Zodiac Brave Story

by Blankscape

Chapter 10: Apoplexy

Begin Chapter 10: Apoplexy

* * *

It was a veritable mountain of paperwork that nearly approached the height of her chest plate.

Stacks upon stacks of parchment all lay neatly on her royally ornate office table of modest length with a dozen or so binded envelopes and several wax-sealed scrolls lying on top. To her magenta eyes that wandered around the room in search for something equally interesting, the varying heights of the piles of paper formed a miniature landscape of sorts on which the drifting dust motes had bedded down upon and decided to lay claim for their swarm. A uniformly thin layer of dust coated the vellum terrain like a light cover of snow, and the monarch who stood before it would have rather left the trifling matters of the Canterlot nobility unattended than disturb what fine work the motes had amounted in a short span of time.
But alas, it was not to be.

With a wave of golden aura, the flecks of dust were roused from their squatter state and ushered out an open window into the morning air once more, returning them to their former, lofty, nomadic lifestyle. Her ponies were more important than them, even though they did the most trivial of things just to spite her, like a meal left sloppily and largely unfinished meant to irk either the cook or the dishwasher.

“I swear those highborn snobs keep stock of these somewhere and send them over when I don’t pay them enough attention,” Celestia mumbled in annoyance as warm light from her sun shimmered on her pearl white coat.

As per their request, the more active royal sister of the Equestrian diarchy heeded the nobility to take part in the Summer Sun’s preparation. With an active hoof set upon the upcoming festival’s workings, a diligent week of her attendance in that matter had ensured it to be the best Summer Sun Celebration amongst those of at least the two half-decades that preceded and would follow. However, it still meant that her attention had also been averted from pesky patricians who saw fit to pass their own work to the alicorn in addition to the usual petty concerns. For as far back as she could remember, this had been the most common of consequences that befell upon her when she did something the majority of them did not approve. Even before her beloved sister’s untimely rebellion, though at the time they had generously juggled the burden together to give each other a leeway for other things.

However, Luna had obliged herself to catching up to recent events, and in spite of reading for a good part of the two years it had barely been since her return, she had only managed to cover a half-third of a thousand years’ worth of historical, political and cultural literature. Another two years of nonstop reading would see her half way through, and even then, her responsibilities to the crown would see to it that she not have her way.

Celestia brooded over these facts as she took her seat and looked to her work with determination. ‘We’ve hardly done anything together since she came back,’ the alicorn moped with a lamentful sigh.

‘Let’s finish this quickly so there’ll be time to see her before bed.’

* * *

Through the greying wickers of the dying and decaying undergrowth, beneath the meager canopy of thorny bramble that paled in comparison to the sky-like shroud of leaves and branches that loomed over, tiny lungs huffed and puffed with all their might as the sound of snapping twigs and bushes parting and giving way echoed behind.

He wasn’t used to running around for so long, and exhaustion had taken its toll on his unexercised frame. As he continued his mad dash for dearest life, a stray root met his left hind leg, spraining it and causing him to tumble into the foul sludge-like soil. Realizing the thicket would not stall his pursuers for long nor would outrunning them be even remotely achievable any longer, he begrudgingly rolled in the mud, sullying his snow white fur in its earthy browns. After squeezing past an equally tiny opening underneath a nearby titled stump, he laid there in its dusty confines and waited with bated breath for rickety legs to scramble by.

Not long afterwards, a rhythmic beat of wooden paws sounded against the soft, wet dirt. As the staccato began to recede, he stole a glance at the pack of Timberwolves that raced past. A quiet sigh of relief was let loose as the last of the predators left his view and disappeared into the darkening hinterland.

Indeed, the Everfree forest was no place for coddled animals such as Angel.

In this brief moment of respite, his thoughts pondered back to the apparition that came to him and spurred on such a brash decision.

She was supposed to have come home in the morning. He specifically remembered Fluttershy promising him that the day she left for wherever that gosh-darned bud was sprouting up from. It was already past lunchtime, and still, the expected pegasus was nowhere to be found. Angel was starting to get worried, but all the other animals at the verdant abode plainly brushed his fits of worry off nonchalantly, apparently content that others had come to stand in for their mistress in her take of leave. It disgusted him greatly that they would readily forget about her, the one who took care of them all year round, so long as somepony else was there to take her place.

