• Published 12th Mar 2013
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The Twilight Struggle - Lapis-Lazuli and Stitch



As Twilight Sparkle enters her third year amongst her friends in Ponyville, she finds herself plagued with strange dreams of an unknown power whispering dark secrets to her. What is this voice, and what does it plan for the most faithful student?

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Chapter 14 - The Maidens

Ponyville Hospital, one Twilight freakout later

Three pegasi sat around Twilight Sparkle, one of them having removed her goggles and flight-mask in order to fan Twilight with her wing. She was cute mare, though what prompted that assessment Twilight did not know - with a shock of ill-trimmed white mane that seemed to mimic Rainbow Dash's style of 'Throw a little water on it and dry off.'. Twilight was down on her rump, much to the amusement of the other two pegasi who had yet to speak. Winterlight arched an eyebrow, a bemused sort of smile on her face as Twilight seemed to come back to the land of the sensible. "Apologies, my Queen. We had thought Lord Tantalus had informed you of our coming." She frowned for a moment, her wing folding back up against her body nearly.

Her voice gained a trace of irritability as she tsked. "Leave it to a stallion to forget such an important thing." Her breath huffed out in a sigh reminiscent of Rarity. Her voice was not as cultured as her though - nor as slapdash as Rainbow's slang-laden dialogue. She sounded a little stuffy though, at least on the subject at hand. Twilight was already in the midst of her rally as one of the other pegasi, this one a stallion himself grumbled something about the Captain and her moods. That got an instant response from Winterlight, whose wing snapped out and smacked him upside the head. "Not in front of the queen, Leftenant."

Twilight was finally back on solid ground. Her mind was still racing, but it was not the panicky moments of a few minutes earlier. She mastered her emotions and took a deep breath. "But...I had thought that you were.." She groped for the words, and Winterlight grinning at her like a filly who'd just gotten away with the cookie jar was most definitely not helping things.

"A Myth? An illusion conjured up by Nightmare Moon?" Winterlight smirked, her tone sing-song and innocent. "We prefer it that way, my liege. Unlike those prancing and preening Blunderbolts, our duties do not include us showing off like a bunch of circus entertainers for the masses. We are soldiers, my Queen. We serve as such." She dusted her hooves off in a clear 'that's that' sort of manner, crossing them over her chest proudly.

Twilight wanted to argue with her, very vociferously at that. Unfortunately for her mind, it got caught one something that had now been going on for several exchanges of dialogue. "Now wait just a minute here. Queen? Liege? I'm not any kind of Royalty at all!" Twilight was grasping for things to object to in order to get a better hoof on the situation. Winterlight, on the other hand seemed to see right through her and was grinning, wiggling a hoof at her.

"Ah, but you are. You have been marked by something far greater than any power that you have previously known." Her hoof gently pressed into Twilight's chest and there was a sense of electricity between it and her body, sufficient to give her goosebumps. The touch felt surprisingly comfortable, a feeling of connection with the other pony.. Winterlight's eyes seemed to half lid just at the touch, and drew away so slowly."You can feel it already, cant you? Not quite a fully formed sense, yet you can feel the shadow within me, small as it is compared to yours. You felt a little static, a sense of warmth and belonging from my touch yes?" Her eyes gleamed into the dark moonlit room, even as Twilight nodded cautiously.

Winterlight licked her lips and adopted a coy expression. "Ah~ But your Shadow, my Queen...there is deep power there. It is the only sign that matters to those such as us. Crowns, titles, promises and pieces of paper are as meaningless as a puff of smoke. Power is what matters, and you possess the right to be called Queen. " She bowed over one hoof, when a sly sort of smile appeared on her face. "Should you be uncomfortable with such titles for now, I could simply call you M'lady."

Twilight would much have preferred she call her nothing at all and leave, preferably as quickly as possible. Ponies who served some kind of dark, depraved power and at one point had been the personal servants of Nightmare Moon were not the sorts one wanted found in their bedrooms after sunset. Yet they had not...acted overtly dark or evil in any sense. Been a bit creepy, to be sure - but not evil. She took a deep breath and exhaled it. Calm once again, The strange dark colored Pegasus appeared to...radiate a certain amount of authority. It was not natural charisma either, some sort of magic was the cause. Twilight was distracted, and focused on this with a slight frown of concentration.

What had she called it? Her 'shadow'? They seemed to judge authority as being held only by those with the power to impose it. That struck Twilight as a little...Medieval, but made sense in certain practical terms. Since Twilight had very recently undergone something of a power upgrade, she now possessed the authority to command them under their rights. Refusing them might put them under the impression that she was weak...and creatures who lived by codes like this did not treat the weak very well.

