The Darkness among the Stars

by Haseo

Chapter 14 - Artificial Existence

Chapter 14
Artificial Existence

Fresh air breezed through their manes. They couldn't feel the ground beneath their hooves. The coolness of the night seemed to ease the pain. The voices of the creatures were gone. Only one ambiance remained, the strumming of the chains. Everypony kept their eyes tightly shut.

Their minds were filled with ease, Twilight had a small smile on her lips while she felt like she was flying through the air. “I think, I know why we say to our dying ones, ‘rest in peace’. It feels like flying, like something is carrying us through the sky. What a wonderful feeling.”

She felt a rough pull around her hip. Her eyes shot open and she looked down on the Everfree Forest. The treetops were far below the mares, she quickly turned her head around to see what was pulling them up. A thick rope was laid around the mares. Following the rope upwards, she found it was connected to a huge golden chariot, pulled by four pegasi. Somepony was pulling them upwards into the flying vehicle.

“Girls! Open your eyes! We are safe! The Princess had sent help!”

The other mares opened their eyes to see the world rushing away in front of their eyes. A small smile throned the mares’ faces. Neatly tied together, they were pulled upwards, step by step.

Just a few more pulls and they would be safe. Twilight stretched her hoof upwards, laid her leg on the inside of the chariot and with all her strength, tried to pull herself and her friends up but the chariot began to shake.

They fell a few feet down. Screams escaped their lungs before the pony above could grab the rope once more. The sudden halt strained their bodies once more, the rope cut into the flesh of Pinkie Pie. She couldn't suppress the screams of pain.

Twilight's eyes searched her surroundings. Her head hung upside down, the blood rushing into her head. She found a flying black object, it took a huge turn.

It seemed like the thing was fleeing from them, but the truth was that it wanted to bring some distance between them to charge again.

The pony in the chariot shouted something, but his words were lost in the winds.

The black object became larger as it approached their saviours. A brief moment before the impact, a purple force field appeared around them. Without heed It smashed into the shield. The huge body spread around the sphere, their surroundings illuminated by a light green radiation.

The force field vanished slowly from the top upwards. The remains of their attacker dissolved from the sphere. Before it could fall to the ground, it began to ignite into black fire, the flames swallowed the remains of the former attacker. Only a small turquoise ball was left behind in the air.

It pulsed from the pure energy hidden inside.

Once again the passenger of the chariot began to pull them up. Nevertheless Twilight didn't lose sight of the hovering object. Quiet cracking sounds could be heard. Following a loud crack, the sphere shattered into a billion microscopic tiny shards that were carried away with the wind. Invisible to the mortal eye.

Her gaze was pulled away as they crossed the border of the chariot and laid in a neat package on the ground before a white unicorn stallion in a royal guards armour.

Twilight's frown turned into a huge grin as she saw her older brother. “Shiny, oh by Celestia's sun, thank you! Thank you so much! Ähh, I would hug you but I'm still tied down.”

Shining Armor couldn't suppress a small giggle for the scene before him. The four mares, tied together, back to back. Rarity lied with her face on the ground, unable to move through the weight of the others. Shining Armor cut the ropes with his horn and the four mares, fall to the ground.

They rubbed their heads and Rarity corrected her mane immediately. Twilight raised quickly and pulled her brother into a tight hug. Her friends joined them soon.

They were thrown over by a unexpected impact. A rainbow-coloured blur crashed into them. “Hey, guys! I saw your little light show, so I thought I could join you and I brought Flutters with me.”

With a quiet thud the timid mare landed behind her friends. “Hi.” Her voice was a nearly inaudible whisper.

Shining Armor struggled free from the multiple-embrace and straightened his armour. “Thanks Girls, but you shouldn't thank me. Phalanx spotted your magic attempt from up here.”

He pointed at the pony in the first row on the left side. Twilight charged to the front side of the chariot with a slight blush in her face. “Hey Phalanx! I'm so happy to see you again! Thank you for saving us!”

The white guard turned his head only slightly in mid-flight, so that he could see the mare from the corner of his eye. But he turned his head back in a quick reaction. His head was coloured a heavy red. He didn't want to be seen like this.

“It's a pleasure to meet you again, Miss Sparkle. You don't have to thank me for fulfilling my duty.”

Twilight had to giggle and pushed her hooves against her cheeks. “Oh, stop it you! Please call me Twilight, and don't you dare bow again!”

