> Knightmares
>  by NerfedFalcon
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Prologue: A Midsummer Nightmare
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

As stressful as the job of Captain of the Royal Guard could be, Shining Armor had to admit that the job did come with benefits, like his own personal coffee supply. It was part of his morning ritual: he put the coffee on as soon as he woke up, then brushed his hair and put on his dress jacket just in time for it to be done. The warmth of the drink was almost enough to pull him together in the mornings; the caffeine did the rest. Silently, he praised the all-powerful, awe-inspiring magic of caffeine as he walked down the palace corridors.

Something definitely didn’t seem right to him, though. Normally, the castle was full of activity, and the guards were posted almost everywhere. Today, there was almost nopony around. Perhaps they’d all already left for the Summer Sun Celebration in Ponyville, though. Maybe Celestia had decided to simply let him sleep in, and taken the rest of the Day Guard with her.

He still wondered about the term ‘Day Guard’, though. As a subdivision of the Royal Guard, it implied that there had to be a Night Guard as well. But all he’d heard about it were rumours, and nopony under his command knew anything more substantial than that either. He tried to push the thoughts to the back of his mind, and headed for the Day Guard barracks to find out who was left to guard the capital city and the palace.

The sun was already high in the sky, and he cursed himself for not having woken up sooner. Even if he had some privileges as the Captain of the Royal Guard, he had to set a good example for the rank and file, and that meant waking up at dawn. His resolve newly bolstered by the thought, and by the caffeine kicking in, he stepped out onto the parade ground.

There was only one pony standing in front of the Day Guard barracks, and though he was at full attention, he seemed worried about something. He was trying to hide it, but you don’t get to be Captain of the Royal Guard without learning how to read a poker face. “At ease, soldier,” he said, and the guard visibly relaxed. “Is there anything I should know about now?”

“Permission to speak freely, sir?” the guard asked. A name popped unbidden into Shining’s head: Cloud Skipper. The blond-maned Pegasus, now that he’d dropped the professionalism, seemed very worried about something. When the Captain nodded, he stepped aside from the door, revealing a note held in place by a knife. “We’re both in trouble,” was all he said.

Slightly confused, Shining picked up the note, reading over the messy handwriting. ‘To the boss,’ it began:

‘We of the Day Guard have been members of a proud tradition since Canterlot was founded. We do not take kindly to knowing that we are going to be replaced by a new division, so we have taken the liberty of excusing ourselves prematurely. Do not come looking for us, as you made this choice knowing the implications. Sincerely yours, the entire Day Guard.’

Nothing was said for a few minutes while Shining tried to figure out what was going on. “What is the meaning of this?” he eventually asked Skipper. “And why are you still here?”

“I don’t think that the rumours are true,” Skipper replied, his professionalism breaking under his fear. “The Night Guard never existed, and I don’t want to abandon my duty for a rumour. As for what it means, it means that you’re probably going to need more coffee today, if I may be so bold.”

Shining wanted to tell him off for the unnecessary comment at the end when Skipper pointed out there was a pony behind him. He turned around, and what he saw was the strangest thing he’d seen in his entire life. It was like a cross between a pony and a bat, with leathery wings, slitted pupils inside golden irises, and a charcoal-grey coat. “Reporting for duty, sir,” she said quickly, standing in a pose that no soldier would be caught dead in. “Name’s Midnight Blossom, of the Night Guard.”

With a loud groan, Shining resigned himself to making some extra coffee. “Come with me, both of you,” he said. “You have some explaining to do.”

About an hour later, when all of them were sitting around a table with a mug of coffee each, Skipper started to explain himself. “You want to know about last night, sir?” he said, hesitantly. “Well, the boys all gathered around together and the commander, Cumulus, he told us that he’d seen a Night Pony that Celestia had shown him. Supposedly she was the first of the Night Guard, and he must have taken it badly, because he told us all we were getting replaced.”

“Even though he’d only seen the one pony, and he didn’t know what they were actually for?” Shining asked.

