32. Into the Darkness - Part 2
There was nothing. I took a deep breath and leaped through the door ready for a fight… but no attack came and I felt foolish. Foolish, but not foolish enough to lower my guard as I looked around. Rich purple carpet covered the stone floor and was still in relatively good shape. It ran into the various narrow halls that shot off each side of the foyer. In front of me were two curved staircases that led up to a balcony and I chose that path first.
Both staircases were in the shadow of the large balcony above. It jutted out over the foyer and was likely designed to allow a noble to address those below. It also resulted in the trip up being somewhat blind and that raised my hackles again. When I reached the halfway point on the stairs, it suddenly dawned on me that there was a soft light emanating from above. It wasn’t intense, but it was there.
Light but no sound. I lowered my stance just slightly and crept up until I reached the top. A couple of meters in front of me was a large pillar that I couldn't see around. Light spilled out from the opposite side of it as if it framed a window. That light illuminated two large marble thrones that overlooked the foyer below. They were far nicer than the one Princess Celestia occupied in Canterlot.
For the second time, I felt a wave of fear. Why did this place have thrones? Did someone rule from here? Was Princess Luna concerned that they were coming back? The mission felt suddenly more important… and dangerous. I wanted to see what was on the other side of the pillar. I needed to.
I gave the pillar a wide berth as I crept around it. More light poured out onto the floor and I hesitated stepping into it. Keeping my head down, I carefully tested the light. It was neither warm nor dangerous. I stepped into it and looked up.
Vaguely, I heard the sword clatter onto the floor as my mouth opened wide in awe. My legs weakened and on instinct alone I prostrated myself as I looked onwards at the brilliance beyond the pillar.
This was, in fact, a window. A stained glass window the likes of which I had never seen. It put all of the windows in the palace to shame. By comparison, they were nothing more than colored glass… meaningless.
In the center of this wonder, she stood proudly: a dark purple alicorn more imposing than Princess Celestia. Her mane and tail were painted with the evening heavens in the same way Princess Luna’s were and on her flank was a perfect full moon surrounded by stars.
Even though I knew it was just glass, it was as if I was in her actual presence. Perfect, deep blue eyes stared directly into my soul. The light—all of it—radiated from the alicorn figure. A self-illuminating window. She was awesome to behold… and not the ‘awesome’ we throw around casually. Awesome in the way ponies of old used the word. She inspired in me an overwhelming feeling of reverence, admiration, and fear.
Compared to her, I was nothing. Compared to her, we were all nothing. Nopony could stand in her presence… except one. I suddenly realized there was another pony in the stained glass. It took all of my effort but I tore my eyes from the alicorn to look at the other pony. A foal or a filly. Tiny by comparison. She was a deep blue unicorn with a smattering of black on her flank. Black that surrounded a crescent moon.
“Luna!” I gasped.
What had I seen? I fumbled on the floor for my sword and hurriedly sheathed it. Backing away respectfully, I crawled down the stairs. Once all traces of the light were gone, the grip on my soul released. This dark alicorn was too powerful. I put a hoof on a wall to stabilize myself. My coat was covered in sweat and my breathing had turned ragged.
What sort of magic was this? Who was she? How could a stained glass window have such power? I felt my chest tighten as fear washed over me. It couldn’t be any ordinary window. Canterlot was full of them and I had looked at them more times than I could count. This was different.
As I stumbled out of the keep, I looked around with new eyes. She must have done this. Everything was in shambles yet her window was pristine. That meant she was still here. Her presence had to have been what I had felt. And now she knew I was here, too.
I had seen all I needed to see and I wanted out of the crypt. With little regard to being quiet, I galloped out of the keep and leaped into the air. Flying would be faster. I zipped down the main street and into the winding hallway that I knew would take me out. What was probably minutes felt like hours when I finally burst out into the moonlight.
My landing outside the cavern was not graceful. I crashed onto the platform, sputtering and shivering. Rest wasn’t on my mind, however. It took a second to find my helmet and get it on before I started pumping my wings. I had to get back to Princess Luna and warn her immediately about this magic. We were all in danger!
