Knight of Equestria IV: Unmarked Time

by scifipony

Leitmotif

The centaur held the witless brown unicorn and inhaled a stream of purple magic from the poor stallion's horn. Judging by the way the fellow pulled his head back, it wasn't being held that hurt but the magic being shorn from him. Red pangs colored his aura as it streamed into the creature's mouth. His hide went grey as the magic stream stopped abruptly.

I'd seen something like that before. I'd faced Discord when he had begun turning Ponyville into the "Chaos Capital of the World." I'd distracted him long enough that hundreds had been able to flee, before he transformed me, too. Oddly, since my encounter with Nightmare Moon had broken me, his manipulation turned my mind inside-out and actually fixed me, somewhat. It let me discover that I liked to sing, and helped me to learn how to simulate being normal. It also allowed me to be able to taunt Discord mercilessly in alliterative drivel when I realized that he no longer had any real interest in me after he'd transformed me. It kept him distracted from other ponies for awhile so they could also escape.

After he had deharmonized Twilight's friends, I'd warned him that "pretty purple pony" Twilight Sparkle "persists" and would come to defeat him. Did he listen? No. He had rolled on the ground, laughing.

After Twilight had changed him back to stone, I'd had the last laugh, though.

I'd figured out, correctly as it turned out, that he was fully conscious in his marble prison. I jumped on the tipped-over statute—banged on his delicate wings and bounced on his neck—threatening to break him apart. Doing so had felt good, but I'd stopped. He'd been turned to stone originally by Princess Celestia, so, in consideration of that fact, I had warned him not to blow his next chance at parole. I'd promised him I'd be there if he failed to heed my warning.

Somehow Fluttershy had reformed him, it seemed. Which isn't my point.

When he had changed me, and Twilight's friends, he'd turned us grey. He'd knackered my pegasus magic, or replaced it with his own—I dunno—but, in a variation on Discord, this beast was draining magic. I was certain of it.

I dashed back into the diner. I flared my wings and shouted, "Everypony, up! To the rear of the diner, toward the kitchen." I could see walk-in pantries. "There's a huge monster centaur out there stealing pony magic."

Sapphire Shores stood and said, "Now, Flopsy Mopsy—"

"Ma'am, I'm serious." I trotted forward, wings out, herding the business ponies and my group back. I put a wing around Hauling Oats to guide him, and gestured strongly at Donut Joe who did not look ready to abandon his cash register. I cajoled them all into the pantry, which could pack in just about everypony. Donut Joe turned off the walk-in icebox and stepped in with the remaining patrons.

"Stay here. I hope he can't steal magic through the walls of a building."

"Him?"

Yeah, I'd noticed. He was very definitely male. "Yeah."

When I turned, Donut Joe asked, "Where are you going?"

"To do what unfortunately I do best, to use my special talent," I said and flew for the entrance.

Yeah. My special talent.

Hours after Princess Nightmare Moon had appeared on the morning of the 1000th Summer Sun Celebration to ambush and, to my eyes, murder her sister, Princess Celestia, I'd found out I'd got my cutie mark. It could have been for the bliss I'd experienced DJing my first party the evening before (at the official 1000th Summer Sun Celebration party, no less), for having stood up to Princess Nightmare Moon, or for having prevented a stampede in Town Hall that would have likely maimed hundreds. Encountering Nightmare Moon, I'd done the one thing any sane pony should have been unable to do—I mean, really, I should have peed myself and run screaming: I'd broken in a significant non-pony way, stood up to her, and become stronger. I'd even impressed the usurping princess.

She'd promised me knighthood.

I knew in my heart, at this very moment, that my special talent was represented by the hearts—kept marshaled like cheery candy-color puppets on a string—depicted on my cutie mark. I stood up to death as a shield to protect other ponies. That was my cutie mark talent. And it would be the death of me.

Yeah, shag compulsive me in the flank.

One thing I didn't feel like doing was to confront the monster centaur in the face like I'd done with Discord or initially with the green-goo-vomiting changelings. He looked taller than Discord had been, and Discord had been some species of bipedal wyrm. Each length to the centaur's hip or shoulder was Discord's height. He had a bodybuilder's physique and displayed amazingly ripped muscle on his legs, chest, and arms.

