Night Reigns

by tursi

Chapter 19 - Full Moon

"Enough, Captain! You are dismissed!"

Sending the captain back to his office was only a brief flash of magic, but Nightmare Moon stared at the spot where he had been standing for several seconds afterwards. She was furious and mentally dared him to use his new-found powers to return.

When he didn't she stomped hard on the stone floor, spraying rock chips in every direction. She turned around and stared out over the balcony again.

"How dare he question me? As if there is anything that could stand stronger than me! What does he think he could possibly do? If he understood the threat he would be shaking in his barding!"

She took a deep breath and strode out onto the balcony, seeking the calming embrace of her night sky. She longed to spread her wings and soar, but she did not dare to leave her shield.

"But he has grown in power, hasn't he? What has changed? Only that amulet... was he wearing it when he surged in the Everfree Forest? Yes, I think he must have been. What is it?"

Her eyes scanned the skies slowly, noting the position of every star as she observed it. It was simply a focusing exercise to calm her mind and allow her to consider more deeply.

"It is more than a bauble, that is for certain. Some form of masking was projected around it. Why would the Captain lie to me?"

"Ulfrid, I could use your insight now," she mused. "But the Captain attempted to cast doubt on him... is it related? He makes a point about Ulfrid disappearing for long periods, and Ulfrid is clearly not as straight forward as he appears either. But to suggest treason? No, there's no way I can accept that. Ulfrid has never shown a hint of disloyalty."

She sighed softly and locked her eyes on the moon, which shone brightly above the castle. "But until tonight, neither had Sterling Honor. Perhaps I should confront him directly about this..."

She looked from the moon down into the city below her and stepped nearer to the edge of the balcony. She found herself remembering the crowd that stood beneath her in Ponyville ten years ago and a smile grew on her muzzle. "A test, then, and this is the perfect test. He will either prove himself or hang himself and from that I can decide what to do with his concerns about Ulfrid. There's nothing so comforting as tying up loose ends, after all."

She strode back inside and went straight to her desk. Lighting her horn, she drew forth a blank scroll and a large feather quill. Adding ink to the quill, she began to write.

Captain Sterling Honor:

After your departure from my quarters, I did think of a task that I would like to entrust to you. I would like you to keep the reason for this task confidential, but you may use all means at your disposal to accomplish it.

As you know, ten years ago I was assaulted during the Summer Sun Celebration in Ponyville. Despite extensive searches, the unicorn responsible was never apprehended. While I do not blame you for this failure, recently information has reached me that she may again be operating in Equestria.

Your target is a female adult unicorn with advanced magical talent. Her last known location was Ponyville at the final Summer Sun Celebration. Her coat is...

Nightmare Moon paused in her writing and tried to remember back. She had been caught so off guard by the magical attack that she had barely registered the unicorn who had cast it. She frowned as she strained to remember beyond the blast. Light color coat... ?

She suddenly had a flash of insight, seeing a bright amber unicorn with a crimson mane, lit by a brief flash of magic and then fading into a smoky darkness. She gasped with sudden recognition.

"Yes!" she thought. "That was her! But... what an odd way to remember her. There are too many odd feelings of late..."

She looked back outside again, her front hooves pacing the stone absently. "Sister," she thought. "What are you doing out there? If only I dared to welcome you back... anticipating your attack is nearly unbearable."

She frowned and turned again back to the paper, writing a description of the unicorn – every detail she could remember from the vision.

She is to be considered an enemy of the crown and captured at all costs.

Nightmare Moon re-read the last line a few times. That was too much like the old days, and her guard had enjoyed those days too much. She tapped a hoof in contemplation. "It's been ten years. She may have a life now... she may even have a family. I am not so angry as to destroy her life just so that the Captain may prove himself..."

She lifted the quill again and added: She is to be brought directly to me unharmed. I wish to speak with her before I pass sentence. Anypony who violates this instruction will answer to me directly.

Satisfied, she signed her name with a flourish and added the royal seal. The scroll then rolled itself up in mid-air and vanished with a puff of smoke as she sent it on its way.

"Now, Captain, show me what you are going to do..."

-----

Captain Sterling Honor looked up from his desk as there was a flash of light and a puff of smoke above it. A scroll tumbled from the puff of smoke and dropped onto his desk. He captured the scroll with his magic and unrolled it, then he scanned it from top to bottom, taking special note of the royal seal.

"So," he thought, "that's what it is. An assassin from the past back to threaten her Majesty. Is this pony that powerful?"

