The Twilight War

by Brian Dagame

2. The Wars to Come

“That went about as well as it could have…” Diamond Prism said as she and Princess Celestia sat down in Celestia’s chambers. She had a feeling the two of them would spend a lot of time here over the next few days.

“Well, we know one thing for sure,” Celestia said. “We will never get a straight answer from Maulden. We need Luna to clear this all up. Is she back yet?”

“She’s on her way back from what I’ve heard. Probably sometime today. Do you actually think she might be behind any of this?”

Celestia suddenly looked exhausted. “I don’t know… We’ve had our differences over the past few years… But… I just don’t know…”

The two of them sat in silence for a while, deep in their own thoughts. Then Diamond Prism thought of something. “You know, you are right. Maulden is never going to tell us anything, is he?”

“What are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about damage control regarding the griffons. The very least we could do is offer them the assurance that whoever is behind all of this is dead. If it’s not an all-out war they’re after, that might just be enough to calm them down.”

“You want me to execute a member of the night guard without a proper trial, or even knowing what happened exactly?

“I’m just thinking practically here. Regardless of what your sister did or did not do, right now the griffons are our main concern. Do you have anything in mind to appease them?”

“Honestly? No.”

Celestia considered Diamond Prism’s idea for a while. She appreciated her bluntness and practicality, but in moments like these it felt a little excessive. There were just too many moving parts to consider. “Let’s table this discussion,” She finally said. “At least until I have had a chance to speak to my sister.”

---

It was almost evening when Princess Luna arrived at the castle. Despite everything on her mind, she took a second to appreciate the beauty of the castle. It was times like these were she felt a little annoyed that everypony simply referred to it as ‘the castle’ instead of ‘Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters’. Surely a structure this beautiful deserved a proper name?

She then focused on Maulden, who had been arrested, questioned and thrown in the dungeon this morning. He had made quite a few sacrifices today. Luna vowed to herself that she would never forget what Maulden had done and to make sure to reward him handsomely when everything was said and done.

She arrived at her chambers and immediately closed the curtains and extinguished all candles with a single flash of her magic. She needed some dark right now. She needed to think. Her sister had sent her a message, telling Luna to come talk to her as soon as possible, but she needed to straighten out her thoughts first. There was still a lot of work to be done before she would face her sister, and not a lot of time to do it.

A knock on the door pulled Luna out of her thoughts. Before she could even react, there was another knock. Whoever it was, they were in a hurry.

Luna lit up her horn and opened the door. On the other side was a member of the royal guard. She didn’t know the guards name or recognize her face, having spent little time surrounded by non-thestral guards. The guardsmare quickly shuffled through the door and closed it behind her.

“Please forgive me for intruding, Princess,” She said.

Luna raised an eyebrow. “It is quite alright, guardsmare. I was not made aware of your visit.”

“Well... Nopony knows that I’m here, Princess…”

“And yet here you are, defying standing orders.” Luna stated bluntly. “What is your name?”

The mare visibly cringed at being reprimanded by a Princess and averted her eyes when she spoke again. “Deep Winter, Princess.”

“Please explain to me what brought you here.”

“Well, my family owes a lot to you, Princess. So, I came to warn you... I’m not supposed to talk about what I overhear while on guard, but earlier today I heard Princess Celestia talk and… I thought you should know…”

Luna softened her demeanor a little, in an attempt to get the mare to talk a bit easier. “What did you hear?”

“After they interrogated Maulden… I was patrolling outside of the Princess’ chambers and I think she forgot to put a silencing spell on the door. And Diamond Prism was there with her… And I heard them talk… Diamond Prism said she saw no other way to make peace with the Griffons than to execute Commander Maulden…”

“And what did my sister say about that?”

“She did not agree… At least I think not. But she also said she had no better ideas…”

“Did they arrive at a conclusion?”

“I had to finish my patrol before hearing the rest of it… But Diamond Prism was really adamant about doing it as soon as possible. Before the griffon emissary arrives, so they can prove to the griffons that they do not agree with the attack.”

Luna groaned. She had considered countless scenarios, but somehow, she had underestimated Diamond Prism’s ruthlessness. She had to decide quickly. One the one hoof, Maulden had done his part and was no longer vital to her plans. But after what he had done for her, she could not bring herself to abandon him. She mentally rearranged a few things until she saw a new path forward.