Or was he simply overreacting?

It seemed to be the indubitable case of the matter, though the spoiled bunny would not willingly admit that in front of all of his friends on account of his pride.

He attempted voicing these concerns to one of the mares his mistress entrusted the cottage to, the colorful one who came in the morning, but she too brushed it aside, assuming it to be grumblings of fickle hunger and distaste for the meek pony’s absence.

There seemed to be no point in going to them. If one wouldn’t listen, surely the rest would not as well. They’re all the same. They’d think that he was just a pet, some animal that needed and wanted to be take care of. In the end, there was nothing else for him to do but be a good bunny like she asked of him and wait for the mare of the house to come home. And so, the impatient hare kept to his lonesome by the window on the second floor, overlooking the walkway to the cottage.

Bright rays shone through the clear pane of glass to warm his small, plush body, and the cool contrast provided by the breeze that furtively snuck in past the slightly open window slowly but surely lulled him into a hazy daydream. He drowsily thought it was annoyingly rare for him to be forced into compromise once again instead of usually getting his way, and with an torpid squeak of a yawn, he laid his head against his soft paws and let slumber overtake him.

Then there was a sound, the creaking of hinges and the scratching of wood grazing wood. He looked up from his prone form and rubbed the gathering sand from his face as a timid voice resonated throughout the household.

“I’m so very sorry that I’ve taken such a long time just to get back here,” the voice started in a familiarly apologetic tone.

It was her!

It was definitely her voice, which meant Fluttershy was finally home! But something was amiss.

Though she had returned from her week-long trip, the cottage had remained eerily silent. Where were the others and why weren’t they there to greet her? The little nests and lairs that had been situated throughout the interior of the household were very rarely empty all at once, and knowing that their mistress would be arriving very soon, some critter inside the household aside from the lone hare surely would be waiting for her too.

Then he realized he wanted to be the very first animal she saw as well as the first one to welcome her back, and the lack of commotion on the floor below told him that this was his chance. He would welcome her home and hog all that love and attention to himself, and to make her feel extra special, Angel would have her make a simple meal for him without fussing over complicated recipes as usual.

After taking a brief second to stretch his legs, he eagerly scurried off to meet the pegasus, completely ignoring the drastically aphotic change of his surroundings.

The surface of the floorboards, the entirety of furniture, the stitch and lace of drapes and cloths, the thatch in the nests, the water in the lazy stream, the rocks jutting out from the ground, and the leaves and bark of the trees around, everything had turned a muted and lifeless grey. Not even the sky itself was spared, as it had lost its glorious azure tint. The light of the sun too had dimmed in intensity, and in the darkening shadows, the ash-like hue of all things turned a somber, near black shade.

Yet still, the impetuous rabbit went on, undeterred by both the discoloration of the world and the steps of the stairs that suddenly seemed to stretch on in front of him.

That was when the very atmosphere began to condense and ripple, and another voice chimed throughout the cottage to speak its piece to the meek pegasus in such a reverberating, rasping sensation that could only be described as mortally chilling.

“I should be the one apologizing,” the second voice sniffled in the same apologetic manner.

Who was this strange pony she had brought with her? Though the ghastly tinge of the echo sent a cold spell down his spine, the thought of seeing Fluttershy again and basking in her heaven-sent affection was his foremost priority right now. So the rabbit stifled what remained of his instinct that urged him to turn around and flee. The short flight continued to stretch on into a stairwell of what felt like several stories of steps, and though the rabbit speedily pressed onwards unrelented, his stamina seemed to wane the more ground he covered. But he couldn’t stop now, for the last step was fast approaching.

“I’ve been sulking and crying like a child the whole time since you’ve found me. It must have been extremely dull and annoying for you,” the visitor, who now sounded much like a mare to the hurried hare, sheepishly continued.