☾
There wasn’t any time to go through the gate. The princess had to be warned! I flew to the balcony of Princess Luna’s chambers. The great glass doors were open and I zipped through them... and the invisible spell that kept out intruders. Only the princess and her royal guards were keyed for it.
I had too much momentum and tried to pull back as best I could. It wasn’t enough and resulted in a rough, loud landing as I crashed into the princess’s sitting area.
“Intruder!” Lavender called before bursting into the chamber and charging at me. Risky was hot on her heels.
“Intruder?” It was here already?! I turned, ready to fight just as Lavender leaped at me. What was she doing?!
My instincts kicked in and I ducked out of the way. I took her by the forehoof and used her momentum to topple her onto the ground.
Risky took a wild swing at me and I dodged. He got a one-two right in the helmet.
“What are you two doing?!” I managed to get out before Lavender jumped onto my back. She had her hooves around my neck to subdue me. Tucking my head in close, I bucked several times and finally tossed her over me and back onto the ground.
“BE STILL!”
Everything stopped and the lights came on. Princess Luna was standing in the door of her bedroom.
Lavender and Risky Storm stared at me in surprise.
“Sergeant?” Lavender asked, her eyes going wide.
“Of course, can’t you see—” I stopped. Of course she couldn’t. I could see in the dark. She couldn’t. “I’m sorry. You two did excellent on this little test. Please, take up position outside and uh… Risky, go see the medic. You’re bleeding.”
The pair looked at me like I was crazy. Then they looked at Princess Luna. She nodded and they left. Once they were gone, the adrenaline wore off and the shivers started once more, forcing me to kneel.
“Silent Knight! What is the matter? What didst thou see?” Princess Luna asked as she hurried over to me and pulled my helmet off. She cupped my face with a hoof.
“Gone… They were all gone. Nothing left but rotting, empty houses bathed in silence and gloom.” My breathing became easier as the princess held me. The fear was starting to subside.
I continued, “There was a keep and inside I found a stained glass window… it was so lifelike I thought I was staring at real ponies. You were on it with a purple alicorn.”
Princess Luna froze and stared down at me. My words lingered in the air before she finally stroked my mane. “It scared thee?”
“Terrified,” I admitted. “Is she dangerous?”
“Nay. I promise thee she is not dangerous. What thou art feeling… it is a control magic of sorts.” She shook her head. "I can’t explain it other than to say that it will pass. Thou art in no real danger, I swear. Relax and breathe,” she soothed.
“Who is she? You were a unicorn?”
The princess leaned down and kissed my forehead. “Some secrets are best left buried, Silent Knight.” She then fixed me with her eyes. “Thou art not to speak of this to anypony. Give me thy word.”
What was the princess trying to hide? Anypony meant everypony. Including Princess Celestia. Princess Luna never lied to her sister that I knew of… but I had to trust her. I was her protector and what did I know? “You have my word that I will not repeat it unless I believe it to be a danger to us all.”
She nodded and helped me up. "That will do. I can assure you, there is no danger."
Then she fidgeted. With a sigh, she asked, “Were there many bodies? Were they well cared for?”
I blinked in confusion, the haze of the magic starting to wane. “Bodies? No, Princess. I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean gone as in departed, I meant gone as in… departed.” I made a motion with my forehooves to mime walking away and leaving.
In her eyes, I saw a glimmer of hope and her expression changed briefly to joy before evening out. “None? No bodies, no bones?”
“No. Whoever lived there had clearly moved away. They left nothing but what was too big to carry.”
Princess Luna brought a hoof to her mouth, tears in her eyes. “They left.” Her tone was joyous. “They left!” she repeated happily before hugging me. “Thank thee. I know that this was difficult but thine action hath brought me great joy. Go and rest, Silent Knight. I give my word that by tomorrow, thou wilt feel as normal.”
“Of course, Princess. Will there be anything else?”
She shook her head. “Nay. Get some rest.”
“Yes, Princess,” I said before I bowed and headed for home.