As I witnessed him inhaling magic from a group of ponies fainted- or frozen-in-horror around a bus stop bench, I knew what I needed to do. I didn't have unicorn magic or earth pony strength—I wriggled my wings—but I had these puppies.

Pony behavior still confused me. Most either froze or spooked when confronted by horror. I'd found during Discord's Ponyvillian rampage that I enjoyed spooking ponies. Must have been Princess Nightmare's influence. Mind you, Discord's modifications had made me fly hooves up with a tendency to whirligig, unable to communicate except by singing or flying erratically. Canterlot right now definitely needed more fleeing from danger behavior, with spooking necessary only for the hard cases.

Until the constabulary or the royal guard hammered the miscreant.

I had to assume any pony drained—and I watched him suck magic even from earth ponies—would be crippled for life.

That made me mad.

I saw him glancing southwest toward Castle Canterlot, not that I expected him to make it that far before being hammered, but as he stalked forward, bulky as he was, I was wagering he'd stick to the major boulevards; that meant Ponyville Way to Alicorn Way to Castle Way.

I fluttered off.

How many daft ponies were there? Too many to count. Two blocks down, I started shouting at the faces in the doorway, idiots hanging out of windows, and furred statues in the street. One such was a constable with his neat Prance-style blue copper's hat and a baton dangling at his hip. It took a full feathered slap, but I got the magenta-eyed chap moving, and a good bloke, too, for he shooed ponies inside or down the street on left side as I shouted to bar doors and windows and hide in wardrobes on the right.

I did not go unnoticed. When I looked back, he glared at me. His eyes were coal black with spooky glowing gold irises. I shuddered. Especially at his grin. He combed a big tuft of white hair between his horns, grinned hungrily, and turned to the storefront beside him. He inhaled and magic drained in five distinct differently-colored streams into his mouth.

"Bloody Tartarus!" I screamed.

I ran for Officer Runswell. Soon he and another constable were emptying buildings and getting ponies to run for Lower Canterlot. The monster paused now and again to feast, but each time I looked, he was closer.

Staring at me.

The thing spoke Equestrian. I could read lips after four years working in noisy clubs behind monitors with earphones on my ears.

He said, "You're mine."

"Aren't you the cat's pajamas?" I said. He wasn't my type of stallion, and considering how noticeably, grossly, male he was, I actually felt fear.

Fear was good for me. I needed to learn to feel fear, but tomorrow would be good enough, thank you very much.

I trotted over to the constable. "He's targeting buildings we went to. Skip any that look closed up, as many as you can. Let's not get caught with our knickers down."

I passed Donut Joe's by.

The creature might be monstrous, but he wasn't the brightest bulb. Our ruse worked—he skipped the buildings we skipped—but as we got to the intersection of Alicorn Way, that meant he was only a block away. At that moment, I heard a voice I really didn't want to hear.

"Oh, Tea Wreck..."

His voice was sing-song.

"Lord Tirek!" His voice was also off-key.

Discordant, really.

I shot into the air until I perched on the brass finial at the top of red-tiled peaked roof of the Great Adventures Building. Obnoxious It's a Small World piped into the street. The voice could be none other. From my vantage point, I could see onto Pistachio Street.

The wyrm, Discord stood there. Thankfully, he didn't look at me or I would have lost all sense and flown to confront him. I'd warned him. The had newspapers reported he'd been reformed, but I didn't trust him in the least. I forced myself to wait. I watched seething inside, but because of the winds at the top of the building, and the fact it was still night (still!), I could not tell what he said.

They talked.

My heart shrieked that I witnessed the bloodiest of betrayals. I wanted to scream, but smoothed my fluffed up feathers. I waited, vibrating in place, to see if he was friend or foe.

Discord pointed and snapped his chicken claw, then vanished.

I looked the direction he'd pointed. Diving from the direction of the castle, I saw a winged cavalry. A squadron of Wonderbolts lead the charge, followed by a battalion of armored royal guard armed with quivers of javelins. Beyond them flew constables and a very rag-tag Fleet of city-pegasi armed with torches and... Not pitchforks, andirons maybe?

While seeing the attack by hundreds of my pony flock filled me with sudden pride, Lord Tirek's calm manner, turning to face the assault quickly replaced the feeling with dread.