So. Twilight nodded slowly. "M'lady is...acceptable for now, I suppose." she ventured cautiously, and was rewarded for her good judgement with a beaming smile from the Pegasus, who bobbed her head in acknowledgement. The other two pegasi, both of them stallions she now noted, seemed to nod approvingly themselves, even if their eyes and facial expressions were hidden behind the masks and goggles. "So, Winterlight - just what are your duties, then?" It was an excellent stalling question while Twilight tried to figure out how to get rid of them without seeming, as Applejack might put it 'Unneighborly'.

The Shadowbolt did not seem to mind one bit. "Actually, I have several - but the one we are discharging this evening is escorting your shadow Maidens to you, M'lady." after a moment of pause she sighed a little. "I'm going to have to presume Lord Tantalus did not have time to explain much of anything to you. Damn Celestia, destroying him like that." Twilight's ears flattened in response to that, her gaze narrowing and expression becoming much darker for a moment Each of the other pegasus males shifted uncomfortably at the sight of her, and Winterlight looked like she'd swallowed a bug.

Twilight kept herself calm. She had to. Now would not be the time to shatter them against the wall with her magic, much as she wanted to - good servitors were hard to come by, and she would still have use of- her thoughts cut off in a heartbeat, and she stifled them with a force of will power. She did not break other ponies against hard things because they displeased her. She was NOT a monster! She gritted her teeth and exhaled, taking a patient tone of voice "Celestia had nothing to do with...Lord Tantalus' death. His spell consumed him after he had been weakened trying to stall those who had come to reclaim me. His death was entirely of his own will. You will not disparage Celestia in my presence again, Captain. Am I clear?" her tone had gradually grew colder and colder, her voice imperious and demanding as he temper ran away with her again.

Twilight was shocked to her very core. This was NOT who she was! Yet, she was falling into the pattern as easily as though this was all second nature to her. Even the very sight of her Shadowbolt prostrating herself before her was horrifyingly pleasing to her, and in some strange way had excited parts of her she did not even know existed. Twilight was not going to let this stand, however. She grasped at herself with an effort of pure willpower and pinned these strange and frightening emotions to the ground of her mind, tying them up with yards upon yards of mental chains and shackles, vowing to deal with them at a later time.

Twilight sighed again and gently put her hooves under Winterlight's shoulders, even as she trembled before her like a minion in some bad fantasy adventure novels. "Get up, Winterlight. You spoke out of turn, but such happens. Do not let it happen again and we will be fine. Understand?" Her tone had come back to patient, and Winterlight was nodding with great enthusiasm. Almost too much desire to please and to obey was written in her very eyes. There was something like...worship in her stance, and that was enough to frighten Twilight all over again. She was getting used to that fear by now, though. She would deal with the implications later. "Now, Who are these Maidens you speak of?"

Winterlight licked her lips again and kept her tone low and reverential, her eyes bowed before Twilight in a way she had often seen diplomatic envoys or foreign ambassadors treat Celestia when she was in a foul mood. "Yes, M'lady. The Maidens are those who have been chosen amongst us. ..the, um..." She took a deep breath and calmed visibly from the action. "We who have felt the call of the power you possess are called the Touched, M'lady. Amongst the Touched, those who are deemed most worthy of that power are called the Maidens. They are typically those who have some sort of special connection to the Shadow power or possess some potent talent which would be immensely useful to the one who rules over us."

Twilight just arched an eyebrow, tapping her left hoof idly. This was fascinating. Some kind of entire subculture that she knew absolutely nothing about had been living in Equestria for who knew how long. From an anthropological perspective, this was an incredible find! Writing a paper on the subject might be endlessly fascinating, but was neither here nor there. "I already have an assistant." She said, at her most tart. The best assistant in Equestria, even if he was occasionally a bit lazy. The Pegasus gulped a little at her tone, and wavered for a moment before continuing.

"Ah, Yes your- I mean, M'lady. Yet the Maidens are sworn to serve you in whatever means you may deem fit for them until they are no longer useful to you.. I give you my word, M'lady, given that you are about to become an effective Noble of a fairly substantial amount of ponies that the assistance they can provide will be invaluable." She seemed genuinely distressed that Twilight might not want to meet them. Twilight began to feel like all she was doing was sighing at this manure. She was also pretty sure the Princess wasn't going to allow her to become any such thing. Still, it meant she could learn more about these ponies. Maybe if she was attentive enough, she'd figure out how to rein in these unnatural feelings of hers, maybe put this power to some good use. So she nodded, and waved her hoof at Winterlight in a vague 'bring it on' gesture.