“Seems like it. Now, I tried to stay out of it, but he’s always been a rabble rouser, and he’s always been against you. Remember the time he thought that Celestia was about to declare war on the zebras?” A terse nod. “Yeah, well, this was just as bad. Or possibly worse, since he convinced everyone to leave that night.”

“Why didn’t you?”

“You know me. I wanted to hear it from you. Seems he was right enough, though.”

“We weren’t gonna replace you. Celestia picked me out personally for the Night Guard,” Midnight chipped in. “She didn’t tell me why she wanted me around, though, or why I was the only one going through any kind of training for it, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t as a replacement.” She shrugged slightly, the dark violet breastplate and saddle preventing her from shrugging fully. “Still, if I’d known I was gonna cause you such a headache, then I’d never have taken the offer.”

“You don’t need to feel bad about something you had no control over,” Shining Armor replied. It was a lesson he’d had to learn himself, and taught to several of the guards before the unnerving mare. “All we can do now is make the best of a bad situation. Cloud Skipper, we’ll patrol the halls together, see if there’s any trouble brewing. You rest up, Midnight Blossom. Considering you’re Night Guard, I probably won’t need you for a while.”

“Understood, sir,” Midnight replied, a sudden formality taking over. “Since the Day Guard barracks are currently unoccupied, I’m gonna sleep there. Cool with the two of you?”

Shining was thrown off by the informality, but decided to treat it like a normal request. “Granted. Let’s move out, soldier,” he said to Skipper. “Show me you haven’t forgotten how to be a Day Guard yet.”

As Midnight headed back to the barracks, Shining and Skipper started to patrol the corridors in silence, the stares of some of the servants being quickly rebuked by the Captain’s glares. There weren’t any major incidents to report, but it was difficult to only have the two of them around. Anything could be happening in other parts of the palace, and nopony would ever know. Not for the first time, Shining wished he’d gotten more coffee.

Eventually, to break the silence, he turned to Skipper and asked, “Knowing that Cumulus was right, do you want to join him now?”

“No. Cumulus may have been my commander, but I respect you over him. Besides, I don’t want to find out what the punishment is for desertion.” Shining made a mental note to ask Celestia exactly what that was when she returned from Ponyville. It was already late afternoon, and the Princess would surely have left the palace by now.

Still, what she’d told him was rather too much to take. “An ancient foe is returning,” she had said, “and you need every soldier you have. Even if soldiers may not win the war, they’ll be needed on the home front.” He had had no idea how to respond then, and the exodus of the Day Guard made it even harder to think of an answer now. Skipper didn’t notice his worry, but it was there and it wouldn’t stop nagging at him.

Eventually, the sun set and Skipper formally went off duty. As Midnight joined him at the door, her breastplate and horseshoes contrasting against Skipper’s chainmail and full plate, he looked up at the moon, and saw the strangest thing.

Four stars were quickly converging, and the shadow of the Mare in the Moon seemed to be getting softer and softer. Unbidden, his sister’s voice jumped into his mind: ‘And on the longest day of the thousandth year, the stars will aid in her escape, and she will bring about night-time eternal. The legend is real... Why will nopony believe me?’

The legend of Nightmare Moon. A myth becoming reality, and they weren’t prepared for it. Still, he had to do something, or he’d never sleep again. “Get Cloud Skipper back out here,” he told Midnight. “Something tells me I’m going to need both of you in short order.”
~
Canterlot Park was the place to be whenever there was anything on, and everypony who was anypony could usually be found there. The park was almost large enough for the entire population, who were now all sitting around a bonfire and awaiting the sunrise. That was when one of the ponies there noticed that the shadow of the Mare in the Moon was completely gone.

He recalled the legend of Nightmare Moon, and came to one conclusion: Nightmare Moon had returned. But that was silly, wasn’t it? Legends weren’t real. Everything was going to be fine, and in a few minutes, Celestia would raise the sun and it would all be over.

