and smooshed it, creating a sharp crack.
"AH!" Riona jumped, only to give Elm a dirty look. "Real mature. Real. Mature."
"You should have seen the look on your face!" Elm chuckled, his silver mane almost gleaming in the light of the full moon ahead.
"Well, if I'm such a scaredy pony, why don't we go into that manor? Then we'll see who's the scaredy pony." Riona's defiant smile made her look like a different filly. She pointed to the ancient manor up ahead, which looked a lot bigger now that they were closer to it-and a lot creepier.
"Pffft, whatever." Elm rolled his eyes and continued to walk with Riona towards the nearing castle.
"Well...fillies first!" Elm and Riona were at the massive, sequoya front door, which bore the markss of vandalism and disuse.
"With pleasure." Riona pushed open the doors, stepping inside.
The two foals found themselves within the dim glow of torches. The walls of the decrepit manor seem to have been...revitalized, no longer cracked and moldy, but bore the look of being recently cut from fine stone. The torches on the walls crackled merrily, providing light and life to the many ponies inside, walking around and doing their daily chores and otherwise. All of them wore the same symbol on their cloaks. Princess Luna's cutie mark. An important looking unicorn caught sight of the two fillies, and walked over to them.
"What do we have here?" The unicorn asks as kindly as he possibly can. "Are you two snooping?" He gave a sly smile.
The two foals before him stood motionless. Neither have had more questions and neither had been more scared in their entire lives. The colt with the silver mane was the first, and only one, to lose it...
"GHOSTS!!" He screamed in a high pitched tone, nearly leaping out of his skin. Once he had burst through the doors, Riona started laughing her flanks off.
"Did you see him? And he thinks I'm the scaredy pony." She chuckled, then looked up at the unicorn. "Are you really ghosts?"
"No. We're not translucent, are we?" The light yellow unicorn before her twisted his eyebrows into their interrogative form.
"Oh. I'm Riona." The filly looked relieved. "What are you all doing here?"
"We're the Cult of Luna." Another pony had approached the two, a purple pegasus. A black cat padded alongside her.
"We've converted to this way of life to appease our mistress, Princess Luna, who has given us the blessing of the night, allowing us free reign to convert others into our ideology." The unicorn stated, his eyes filled with passion as he spoke.
"Oh." She skimmed one hoof along the stone floor. "I've always liked Princess Luna too." She admitted. "She always seemed so...so regal, like she knew everything in the world, but didn't feel like telling us. She's my hero. But the ponies in Hufgrund think that she was always evil, even after she turned good. They'll get angry if they discover you. But you know what?" She turned up toward the two adults, an expression of determination on her face. "I don't care. Because I'm joining you."
"G-G-G-GHOSTS!!" Elm shrieked at the top of his lungs, pushing his vocal cords to their absolute limit and waking everypony in town from deep slumber.
Windows and door opened while showers of light poured through each open structural orifice, bleeding photons and concerned feelings onto the town streets.
"What's all this about??" Elm's mother broke from her home and came to her hysterical son in front of their home on the road.
"Riona and I...we got dared to go to the castle...and there were ghosts there!! Riona...I didn't see her come back with me!" Elm told his mother and the other ponies surrounding him his story.
"Wait, Riona's missing??" Riona's father, who lived across the street from Elm, broke the silent crowd before them and spoke up, not giving two bits about the supposed ghosts.
"Yeah! She's back up at the castle! We need to go find her!" Elm wheezed out before passing out in his mother's hooves.
"We need to send out a search party! Get the blacksmith to get us some lanterns, and bring some pitchforks, there are some bad things in those woods at night!" Riona's father flared his wings before the crowd of ponies before them, who scrambled to get their equipment.
"And over here is the armory. We keep our weapons in here, as well as practice a bit. Over here is the library!" Starlight threw open the large, grand library doors, her eyes glowing. Riona had learned that Starlight Shadow was the purple pegasus' name during her brief introduction to the Lunarseer and High Priestess before-hoof; she had also learned that the unicorn's name was Patient Care. She wondered if there were more fillies her age; if so, she couldn't wait-
*BANG* *BANG* *BANG*
"Riona! We're coming in, baby!" The voice of an older stallion rung through the main hallway of the manor, grabbing everypony's attention.
Without warning, the colossal, hardwood doors burst open, sending in a flood of about twenty frightened ponies, each wielded either a lantern or a pitchfork. A tall pegasus, dipped in the same color scheme as Riona, waltzed towards the three ponies before him...one of them he recognized dearly.
"Get your filthy hooves off my daughter, you freaks!!" The pegasus charged toward Patient Care, knocking him over with a bash of his head and sending droplets of saliva into the air.
"Daddy?"
He turned toward his daughter.
"I chose to stay with these ponies. Don't take me away."
Gasps all around. Then a foal's shriek snapped the near-silence in two...like an acorn getting stepped on.