Phalanx laughed at Twilight's cheerful manner, considering she faced death just mere minutes before. “It's a great honour… Twilight. But you can't demand me to not bow to you.”

Twilight couldn't suppress her urge to giggle. The other pegasi rolled their eyes as Phalanx and Twilight's conservation slowly slipped into a embarrassing region.

Shining Armor audibly cleared his throat to interrupt the little flirt between his sister and his underling. “Now that all things are settled we will take off to Canterlot Castle.”

Everypony jumped up and looked at him with huge eyes, as they spoke in perfect unison. “What? But we have to find him first!”

Shining stumbled backwards on his plot, startled by the reaction of the girls. He looked around nervously before he answered, “Princess Celestia dispatched more guards that are searching through the woods at this moment. I've got a personal order to take you and your friends to the castle. Her highness wishes that you attend the preparations for the Grand Galloping Gala as her special guests. And of course, as soon as we find him, we will bring him to Canterlot as well.”

Applejack jumped in front of Twilight's brother and stood now face to face with him. “Count meh out! Ah see no point in attending the Gala and having fun when he is still missing. Ah will stay and look for him.”

He was stunned for a few seconds and began to sweat, everypony looked at the two in amazement. “It is a direct order from the Princess, there is no excuse.”

In her eyes raised anger, she crunched her teeth and pressed her forehead to Shining's but before she could respond, Twilight parted the two from each other.

“It's okay, when the Princess demands so. I trust the other guards to find him.” She looked with a wink to Phalanx.

Applejack swallowed her anger and turned away from them, starring into the midnight sky.

Twilight was glad that she didn't start fighting with her brother now, but turned her attention right back to her brother. “But you have to answer my two questions first. The first is: what about Spike?”

Shining was more than uncomfortable now, he cringed back, but couldn't turn around as it was too dangerous. “He will come with the other guards as soon as possible. You don't have to worry.”

The expression in Twilight's face kept unchanged. She still looked suspecting at her brother. “And the second is: what is in the big brown bag that you tried to hid behind you?”

He began to sweat more heavily. His eyes wandered aimlessly around, searching for an answer. “Well, it’s a special ornament for the Gala that the Princess has ordered.”

Twilight knew her brother well enough to know when he is lying, but she didn't wanted to confront him right now.

Shining tried to cover his lie and changed the subject. “We have to hurry, we don't know if there are more things like that form before around. We have to report to the Princess, I bet she would be interested in this being just like me.”

He turned around and stepped to the railing at the front side.

“Golden Shield, Rusty Pike, Iron Wing, and Phalanx! Hurry up, we have no time to lose!”

The four flyers accelerated even more. One of them turned around, the strain painted on his face. “We will be at our destination in two minutes. Please be careful when we touch the ground.”

With high-speed, they lowered their flight for the landing approach. Landing with a soft bump, they found themselves in the Canterlot Gardens. The passengers left the chariot and it took off once again as the friends walked a few steps away.

They landed right before the Lunar Tower, it wasn't built with the usual white marble like the rest of the castle, but out of a deep blue marble, matching Princess Luna's coat. Decorated with insignia and symbols of the moon, it looked almost scary at night. Not a single light was burning inside of the castle. Only two familiar voices could be heard from the top of the tower, ringing down from the large balcony.

Shining Armor pointed with his front hoof at the huge tower. “You will be reside here. Each of you will get her own room, right next to each other. Please follow me now, I will bring you to your private chambers.”

Silently, the six mares followed him up the stairs, through the giant pitch black door made of meteor stone. It showed the exact opposite of a peaceful get-long. Each wing of the door showed a army of ponies facing one another. Twilight wandered if something like this had happened before.

He led his friends, one by one, to their rooms and said already good night to them. Two of Princess Luna's personal guards were placed in front of the doors of each element. At last, Shining led his sister to her chamber. Just as he began to say goodnight to his little sister, she pulled him in and locked the door from the inside.

“Shiny! Why did you lie before?”

Shining tried to look surprised, but his awkward smile confirmed Twilight's theory even more. “I don't know what you mean, Twily.”

She let out an annoyed sigh and looked at her brother with a raised eyebrow. “I don't know either, but you could tell me why there are so many guards here or why you were so surprised when I told you that we are looking for someone.” She paused for a moment. “I'd bet the Princess ordered you to bring us directly and didn't even mention that we were looking for somepony, and I think that the answer is in that brown bag that you were hiding. So tell me Shining.”

