It had been years since Whiterock, Dragontongue, and Still Coldwater were assassinated.
In Whiterock's talon was a note in his cold body.
To the one reading this note:
Should Foxfire be alive and well when the tragedy of my death hits her ears, tell her to search for a conspirator.
She must search far and wide....
Or perhaps within herself or her kin for an answer.
Ponies passed by graves with 'Flowerfeather,' 'Coldwater,' 'Dragontongue,' and 'Bloodstream' engraved on them and spat on the tombstones. It was a common thing to see every day, though some cursed to the heavens above that there should be a fourth Flowerfeather grave on which to disrespect.
The night, however, was an entirely different story.
There in the dead of night cleaning the graves and lighting candles with blue flames stood three beings.
One was a night blue alicorn mare with a mane and tail made of the cosmos.
Another was your average changeling drone, just mute and deaf.
The third, another alicorn mare, was an anomaly. She had a tri-color coat and multi-colored wings. A monotone mane didn't match with her huge tail, the tip lit ablaze with a soft, cyan flame. Her eyes were shrouded by her mane, tears held back as the candles glowed alongside her tail. Her wings lay limply at her sides, black ears folded back. The full moon was blood red because a lunar eclipse was happening.
The graves would always have wax on them upon the brink of dawn.
And again the ponies who did not like who the graves belonged to removed the wax and continued to spit and curse. There was the occasional Canterlot riot regarding a student of Luna. Guards had to hold off the rioting ponies and ended up making a few arrests over the months that followed. But they all shared the same story: they learned the truth from somewhere, yet they wouldn't say where.
Cloaked ponies also began wandering throughout Equestria, all chanting some ominous prayer that nopony else could hear or make sense of. They all bore an inverted gold cross with bat-like wings on their back for reasons unknown. They carried daggers forged from silver, their purpose unclear.
But what was odd about these cloaked figures was that they wore necklaces of severed Changeling horns and translucent wings stitched onto their hoods. The more decorations probably meant the highest ranking. They would walk by, saying their unheard prayers and doing no harm despite the daggers and decorative assortments on their beings screaming otherwise. They would not talk to anypony aside from other cloaked beings that shared their insignia and whatnot.
But when one looked underneath their hoods, their eyes glowed a dark gold-blue. This was true for all of the cloaked figures. Every last one.
Foxfire curled up in her bed, her breath hastening as tears formed in her eyes and sparkled in the moonlight. She grunted and wheezed as soft murmurs escaped her seemingly dry throat. Her wings fluttered ever so lightly as her fangs glinted in the silence of the night.
"Please, no...." Foxfire sniffled as she suddenly began moving her legs in full gallop, kicking off blankets and pillows in the process.
The only other survivor, a changeling drone who was mute and deaf, couldn't help but ignore the fact that something was amiss. He rose groggily and saw his once-mighty queen thrash about in her sleep, ears folded back as she jerked her head so suddenly. A high-pitched scream suddenly came from her mouth and danced in the darkness, echoing as it seemed to wake even the most sound sleepers. Foxfire, in turn, had awoken herself, grey-blue eyes open in terror.
She quickly got up and checked her surroundings before slumping down onto the ground crying, a holey hoof of her own holding the other as if she had a child.
"I-I must be insane....yeah, that's it. I've j-just lost my damn mind." Sobbed the odd changeling as her wings flared out, stretched to their fullest extent. "S-Sleep be damned, that is all."
The guard got up and held her in his holey forelegs. He could not understand a damn word his queen was saying with ears alone, as his original swarm was dead and so was that of his adopter of sorts. All he knew was something was very wrong.
Luna walked into the room and sat next to her student.
Nightmares had been plaguing everypony nowadays. They always depicted something being stolen.
Crops.
Innocence.
Lives of loved ones as well as the petty criminal.
It was then the mobs, riots, and chaos started. They knew what Foxfire was, and what she had done. But that was not what toppled her hive into utter ruin.
It was something nopony at the time could point their hoof on.
Foxfire's nightmares, however, were different. The past was affecting her full force, each episode worse than the next.
Her family, taken from her.
Then, the bad stallion and his atrocities.