☾
By the time I reached my room, I was feeling almost completely normal again. Unfortunately, even as the effects of the magic were wearing off, the reality of what I had seen was starting to set in. That place had been some kind of pony village. Probably pegasi and they had an alicorn. An alicorn that dwarfed the ones I knew. There were too many questions and zero answers.
As quietly as I could, I shut the door and removed my armor. Winterspear barely moved in her bed. She was a sound sleeper. I went over to my bunk and turned the sheet back. Another shiver went down my spine and I couldn’t get in.
Princess Luna had been a unicorn. A regular pony. Just like Crystal Wishes, Winterspear, Iridescence, or Sunny Day.
I turned and crawled into bed with Winterspear. That woke her up and through the haze of half sleep she asked, “Whatcha doin’?”
“Bad dream.”
“Okay.” She looped her hooves around me and nestled to my back.
Taking the sheet in my mouth, I pulled it up and over our shoulders before I settled in. It took less than a minute for her to fall back asleep.
The sun would be up pretty soon and I had duty. I trusted in Princess Luna. I’d be fine in the morning and I would hopefully never again have to speak about what I'd seen.
☾
Morning came awfully quick and I stretched out in Winterspear’s bunk. She was still asleep against my back. How that pony slept as soundly as she did, I’d never know. My mind was clear and, true to Princess Luna’s word, I felt like myself again. Yes, I had questions but they were rational now.
Slowly, I rolled over and nuzzled my sister. “Hey, lazy. The sun is up. Don’t you have somewhere to be?”
My reward was a hoof covering my face. “Shhh. If you’re really quiet, it will be like you’re not here.”
“Okay. Well, I’m getting up. If you get up, too, we could have breakfast together. I’ll buy.”
“You don’t pay at the mess hall, Silent Knight.” She pretended to be cross but she was moving.
“Actually, since we’re both up early enough, I wanted to take you to this great place I heard about from Miley Hooves. The breakfast menu looked awfully tempting when we had lunch there.”
Winterspear got up and started to brush her coat into place. “What is the occasion?”
My response was a shrug. “I don’t need one for my own family, do I?”
“I suppose not. Let’s get going, then!”
More questions than answers indeed. A third alicorn? One far grander than Celestia? Luna was a unicorn?
Who were the ponies that lived there? Where have they gone?
If you are enjoying this story, please consider taking a look at Crystal and my's website QuillnBlade.com for extra content such as mini stories, an Ask Us form to submit questions, responses to said questions, and special rewards for the awesome folks who support our Patreon.
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Everlost, everfree, everdream in the dark
Roaming, wandering, reality so stark
Left, gone away, roaming the earth
A home left behind, no longer of worth
Who is it that wanders? What made them flee?
Who is it that roams with you and with me?
Many things lost, knowledge to time
Or perhaps deliberate, with reason to rhyme
Deeper Knight falls, down the hole of the hare
Magic, might, and mystery, of them beware
Is this the beginning? The beginning of the end?
Of the memories of the past, he will seek to mend
Questions sought, answers found
The darkness slowly losing ground
But when the past is brought to light
Can any stand the sound?
~The Final Firedancing Fiend
I really loved it! Great storry , keep it up! I'm watching you!
Please, oh, please, tell me it was a bat pony village.
I am not a fan of unanswered question. Looking forward to more.
Keep up the good work. Deus tecum.
i love this story, so much.
Luna being a unicorn at some point in the past isn't really all that shocking. Twi used to be one too, until she ascended. But that still doesn't answer who the Big Purple Alicorn is... roundstable.com/forums/images/smilies/mlp_rolleyes.png
Part 3 cannot come soon enough...
Whoa...
Wow this is crazy. I can't wait to see what happens next. Good luck.
CONSPIRACY! :Iluminati:
You finally broke the standard, Anzel. Here the story begins and I'm sure it will be awesome!
As for the alicorn, my theories that are the ussual:
-Evil Twilight from the future rulling the past;
-Celestia and Luna's tyrant mother;
-NMM was another beeing in the past and Luna's an alicorn because they eather fused together at some point or after the death of the orginal Nightmare Moon's power was given/earned to/by Luna;
...
