Ashes and Embers

by Bronycommander

Chapter 1 disturbance

Chapter 1: Disturbance

The green unicorn stallion’s ears twitched at a slight ringing sound. He slowly and tiredly opened his eyes, yawning. A hoof went over his alarm clock to turn it off before stretching himself.

“Duty never ends.” He said to himself as he walked out of his bedroom for breakfast.

“Good morning, Fletcher!” A female voice called out, seeing a fiery navy-blue coat with matching eyes and flowing silver mane waving friendly at him.

“Morning, Wolf.” The stallion greeted back, having a seat, A yawn greeted his and Wolf’s ears. A bat pony stallion with a grey coat and pure white eyes entered the room as well. “Good morning, Midnight.”

“Same to you. Slept well?”

“Sure thing I did.” Fletcher smiled back, the mare nodded.

“Then, let’s dig in.” Midnight suggested with a smile himself.

Fletcher lit up his horn to reach for a bun and butter as she asked his friend, “So, anything new to report?”

After taking a sip of coffee, Fletcher’s superior shook his head. “No, according to Luna, things are quiet recently, so we have some time for ourselves.”

Fletcher grinned. “Glad to hear it. I think a certain group of foals missed us.”

His friends smiled too. They continued to enjoy their meals.

A happy sigh escaped the unicorn’s mouth. Having satisfied his hunger, he went to the bathroom to brush his teeth, his blue, pupil-less eyes fixed on the mirror.

His blond mane was slightly messy, as was his green coat, but nothing a brush and quick shower couldn’t fix.

Then the three boarded a boat to the mainland, leaving their castle and island home behind. They’d be in Ponyville before nine o’clock.

Going to shore, the friends went their own ways. Fletcher headed to a certain house in the town of Ponyville, knocking on the door.

It opened to reveal a periwinkle-grey unicorn filly, a big grin forming on her face. “Uncle Fletcher!” She wrapped her hooves for a hug around him, which he returned.

“Happy to see you too, Dinky.”

“I was just about to go to school, wanna come with me?” Hope was in the foal’s eyes, causing the stallion to chuckle.

“I’d love to.”

Smiling, the filly went to her room to grab her school bag, Fletcher gave her parents a friendly wave as he saw them in the kitchen before joining the young, excitable unicorn on her way.

While en route to school, the residents of Ponyville greeted both with smiles, which they returned. Some ponies gave Fletcher a respectful or playful salute, as he wore his lunar guard armor. Not that he minded. The many years as Eternal Knight of Luna caused him to treat his armor like a second skin at times and to be very aware of his surroundings, so he often wore his armor and carried his bow and quiver of arrows with him even if off-duty. Today was one of those days when he kept his precious bow with him.

“Ah, fine morning to you, Fletcher.” A female voice said and his eyes turned towards a cobalt blue unicorn mare with scarlet eyes and dark red mane, smiling warmly at him. Next to her was a colt with the same coat but dark brown eyes and a ginger/orange mane.

“Same to you, Blue and Tungsten. Slept well?” He asked in return and Tungsten grinned.

“You bet!” he exclaimed cheerfully.

They joined Dinky and Fletcher, also greeting other residents on their way to the school building.

“Okay, here we are, Dinky. I’ll see you later and remember, have fun!” Her uncle reminded her, which she acknowledged with a happy nod.

Both he and Blue watched the foals entering the building. His ear twitched at a quiet sigh escaping from the mare. “I really can’t thank you enough, Fletcher, that you vouched for me.” Her lips formed a weak smile, which he returned.

“It’s nothing, I only did what is right.”

“But as an Eternal Knight, you get called when there's no second chance for somepony.” She pointed out with slight awe and he lowered his head.

“True.” His voice was one of empathy, “But, I saw a lot of families separated throughout my years and learned how some ponies are good on the inside, despite not seeming so great on the outside.” He then looked up again, his forming a weak smile. “When I saw how much you cared for your son, I knew he should not pay the price.”

“Righto…And I think after all you did, you earned it to have somepony like Dinky.” Now, the mother sounded proud, making him blush.

“What can I say? She grew on me. And I guess it’s nice to have a place to go if I need a break or anything.” He admitted.

“Yep. Now, enjoy the day, Fletcher.” Blue suggested as they went on their ways.

The Royal Guard decided to take a stroll through town, doing a little window-shopping to pass the time, returning each warm smile and greeting sent his way, then headed to a meadow near the outskirts of the town, lying down on the grass to relax. He felt the sun’s warmth beating down, and sighed.

Closing his eyes, the stallion thought about the events that had happened in the past. Doing a small good deed by finding Dinky when she was hopelessly lost, resulting in becoming her uncle and seen as a hero by other ponies. Then sometime later, he helped Blue to stay with her son, also trying to do good.

It seemed only natural to do his duty and good deeds yet…he wondered sometimes if this was meant to be his fate or if there was something more that he was supposed to be doing with his life.

“Sorry I am late today, Fletcher.” His train of thought was stopped by a male voice. He opened his eyes to see a ghostly stallion of a tall, lean build standing next to him. On closer inspection, his body seemed to be set aflame, a faint sight of royal guard armor under it.

“It’s okay, Ifrit, I've got some spare time today.” Fletcher replied and Ifrit nodded. He was a spirit who came to assist Fletcher during one of his missions, his origin a mystery, yet his help in advice and indirect combat proved to be very effective.

“Okay then. Still, you shouldn’t think about the past too much. You did it out of honor, something you can be proud of.” The spirit reminded him.