He looked up at the painting of Nightmare Moon on his wall, again seeking her eyes. "We'll find her, don't you worry. But where to start? I can't just haul in every unicorn in Equestria for questioning..."

He tapped a hoof on his desk. "Wait... didn't Corporal Stratosphere say something about an unusual unicorn heading this way from the Frozen North?"

He turned towards his filing shelves, and his horn lit to draw forth a small folder from it. He rifled through it briefly, then drew out a piece of paper, scanning it quickly.

"Here we are... 'Beatrice', blue unicorn, headed for Las Pegasus... hmmm, wrong color. But, it says she had a talent for magic, she could have been in disguise. Probably not very likely that far out, but we don't know much about our quarry. Wouldn't hurt to bring her back in for a few questions."

He put the paper back into the folder and rose from his desk, heading towards the door. He paused near the mirror and tilted his head at his reflection, using his magic to add an extra swirl to his mane and bring it down over his forehead. He smirked at the effect, and then headed out the door.

A moment later he entered Sergeant Impulse's office. The Sergeant was in the middle of enjoying a doughnut when he noticed the Captain, hurriedly dropping the doughnut and snapping to attention.

"Captain, sir! Sorry, I didn't realize you were coming, sir!"

"At ease, Sergeant!" He floated the folder over towards the Sergeant, "I need you to send a couple of guards down to Las Pegasus and pick up the unicorn in this report for questioning."

Impulse took the folder in his hooves and opened it, flipping through it slowly. Sterling winced as he noticed the powdered sugar from the doughnut getting on the papers, but he stood quietly and waited.

"The Great and Powerful Trixie?" asked Impulse, finally. "I've never even heard of her."

Sterling raised an eyebrow. "Your Corporal submitted that report less than a week ago. Didn't you read it?"

Impulse blinked and stammered. "I mean... as an act in Las Pegasus... I mean..."

"I don't care," interrupted Sterling. "Just bring her in. Don't rough her up, it's just for questioning. While you're at it, do we have any kind of registry of powerful unicorns?"

Impulse scrunched up his face in thought, "Not that I can think of... are you thinking of starting one, sir?"

Sterling shook his head, "No, I was just checking that I hadn't forgotten such a thing. It's probably a good idea, but it wouldn't help us right now."

He had a sudden thought, a memory of an institution that he himself had once attended.

"Wait," added Sterling. "See if you can find any records from Celestia's School for Talented Unicorns... I'm looking for names, talents, hometowns, descriptions of coats and cutie marks, things like that."

Impulse blinked. "But sir, that school must have closed ten years ago, back when Night fell."

"Yes, but we didn't burn it to the ground, did we? So those records must have been stored somewhere. Send somepony to enlist the help of the bureaucrats... I am pretty sure Crossed Tees was eager to help us with any issues we ran across."

"What are we looking for, sir?"

"Her Majesty has asked me to re-open the case of the unicorn who assaulted her on the night of her return to power."

"But sir, that case went cold years ago!"

"There's reason to believe that we might pick up the trail again. Now get to work!"

Impulse saluted, "Yes sir! I'll have a report to you by this evening."

Sterling Honor chuckled softly. "Good soldier," he commented, turning to leave. But he stopped once more and turned back. "One last thing," he said. "I hate to do this to him, but send somepony to wake Corporal Stratosphere and send him to my office. I need to have him perform another sweep."

Impulse nodded. "He'll be there within the hour, sir."

One hour later there was a knock on the Captain's door. He looked up from his paperwork and saw Corporal Stratosphere standing in the open door-frame, his mane a little more tousled than usual.

"Corporal Stratosphere reporting as ordered, sir." He yawned widely then added, "Man, my head just touched the pillow. What's going on, dude?"

"That's 'sir'," corrected Sterling. "Come in, Corporal."

Stratosphere yawned again as he stepped into the office, stretching out his wings as he did. "Sorry, dude... sir. I'm a little out of it."

"Well, get it together, Corporal. I need you back in the air. You've got the best eyes in the forces... I'd wager that even sleepy you see more than the average pegasus. That's exactly what I need right now."

"What's up, du... sir? Some filly get lost or something?"

"No, nothing like that. Are you familiar with the assault on Nightmare Moon ten years ago, during the announcement of her reign at the Summer Sun Celebration in Ponyville?"

Stratosphere paused. "Um... I guess so. Maybe."

Sterling frowned. "A unicorn launched an attack at the Queen and then ran. We never identified nor located her, but the Queen believes that she has returned to Equestria. She has asked us to bring her in. I think you might be able to spot her if she's anywhere near Canterlot."