With a foot finally and firmly down on the first floor, crossed hare set his crosshairs on Fluttershy and launched himself towards the unsuspecting mare. His view of her grew closer as he flew from the foot of the stairs to idle pegasus, and an imaginary chorus melodiously jubilated in the back of his mind, as if to exalt the reward of his patience.

But the feeling of soft, delicate, cream fur evaded him as he went through the pony and crashed into the hard wood of the door behind her. As he collected himself, his mistress continued to talk with the visitor without even noticing him, much less his little accident, and he was going to give her such an earful for her negligence in failing to catch him as well as bringing a very strange pony home without his consent.

“It’s no problem, really. Talking to somepo—err...someone after being alone for so long is nice. This place is so quiet and d-dark and empty, not to mention d-downright scary, I still can’t completely believe I’m actually here… I-it almost feels like…like a—”

The sound of his mistress’ stutters and her demure demeanor annoyed the rabbit that she still spoke like some bashful foal. So when he turned around to scold her for her meekness, he, in turn, saw her visitor as well. Whatever he saw, it wasn’t a pony.

“A nightmare turned real perhaps?”

What stood there between him and the cream pegasus was a grimly pale spectre of a creature, and the entire look of it made everything single hair on his coat stand on end.

The phantasm floated ominously in midair, and the lower half of its body and its left forelimb were nowhere to be seen, replaced by a twisted obsidian mass that had cracked and broken off at the fringes. Cold wisp seeped out from its teal eyes and dispersed into the air, lending the atmosphere a feeling of frost that amplified his chills. A crimson dye that turned a dull scarlet stained the torn and trailing edges of its lavish yet time-worn garb, and what drops of blood that had managed to escape the fabric’s grasp lay suspended around the black, scale-like accretions that protruded from where its missing body parts were supposed to be. With its hairless, flat face in a solemn bow and its long, faded amber mane bobbing in an unmoving breeze, it regarded his mistress in warm sympathetic gaze.

The meek mare looked to her companion anxiously as if she had read her mind. Angel simply stood there, at first with a face contorted in pure shock and awe which then evolved to one of fear. Frozen in his stupefied terror, he curled into a ball with what stamina he had left and covered his eyes with his ears in assumption of his impending end.

It never came.

In its stead did Fluttershy answer the spectre’s rhetoric with a query of her own. As they continued their conversation, the bout of fright that came over the horrified hare only served to translate their conversation into a distant, muffled gibberish.

“I-i-is that really what this all is?” the pony gulped as her stance staggered at the thought of some otherworldly monster bursting into their sanctuary without a moment’s notice.

“That’s about it. Everything here is real, but at the same time, it isn’t. As a friend of mine had once said;

‘Dreams and illusions be reserved for wanderers in slumber and souls in oblivion.’

And the latter being exactly what and where we are right now. Best not think about this anymore. It was quite confusing the first time he explained it to me too.”

The pony’s ears perked up at the spectre’s mention of a friend, completely ignoring the bleakness of the rest of the statement.

“By friend, do you mean Ebony?”

“I’m not exactly sure who you mean by that... I’ll need a description.”

“Let me see… Oh!” exclaimed the meek mare as she knelt down on her forehooves and started scribbling on the floor.

“Umm…the first time I saw him…he used to stand on two…legs like you, but I got scared,” she had explained with slight blush before continuing. Her phantasmal companion only giggled at the pony’s efforts as she took her time in desperately trying to carve out a symbol on the wooden floor with her hooves. What she produced with some difficulty was a crude, shallow and nearly imperceptible etching of an upturned, horseshoe intersected by a curved line at two points.

“So he turned into a pony, and this was his cutie mark,” the meek mare explained in finality, hoping her scribble and description were enough.

“Do you mean a bit like the one on your rear?” the spectre asked to clarify.

The meek pegasus lifted her wings as she looked to her right and then startled herself midsentence when she turned to the other side.

“What do you—eep!”

What she saw imprinted on her left flank was not the image of three aquamarine butterflies with pink wings, but rather the very symbol she had scratched onto the floorboard, albeit one neater yet missing the curving line that ran across.

“Wha-what happened to my cutie mark!?” Fluttershy distressingly expressed as she almost keeled over.