The Two stallions nodded after a look from Winterlight and seemed to vanish into the shadows themselves, sparking a startled little jump from Twilight. The Shadowbolt captain grinned unrepentantly. "Just one of the many things that our colleagues in Canterlot wish they had the skills to do. They might be fast through the air, but no one beats a Shadowbolt for manueverabilty.." Her head tilted for one side and...a look seemed to creep into the Mares eyes. Something altogether predatory and visceral. "Tell me, M'lady, does your friend Rainbow Dash still wear that little costume of hers on Nightmare Night? You know the one of which I speak..."

Twilight's memories tries to pounce upon her, but she wrestled them mentally to the ground. Dash had told them all about the mysterious ponies who had appeared out of the mist to try and dissuade her from raising the rope bridge. Not long after that, every Nightmare Night since had found her wearing a hoof stitched 'Shadowbolts' Uniform, which she used to fly about town and commit her various pranks in. Twilight didn't know where she was going with this, but she knew she wasn't going to like it. She nodded anyway, keeping a cautious sort of distance. "Yes, she's also been known to wear it when she wants to commit some sort of stupid prank." her tone was dry, trying to use the same technique her teachers had used to fob her off when her questions got too annoying.

Winterlight wasn't having that though. Her eyes half lidded and she let out a low, raw sounding tone in her throat. Twilight might have called it a moan, but it was...much more animalistic than that. "Oh, that naughty little filly. She'd make such a fine Shadowbolt M'lady, if I do say so myself. Once she's had that...stubborn will of hers broken down a little. She is truly a talented flyer, and would be an impressive feather in our cap to steal her from the Wonderbolts." As she'd been talking, she'd sinuously slipped up closer to Twilight, her words a breathy whisper in the air, seeming to still it into a stifling heat despite the cool breeze flowing through the room.

Twilight found her mind summoning images she could hardly make sense of, images that her naive young mind could not entirely place into context. Yet they all prominently featured Dash slowly being bent to her will, her incredible skill turned to the purposes of the Shadow. The thoughts flooded through her brain like a complex poison, only to be interrupted by the sudden firm knocking at the door, shocking her out of her strange reverie. Winterlight was back to where she had been sitting a few moments ago, looking totally innocent as though nothing had just occurred.

The door swung open a moment later, Twilight's cheeks still flushed and her skin hot from the barrage of conflicting emotions rushing through her veins. Two new ponies stood before her, each so utterly unlike the other they would have sent an artist like Rarity into spasms of fashion or artistic delight at such a dichotomy of form and color.

Both were technically pegasi - although she had no doubt the one on the left might dispute that claim. She was one of the distinct bat-winged ponies of the Night Guard, and they generally did not like being compared to their bird-winged counterparts. Her color was a rich deep blue with stark white markings down her back that reminded Twilight of coat-tattoos, but looked more natural.

On her flank, a cutie mark of a slender moon crescent through which a shooting star was trailing. Her broad and leathery wings were currently folded neatly behind her back and she wore an expression of mischief and bold, confident body language. At the sight of Twilight, her eyes immediately began assessing the slender unicorn, though for what Twilight couldn't tell. Her bright golden-colored eyes reminded her immediately of Tantalus, and she was beginning to suspect that was no coincidence.

The other was her mirror opposite in nearly every way. She was a snow white pegasus in every way - her mane, tail and coat held no pigment whatsoever. Her mane hung around her face and eyes like a frozen waterfall. Only her eyes, a vivid bright blue added any hue to the sight of her...and those eyes were clouded, a thin film of milky white something lurked in them. Twilight had heard of white pegasi before, but never seen one herself. The coloration was typically a unicorn trait, and was considered to be exceptionally rare amongst all the other tribes.

Even if her color had not set her apart, her body would have. She was a vision of curves and well honed muscles - Neither the softness of her friend Rarity, or the hard body of Rainbow Dash's athletic form, she sat somewhere precisely between them. Her wings were curled around her sleek form, and she seemed almost serene.. Twilight could not see her Cutie mark from here, but every bit of her body language reminded her powerfully of Celestia. She was aloof in some strange way.

Her assessment seemed to make both of them more potent in their emotions - the night guard struck a pose designed to show off every inch of herself, while the snow-white pegasus did nothing but seemingly look off into the distance. This struck Twilight as odd for a moment...until the reason for that milky film struck her. She's blind.. her thoughts whispered, and she could not help but be sad for her. It had to be some quirk of her genetics - Blue eyes, white maned and blind to all of the world.