Then, Queen Chrysalis.
But something was different this time. Foxfire had dreamt of being surrounded by cloaked figures, each wielding daggers of unknown origin.
"We shalt bring him back." The figures chanted in ominous unison, "We require the sacrifice of the odd pony. Only then shall this world be purged of the monarchy, and that which we seek shalt become our new god, our new order."
Cornered, shackled, dragged to an altar only from Hell.
Her throat was slit in one swift movement of all the daggers at once. Perhaps they were only one dagger?
"Crazyponies.....cultists..." Foxfire murmured to Luna, who was taken aback in shock.
"I hope it was only another dream. If it isn't, then what is it?" Luna asked in a soft, motherly tone of voice.
"I wish I knew." Foxfire cooed as she broke down into more tears.
"I fear she is starting to lose her sanity," Luna sighed, "and it is because of the nightmares. I sincerely wish I could fix this mess."
"I fear something is stirring." Celestia scoffed as she turned to Foxfire. "Tell us what thou hast seen."
Foxfire began trembling, tears welling in her eyes. "I-In my nightmares?" She asked.
Celestia nodded.
Foxfire gulped, her eyes shrinking. "I saw cultist ponies...."
"Cultist ponies?" Asked the sisters.
Foxfire nodded. "They had odd daggers and...sick decorations. Horns and wings of changelings were worn on their hoods like ornaments on Hearth's Warming Eve!"
Celestia's face went aghast with shock. She seemed to glare at the fallen queen, yet in reality she immediately knew something was wrong and it had to do with Foxfire.
"Did they do anything to you?" Luna asked in place of Celestia.
"They killed me to overthrow your kingdom!" Foxfire suddenly yelled before she slumped down crying. The mute drone once more clutched her in his forelegs.
"The nightmares hit her hardest, sister. She can barely sleep." Luna explained.
"I understand." Celestia said with a nod, "Perhaps we need to find the cultists she speaks of and interrogate them."
"That won't be easy." Luna snapped, "The prisoners we spoke with did say the cultists in question ignored everypony else except for those in their ranks, or so they say judging by their observation."
"Guard! Bring Discord at once!" Celestia bellowed.
"Yes, your majesty!" Replied the guard as he ran out the door.
A few minutes later, the draconequus appeared. He was confused, to say the least.
"Why is Foxy crying?" Discord asked, raising an eyebrow.
"We're going to discuss that." Luna sighed as she magically lulled her student to sleep. "She really needs all the help she can get now."
Foxfire was fast asleep, dreaming a good dream for once thanks to Luna and her nighty-night spells. She occasionally twitched a hoof or wing, maybe mumble in her sleep about a fillet of fish or some other meat. Other than that, she was in a deep sleep. The mute drone covered her with a nice, warm quilt and already had a bed at the ready specifically for this occasion. He stroked her mane and kept her from rolling off the bed, making sure to touch her as little as possible because the slightest thing could wake her up. Who knows for how long she'd sleep, and all she needed was a dark room.
Luna went and rambled on about the things and the dreams and all that other good stuff.
The drone yawned.
Luna kept rambling.
The drone was drinking cups of coffee now. He wondered how Discord didn't fall asleep.
The drone was about ready to fall asleep when Discord fully understood the situation at hoof--or in his case, claw.
"There is simply no way she had been through all of that!" Yelped the draconequus in shock.
"I personally beg to differ," Celestia scorned.
The drone wheeled Foxy out of the room, and Luna went with. Looked like Sun-butt was gonna bitch at Discord, and who was to blame her?
Foxfire was in alicorn form again, and she was traveling the night skies with Luna. Her marvelous wings shimmered in the light of the blue crescent moon.
A thick layer of clouds obscured the area above the Everfree Forest. They were blacker than the darkness in Nightmare Moon's intentions all those years ago.
Suddenly, a blur of orange, purple, black, and white charged at Luna and knocked her out of the sky.
"What the?!" Foxfire said as she was now face to face with the creature that hurt her mentor.