What are hackles?
Oh some mystery element put into your story eh? This ought to be really good.
5596362 There are many mysteries to be solved. I've got some fun stuff coming as we go along!
5596322 The hairs on the back of your neck ;D
5596302 Theories abound! Fortunately, unlike some shows on TV, I'll resolve all the mysteries in time!
5596143 Well, technically there isn't a direct part 3 but this will be addressed ;D
5596123 I should note that in this particular fiction Twilight still is a unicorn. ^_^
5596077 Thank you so much!
5596070 I promise not to leave anything unanswered ;D
5596040 Only time will tell!
5596028 Thank you very much ^_^
5596406 No dubt.
5596406 Oh yeah...I forgot that most of this story is happening prior to season 3.
So many questions.... I'll have to think about this while I'm at work tonight.
God damnit
why did you end the chapter on an anticlimatic ending why
Butr otherwise keep up the good work because i want more
My first thought was children of the night, until I realized the alicorn wasn't luna (or is it?). That would have been really cool though!
That is no alicorn. I have no words to describe what it might be, but I assure you all of this much: That creature must be to alicorns what elves are to men. Ageless, powerful, preternaturally graceful; the tiniest glimpse of what we might have been, if only we were greater than we are.
5596952
Alright, now that I've spent an evening contemplating my navel while I work, I've come to a conclusion: My previous hypothesis, that the castle belonged to Princess Luna just prior to her banishment, is still the most likely one.
And here's why.
Starting from the very beginning, when she first sends him out to the cave, Luna makes it very clear that she wants no one to know where he's going or what he's doing. From that we know that the cave is some place that is important to her, as well as a place that she doesn't want anyone, even Celestia, to know that she's looking at.
Before he left, Silent Knight was told quite pointedly that, once he got to the cave, he should remove his helmet before going in. Initially, I, as well as many others, thought that was meant for his protection against some sort of ward placed over the cave. Now that he's returned, I don't think that was the case. Because of what Luna asked him when he got back, I think she told him to remove his helmet as a sign of respect to the dead. She thought he was walking into a crypt more than just some simple ruins.
That little tidbit also tells us that she had no idea what he would find there, meaning that she had never been back to that place after it was abandoned. The most likely reason for that is because, at the time of her banishment, it was still an active town with ponies living in it and it was abandoned during her banishment.
Once Silent got to the cave and started looking through the buildings, he found them all to be abandoned, but largely untouched and with all the large furniture still in place. Silent's thought that the colony was likely inhabited by pegasi due to its location makes this fact interesting. We know from canon that pegasi are capable of extending whatever magic they have that lets them fly to things that they pull behind them, by the numerous scenes of guards pulling chariots, Derpy pulling the moving cart, and Fluttershy managing to tow a full-sized balloon at full speed without any apparent difficulty.
If they're capable of that, why leave the large furniture behind? They would have been easily capable of moving it. So if it wasn't lack of ability that caused it all to be left, that leaves either time or stealth as the likeliest limiting factors. If the ponies that lived there had to leave quickly and/or quietly, then loading up and towing large furniture would have been impossible, forcing it all to be left behind. This is part of the reason why I think it was abandoned shortly after Luna's banishment. If the ponies there were loyal to her, even once she fell to the Nightmare, they would have had to go into hiding very quickly to avoid retribution.
The state of the town also seems to imply that the town was never searched, at least not by any large force. If Celestia's army had found the place after Luna's banishment, the houses and the castle would have been ransacked. Even the most well-disciplined army would have effectively torn the place apart searching for ponies in hiding and for any information the ones who escaped might have left behind. It's possible that Celestia herself, or even just a small force under her command found it, but given that Luna specified that no one, even Celestia, know that Silent went there leads me to believe that Celestia may not know that it exists at all.
The castle itself has a distinctly gothic feel to it, what with all the gargoyles and such. Though it's not any sort of concrete evidence, we know from Luna's Nightmare Night appearance that she has a bit of a penchant for that sort of gothic aesthetic.