“Of course…I just wonder at times if this was fate or caused by something else…”

But before he could finish his sentence, his ears twitched at a strange whirring sound. “What the?” Fletcher got up to look around.

Just a few meters away from him was what he could only describe as a ‘rip’ or a ‘hole’ in the space around him. It was of a green color, purple mist flowing from it. A… a portal? He furrowed his brow. Portals didn’t just open and close on their own, which meant that either somepony nearby had opened it - perhaps that Discord - or somepony was going to walk through it in a moment. But there were very few ponies who would know how to open a portal, so who was it?.

“What-“ His mind had not a chance to react as lightning came out of the portal, hitting him.

A scream of pain came from Fletcher, every nerve burning in his body.

He panted in exhausting as the pain slowly left him, his version blurry, struggling to stand.

Faintly, he saw a figure of an Alicorn in front of him. “What the-” It said, surprised and he recognized the voice.

“L-Luna… Your. H-highness…” His voice was weak. Everything faded to black.

---

Thousands of miles away, a small bat pony with a green-blue coat and a purple mane was in distress. Moonlight Amethyst Shade was not a normal pony by any stretch of the imagination. In her life she had met a lot of ponies, become quite a proficient magic user and even grown used to the changeable nature of the dream realm, but she knew the difference between an ordinary dream and one that had been interfered with by magic.

Watching in horror, her purple eyes looked frantically around to spot a grey unicorn stallion dressed in armor and a royal cloak stood not too far away from her in a snowy landscape. King Sombra, ruler of the Crystal Empire and the one pony who mattered to her more than any other in her life. The sky was covered by a blanket of dark clouds and a storm was raging. Another image flashed before her eyes: a tall snowy Alicorn whom she recognized as Princess Celestia, writing something in what she believed to be ancient runes on a blank stone wall with a piece of chalk. An explosion of bright blue light followed, and an unknown pony's silhouette appeared in the centre, carrying an old-fashioned bow and a quiver of arrows with them. Then, she watched as Celestia whispered something to a green unicorn stallion with a sandy colored mane.

The scenery changed again, to show a bitter fight breaking out in the streets of the Crystal Empire. The unicorn stallion with the bow and arrows was aiming at her lover. She wanted to use magic to block the attack but before she could do so, she found herself surrounded by black crystals: crystals that could only have been created by dark magic. An arrow flew straight towards her lover

“Sombra!” The mare screamed at him to move out of the way, before bolting upright in her bed, her purple mane and dark green-grey coat covered in cold sweat, saving herself from imagining a terrifying possibility. It's not real. It's not real. It's just a dream. It's not real.

"Damn you, Celestia!" She shouted just to calm herself down. It helped a little to remember the most basic things about herself. Her name was Moonlight. She lived in the Crystal Empire. Shade was in love with King Sombra, despite everything he’d done to others. The mare hated Celestia, and had done so for most of her life. Being so close to one of the most disliked criminals in Equestria made her life interesting to say the least, and the only thing that stayed constant was her fight against the Princess of the Sun.

There was a knock at the door. "Moonlight," She heard a stallion call out.

"Can’t this wait until the morning, Sombra?" Shade asked with a yawn as he walked in, a worried expression on his face.

"No. You and I were in a shared dream, but a third party separated the two of us and I was forced to participate in a rather unsettling nightmare. An odd unicorn stallion with a bow and arrows was trying to attack us."

"Wait, did you just say-" Her brain tried to process the answer, an expression of confusion and slight panic forming on her face. "I had the same dream. We were in separate dreams, but the same things happened to both of us. How is that even possible?!"

"I used the same technique when I first started looking for ponies to assist me with my conquest of the Crystal Empire. That is how I found you, actually. But it takes a great deal of powerful magic to do something like that." Her lover tried to explain in a calming voice. She shook her head at him.

“What is it, my little bat?” he asked

“You're seriously using the fact that somepony has been visiting and messing around with our dreams to boast about your own magic and your ego? My goodness, what have I got myself into here?!" she joked.

In response, the unicorn lowered his head. "I apologize. You're correct - this could be a dangerous situation. We need to get a good night's sleep, and in the morning we need to find out who or what interrupted our dreams."

"Ok, Sombra."

"I shall see you in the morning." He turned away before his ears perked up at the sound of her lover’s voice.

"Sombra?"

This caused him to turn around, looking at her and raising an eyebrow, as her eyes darted around in nervousness,

"Could - um, I - could you stay with me until the, uh, morning?"

He smiled. "Why, of course, my beautiful little bat. If you are worried, then I will be more than happy to ensure that you feel safe." He walked back into the room. Shade made herself comfortable under the covers as he wrapped his forelegs around her middle. Moonlight was happy, knowing that he's able to protect her from any nightmares, letting out a sigh.

But despite being taught by King Sombra in the ways of mind and dream magic, she wasn’t immune to having doubts and fears. Always in the back of her mind was that little bit of doubt in her lover. It wasn’t the same sort of fears that other ponies had whenever the name ‘Sombra’ was mentioned. It wasn’t that she thought he would use dark magic to harm her or control her. She just wondered whether he would always be there for her, and whether or not she was strong enough to protect him from the likes of Celestia if ever she needed to.

Author's Note:

An idea that popped in after reading Angel's stories and I thought, why not?

Comments

[Bronie312]

Hmm... *Upvotes* ...Perfect.

[Bronycommander]

10935314
thank you, good i have you, as receivings had a bad start

[ARandomLonelyDude]

Nice.

[Bronycommander]

10936398
Glad to hear you like it