She had a somewhat unusual feature--she had two coat colors, black on top and white on bottom. Her forehooves were clawed and her horn was black on the first four sections and white on the last two. Her legs from the elbows and knees down were also white, and the mane was purple outside and orange-streaked within. Heterochromia was present--one green eye and one red. Wings that started out with white feathers and ended in black demonic membrane held her aloft. On her flank was a gold-rimmed mirror separating a dove from a raven whose wings were spread wide.
"Hello, whorse." Spat the abominable mare, "I am Dark Reflections. I am your every opposite."
"Every...opposite?!" Foxfire cried as she turned tail and dove to the earth, hoping her mentor would be alright.
The supposed opposite swiped a claw, missing the long tail by mere strands of hair. Dark dove in after Foxy, intent on doing something horrendous.
Foxfire miscalculated her landing and as a result hit her head onto a rock horn first. She cried in pain before the darkness took her away...
...into the dream world.
Staring face to face with him. Him in all his horrid glory, him in all his pride.
The bad stallion. He who shall remain nameless.
Surrounding both were the cultist ponies, their decorations billowing and clanking in a mad breeze as they chanted spells and hexes of ages past.
A knife to the throat felled the fox-pony, and darkness returned. She could hear her supposed opposite's cold-imbued laughter.
"You can never hope to truly flee from your mistakes. I guess I should call you mother now." Dark cackled in insanity before even her voice became one with the silent black of Tartarus.
Foxfire thought she had died. A horrid pain hit her head. It hit her over and over.
What happened to my horn? It hurts... She murmured sparsely.
Then...she began free-falling towards Ponyville.
Wait....wasn't this when she fled from Dark Reflections and miscalculated her landing?
She got up wearily. The pain wracking her entire body got worse.
She didn't care. She got up and shambled like a zombie towards the door. It was dark, so her eyes had to adjust. She bumped into things....another bed, a vase, and perhaps a painting of some event.
She tried to use magic to open the door. Her vision suddenly went red as pain shot through her horn.
Her vision returned. Great, she'd have to do manual labor. It didn't really matter much for alicorns, but Foxfire was a bit of....the lazy type.
Unless you think of the past days when Tsuna dominated her, so to speak.
She lifted a hoof and nearly fell. Quickly finding and turning the doorknob, she opened the damn thing and shambled into the outermost hallway.
She shambled to the balcony and gazed at the crescent moon, and then the moonlit town south of Canterlot. She could make out a small fire at the square.
It wasn't her own, that was for sure. She could do all colors of fire, yes, but that would require her horn, which contained the needed magic.
The drone poked her, causing her to look at him. He then turned white....with Gryphon fore-talons...
She turned back to the moon shedding tears. Just looking at the shape--let alone the very memory--of Whiterock Bloodstream made her cry.
She couldn't do anything to save him, or the others. She was forced to let them perish. And the blood on her hooves amounted to self-hatred.
Why had she done all those things she damn well knew were wrong?
An epiphany happened that night.
The world, regardless of how old it was, had seen more than she. It too was stained with blood long before ponykind took over. It had so many secrets buried in its ancient soil. Some never meant to be known.
Tartarus being a good example.
The world had secrets that were waiting to be discovered, long-lost relics for which dated back to the period where alicorns walked the earth and ruled.
Until Discord almost killed them all off--save for two Princesses.
"What art thou doing out of bed?" Asked a regal mare's voice as a tall and familiar white form stood next to Foxfire.
The blood-colored alicorn didn't answer, for she had none to give. But Celestia....seemed very sad.
"Luna won't be coming back....for she has been killed by another alicorn. She sent me a final letter detailing this....Dark Reflections...." Celestia sighed before falling onto her stomach and clutching her head with her hooves crying.
At that moment Foxfire screamed a cry of agony so loud the Gryphon Kingdom could hear her.
Foxfire couldn't understand. She wouldn't understand. Her mentor literally raised the goddamned moon every night--how could she have died?!
She felt another part of her die--a very crucial part. For days she'd trudge around the castle searching for the Lunar Division of the Equestrian Royal Guards. She couldn't find any trace of them, save a letter from one which stated that Celestia had discharged them for a month to honor their fallen princess.