“It’s that what those marks on your flank are called? A bit weird if you ask me," the phantasm curiously remarked, eying it at certain details the cream pegasus could not perceive. The passing comment did not help to relieve her anxiety, yet she patiently waited for the spectre to finish briefly examining the image on her rear. "You could say that’d be his cutie mark too. Well, half of it anyway, kind of a blessing if you will.

“He had told me before that under normal circumstance, this space would be filled with all manner of malicious creature that lurked about this desolate world. He must have given that to you for your protection.”

The demure pony gulped a second time at the mention of monsters over the same, lingering thought.

“T-that sounds dreadful. Although I’m still glad he sent me here to meet you even if he did go about things the wrong way to get my attention. If he didn’t, I would have met such a nice…um…uhh,” the mare trailed as she struggled to find the right word to end her statement, and her companion smiled a wistful grin as she looked to the innocent pony.

“‘Ghost?’ ‘Spirit?’ ‘Dead animal?’ I honestly think ‘person’ would sound much better, wouldn’t you say?” she wittingly quipped.

Her demure host giggled as her own grin half shown past the pink mane that obscured her face.

“Umm… Yes. ‘Person’ sounds nice too,” Fluttershy coyly returned as the under-utilized word rolled strangely off her tounge.

“Now, as much as I’d like to continue our little chat, we best get going soon. I wouldn’t want any of the more bolder beasts to catch wind of us moving around,” said the spectre as it transformed into a soft glimmer of amber light that disappeared into the mare, turning her wings a shade of blackest night. She nodded in agreement and made way for the other end of the house.

With her leave of the room, the cold and choking atmosphere drew back to let neutrality reign once again. The calm that followed quickly thawed Angel out of his fear-filled stupor, and the bunny followed his mistress suit. Peering through the open door that led to the backyard, he saw the meek mare standing at the edge of the property, no longer trembling as she looked to the Everfree like she used to.

“Um… Parnella?” the cream mare spoke to the apparition within her.

“…” Angel heard no voice responding to the call, yet his mistress continued to speak.

“Will I remember any of this when we arrive?”

“…”

“Oh… I see… Well then, I’ll help you remember,” she replied in a cheerfully meek tone.

“And when we get back, I’ll introduce to all of my friends,” the pony declared in a trot into the forest.

“Pinkie Pie throws the nicest welcome parties for everyone who’s new in town. You’ll be staying over ay my cottage, won’t you? I have a lot of cute animal friends that live there, though Angel—come again?”

At the sound of his name, the love-deprived bunny attempted to take off after her but had been blinded by an exceedingly bright radiance that cut through the somber reality and halted him in his tracks.

“Sorry for what?” were the last words he heard her speak as the light abated, and he fell down to the floor in a thump.

His beady little eyes flickered open to the sight of the brown ceiling and the windowsill he fell from slightly off to the side. Every muscle in his pampered body ached to some degree from his little tumble but none more so than his head with that harrowing memory of that reverie rushing back, telling him that his mistress was in danger. The rabbit got up, scampered down the steps, and was greeted by a stampede of his fellow animals rushing out the front door. Not having the time to pay them mind, he recklessly dove into the crowd and deftly maneuvered through it in the opposite direction. When the charge thinned out and completely passed him, he crossed the empty backyard and ventured off to the boscage.

All these recent happenings he contemplated as the hampered hare left his sanctuary under the stump and hobbled to a nearby boulder. Leaning against its cold surface, Angel wishfully imagined the plush fur of his mistress in its place. He fancied even eating the common viands she usually fed all the others so long as she was there to watch him fill his face. The thought caused his tummy to whine at its apparent emptiness, and a bush over yonder shook at the growling sound of hunger.

The rabbit attempted to flee, but his sprained leg on top of his exhausted condition was too great a handicap to overcome. His eyes dilated in anticipation, and the rabbit could do nothing but watch as the thicket began to part and reveal what predator would feast on his entrails.

* * *

“Um, guyz? I don’t think this is workin’ out too good, and I’m kinda gettin’ hungry. Let’s go get somethin’ t’eat,” a soaked Babs Seed suggested as she rested on the shore by a neat stack of towels and the group’s saddle bags.

