Chapter Four: Give me the Night
An Icy Existence
Chapter 4: Give Me the Night
By DigitDaemon
Edited (and much much more) by Blood Lord
far north in a land plagued by the moaning wind and driving snow was a barren desert of ice and in the center of that desert, stood a single tower. The tower rose up from the snow around it like a snaggled, rotting tooth with wreckage and debris sticking out of it. The high winds of the chilled wasteland had long ago given up on toppling the grim obstacle and instead swirled around it singing its mournful dirge.
Atop the tower there was a throne made completely out of ice and far to big for anything but a dragon. Around the empty seat gathered a group of four figures, waiting patiently for their Master. One of them was a massive beetle with short wings and a spiky carapace. Another was the ghost of a female deer wearing physical clothing. The third was a minotaur, or what was left of one, most of the flesh had rotted away and the skeleton was left bear. The last figure was a griffon whose exposed body was covered in crimson runes.
The four of them stood in silence, none of them particularly liking each other. However, their cooperation was not up to them to decide and so they stood in an uncomfortable peace.
Waiting for him.
Twilight sat at the small table in Fluttershy’s cottage and watched as the butter yellow pegasus busily zipped around the room to attend to her animals. About an hour after the local guard had arrived, a contingency of arcane investigators from the royal archive in Canterlot had shown up and sealed off the library, effectively displacing a disgruntled Twilight Sparkle and Spike.
Being separated from her books was hard enough, but she also had further tests and studies on herself she wanted to run, research to do and needed her tree house. Rainbow Dash had to leave for her own work with the weather team, leaving Twilight bored as she watched Fluttershy take care of her chores with Spike’s help. Twilight had offered to help, but under the circumstances, Fluttershy was afraid that she might be too rough with the animals, and Twilight had to grudgingly agreed.
With a deep sigh, Twilight put her head down on her hooves and looked out on the table. A old animal care magazine, some pencils, the morning mail, her glass of water…
Twilight bolted up, a sudden idea forming in her head. She picked up her glass of water with both of her hooves, because her magic would have frozen it instantly, and poured the contents onto the table, afterwards, she used a pinprick of telekinetic energy to slowly form a cube shape out of the water. She then cut the cube into twenty seven smaller cubes of equal size and reassembled them into a larger cube. She added her friends and her own cutie mark to each side to differentiate them, and then with a few last touches, her puzzle cube was complete. She immediately began running through different permutations and their solutions.
“Twelve seconds…” she mumbled to herself. “Slower than average, by three percent.”
As Twilight sat the cube down to ponder the meaning of her self observations she realised that the usual noise of Fluttershy’s cottage was gone. She looked up and found Fluttershy, Spike, and all of the animals looking at her with amazement on their faces.
“Wow Twilight,” Fluttershy praised, “that was really good. I’ve never seen someone solve one of those things so quickly.”
Twilight blushed a bit. “Well, I’ve done better…”
"Yes, it was quite amazing, actually, whispered the voice in her head. That would be an invaluable skill to have as a warrior."
Twilight wrinkled her muzzle in annoyance. "It’s just permutations and memorization, combat is too chaotic to use the the same principle."
"I wasn’t referring to that, you took one look at that cube thing, and you were able plan out every move you would have to make to solve it. That is an important part of fighting, knowing how to read your enemy."
Twilight shook her head, "Well, I guess it is to bad I am not a warrior then."
"If you want to survive the coming storm, you will need to learn to be one. and since we seem to share a body now, I would also appreciate your continued survival."
“What storm?”
Fluttershy gave her a confused look, “Um, Twilight? The weather’s is only a little cloudy, are you feeling alright?”
Twilight was confused for a second, being interrupted reminded her that she wasn’t alone. “Sorry Fluttershy, I was just discussing something with…” She hesitated, not sure she should tell her friend the truth or not. While she trusted the yellow pegasus, she also knew that her friend was easily frightened, and while maybe she had a reason to be so, Twilight didn’t want to frighten her friend. Eventually, her conscience got the better of her though. “Fluttershy, we need to talk.”