Winterlight stepped up and gestured with one broad wing towards the two. "Your maidens, M'lady." As if on cue, the two maidens stepped forward together and performed the same deep bow that the Shadowbolts had done earlier, flaring open their respective wings and bowing deeply before her, eyes cast to the ground. If they keep doing these bows, I'm going to go stark paranoid at the thought that Celestia or Luna have just appeared around me somewhere. Twilight thought with a small amount of self humor.

Yet, this seemed to be their way, and Twilight had read enough Equineology books to know better than to mock personal traditions. Especially given some of her personal traditions with Cadence. So she simply sighed internally and tried her best to look regal, before gesturing at them as she'd seen Celestia do for them to rise. The two of them did so, even though they could not possibly have seen her hoof move. Belatedly realizing they had to have somehow sensed her intent was worrying all over again. When these crazy ponies were gone, she was going to have another nice quiet breakdown followed by some light reading.

The night-guard pegasus spoke first - her voice was a little rough, punctuated with a gentle hiss around her S sounds, probably caused by the sharp looking fangs that seemed to poke out over her lower lip. "My Queen..." Her voice practically purred, her lips parted as though she was...tasting the air, her tongue gently flicking out for a moment. "Mm...Your shadow is as glorious as I had imagined. I am Shadow Dancer, M'lady." She bowed again, sweeping one wing before her as though it were a hoof, and grinned at her with twinkling eyes from behind her wing. "I shall be your tutor in calling upon your shadow to serve you." Her lips quirked slyly, "I am looking forward to the...pleasure of teaching you.."

Twilight barely had time to absorb the...not so subtle undercurrents of that statement before her opposite proceeded to glide into place next to her - she performed the same odd wing-bow, using her opposite wing. Her eyes were now focused on Twilight and unnaturally still, confirming her blindness even if nothing else had. Yet, when she spoke..

Twilight Sparkle had been rolling around with a lot of fantastical creatures in recent years. Her various adventures to and fro in Equestria had exposed her to a lot of strange and amazing things. Some of them had been awe inspiring, and others more terrifying than she could describe. Yet here she was, standing with a mythical evil-version of the Wonderbolts, and listening to a voice so pure it threatened to overwhelm her. She did not even need to activate her horn to feel the potent magic in that voice. She was not frail that was to be certain, but there was a sense of..something in it that Twilight could not fathom. It came from a place she had no experience in, and spoke of things she could not yet comprehend.

Yet, Twilight had to put a word to it, it was her way. So she thought in that moment as the white pegasus spoke. "I am Silent Moon, M'lady. I am to be your right hoof, and will provide you any service or assistance you may deem fit to request of me. There is no task I shall not carry out for you, m'lady, for I am Yours." The way she said it, the way she inflected her words - she was not merely saying those words. She meant them right down to the core of her soul. Twilight suddenly was seized by a wild thought - that if she told this pony to stand as a statue for a whole day, she would carry out the demand without a single word of complaint.

Winterbright seemed to sense her distress, and made a gesture with her hooves. "They will be staying at the Hayseed Inn until such time as you take up residence at your proper place in the Forest. We will be gathering the Touched there over the coming days and making the place ready for your arrival, M'lady. Once you have been allowed to leave this place of healing." She sniffed somewhat derisively. "If Doctor Voodoo was here, you would already be back on your hooves. Sadly, he has not yet even reached Equestria." She sighed gustily, and the two strange ponies smiled at Winterbright, apparently used to this kind of nonsense.

Twilight however, had had enough. "Right now, Winterbright, I do not care. I need my rest. I will...speak with them in the morning." Twilight hoped she had imbued her words with the right amount of imperious demand, once again mimicking Celestia's attitudes. Once again, Winterbright seemed to take this as a pleasing sign and bowed to her, chivvying the two ponies she had called 'Maiden's' down the hall, hoofing the door almost shut, before whispering between the cracks. " Until then, M'lady - Rest, and recover. We shall guard you. Walk in Shadow...Queen Twilight."

The door snapped shut a moment later, and was followed by a ghostly, jovial laughter that seemed to echo throughout the room. Twilight was in no mood right now to chastise her though. She was, in fact, in no mood for anything other than sleep. So she roughly yanked back the covers and climbed into the doughy-soft hospital bed, tugging the sheets over her form with a little touch of magic and firmly shut her eyes.

With any luck, she would wake up tomorrow and this all would have been just some ridiculous dream. Some strange subconscious nightmare. That would certainly be nice, then she could get back to her research on Parasprite reproduction and forget this whole insane week had ever happened. Before she knew it sleep had overtaken her, lulling her into warm and shadow filled dreams.