“I cannot thank you enough for bringing this information to me, Deep Winter. You have done me a huge favor. Now I am afraid I must ask you for one more…”

---

Celestia had been sleeping less than an hour when a knock on the door woke her up. Groggily, she got up and opened it without using her magic. She simply was too tired.

Three royal guards stood on the other side of the door, all with very serious looks on their faces. One of them spoke up before Celestia could say anything. “We have orders to get you to a safe location Princess, I’m afraid that that is all we know.”

The four of them walked through the hallways at a brisk pace. Celestia could hear orders being barked all throughout the castle. She wondered what could have happened that caused all of this. Even yesterday’s news of Maulden’s attack had not caused this much of a commotion.

“Search the barracks! Wake up everypony there and remember to check for changelings!” One guard called out. It appeared they were all looking for somepony.

The guards stopped at Silver Strike’s office. They knocked on the door and waited until somepony on the inside opened it. They waited for Celestia to go through it and then all three of them took position outside of it.

Silver Strike was sitting behind his desk writing on a piece of parchment. When he noticed the Princess, he quickly shoved it all aside and motioned for her to sit down. The look on his face was even more serious than usual.

“I'm afraid we have a problem,” Was all he said, before running a hoof through his mane. The gesture betrayed that he was just as tired as she was.

“I can see that Captain. What is going on?”

“Just a few minutes ago, one of my guards was patrolling the interior of the castle when he made a discovery at the dungeon. It seems that Maulden has escaped. His cell door has been ripped to shreds and three guards have been found dead outside of his cell.”

Celestia did not attempt to hide her shock, nor her emotions. She buried her face in her hooves and let out and long and painful groan through her tears. There was no doubt in her mind whatsoever that this was her sister’s doing.

‘I should have seen this coming. I should have known that something was wrong when she did not come talk to me as soon as she returned.’

Once she had calmed down a little, she looked up at Silver Strike. He managed to maintain his composure, but his eyes where seething with rage. He had obviously come to the same conclusions that she had.

She had to ask anyway. “Do we know who did this yet?”

“No Princess,” he said with an icy voice. “All guards are sweeping the castle right now to find the culprit. However, Princess Luna is not in her chambers. Nor are any of the thestrals that are supposed to be currently stationed at the castle.”

“I know we are both thinking the same thing right now Captain, but we should not jump to conclusions.”

Silver Strike simply nodded in agreement.

“Did anypony else escape?”

“Fortunately not, the dungeons were empty before Maulden’s arrival.”

“Can we go there now? I have to see this for myself,” Celestia said.

“No Princess. We must wait until the guards have completely searched the castle. For your own safety.”

“Get your sword out and tell those guards outside the door to come with us. That should be plenty of protection,” She replied in an annoyed tone. “We might still have time to pursue whoever did this.”

Silver Strike knew better than to argue.

Celestia practically ran to the dungeons, accompanied by three royal guards and one captain. The castle was in a state of complete chaos at this point. Members of the royal guard were frantically searching the castle, kicking in doors and screaming at other inhabitants in the process. The royal guards were casting spells as fast as they possibly could, making sure nopony around them was actually a Changeling.

When they got to the dungeons, they found Diamond Prism already there with two royal guards standing next to her. They were standing over the corpses of the guards that had been assigned to watch Maulden.

Celestia gently pushed one of them aside to get a better look. She successfully managed to keep her emotions in check as she studied the bodies before her.

“We found something on the floor of the cell, Princess,” Diamond Prism said in a monotone voice that Celestia had never heard from her before. “It appears to be a message, directed at you.”

Celestia took it from her without looking at it, her gaze still on the dead guards. “How did they die?”

One of the royal guards answered. “It Is hard to say right now, but there are a lot of mana traces all over them and they all have several broken bones. It almost looks like they were hit by some kind of magic shockwave, but nopony in the castle heard anything like that. Very advanced magic most likely.”

“The kind an Alicorn would have, no doubt…” Celestia muttered, more for her own sake than for anypone else in the room. Then she remembered the message that she was holding. She looked down and read the note.

_{I wish you good fortune in the wars to come.
-Princess Luna}

Everypony in the room averted their gaze as their Princess stood there in silence, staining the parchment with her tears.

Comments

[BradyBunch]

So is this a civil war and a war against the griffons? Dang. This escalated quickly!