Twilight marched past the line of investigators still hanging around the tree. Her conversation had gone as well as could be expected. Fluttershy was obviously nervous at the revelation but had managed to stay brave for her friends sake. While Twilight was thankful that the pegasus cared enough to not run or hide, She really didn’t do a good job at hiding her fear. Walking on eggshells around her friend was not something Twilight had any interest in doing and decided instead to cut her visit short and see if the guard was done at her library.
Twilight reached the end of the hallway and found the pony she was looking for standing over a chalk outline that had replaced the form of her attacker.
“So... was it him?” Twilight asked the detective.
“If you mean the body we picked up on the outskirts of town, yes.” He paused to jot something down in his notebook. “We are still waiting for an expert’s opinion but it seems that he was reanimated with some class of necromancy.”
Twilight nodded. “Is there any way to find out who reanimated him?”
The detective shrugged in response. “That’s for the expert to determine.”
“Right…” Twilight looked back outside at the other guardsponies standing outside. “So, when will you be done here?”
“In about an hour, hopefully. Princess Celestia asked that there be a guard detail post twenty four seven around the library though.”
“Of course she did…” Twilight rolled her eyes at the idea of needing a security detail. Although events provide it was a good idea, she could take care of herself. Not to mention that Celestia did it without even asking her. Twilight felt her temper flare at that last thought, and threw one more comment back at the detective before leaving. “Just... make sure they stay out of my way.”
The sergeant looked up from his notebook, slightly put off from the sudden change in attitude, “Yes, your Highness. I’ll speak with them before I leave.”
Twilight flicked her tail in a half hearted gesture of thanks and walked off towards the kitchen.
"What are you so upset about? At least they make an effort to protect you"
Twilight checked that she was out of earshot of the Sergeant. “What do you mean by that?”
"Did Luna ever tell you what happened a thousand years ago?"
“Are we really going to talk about that now?” asked Twilight as she summoned a journal from her desk. “Weren’t you there when she talked about it?”
"It has relevance, Princess. Just answer the question."
“Yeah, she built an army to try and overthrow Princess Celestia,” Twilight said as if reciting from a history book.
"Correct, but did she tell you how she built that army? How she convinced tens of thousands of ponies to fight and die for her?"
“No,” Twilight replied slowly, not liking where this conversation was going.
"Of course not!"The general’s voice changed from mild disinterest to thinly veiled anger. "Well, let me tell you a story then…"
Twilight involuntarily swallowed at the generals words, knowing she did not want to hear them and also that she had no choice.
"One thousand years ago Luna decided that she wanted to control all the day as well as the night and knew that she would have to overthrow her sister to do it."
“I know,” said Twilight. “It’s a old pony’s tale about Nightmare Moon. She was beaten by Celestia by using the Elements of Harmony to banish her to the moon.”
"That would be the candy coated version," whispered the voice. "Luna needed power, an army and officers to command it. More importantly, she needed the public to believe that Celestia was a monster."
“Hmm, Mhm. Fascinating,” said Twilight as she began to doodle in the top corner of the journal.
"So, in order to convince towns to join her, she dressed her followers up as castle guards and disguised herself as her sister. Then, she destroyed burned and pillaged her way across the country side until she had drawn enough enemies towards her sister so that she was evenly matched."
“That...But she… What?”Twilight had to stop herself for a moment and collect her thought, “But that was the Nightmare wasn’t it? Nightmare Moon, right?”
Frostmourne snorted in contempt "Not at first. Luna sought power she needed to overthrow her sister, so she searched far and wide, tapping into her own powers of the night and the dark magics of King Sombra. Nightmare Moon emerged far later as a result. the “princess” that destroyed my village and killed my wife and unborn child was cold and calculating. Who knows, maybe Nightmare Moon was a fractured part of her psyche or something that she created herself, but she had always seemed sane to me."
Twilight slumped down onto the floor, trying to process what she had just been told. Luna was a tyrant and a murderer? Celestia lied and even erased some of the history of Equestria to protect her sister?.
“No!” Twilight shouted pulling herself back up and slamming the journal close. “I don’t believe you. Why should I?”
"Oh I don’t know, maybe because I was there" deadpanned the voice. "I have only been truthful to you, my dear Princess, what would I have against you to believe otherwise?"