The window in the tower that Silent found provides a lot more questions than answers, honestly. The light that it shines and the picture on it show clearly that it wasn't made by Celestia, or anyone who works for her. But the content of the picture raises a lot of questions. That element of awe and fear that it inspires surely seems like something Nightmare Moon would have crafted, but the alicorn in the picture that inspires those feelings isn't the Nightmare. It's a completely unknown alicorn. And the fact that it shows Luna as a child makes it even more enigmatic. Was it a picture of Luna and her mother, crafted when Luna was a child? Or was the alicorn in the picture meant to be the moon itself personified and enchanted by the Nightmare?
The two thrones that were in the room also raise some questions. It seems unlikely that the second one belongs to Celestia, but it is possible, especially if there was a second window that just wasn't lit up because it was night time. The whole reason Luna rebelled in the first place was get out of Celestia's shadow, so the likelihood of her sharing the throne is small. There is still the possibility that the town and the castle predate Luna's rebellion significantly and was only abandoned after her banishment.
So in the end we have a cave that's clearly important to Luna, one that has clear ties to her past, and one that she knew of but not what fate had befallen it. A place that seems to have been untouched by the forces of Celestia's army even after it was abandoned, likely meaning that it's a secret from everyone that isn't closely tied to Luna herself. Everything that we know so far points to that being her seat of power during the rebellion. There is still plenty of room for alternative explanations, but for now that seems the most likely.
I'm probably way overthinking all of this, and I'm too tired to really be trying to write all this out coherently, but I have nothing better to do while I'm at work, so here you go.
5598406 I'd like to point out that posts like these are the whole reason I write ;) You have some very well reasoned points and I will answer all of your questions in time!
5597526 Another well reasoned comment. I'm excited that everyone responded so well to this two parter. I've really wanted to add adventure elements into the story. They'll just be slower given the serial nature and Slice of Life direction.
5597139 I do so like the children of the night ;D That is not an indication of a spoiler though.
5597105 Ah the nature of the serial. Show a little, move on. Cliff hanger. Move on ;D
Awesome...!!
5598469
Oh! I thought of something else I forgot in my rambling mess of a post earlier. In the mirror, Luna has her cutie mark, but she isn't an alicorn. Given that it's unlikely for a single unicorn to be able to move the moon, her cutie mark obviously doesn't represent her control of a heavenly body. So what does it mean?
trumpets?
This is great! Looking forward to what comes next. Keep up the great work. Always a pleasure to read.
5600515 Thank you very much ^_^
5599663 Hmm?
5599076 Excellent question!
5598592
>Most likely pegasi lived there
BATPONESSSS
Hello loyal readers!
I'm playing around with a new character/roleplay centric site. It is called Toy House and is really neat.
I have two invite codes. If you'd like one send me a PM. Tomorrow I'll do a random and send them out.
Enjoy!
5602175
yes?
5603368 Don't mind me, I got confused ;D
5603418
this is trumpet
if you do not take trumpet seriously
trumpet
5596013 this is beautiful... you are a good poet.
Luna being a unicorn at one point in time?
suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/16090095/images/1314507428543.jpg
I should go to bed, but then again, sleep is for the weak and uninitiated.
this story is awesome it reminds me of another story but I can not remember the name of it
6316635 Thank you! I'm glad you're enjoying it =D
Okay this chapter calls into Question a nitpick of mine. If Luna was a unicorn at some point then became an alicorn then WHY WAS CADANCE CHANGED!? As of right now I see no reason for that change at all.
Its their mom.
I no the legends about the sisters parents but this coloring is all wrong.
It's said that eyes are windows to the soul.
Perhaps this window is an eye?
I won't conjecture just yet.
The one thing I’m stuck on is Luna’s insistence on not wearing a helmet inside the cave. I’m not sure if there’s more to it or if I’m just overthinking it’s significance.
More questions than answers indeed. A third alicorn? One far grander than Celestia? Luna was a unicorn?
to be fair, any alicorn is grander than sunbutt. heck, Nyx was grander than her when Twilight found her in those bushes. her adorableness alone saved her from Twilight's fear filled wrath.
I'll bet it was a thestral settlement