The sun casted an orange glow from its position in waning the afternoon, and the rest of the Cutie Mark Crusaders continued to wade in the shallows, hesitant to approach the flowing body of water’s deep end. Though they had meant to earn cutie marks on synchronized swimming, the resolved intentions quickly devolved into spontaneous desire for riverside hoopla as soon as Scootaloo first started up with her antics when they set hoof in the water. Their stint had certainly been refreshing and fun, but they plum tuckered themselves out before actually trying anything physically resembling the sport. By the time they realized this, they were simply too tired to brave the river’s now rapid current caused by the influx of rain water in addition to its depth.

“Babs is right. We’ve been here for three hours straight, and none of us has a cu—“

“What!! What’s this supposed to mean!?” Scootaloo complained, garnering the attention of the others as the uncool image of a brown leaf now emblazoned itself on her rear. The unicorn filly she interrupted looked unamused. She plodded to the pegasus’ side and pealed the rubbish off her flank, leaving the sheepishly smiling, orange filly feeling a mixture of disappointment and absurdity.

“What are you guys doing?”

The trio in the water plus the neophyte on the shore swerved their heads to the source of the sound; a purple dragon no taller than the fillies themselves approached the posse from the nearby bridge. He carried with him a jar in his right claw, a small wooden sign in his left, and wore a purple wooden necklace. The trinket seemingly at home on his person went unnoticed amongst the fillies.

“Hey, Cuz. It’s dat dragon again,” Babs unfamiliarly whispered to her cousin who had joined her on the shore as she dried herself.

“Oh yeah. Ah never introduce ya t’him back at the reunion,” the farm filly recounted, taking a towel for herself as she chuckled at the memory of him standing in for a lighter at the end of the Apple family affair.

“Hey there, Spike. This here’s mah cousin, Babs Seed. She’s from Manehatten, n’ she’s here for the Summer Sun.”

“Nice to meet you,” the dragon greeted with a claw shake to the Manehattenite's hoof. He then set down his things to rest and returned to his question for the group, asking them, “so, what are you fillies up to anyway?”

“We’re trying to earn our synchronized swimming cutie marks, but it’s not working out too good,” said Scootaloo as she and Sweetie Belle opted to join the conversation on the shore.

The statement would have spoiled the mood too and caused the others to frown were it not for the pegasus filly’s rambunctious shakes and wing flaps spraying a shower all over the group and making the unicorn behind her to tumble back into the shallows.

“Err… Sorry,” she apologized as her peers shot miffed looks at her, causing a diffident smile to form on her muzzle for a second time today.

“Don’t you all know you’re not supposed to swim here?” Spike asked, wiping the moisture off his face. The quartet looked to him, having absolutely no idea what he meant. Sighing at their convenient ignorance, he reached for the sign to his side and showed it to them. It was a picture of pony silhouette diving head first into the waves. A bright red ‘no’ symbol ran across and barred the entirety of the image, and the message it bore was obvious to all who saw it.

“That’s no fair!” Scootaloo started off, sounding agitated.

“Yeah, we never seen that sign b’fore today!” the farm filly protested in the group’s defense with the others nodding in tandem of their innocence.

“I guess I shouldn’t be surprised you don’t know about it, what with the Summer Sun coming along. The storm blew the first sign away, and Twilight asked me to put this new one up. And everypony’s busy helping out with the preparations, so not a lot would know about this yet.”

“Just get to the point already!” the winged filly sassed at the dragon as she began drying herself further.

“All right, sheesh. I was just getting to that… So there’s this serpent living along the river that cuts through the Everfree forest, goes by the name of Steven Magnet,” Spike said, pointing to the left turn at the fork of the river just behind them. “He came by four days ago looking for the mayor, complaining about a ton of rubbish that’s drifted into his home, and that he wants something done about it.”

“What’s that got to do with us?” Sweetie Bell interposed, grabbing a towel.