“You tried to kill me.”
"The circumstance were more complicated than you could understand."
“Try me,” Twilight spat.
"That’s a story for later. Perhaps you should asked your esteemed mentor and her treacherous sister about this instead."
Twilight stood there seething for a moment before finally teleporting a blank scroll and writing utensils to herself. She quickly jotted down a message copied it to another scroll and teleported both copies away.
“I will ask them and once they tell me the truth, I will find a way to burn you from my mind,” promised Twilight as she sat down to wait..
The winds of the far north tremble and died at the throes of an even greater force. The four hooded figures looked up to the sky as the sound of pounding wings grew louder. From the cloud covered sky, descended the undead titian. He was most likely the largest dragon in all of the lands, but he had died many ages ago. It was difficult to tell where the dried, rotten flesh remained and the cold ice began. Pure magic pounded in his body and wings, casting an eerie glow and illuminating his skeleton. He was a dracolich, the ancient undead of the dragons.
The dracolich circled the tower once before landing on his throne, and letting out a commanding roar. The force shaking the entire tower so badly that its thunder was echoed by the sound of ice and other thing breaking free and crashing to the icy desert below.
The Four Figures quickly bowed before the dracolich as he studied them with glowing blue eyes that reflected a wicked intelligence.
“Where there were once five, there stands four,” his voice rumbled softly. “Why has your brother failed to return to me? Do my summons mean nothing to him?”
The ghost pony spoke, still bowing, “Lord, Malganis has taken Kelzad and his forces to Equestria in search of you blade.”
The dracolich snorted, sending a small tremor through the tower. “He presumes to know my will? Rash and arrogant as ever. They will fall as will those that oppose me.”
The dracolich looked over the commanders of his army. “Stand, I did not spare you so that you may entertain my ego.”
The massive beast looked carefully at each of them as he spoke. “ When your Master needs something of you, it will be commanded. As for my blade, it is right where it needs to be, in the possession of the one who will use it most effectively. Understood?”
The four commanders nodded.
“Now, Sylvana…“Take your forces and guard the coast, take your time in preparing your defence. If Kelzad is going to play his hand, we can expect Equestria to respond in kind. Let them fall where they land..” The Dragon watched as the ghost bowed and took a step back, then he rested his eyes on the monstrous beetle that stood before him
“Anubrak…Inevitably, some of their forces will break through. Set up a labyrinth of tunnels to draw them into. Kill all who enter.”
“I’ll see to it,” replied the Crypt Lord.
“Cerabyss.”The rotting minotaur stepped forward.
“You will divide your force between Sylvana's and Anubrak's. You shall funnel the living to our maws and our spears. Do not allow them to wander around.”
“Of course,” Cerabyss return turned and shuffled back into line with the other commanders.
“And you Talous,” The deathly monstrosity smiled cruelly.
“Yes, sir?” The griffin shuddered under the dead Elder Dragon’s gaze.
“Since you and your armies are still living, you will serve me two fold. You will take your army to Equestria and die there for me in battle. Then see to it that you lead their armies back here.”
When the griffin general failed to answer, the dragon lord eyed him with amusement before leaning down so that his head rest just feet away from the griffin’s face. “Talous. Did you hear your Master? Are you shrinking back from your promise to me? Shall I seek out a different soul more worthy of my gifts of immortality? ” the dracolich said softly.
“Y-your will is mine.” Talous said quickly, and with a slight stutter.
“Good,” the dragon sat back up right and made a dismissive gesture with his left wing. “Go forth, my commanders. Lead the living to their deaths.”
Twilight paced back and forth nervously as she awaited the princesses to arrive. She was sure that her fears would be dismissed by them. After all what reason did she have to trust the soul of a pony who was there to witness it first hoof?
“Okay, so maybe my fears are a little more rational than I’d like, but I still doubt that its the exact truth.” Twilight said aloud to herself. She knew that waiting wasn’t exactly the best thing to do for her. It made her anxious and the result of that was never good; Ponyville actually had its own incident log for those occasions that Twilight Sparkle was forced to wait and descended into the madness of anxiety. Luckily, for both Twilight and Ponyville, her pacing was soon interrupted by a crash in library’s main room.