"She's possesed! The ghosts possed her! Take her to the solar priest!" Elm pushed through the crowd until he was face to face with the robed Riona.
"Ri, Riona, do you recognize me?"
"Of course she recognizes you." A purple pegasus stepped forward. "We don't have it in our power to possess a rock, much less a living, breathing filly. Does this pass through you?"
She smacked the little colt.
"Don't you dare hit my daughter's friend, you little bitch!" Riona's father smacked the purple pegasus twice as hard as she did the colt.
"Both of you! Stop!" The unicorn roared, charging up his horn with a fire spell, engulfing his forehead in flames.
"What is this now? You're going to sacrifice my daughter to your crazy little cult gods??" Riona's father got right up in Patient's face, almost spitting in his eyes.
"We. Do. Not. Sacrifice. To Luna!" Patient's scratchy growl pierced through the ears of the cult, who stands behind their leaders, maces at the ready.
The crowd of townsponies behind the paternal pegasus readied their lanterns and pitchforks.
"Luna?? What kind of gig is this, some sick fetish meet up?" The disgust on Riona's father's face was real; it bled into his soul.
"We worship Luna! We're here to spread her word throughout Equestria! We were only interested in seeing if your daughter wanted to join!" Patient's fire spell cooled down slightly, only engulfing his horn.
"Wait...you worship that crazy moon whore? She tried to cover Equestria in darkness for a thousand years!" The pegasus angrily flung at the Lunarseer, who already had his response at the ready.
"That was when she turned evil! Celestia forced her to make that decision! She was tired of being second best. Now, she wants her revenge on her good-for-nothing cunt of a sister. Now if you feel that our cause is just or not is your business only! But I don't think your opinions should justify what your daughter thinks is right or wrong!" Patient snapped, trying to lure the pegasus into his way of thinking.
"You...you ponies are insane! Come on, Riona, we're leaving! Wait until Celestia's royal guard hear about this, then you'll be in the Canterlot dungeon, you bunch of fucking weirdos!" The pegasus strutted for the door, grabbing his daughter by the cloak and dragging her along with her.
"One more thing..." Patient interrupted the slow retreat of the towns ponies.
"What?" The pegasus snapped in a nasally tone.
"I already signed up." Riona said quietly. "I'm a Shining, Daddy. They said that meant I was shining new. Please let me go now."
"B-but Riona...these ponies are psychopaths! This isn't right; Celestia is the better princess because she kept Equestria safe without Luna for a thousand years." Riona's father stammered, horrified by his daughter's insistence to stay in the cult.
"She was my hero, Daddy. She still is. But every time I went to say so, you didn't want to hear it. Here, these ponies have the same mindset I do. And together, we will pass on our goodwill." She tore herself free of her father's grasp, and went to stand between Starlight, Patient, and the rest of the cult behind her.
She looked so serene, so grown-up. It tore her father's heart in half.
"Goodwill?? You sound like one of them!" Her father stammered still, only now with tears strolling down his face.
"Sir...if you take the time to listen to us, you might change your mind...and have your daughter back." Patient quietly suggested, making the townsponies chatter amongst themselves.
One of the longest silences Patient had ever seen took place in front of him. The emotions of Riona's father before him were almost palpable and everypony could tell.
Finally, he spoke up...
"Fine...what's so special about Luna, anyways?" Riona's father walks up to the group of three, putting his foreleg around his daughter, who snuggled up to him for having an open mind.
"...and that's why the Cult was formed." Patient ended his 30 minute long lecture of the cult's existence and Luna's will towards the Hufgrund-ites.
Riona's father looked astonished.
"I...she...It all makes sense now." His hoof touched his face, sliding down onto the ground.
The townsfold behind the family stood agape, almost in epiphany.
"Riona...I think your daddy might be in this with you." He smiled down at his daughter, who's face starts to stream tears of joy.
The two embrace. The townsfolk grow massive smiles; even Elm, who had been irrational the whole time, seemed confident.
"Praise Luna!" One of the townsponies piped up, leading to the next pony to do so, then the next.
"Praise Luna..." Riona's father whispered into Riona's ear.
"Now go, convert Hufgrund to the Cult's way! Together, we shall make Equestria whole!" Patient shouted.
The townsponies let out a collective cheer and sprinted down towards the town, dropping their pitchforks and lanterns...which were then confiscated by the Cult and added to their armory.
"Thank you so much for...enlightening my daughter and I. If there's anything I can do for you, let me know." Riona's father smiled at Patient, who smirked back.
"Nothing really...but you could tell me your name."
"Lightning Runner." Riona's father and Patient nodded to each other.
