Inherit the Night

by rooks_fanfiction

Prologue

Luna stared through slit pupiled eyes at the Thestral kneeling in front of her and considered just letting him leave again. It had long ago become a tradition that, when she met with the Thestral's dreamspeaker, she'd use their preconceptions to craft their meeting place, and while the empty walls of the obsidian cave had a certain spartan elegance, the obsidian throne was less than comfortable. But no, there'd been something on his mind the last few times they'd meet, and it was best to find out what it was.

Clearing her throat, she spoke gently. "Is there a problem I am unaware of High Pitch?"

"My Queen?"

"Something's been bothering you, and it did not begin tonight. What is it?"

The dreamspeaker looked down and shuffled his hooves awkwardly for a moment before speaking. "It's just, well," Pausing a moment, he took a deep breath and continued. "It's just that, the results of the family incentive program you had us institute a couple of years ago are starting to become worrying. With the new birthrate, it won't be long until we become unable to produce enough food for everypony."

Luna felt her eye's narrow. "Are the numbers you have been giving me inaccurate? It should be another year and a half before that becomes a problem."

"No, no," Luna barely restrained a wince at the near panic in the dreamspeaker's voice. "I'd never deceive my Queen! It just, what are we going to do when that time does come? Unlike the usurper's subjects, we can stretch things out a bit longer by actively hunting in the woods surrounding the Bracken Caverns, but I'm afraid I just don't see any way this policy is sustainable."

Luna smiled, letting just a hint of her pointed teeth show. "I know. But tell me, what do you think that rather large collection of gems that have been being infused with the caverns ambient magic for almost a millennium are for?"

High Pitch blinked, "I had always assumed you intended to draw power from them when you returned and confronted the usurper."

"No, my Sister," Luna practically spat the word, "has access to both more, and stronger, magical artifacts than I do, if they were what I was relying on I might as well have already lost. No, in nine months you are to hook them up to the rune matrices in all the greenhouses. With the increase to the speed at which the crops grow, and being able to use the greenhouses that have been empty since the Unicorns left, there should be no food shortages for at least a century. As I'll be free in less than twenty years, I doubt food shortages will end up being a problem at that point. One way or another."

The dreamspeaker sighed in relief. "Oh, I see. In that case…"

The rest of the dreamspeaker's words were lost to Luna as a new presence entered the dreaming and grabbed her attention. Of course, Ponies entered and left the dreaming all the time, and new presences appeared every time a newborn foal went to sleep for the first time, but there was something different about this one. No, not just different, it felt familiar too. She needed a little more time to truly grasp the feeling, but it was almost like. She barely restrained a snarl as the new presence's ripples faded into the background of the dreaming, she was going to have to find this new dreamer's dream before she could be sure about what she'd just felt, but if she was correct, well, some plans were going to have to change.

"I'm glad to hear that" Luna interrupted, "But I'm afraid we'll need to continue this next time, something just came up that I have to see to at once."

"Of course, my Queen." With his last word the dreamspeaker bowed his head and faded out of existence.

Holding the memory of how this new presence felt in her mind, Luna flew through the dreaming, willing it to bring her to its' newest resident. Unsurprisingly, the only thing that appeared solid in the dream bubble she'd ended up landing in front of was a small purple foal, who lay in the very center of the bubble. The rest of the dream was a mass of shifting colors and textures, shimmering and drifting around the foal. As she entered the dream, a quick thought changed the scene to that of a forest clearing with a stream running through it, and the moon shining bright overhead. The foal's head turned towards her as she approached, and as its mane shifted, she could see the bare nub of a horn.

As she settled down beside the foal and snuggled it in against her with a large black wing, a wide smile spread across her face. Now that she was within this dream, she could truly fell the magic that swirled around the foal. Two things stood out as she examined the power, the first was a potential, one she hadn't felt since the birth of a pink Pegasus over fifteen years before, and what had been a bare shadow of possibility in that Pegasus was a midnight black certainty in this unicorn. The second was achingly familiar, something she remembered one being a part of her own power.

Her mind was suddenly pulled away from her magical investigation as a faint tugging pain shot through her head. Looking down, she saw the foal had taken a mouthful of her starry mane and was chewing on it contemplatively. With a chuckle, Luna lowered her head slightly to rid herself of the tugging sensation, then simply stared at the happily masticating foal for a few moments, before altering the form of the dream again, so that a mobile now hung down from her horn. The foal giggled happily as the mobile slowly turned and brought one object after another into its view. First was a white Alicorn, wrapped in chains, second was the same Alicorn, curled up in a cage, third was the sun, with the head and neck of a unicorn emblazoned darkly upon it, and the fourth and final one was of a black Alicorn with a crown.

Author's Note:

I hope you enjoyed the prologue. Chapter one is done and two is almost done, both will be released in the next few days. As always, I love comments and I hope you will tell me what you think.

Comments

[G33kySt3v3]

Hmm, the characters and story idea seem interesting, looks like it's going to be similar to other things I've read, but I don't mind that at all. Hope this story goes well, and good luck author!

[Nightsclaw]

Interesting start. Looking forward to seeing what happens next.

[Ray MorningLight]

Villain in training