Above her window, a purple flight-suited figure watched vigilantly. She had been surprised at first by her new liege's attitude, but that was likely just nerves. The poor girl had been through so much, and without Lord Tantalus to guide her she was clearly confused at all of the wonderful new power that had been bestowed upon her. Winterbright smiled slightly, her teeth gleaming in the darkness. Her power though, had been so very potent and deep...and once Shadow Dancer began to teach her, it would not take long for her thoughts to become as hers, and she would once again have a Queen to serve. One worthy of the title this time.

The Harmony Inn, Ponyville

The largest inn in Ponyville was 'The Harmony' - built the year after Nightmare Moon's attack, its name was unquestionably a reference to the six bearers of the Elements who were permanent residents of the town. These days, it served as a place for royal and important figures to stay in luxury and peace as befitted them, even in a little town like Ponyville. In the largest suite in the city, Celestia lay on the massive bed - described as 'Alicorn sized' but the blasted thing was more suited to an entire crowd of Ponies. She was curled up near the center and unable to sleep.

Her sister had long since returned to Canterlot, in order to begin cleaning house in Equestria's military ranks and to ensure the diplomatic comings and goings were sufficiently stalled enough for Celestia to be sure that Twilight would fully recover from her ordeal. She was slated to visit her student tomorrow, now that her friends had been at her - and she fervently hoped that she would be able to maintain her composure around her transformed Twilight Sparkle.

Anger had come first, of course. Powerful, powerful anger. The meeting had snuffed most of that, though. It was painfully clear that for all of her care for her student, Celestia had not anticipated the other powers of the world becoming interested in Twilight Sparkle. Hindsight might be ever perfect, but she was still not quite past blaming herself for all that had happened.

It was a silly thing of course, her enemies had always been clever about the way they attacked her government and her ponies. They'd had to be, to do anything less was to invite the sun's wrath down upon them. Yet this, she had not anticipated. Certainly, Twilight had security assigned to her once she'd started carrying the Elements of Harmony around with her. Very good security, in point of fact - but it had meant nothing to an enemy who had no intention of attacking directly.

Celestia turned over in her bed and sighed gustily. No, there was going to be no sleeping this evening without going to see Twilight for herself. She leapt from bed to floor in a single physical movement, her body sinuously twisting in midair to allow her to land with poise. She would not wear her royal jewels, nor any of her accoutrements. She would not even inform her secretary. Her horn gently glowed to life and parted the balcony doors, vast white wings flaring out and sweeping down to propel her into the air and towards the hospital.

She would have to confront her emotions sooner or later. Better, perhaps - to confront them now while Twilight likely slept, so she could not see the sadness and fear in her own teacher's heart.

Ponyville Hospital, Twilight Sparkle's room

Celestia slipped in through the open window, as silent as a mouse, and gently hovered over to the bed, settling her hooves down aside it to look down into the peacefully sleeping Twilight's form. Her chest rose and fell slowly and rhythmically, yet there was a subtle fear in her visage - she was clutching at her tail, and stroking it subconsciously. Celestia forced herself to not speak Twilight was sensitive enough by this point in her training that she might very well hear her and not react terribly well.

So Celestia sat down quietly and just looked upon her student. The magic that enchanted her mane fell away to reveal the bright pink color that was it's true hue, her eyes softened and for just that moment, she allowed all of the regal nature of her position to fall away. Carefully, oh so carefully she magicked the second bed in the room next to Twilight's, using only the barest touch of power to lay it quietly down next to hers.

The Princess climbed upon the bed and lay down as close to Twilight as she dared and flared out a wing, curling it gently up beside Twilight, while she scooted herself in closer. Celestia closed her eyes then and called upon all of her inner strength. Whatever dark thing may haunt your dreams, my Student...I will drive it off as the dawn drives away the dark things in the world. A small flash of bright gold magic shone upon the tip of her horn before it struck silently against the wall, golden magic ran in rivulets from where it struck and seeped outwards, coating wall, floor and cieling within the room.

Slowly, twilight's face turned from fear to peace, and Celestia held her student to her gently in the night. If nothing else, Twilight...I can at least give you one night of untroubled dreams. She had nothing to fear from her student. That was obvious now, she was still the wonderfully imaginative and brilliant magical student she had always been. As she took wing around Twilight Sparkle, she silently vowed to the bright full moon above, and the everlasting sun that lived beneath the horizon - she would save her Student's life, and her soul from this darkness.

Whatever the cost.