Twilight trotted into the next room still muttering to herself. She plucked the blue pegasus from the pile of books and stacked them back into the bookshelf. Rainbow Dash’s ungraceful entrances were actually so common now that this was all accomplished by a single spell Twilight had created a spell specific for situations like this
“Thanks Twi.” Rainbow responded, mostly out of habit, the nuance of crashing through the window having worn off on her as well.
“No problem,” Twilight said in between hushed whispers to herself.
“Yo, Twilight, you alright?”
“No.”
Rainbow Dash finally walked around to the front of her spaced out friend and waved her hoof in front of the mare’s muzzle. Twilight shook her head back and forth several times and finally focused her attention on Rainbow.
“Sorry, I was just...thinking,” Twilight said with a sigh.
Rainbow Dash snorted, “Yeah, when are you not? What are you thinking, or should I say worrying about?”
“Its nothi…” Rainbow Dash interrupted her answer with a shake of the head, communicating that nothing was not an acceptable answer. “The princesses might not be who we think they are.”
“What, are they aliens?”
“No, they might not be as innocent as we think they are.”
“Well duh!” Rainbow Dash said in exasperation, “You think anyone could live as long as they have without banging?”
Twilights cheeks turned a slight shade of red and her sad expression turned to horror.
“What?” Rainbow Dash responded with confusion.
Twilight shook her head. “That's not what I meant at all.”
“Oh.”
“I meant, they might have more blood on their hooves than we thought.”
This time it was Rainbow Dash who looked mildly horrified, “Oooooh.”
The two stood in silence for a few more seconds before Rainbow Dash’s face returned to its normal chipper look. “Well, I guess that kind of makes sense though, doesn’t it? I mean they lived during the times of Discord and King Sombra. They must have gotten there hooves dirty at some point.”
Twilight nodded, “Yeah, that is true, and I am also willing to accept that they have to capacity to make mistakes, but that's still not exactly what I am talking about.”
The blue weather pony shrugged in defeat. “If you're not going to tell me what it is that has you so worried,” she said in an uncharacteristically sullen voice. “Then how am I supposed to help you as a friend? I mean, that's why I came here in the first place.”
“I-I know, Rainbow,” said Twilight as she sat down. It’s just… I’m pretty sure this is wrong, something silly, and there is no sense in spreading rumors without cause.”
Rainbow Dash shrugged and walked over to one of the shelves pretending to suddenly be interested in the subject of pre-classical literature.
“Rainbow,” Twilight said with a sigh, “You don’t have to pretend to read as an excuse to hang around.”
“Oh thank Celestia,” the blue speedster replied with obvious relief as she returned the book to the wrong shelf. The fact that it was an improvement over her usual discarding of books on the floor brought a smile to Twilight’s face.
“You are quite welcome, my little pony.”
Both Twilight and Dash spun to face the door, finding both Princess Celestia and Luna walking in.
“SorryIdefinitlydidnotthinkyouwouldhearthatgottogobye” The prism haired pegasus shouted as she fled out the same window she had crashed through minutes before.
Twilight on the other hoof diverted her gaze to the floor.
“Hello, Twilight Sparkle,” greeted Celestia as a pair of cushions levitated over for the three to sit on. “You seem troubled, more so than usual. Is there a problem?”
“I have a... question,” Twilight said cautiously, as if the intention itself might hurt her.
Luna walked up to the new princess and hunched down, putting her face in between Twilight and the ground. “I assume that this question is about the past, my past, and you are afraid that we will be upset by your asking.”
“No,” said Twilight as she looked up. “I am afraid that I will be angry at your answer, both your answers.”
Celestia gently took a seat on one of the floor cushions and motioned for both Twilight and Luna to do the same.
“We also assume that you and our former general have been speaking then?” Luna asked once they had settled.
Twilight nodded.
“Well, then, the knowledge will be no less to bear the longer we wait, what is it thou would ask of us?”
Twilight gulped, trying to overcome the lump in her throat, “Did you kill them?”
Luna locked eyes with the quivering young alicorn. “I have killed many in the past, young Twilight. So you’re going to have to be more specific about ‘them’.”