“I’m leading up to that. Anyway for starters, the mayor’s going to have a word with waste management, something about not stopping in the middle of the bridge for breaks. He also said that the water’s starting to smell like ponies, and that it isn’t good for his complexion, his hair or his mustache.

“I do have to admit though, his mustache did look pretty cool and suave,” the young dragon enviously recalled, taking the sign in claw and ascending the bank to place it.

“Spike, focus,” the unicorn filly stressed as he stared to wander into a tangent.

“Oops, my bad. Now where was I? Oh yeah… He and the Mayor agreed that nopony’s allowed to swim between here to the lake until they install some kind of filter over there at the left of the fork.”

“That’s not fair either!” Scootaloo grumbled, looking to the structure that was a stone's throw away. “The river’s too deep for fillies or colts past the bridge.”

“Well, it’s…a good thing…the Summer…Sun’s just around the corner,” the purple dragon grunted between breaks, pegging the sign down till it was secure. He then returned to collect the jar on the grassy bank and turned to the direction of the forest.

“You’re lucky I was the only one passing by. Like I said, everypony’s just too busy with the preparations to notice.”

In the face of yet another dead-end attempt to earn their cutie marks, Apple Bloom inwardly thanked the drake for passing by to warn them instead of mulling over the failure with the other crusaders as usual. The gears slowly turned in her head at the drake’s unusual choice of heading, giving her an idea for one last crusade to squeeze in for the day, and the Apple filly opted to voice out a query as to where he was going.

“What about yerself then? Where ya headed with that?” Applebloom wondered with a hoof pointed at the jar.

“I’m going to Zecora’s to drop off these cookies. She mixed something up to help Fluttershy get better when she was sick a week back,” Spike responded, turning back to see that she had called the others to gather in a huddle.

“We aven’t been to Zecora’s place b’fore, ‘ave we?”

“No… Well, at least not together. Your sister and Twilight came in and stopped us before we even set hoof in the forest,” Sweetie Belle answered.

“So who’z this Zecora anywayz?” the Manehattenite questioned for the umpteenth time since she arrived.

“She’s a zebra who lives in the Everfree forest n’ makes different potions fer all sorts of occasions,” the Apple filly informed her unknowing relative. “On mah way to her place b’fore ah got the Cutie pox, ah fell over chipped mah tooth, but she fixed it in a jiffy.”

“What’z Cutie pox!?” Babs vexingly inquired once again. Her face contorted in exasperation told the others she was getting tired of asking all these question, but it was expected since she was practically new to town.

“Ah’ll tell ya all ‘bout it when we get back to the farm… It’s kinda embarrassin’ for me to say, but that’s not the poin—“

“Hey, Apple Bloom,” Scootaloo interjected with a mischievous smile in place of the flusttered two that came before, “I know I’m not the thinking type and all, but are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

“If it’s ‘bout gettin’ potion makin’ cutie marks, then…” the farm filly stuck her hoof out as a rush of second wind came to her in the form of a glint in her eye before it caught the other three in its breeze. They eagerly responded to the gesture with a clop resounding through the air, and then broke the huddle to gather beside the purple dragon.

“Hey Spike, we were kinda wonderin’ if you could use some company going off to Zeco—“

“Potion making?” Spike guessed correctly without a second thought.

“How’d ya find out!?”

“I was there, remember? Applejack and Twilight herded you three back after you took off for the forest. Don’t you remember writing a Friendship report to the Princess that day? Well, technically I wrote it down, and you tol—”

“So can we come with?” the orange filly eagerly buzzed in, wings flittering at the thought of adventure.

“Sure, why not? It’s n—“

“CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS POTION MIXERS!”

When the fillies had finished their war cry, the dragon whelp unplugged his ears and continued to speak his piece.

“As I was saying, it’s not like we’ll bump into any beasties with this baby on,” the dragon whelp assured, showcasing the necklace they hadn’t notice him wearing earlier as they started walking.

“What’z that little thingamajig?” Babs wondered, genuine curiosity taking precedence over her earlier botheration of asking questions all day.

“It’s a charm from Zecora that keeps the monsters that live in the Everfree away. She gave it to Twilight after her run-in with that Cockatrice. Now let’s get going, I wouldn’t want to be around these wood at night, even with this around my neck.”