"How... well... that's not much to go on, dude. It's not easy to pick out a single pony from the air, sir, even with my eyes."

"We do have a fairly good description and I think that she might stand out well enough for you to at least know when to fly down for a closer look." Sterling raised the scroll from Nightmare Moon and scanned the description. "She's a brilliant amber unicorn. Her mane is rather large and brightly striped with crimson red and bright yellow stripes. Her eyes are... Corporal, are you quite all right?"

Stratosphere's eyes had widened, his pupils shrinking as he held still. "Sir, please tell me her eyes aren't cyan."

Sterling's eyes narrowed as he scanned the scroll. "Deeply, it would seem."

Stratosphere held for a moment, then gave his wings a frustrated flap and flipped into the air. "Curse the silver moon!" he exclaimed in frustration. "I've been good, I respect the Earth, and I obey the Queen! I finally meet a gorgeous mare with a mane that won't quit, who's strong and independent and everything I hoped for... and she's an assassin!?"

Sterling tilted his head and fixed Stratosphere with a stern gaze. "As you were, Corporal!"

Stratosphere blinked and then quietly landed. He snapped a quick salute and then stood at ease. "Yes sir. Sorry, sir."

Sterling paused for a moment, then nodded. "What do you know, Corporal?"

Stratosphere sighed. "Her name is Sunny Sweetheart, sir. Just last night I saw her exploring the caves outside of Canterlot."

Sterling's eyes narrowed and he smiled in a disturbing way. "Show me."

Comments

[nebulaegalaxy]

Oh dear God...
This won't end well...

[princessmercury]

Woo! Noooooo.

[tursi]

6778134 Hehe... I did actually think of that. It's a weak excuse, but, "it's complicated". :) The way I see it, after Luna was banished Celestia was first distracted by grief over the loss of her sister, then focused on understanding the nature of the exile spell. With the castle destroyed, she was also overseeing the construction of Canterlot and later founding the School for Talented Unicorns. She more or less focused on recovering her sister more than understanding what had caused the problem in the first place.

In addition, public sentiment was that she had certainly done the right thing (since it couldn't be fully swept under the rug), and the formation of the EUP made it difficult for her to get alone time. She was reluctant to admit what she wanted to search for (let alone let other ponies know if she found it, just in case it was further embarrassment). Guilt drove a lot of the bad decision to let herself be distracted by other things, and over the years it got easier to have a reason not to go look, even though she did occasionally wonder.

Finally, there was a naive hope that Luna would come back apologetic. Luna would apologize, Celestia would apologize, they would have a moment and then pick up where they left off. That mattered more to her than the past.

Until she found herself back in the old palace with nothing else to do...

Does that belong in the story, though? Maybe it does...

[tursi]

6783710 hehe...
It's not so much the recognition as the circumstances around it...

Celestia is supposed to be banished, and being at less than full strength, she doesn't look quite like most ponies would remember her. Ulfrid (who she has never met) has been identified as a servant of Nightmare Moon, yet he appears to have entered the cavern without any indication of hostility. So Celestia and Sunset both were a little uncertain that he understood who he was talking to, and were surprised to find that he was fully aware and apparently not even surprised himself. She was a little more surprised that Sunset was also known, since there was no good reason for the average pony on the street to know much about Sunset, Celestia had only begun training her when Night fell.

I will tweak that wording to make that latter bit slightly more clear, I think.

[Dicefire5]

10 years is not nearly enough time for things to settle...

There would be resistance groups...either many deaths, or a very full dungeon...

10 years is too short of a time frame since there would still be many alive who remember the sun and Celestia...not to mention that they were pretty much invaded by a foreign leader (they do not know it is Celestia's sister), and from the reading it has only just started to normalize somewhat as the beatings for speaking out against the new regime have started to go down.

You would need a whole new generation of ponies who grew up under Nightmares rule in order to have the actually normalcy and peace under a new ruler...

There are just too many ponies left that not only remember how it is supposed to be, and that remember the beatings and other extreme measures taken by the 10 years young new regime.

[Scarheart]

NMM isn't really that terrible a ruler... Maybe a touch tyrannical, but other than that, she cares just as much for her ponies as Celestia did....

[GeorgeOfTheJungle]

6893443 She's definitely a lot less friendly with how she rules, but a stern hand (or hoof) is not always a bad thing. Really, the only thing that's at all tyrannical is that she maintains permanent night. Aside from that, she's willing to forgive past grievances, isn't petty, and doesn't seem to things for the evulz.

[Snow]

7933709
Mind the temper. She did want to throw that pony into the dungeons for coming to her to request more light.