The father/daughter combo slowly walked towards the town
Also LikedSimilarAuthor
- SpiralWriter · 47k words · 150 4 · 1.9k views
- Bucephalus · 58k words · 50 2 · 2.2k views
- SmokeShadow95 · 100k words · 91 11 · 3.7k views
- butterscotchsundae · 45k words · 370 22 · 6.2k views
- Storm Shine · 15k words · 91 13 · 4k views
- The Zealot · 34k words · 383 30 · 7.6k views
- Orkus · 31k words · 148 11 · 2.7k views
Stats
Page generated in 0.108 seconds
Total duration
713 users online
789,028 hits today, 2,151,698 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Our influence is growing, High Priestess!
Also, I think the rating should be switched to 'teen' because of chapter 3.
3605587
Ohhh another group Dedicated to My Queen what to you think Mordteiva?
(Check them out what else)
im goona say this once, If we c Fader post's at all deleted or not were threatening him.....agrred
unbelievable. Now yu guys are righting a story on this?? Give it a rest! we all know that RP is dying and theres nothing you all can do about it!
3647616 Well, there's this thing. Really cool thing, it's called we can write what we want and I am all out of bucks to give about trolls that attack our group.
3647628 its not attacking, it's called telling you teh truth!
3647641 Uh uh. I have an issue with your definition of "the truth".
"The truth" is a fact about something, a.k.a. Lauren Faust developed My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic for television.
What you are stating is called "your opinion" and you stated it in a very nasty manner, which is basically attacking our group for what seems to be no reason. Also, RP is far from dead, just search "RP" in the group search bar and you'll find quite a few groups. It's pretty fun too. In my opinion.
3647655 its fun if your a fuckin nerd like u and patient seem to be......and as fader has told me too.
3647669 Key phrase "seem to be". Get to know us a bit better, and maybe we aren't as bad as you think.
3647674 oh i can tell right from the start that you two are all buddybuddy and like to get fucked in butt by patient.......from what fader says and i belive him. so no thanks.
3647680 Or we're just good friends. Jeez.
3647687 nope you know you like to get fucked in the butt by patient! haha gayyyyyyyy!
3647699 haha yeah!!
3647699 The hay do you know about my sexuality. You're just assuming things now.
3647699 What the fuck is wrong with you??
3647719 a hundered persent things less than you!
3647711 yu a dude who likes to get fucked in the butt by patient! that means you gay!
3647725
So, by that logic, if a guy is friends with a girl, they automatically have to be having sex with each other. Get your mind out of the gutter.
3647719 dont talk to my friend like that!
come on 3647725 lets leave and leave the fagets to shitfuck!
3647738 get patients cock outta ur ass first.
3647744 Agreed! lets let these losers to do nothing with their life!
3647749 We're friends. We have never met face to face, but I count him as one of my friends on the Internet. You, on the other hand, probably have only met people on the Internet from dating sites, where romance and special hugging is encouraged. THAT must be where your premature assumption comes from.
3647769 haha i meet people in real life not on the webs! you guys are just anonymously nerd-shaggin behind the cult curtains.
only geeks like YU and p meet people on the internet! Get a life!
3647784 Dear Princess Luna,
Have you ever heard of talking on the Internet? You know, on forums and such? We converse that way quite a bit, and I count him as someone I like spending my time on the computer with. I also have real life friends, but when I'm on the computer, there are friends to be made too.
One of your faithful students,
Starlight Shadow
3647803 ooh so now ur getting shagged from behind by patient and pegged from the front by luna! this is HOT!
3647822
You know, not all relationships are based solely on special hugging.
3647828 oh come on you know you like it!
i gotta go now dont have too much fun without me gurl
3647842 Are you serious. Because I'm not special hugging anypony at the moment, despite what the little voices in your head are telling you.
3647842 Why are you so goddamn insistent on making it seem like Starlight and I knock it out?? Haven't you ever heard of friendship?? It's in the name of the fucking show!
3647857>>3647867
img9.joyreactor.com/pics/post/funny-pictures-auto-502649.jpeg
3647842
Hello Cryophyte I'm going to try this the NICE way.
You are entitled to your opinion as you see it but just because you have that right does not mean one should abuse it by attacking a small group for what they choose to write or believe.
(Even if you do wish to speak against it at least show a bit of compadreism, and speak from not a point half way up your flank.)
Mordteiva we will be civil (yes sir)
3647744
Fader we Warned you before and we will not again, or you tring to be an insufferable foal, or will you be an adult and adhere to what we agreed on!
3647628>>3647719
High Priestess, Lunarseer
We have determined a difference in this problem then what was in the forum
(Please refrain from communicating in anyway to either foal and let us work it out from here)
Yes let us deal with these narrow-minded ones, please continue with the collab whilst we work.
(Oh and you might want to consider a password on the live write for safety)
3966511
Hi sorry it's not dead, just was kinda put aside cause few contributed to it and few of us were on at the same time to write it, Currently We are personally rewriting it. If thou arnt still interested keep watch and thy shall have it updated
3647867
3647628
BTW Patient, Starlight, may We have a personal message from you describing what your charecters were supposed to look like, SInce the Group was Disavowed, the Information is lost to us to reiterate