The stallion didn't even try to reason with his sister, he knew when he was defeated. He sank down on his plot and his ears laid backwards. He let out a small moan. “You were always the smarter one of us. You're right, the Princess ordered me to bring you directly to Canterlot along with the other elements. She said that you could be in danger so I didn't have long to think about it. And about the content of the bag… I was looking for you at first in the library, but only Spike was at home so I asked him were you could had gone. He didn't knew but told me that some strange stallion appeared badly hurt in the library and that he used to live with you since then.
I asked him for a personal object that belonged to him, but the only thing he could think of was his old armour in your basement, so I brought it with me. I think the Princess will agree that it is indeed a rare sight these days.”

“I think I will decide that by myself.”

Shining and Twilight didn't noticed that the doors had swung open again, the lock was magically opened and pushed softly open. Slowly the two rulers of the country stepped inside Twilight's chamber, their horns glowed.

“I see you brought every element with you, my loyal Captain. Please report to me what happened on your mission.”

He bowed in front of the Princesses before he began to report, “We successfully gathered all six Elements of Harmony and brought them to the castle, your sisters guards have already taken care of them. But there were two additional events. Twilight and the others got attacked by a horde of an unknown species. They were wolf-like creatures made of some unstable black matter. They seemed to leak their own body and their backs were surrounded by a green light, and a turquoise mark was carved into their foreheads. We were just in time, thanks to Phalanx, who spotted them from the air so I couldn't take a better look. Moreover, a creature from the same nature attacked as in the air, the only difference was that it looked like a griffin. It rammed the Chariot. The second time it charged I created a force field, it splashed like a snowball. I couldn't maintain the shield any longer and had to let it down. The remains self-ignited and disappeared. The rest of the flight went without any unexpected incidents.”

Twilight listened for the first time, her brother giving an official report but couldn't withstand to add more details.

“The mark on their head was a rune, I’ve never seen it before, but when the Griffin burned, a small turquoise sphere hovered in the air before it cracked and shattered. And I somehow couldn't use my magic properly while I opposed the wolves.”

The mouths of the Princesses hung open, they didn't respond for a few seconds to the Captain. They just starred on him, like he was a delicious cake until Princess Celestia regained her ability to speak.

“Captain Shining Armor, if that is everything you shall be dismissed for today.”

Shining's face turned darker he looked his ruler straight in her eyes. “There is one more thing. I brought you the armour of the alleged suspect.” His horn began to glow and a brown bag dropped out of thin air to the ground. It opened itself from the impact and a mostly shattered dark blue armour spread before Princess Luna's hooves.

Princess Celestia didn't move nor could she take her gaze away from the armour. The eyes that belonged to the Princess of the Night shrank and her breath stopped for a second. She took a deep breath. “Captain Shining Armour, you shall leave now.”

He took a step to the Lunar Princess and straightened his chest. “But I want to know, what is threatening the life of my sister!”

A single tear escaped Princess Luna, but her expression become something beyond angry, a lightning struck a building outside the castle and dazzled everypony in the room.

“Leave now! This is an order!”

A dark blue magical aura surrounded the Captain of the Royal guards and shoved him outside the room. The doors slammed closed right after his back and locked itself. The walls, floor and ceiling of the room began to glow in a blueish colour.

“I've sealed this room so nothing can enter or leave this room, it's soundproof now.”

Princess Luna nudged her sister with her hoof so she snapped out of her thoughts. Princess Celestia looked with worry at her student.

Twilight knew that the whole situation could be bigger than she originally had thought. “Princess? Do you know what these things are?”

The Princess closed her eyes for a brief moment and let out a deep sigh. “I wish I didn't, my faithful student. They are artificial lifeforms, they are nor dead nor living. But the existence would mean that somepony is raising an army. But that doesn't match the picture, he hadn't the ability to create life like that.”

Twilight sat down with this sudden flood of information. Her eyes slightly twitched and her ears had fallen back. “What are you talking about? I don't understand, why is everypony acting so weird?”

With worry on her face, Princess Celestia turned to her younger sister. The Princess of the Night nodded short and both looked now at Twilight.

“I think it is time to tell you the horrible truth about the events that happened before the founding of this country and from the pony who made this land of love and harmony possible.”

Comments

[Evilpresident]

It's him, isn't it? Tall, dark and gruesome? On to the next chapter and we'll find out