Sometimes she'd break out into hysterical sobbing fits, and others brief fits of rage. Tsuna began to stir once more, which meant only one thing to Celestia and Discord, who married to make up for Luna's unfortunate loss.
It meant that Foxfire was thoroughly broken now--what fragments of hope holding her together were locked away from the world and heavens above and made her a nervous wreck.
They had to lock the alicorn and her drone away in a safe room. They had to simply to keep her and everypony else safe.
Nopony in the world was able to dream now. Their nightmares would go unchecked, uncorrected, and worse by the second.
It started out subtle at first, and then spread to all Equestrian ponies.
One mare even claimed to have seen an alicorn crawl out from the pits of Tartarus, carrying many gruesome scars on her frame. She described her coat as a blood red with grey hooves masked by a black, moss-like substance. The wings were grey and black, stained in crimson. A long, red tail dripped of the same substance, and her face showed a sad smile--she was visibly crying, but she also laughed like none had prior to her. Her horn was caked in red, and her ears jet-black.
The mare even went to describe the terrors the alicorn unleashed on Equestria.
Fire.
Destruction.
Death.
Once the news reached Celestia's ears, she broke down into a sob before the crowd of ponies in front of her. Discord went to the safe room, knowing full well what this meant.
Foxfire and her drone would have no choice but to be banished elsewhere.
Foxfire and her drone trudged wearily through the Everfree Forest. The moon didn't rise; it no longer did. The sky was black as ink and the stars refused to twinkle.
"Your Highness," Spoke the drone via telepathy, "I should think something's wrong."
Foxfire nodded, bags under her eyes. Her tail was cropped short and her midsection was wrapped in bloodied bandages. On her head was not even a horn fragment, as it was sawed clean off from the skull. Heck, her mane was nothing short of a scarlet-brown rag on her head. Her cutie marks were no longer on her flanks, almost as if sliced away from her form.
More bloodied bandages were on her neck and aforementioned flanks. Her body was skin and bones, and the fur on her legs was nonexistent. All there was were grey appendages with old afflictions still present.
Foxfire...
The withering alicorn stopped in her tracks, darting her head around frantically. Who'd said that?
Foxfire....
She fell onto her rump, tears welling up in her abused, bloodshot eyes.
Turn your head to the right, Foxfire...
The mare did as told and found an apparition of some kind. It's form was unrecognizable from the mist that was producing it.
She blinked a few times, then rubbed her eyes with a hoof. The mist cloud was gone.
"What was that?" The drone asked, again via telepathy.
"I....I don't know..." The mare answered, her voice cracked so much it sounded like she was on the brink of losing it.
Just like her mentor.
More tears began welling up at the thought. Pangs of guilt, pain, and self-hate assaulted her nerves, but she did her best to shrug them off.
No avail. She couldn't stop the tears now even as they crept to the corners of her eyes and slid down her furry cheeks.
At least, they won't execute you here...the commoners won't traverse in these dense woodlands....You're a lucky mare, Foxfire...
"How....am I....lucky? The....things I've seen...felt...known...you don't understand..." Foxfire retorted bitterly as more tears poured from her eyes.
You're my child, Foxfire. I've watched you all these years...
"...."
And so have we...
Big sister, why are you sad?
"...." Foxfire blinked in disbelief. "Mother? Father? Sister?"
"..." Foxfire's face curled up, much like that of a child about to break down sobbing. "Where am I then?" She asked, her voice weaker now.
You're with us now, dear. It's alright.
She blinked, letting more tears fall down her cheeks. She now noticed that everything around her--ground, trees, sky--was nothing but moonlit fog.
"What is this place?" She asked again, wiping her eyes with a hoof. She took note that it was also mist.
You're....dead, sweetheart.
The weary mare got up onto all fours and took a few steps forward. She looked around again and saw a disturbingly familiar silhouette approaching her.
"Luna...?"
Yes. Even we alicorns have an afterlife.
"..." Foxfire wanted to...no, needed to thank whoever told death to whisk her away. But who was she to thank?
We've been waiting for you....
She turned around and found another familiar shape. Then again into another direction. She was surrounded....
...by those she wept for, those she cared about.