With the warning’s final utterance, the group disappeared beneath the thick awning’s shade, and their distant chatters of cutie marks and cookies soon faded as the group gambled a stroll through the foreboding unknown of the enchanted wood.

* * *

The carefree morning had greeted her with six thousand one hundred fifty three pages worth of paperwork, not counting the all envelopes and scrolls, and the new afternoon saw her finish only nine pages shy of the three hundred fifty.

At least a third of it all had to be sorted out before Wednesday when she would preside over the Raising of the Sun ceremony, so even Celestia thought that the arduous task would be too much for her to do alone. Normally by now, she would have been able to do at least twice as much, but an unexpected report from her Royal Guard had caught her by surprise at brunch.

“What!?” the alabaster alicorn surprisingly expressed as the words of the message started to sink in.

“I apologize, Your Majesty, but that is the truth of the matter. Both teams sent to clandestinely escort the bearer of the Element of Kindness on her round trip to Dodge Junction have been intercepted aboard the train,” the leader of Team Beta nervously reaffirmed.

“And how, pray tell, in Equestria did six of the finest unicorns and pegasi in the Solar and Lunar guard mess up a single escort assignment?” the royal asked to clarify in slight irritation.

“We don’t exactly know, but…” the winged solar guard took a moment to gather his thoughts in front of the Princess of Equestria, feeling her stare boring into him as the pressure he felt told of her growing concern and disappointment.

“According to the reports made by the medical staff at Dust Dodger’s Hospital, all six of us were found in our respective carriages completely frozen in some kind of magickally-induced comatose.”

“For an entire week?” the Princess of the Sun skeptically interjected.

“Apparently, yes. Though testing for any known equine disease or disorder came back negative, our muscles and joints became stiff and immovable for the entire ordeal. After two days of inconclusive medical test, they sent the whole lot of us over to Royal Magicks Academy here in Canterlot for further study. It was later revealed that the cause of our ‘status ailment,’ as the researchers have insistingly penned, to be of a magickal signature generated by a non-unicorn entity,” the pegasus wearily recounted as the feeling of the most nauseating vertigo crept back from memory.

“When us pegasi first recovered this morning, we all felt completely disoriented, as if time itself stood still around us before abruptly throwing us back into the loop like some rag doll. It felt absolutely horrible experiencing a whole week’s worth of sensation within an hour.”

The solar diarch’s eyes remained stalwart despite the gravity of the suggestion and focused on what exactly had intercepted the escort.

‘A magickal signature of non-unicorn entity,’ Celestia thought, with only one particular being coming to mind. “What of the unicorn team?”

“They have yet to recover, Your Highness. Thought they're expected to come to sometime tomorrow.”

“And the bearer of the Element of Kindness?”

“Only her luggage has been recovered by the Lost and Found committee at the town of destination.”

“Why hadn’t the escort team’s status been reported until today nor were there any follow-up investigations conducted prior to this debriefing?” Celestia further debriefed with vexation evident in her tone. A moment later, the guard opened his mouth to speak but found the Princess’ hoof gesturing him to stop as she took her own calculated guess.

“Is it because of the Summer Sun Celebration?” The pegasus only nodded in affirmation then cast a regretful look to the floor for their shameful ineptitude.

“That’ll be all, my little pony. Now go get some rest. You all deserve it.”

The alicorn dismissed the guard, and after a respectful bow, he disappeared behind the door, leaving her to catch up on her paperwork as well as the meal on the tableside that was starting to get cold. With a golden hold over a quill and an ink well, she went on thinking about this most misfortunate of mishaps as she continued signing papers. Though she doubted being able to meet her quota of at least one thousand five hundred pages by the end of the day.

Yet she couldn’t fault them entirely for their blunder. Peace was a luxury that seldom lasted long. To have maintained that calm for so long was nothing short of a miracle in itself. Like every other free being living in this world, especially those under and within Equestria’s banner and borders, the soldiers of the Royal Guard had every right to enjoy the peace too.