"Stalling, typical. You will die before you get a straight answer from her. Or, on occasion, right afterwards."
“The villagers, when you were building your army,” Twilight’s words became a bit more forceful, “Did you kill them?”
“We—” Luna was silenced by Celestia’s raised hoof.
“Twilight, why is the past, this past such a fascination to you right now?” asked the Sun Princess.
“Because there is a voice in my head who I am inclined to not believe,” replied Twilight, no longer nervous but determined to find the truth as she looked back at her former teacher. “But I can only disagree if I have evidence that he is wrong and I trust you two enough to give me the truth.”
“Yes,” quietly said Luna. “I killed them, all of them. I choose to embrace something dark, and I made up a persona to hide behind when I could no longer face what I had done. Nightmare Moon. With her… with it, I could pretend I was detached from everything that it wasn’t me. Does that satisfy you, Twilight Sparkle?”
The youngest of the three alicorns looked at her in horror. “W-why?”
“Why? You have yet to understand the addictions of power, true power,” said Luna as she stood up. “I hold no excuse for myself, and I will not justify what I did. I had one thousand years to come to terms with myself. I imagine it will also take time for you too.”
With a flash of deep blue light, the Princess of the Night was gone.
Twilight slumped down onto her belly, her eyes unfocused. “And you,” she whispered. “You knew didn’t you?”
“Yes,” Celestia started to approach her former student, but before she could touch a hoof to Twilight to comfort her, but she didn’t get that chance. There was another flash of magic, this time magenta as Twilight reappeared a few feet away.
“How could you cover for her?” Twilight screamed at her old mentor. “She committed murder, hundreds of times. She killed her own soldiers, innocent families so they would hate you more and you just swept it under the rug!”
“Twilight, please calm down.”
“Calm? How can I be calm knowing that the biggest criminal and tyrant ever to exist in this nation escaped justice because of you?!”
“She faced justice Twilight, the Elements saw to it. Celestia replied, still calm and tempered. “She faced a thousand years on the moon, alone, trapped. Only able to think about what she had done.”
“Oh, timeout then. Go sit on the moon and think about what you did young lady!”” Twilight gave a sarcastic chuckle. “Good to know that each ponies life is worth one year in the eyes of the great Elements of Harmony. Donut Joe still owes me for poker last month, guess I’ll just stab him while he sleeps, it’s only a years punishment. And hell! I’m immortal, why should I care about a year here and there, right?”
“Twilight, enough,” commanded the alicorn as the sharp glint of anger crossed her eyes.
“Enough? Enough?!” Twilight screamed. “Enough of what? facing the past? Answering for what yo—”
“Twilight Sparkle!” boomed Princess Celestia. “You weren’t there! You have no idea what decisions I had to face that night against Luna, against my only blood. Could you swing the executioner's axe against Shining Armor if he became like Sombra? Could you strike him down?”
“D-don’t—” stammered Twilight as she took a step back, ears folding back and her eyes squeezed shut. But it wasn’t from cowering down, it was from trying to control the boiling anger within. She wanted to lash out, she wanted to… she wanted to...
“Some day, Twilight, you’ll have to make hard decisions,” said Celestia with sadness as she stood up. “You’ll have to live with not only what you choose to do, but what you could have done.”
Twilight looked up at her former mentor, this time the glint of anger was clear in her own eyes. Celestia responded with a eyebrow raised in amusement. “Don’t do it, Twilight.”
“Don’t what?”
“Please—”
“Please what?!” Twilight Screamed hysterically.
“Please help!” shrieked a familiar voice from outside followed seconds later by the shattering of glass as a blooded Rainbow Dash plowed through one of the closed windows. She didn’t even acknowledge the wounds however as she looked at Twilight and Celestia, her eyes wide with fear.
“Zombies are attacking Ponyville!”
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5813733 Don't worry it is gibberish based off of Latin. You can probably still read fine.
it's nice to see this being updated. even if it was half a year later.
Well enough with the last nightmare. Anyways really like the story and zombies in ponyville bit gotta love zombies
5815987 Next chapter is going to have some really good fighting in it.
The f on far, the open word for the chapter, it needs to be capitalized.
Whoops.
Hah!