You died in your sleep, my child. You died waiting for your exile.
"..." Foxfire tried speaking, but found that she couldn't do so. The mute drone, also now a silhouette, nodded.
Celestia went by your last wishes. You died before they could get to you...
Foxfire wanted to ask who one of the silhouettes spoke of. Yet, she couldn't. Something clicked into her head: the cultist ponies she saw in her dreams...they really were out to get her.
And now, they couldn't do so. They couldn't get to her fast enough to make a madpony's sacrifice to some demonic stallion.
I died with you, Your Highness. I asked to be buried with you so you wouldn't be alone in death, as you were in life...
Foxfire swallowed a lump in her throat, unable to express any of her rapidly-swinging emotions.
Come, my student. We must ascend to the great stairway in the skies.
Foxfire smiled at long last. Sure, she was dead and decrepit now, but at least she was now happy. She trudged alongside the silhouettes, keeping up as best as she could.
At long last, after so much pain and torment, she was with her family and what few friends she made. She no longer needed to worry about life's necessities. The things like food and water no longer mattered to her now.
She was at peace.
.....
But she could've sworn she heard a disturbingly familiar laugh accompanied by that of a foal's.
Celestia couldn't stop crying, no matter how hard she tried. Discord had brought the mute drone before the crowd of ponies, and he was carrying Foxfire in his mismatched arms. The alicorn's eyes were closed, and still-fresh tears lingered on her cheeks. Her fur was much messier than it usually was, and she was skin-and-bones. Her legs lost all of their black fur, revealing sickly grey skin beneath.
In the crook of her foreleg she held a piece of paper. The white alicorn pried it away with her magic, being careful not to rouse the nervous wreck from her slumber.
She unfolded it and began to read.
To my mentor's sister,
My time grows nearer; I cannot bear to make this letter longer than need be. Read this aloud to your guards to see that my last wishes are carried out.
It pains me to bear the burden only royalty should bear. I was once a commoner, and I wish to revert to that natural state.
Take away my wings, horn, tail, and cutie marks. I feel they are no longer needed for me in death. Store them in a place that isn't my grave. Take away my ability to speak as well, for my actions would not support any words I'd have for the afterlife waiting on me...
I wish to be cremated in the Everfree Forest with the biggest funeral pyre you can muster. Make it bright enough that the ponies on Cloudsdale can see it. Then spread my ashes all over the world--while they're still burning--so I can replicate the stars with my dying breath...
If you find any of my distant cousins that roam outside the pits of Tartarus, tell them it was needed to be done...
It hurts......
Celestia looked up at Discord, her eyes reddening.
"She's passed." Discord murmured before cradling Foxfire in his arms and keeping her close to his chest. She was colder than ice, and her body was stiff. "This poor mare's passed, and I cannot stress enough how I hope she finds peace in spite of her wrongs!"
The other ponies present looked at the draconequus, who broke down into a sob fit for the mare's mother. They looked at each other, unable to stop themselves from crying.
"I don't know what she did wrong....I don't even know her....why am I crying?!" Shrieked a mare as she galloped towards Discord and the limp body he held.
The royal guards present in the room shed tears. One even removed his helmet and let his tears fall onto its shiny surface.
The drone wrote something on a piece of paper with his hoof and he handed it to the weeping princess.
I want to die with her. She doesn't have to be alone anymore....
.....
The raging fire burned long into the night. The drone and Foxfire were nothing more than ashes. The embers were taken by the pegasus ponies and spread far and wide.
All ground-dwellers looked up at the ashes and they began seeing small, white dots in the sky. It didn't look like much, at first. But it then became something much greater...
The ashes formed the shape of the Mare in the Moon. And then Orion's constellation.
At dawn, the embers died down into nothing more than black specks flitting about in the air.
"Was she trying to make up for her sins with that display?" Celestia asked, still unable to keep herself from weeping.
"I'm not sure. I don't know what goes on in that head of hers, but at least she's no longer suffering..." Discord answered, shaking his head sadly.
.....
In the distance, a group of cloaked ponies began cursing their luck. They trotted away from the pony villages and into the shadows, never to be seen again.