Then again, it was that exact lack of strife and hardship that robbed them greatly of their vigilance. When would they know to be vigilant if they had hardly seen conflict at all? How would they ready themselves should chaos come knocking on their gates once more? Would they be able to endure and move on should hardship come and take everything they hold dear away from them? As the saying goes, the billet does not become the blade without suffering the furnace and the anvil, and even then it doesn’t stay as sharp for long. As evidenced by their incompetence to keep everypony safe at the return of Nightmare Moon and the Changing Invasion led by Queen Chrysalis, they were hardly capable of doing their jobs.

All her ponies took for granted the joys of life for such a long time, and without knowing hardship and strife to the realest sense, they had become stagnant and dull. The peace and tranquility she had sought to bring to her nation all those centuries ago started to work against her, turning the citizenry largely docile and dependent on her and the harmony she so painstakingly provided. Celestia knew that by extension, this was her fault too, for she loved her ponies too much.

Hours later, her sun began to set as it nearly completed its course across the blue sky for the day, telling her it was time to quit. Then she made way for her sister’s room to ask her dear sister for assistance in dealing with royal affairs.

Her slightly ruffled countenance and the uneasiness of her downcast eyes betrayed the composure of her steady gait as she walked the halls to Luna’s chambers, anxious over the week old information that had only recently come to light. A sight like this was a rare and ominous thing for most castle staff to see, and it was fortunate that no other pony currently walked the same corridors as her to see it.

“Lulu, it’s me. I need to ask you of a favor,” the alabaster alicorn started upon reaching the Lunar quarters. There was no answer.

“Lulu?” she called again to then same silent response. The sun was about ready to set, appearing as a small fragment of a brilliant, golden orange disc that shone above the darkened horizon. Now would’ve been a time as good as any other to raise the moon.

“Lulu? You’re going to raise the moon, aren’t you?” alicorn concernedly voiced as the echoes of her plea bounded off the cold, furnished onyx of the crescent embellished door. Still, there was only silence.

One minute.

Three minutes.

Fifteen minutes.

Thirty-five minutes.

That was it.

Celestia could wait no longer. She headed to the nearest window and tapped into her magickal reservoir, gathering all the remaining energy she could muster to attempt this feat. After setting the sun down and taking a moment to establish a link with the unseen celestial body, her eyes gleamed a bright white, and the moon began to move on her behalf once more. Once it, like the sun before it, had been set on its course, the Princess of the Sun trudged back to the Lunar quarters, fuming and gritting her teeth in tired agitation of her sister’s slovenliness.

“Princess Luna, you better have a good explanation for neglecting to raise the moon!!” the solar sibling loudly berated with an impatient hoof tapping on the floor. Eyes closed in frustration of her sister’s seeming insolence, she bowed her head to restrain herself from breaking the silence with something hateful and regretful.

When she opened them again, ready to attempt a calm and understanding approach of the issue at hoof, a pair of serpent eyes met her gaze, staring at her from the black shadows of the hallway that had merged together into an darkly inumbration that encompassed the floor on which she stood. The intensity of its unblemished, brilliant, emerald hue dazzled her into stupefaction, while the realization that this fiend had ambushed her without warning and could have easily killed her turned this amazement into an unbridled sense of fear.

It had be a very long time since the bona fide Goddess of the Sun felt utterly terrifed like some foal, and it was as unpleasant as she remembered. Yet she didn’t scream nor did she move. She simply stood there with a dumbfounded look on her face as the creature shrouded in shadow studied her with its judging gaze. Then, as quick as the shroud protecting it, the fiend slipped underneath the tight crevice of the lavish, onyx door and into the Lunar chambers.

It was in there with her.

“LUNA!!!”

* * *

End Chapter 10: Apoplexy

Author's Note:

Proofread by MagerBlutooth

Whew! That was a long wait. What did you guys think about the cliffhanger I added in at the last minute? Suspenseful enough? No? I thought it was.

Anyway, so just a reminder that I intend to update monthly at the very least though I honestly don't know how that will hold up with my schedule starting to run busy. I'll just have to keep to it as always and mind the quality above all else.

So, till the next chapter!

-B.