No, no, no! Not a frontal attack! I started waving furiously.

The centaur gaped his mouth. Shorn magic lit up the night as a rival to the moon, and soon, despite the stragglers trying to veer off, almost as bright as the sun.

Pegasi possess magic. Flight magic.

Screaming incoherently—and trust me I was incoherent—I launched at Tirek. I flew toward him as ponies wobbled and spun, losing control and tumbling from the sky. Without magic, ponies were as flightless as ostriches and made fat turkeys look graceful. Unlike stealing magic from unicorns or earth ponies, stealing magic from a flight of pegasi aloft was a prelude to a massacre of unimaginable carnage. Falling from ten stories or more on a glide path, I visualized ponies ramming buildings and splattering like dropped watermelons on cobblestone streets.

I soared east (he faced west), circled up his flank, and flared my wings at the last instant to land four hooves in the small of his torso-back.

The impact jarred my knees, shoulder, and hips. My face smacked his smelly bovine hide. Since I wasn't a gecko pony, I bounced off and rolled on to his horizontal back.

He roared and reached for me. Despite blood filling my nose and ringing ears, I fluttered aside, then dodged again as he twisted and tried to hit me. I ducked, fluttered back into his blind spot, and bucked.

Unfortunately, he bucked, too, and I missed.

Around me, ponies swerved and veered crazily. A few did strike buildings, but with legs out and wings spread. Like insects stunned by bug spray, they fluttered miserably, but intact to the ground. Some of the royal guard managed to throw javelins all the same.

They bounced off a very tough hide. One sliced my flank near my dock.

As I screamed and tumbled into the air, I saw a very open goats-maw gapping in my direction. I snapped my wings to my side and fell like a stone, spreading them at the last instant to shoot down Ponyville way. I flapped as desperately as ever I'd flown, like a sparrow ahead of a hawk, but then I heard him inhale.

I shrieked, banked hard left without looking, and hurled toward the wall of a building. Luckily, it had a window. I flared my wings, brought my hooves forward and crashed on through. Glass sprayed and tinkled across what proved to be an office floor filled with rows of desks and typewriters. It must have been The Inquisition's newsroom. Abandoned, thank goodness. I didn't take time to check if I'd cut myself to ribbons crashing through the glass. I shot through the starkly lit room, bucked open a locked office door at the opposite end of the building, opened a casement window, and escaped back into the night.

I loop-de-looped around lamp posts and around buildings, burning off the adrenaline and regaining my wits. Oddly, I felt good. Real good. Like I was having... fun. The pain helped. And with that realization, I shot back into the sky to see what I had wrought.

I found Lord Tirek had given up on me and turned back to the sundered pegasi that scattered the street and rooftops. I didn't see any obvious wipeouts, but I saw something incredibly disheartening.

The magic he had eaten had made him grow taller and wider. The curve of his horns had rounded slightly, noticeably, inward.

Why the frontal assault? flashed through my head, and on its hooves came the answer. Discord. The flight of pegasi had seen Lord Tirek but he hadn't been looking at them. They'd committed before Discord had come to warn his comrade.

I didn't have time to take a count of how many might have died had I not acted because Lord Tirek pressed my button again. He opened his mouth to fully drain the fallen pegasi.

I cried out, "What? What! You daft greedy beast!"

I dived and circled as he tried to home in on my voice in the dark sky. Still, there was enough light that he quickly sighted me. He said, "What kind of weak-minded pony are you?"

"Weak-minded?" I blinked as I flew erratically so he could not get a bead on me. As he jumped and tried to swat me instead, I thought, was I insulted? No, just becoming angrier. "What kind of pony am I?"

"I just asked that."

I dived under his barrel and up at the back of his head. Unfortunately, he ducked my kick. I spiraled away, through his feet, yelling, "The pony that's going to kill you."

Yes. I'd said that.

Whilst Princess Nightmare Moon hadn't actually murdered Princess Celestia in her ambush, she had killed a number of her guards. I'd seen that with my own eyes. And she promised to make me her knight. And I had broken. I was a pony-sociopath, a monster myself.

But this monster, Flopsy Mopsy, was working for Equestria. Let them tell me I'd done wrong afterwards.

"A new princess in training?" Lord Tirek laughed so hard at his own words that he held his flat, muscular belly as his laughter echoed through the streets.

Princess? I thought, then gasped. Princesses! If he got into Castle Canterlot, he'd steal not only unicorn, earth pony, and pegasus magic, he'd steal alicorn magic, too. If stealing the magic of hundreds of pegasi had strengthened him, what would stealing that of three alicorns do?

He kicked up a hoof and tripped me midair. I went somersaulting down the street, banging my head, hip, and hooves, finally skidding to a stop on my back on the pavement. Had I hit the cobbles, I'd likely have broken all my bones. As it was, my back felt skinned of all fur.

I shook myself, hooves up, trying to focus. My wings felt lethargic and half asleep, and it wasn't that I was stunned. I flipped myself to my unsteady legs. I'd left a Morris code stripe of blood on the pavement.

Lord Tirek had been stealing my flight magic, but from a distance. The street rattled to the clomp of his cleft hooves. Our eyes met and he stopped inhaling the dark blue stream from me. "As I said, weak-minded."

"Ugh!" I cried. He hadn't completely drained me. It took everything I had to get me airborne, but it was worse than when Discord had turned me into an upside-down flying whirligig. It was as if I'd turned to lead. My wings barely generated lift. I struggled into the sky, expending my energy like water from a burst dam, and was quickly on a ballistic trajectory that would hurl me into the ground. Heart pounding so hard I expected it to explode, I locked my wings and put all my momentum into a dive. Pressure against the failing flight surfaces of my wings tried to rip my limbs from my body, but I managed to pull up and bang into the second story roof of a building. I rolled upward, then, sadly, downward.

I flattened myself on my belly, legs and wings flopped out against the blue tiles. The uneven surface gouged at me, trying vainly to disembowel me. I scraped to a halt half a pony-length from the drop. One loose tile broke loose and a second later shattered below. I let out a gusting breath.

I lifted my head to look Lord Tirek in the eye. He said, "Despite my disdain for all things equine, I'm impressed." He opened his mouth and inhaled a stream of deep indigo magic laced with red pangs of pain. The sight of pain might have been imagined, but the feel wasn't. It was like every hair and every feather were being pulled from my body at once, but from the inside.

I screamed.

And then it was over. I had a sense of bereavement, like somepony I had loved had died. I felt oddly weak, like I didn't want to move. Like it was absurd to think about moving, or being happy again.

And then I looked into Tirek's smug goat's face.

I growled and levered myself up. It was suicidal, but somehow I did it. I found purchase with the frogs of my hooves on the edges of the roof tiles. While I found myself jerking to keep my balance with my hind legs elevated over my forequarters, I looked him square in the eye. He was little more than a pony-length away from me. I smelled an acidy pine scent on his breath.

It might be the last thing I'd ever say, pronounced with the last breath I'd ever take, but I shouted, "I'm going to kill you!"

I lunged at his face with every last bit of strength, bronze-shod hooves pedaling at his eyes.

He caught me in a massive right claw, a hoof-length from his nose. It was like smacking into the wall of a building, albeit a teensy bit softer, only to be enveloped by steel rods. I couldn't inhale, not that it mattered because the next thing I expected was for his grip to tighten and for me to pop like a balloon.

Instead, he set me down on my hooves on the cobblestone street, then, to add insult to injury, he swatted me on the rump. The sudden sting and instinct got me galloping down the street. I tried flying reflexively, but I might as well have been flapping cardboard. I didn't go far and turned around. I glared at his smiling face. What could he do to me now? I was drained of my magic.

"Maybe not so weak-minded an equine after all. When I've conquered this pitiful land and you've figured out that you want to be on the winning side, come beg me for a job." He laughed and walked away down Ponyville Way. Surprisingly, he didn't drain any of the ponies watching in shock.

This had happened to me before. Princess Nightmare Moon had killed Princess Celestia's carriage guards and sent her sister to the sun. Something inside had snapped. I'd curtseyed and called her, "Your Royal Majesty."

And I'd apparently bonded like a duckling to the mother duck.

Would that happen again?

I stood there shaking and shuddering—furious, spitting with curses. But I didn't follow him. Nor did I feel some sort of respect or love for him. He turned right on Alicorn Way, toward Castle Canterlot, and out of sight.

I collapsed. I was going to kill him?

What a laugh.