Almost half an hour later, the moon hung in the sky exactly where it was, its fullness almost taunting him. Several other ponies started to look at the moon as well, overhearing his mumbling about Nightmare Moon over and over. Then, all of a sudden, he bolted. “NIGHTMARE MOON HAS RETURNED!” he shouted as he ran through the streets. “REPENT, YE SINNERS, FOR THE END OF PONYKIND IS NIGH!!!”

Sitting in a corner of the park, Cumulus looked at the scene, too generic to recognise without his armour. He considered stepping in for a moment, until he remembered what he’d done earlier that day. The Day Guard was disbanded, and besides, even if it hadn’t been the case, he’d only have done a token amount of work to keep order.

Anarchy was the new law, and he chuckled to himself at the thought of the pompous narwhal Shining Armor and the runt Cloud Skipper trying to keep Canterlot safe on their own. There was no Night Guard, anyway. He’d just spent far too long in the Guard, with everything controlled and ruled precisely. Seeing the strong take what they deserved from the weak would be the perfect society...
~
By the time Shining Armor got Cloud Skipper and Midnight Blossom to the battlements of the castle, there were already a few burning buildings and screaming could be heard in the streets near the castle. “What’s got them so spooked?” Midnight asked, before looking up at the moon that was still hanging in the sky. “So Celestia’s a little late.”

“That’s not it...” Shining said. “How much do you two know about Nightmare Moon?”

“Only that it’s some old mares’ tale,” Skipper said. Midnight, on the other hand, was strangely quiet, looking away from both of them. “Why do you ask?” Following his captain’s hoof up to the moon, he suddenly realised that its surface was completely pristine. “So the moon’s wrong and the sun’s gone. I guess that’s bad, but are you sure it’s bad enough to panic over?”

“They clearly are,” Midnight said as she looked back up, “and that’s gonna be our job for tonight.”

Shining cleared his throat, and both Guards returned their attention to him. “It may be longer than you think. Nightmare Moon wanted to bring about an eternal night, and if even a few ponies know about that, then nowhere will be safe for long. But what little peace remains will last a lot longer if we aren’t tearing one another apart.”

“Like your Day Guard did when they heard about me?” Midnight simply stated it as a fact, not trying to point it directly at either her or her captain.

“That’s beside the point right now. As Royal Guards, you two have a duty to do. Maybe you can’t protect the princess from the populace, but you have to protect them from themselves.” He reached into the pocket of his jacket and pulled out a pair of flares. “Set them off if you get into a situation you can’t handle alone. I’ll use my magic for it.” With that, he teleported into the crowd below, catching their attention and using a sound-amplifying spell to tell them to return home.

“Well, the night won’t wait for us, and neither will the injured and scared,” Midnight said, darting off into the darkness. Pausing to make sure they weren’t covering the same area, Skipper flew out as well, landing in the middle of Canterlot Park.

The rioting was in full swing, with ponies running amok everywhere, pulling plants out of the ground, breaking public benches and the bonfire threatening to burn the whole city. The bonfire seemed like a good place to start. He reached in and picked up a branch, waving it as a torch to grab the attention of anypony he could. “Everypony, please, calm down!” he shouted, trying to be heard over the commotion. It didn’t work too well, but there were a couple of ponies who stopped and looked.

Clearly, he needed to do something more drastic. A passing cloud caught his eye, and he quickly flew up there, rubbing it with his hooves to build up a static charge as all the Pegasus Guards were taught. As soon as he felt it reach critical mass, he launched the bolt at the stone path, using the thunderclap to get the attention of the entire park.

He flew down from the cloud and turned to everypony that had stopped to listen. There were about two dozen, and at least that was something. “Return to your homes and stay there,” he said. “The streets aren’t safe right now, and I can’t protect you all here. Don’t go anywhere alone. If you have to, stay over at somepony else’s place, but don’t split up and don’t just stay here. You’ve got to get off the streets.”

“And why should we listen to you?” a stallion asked. “We could be attacked in our homes just as easily as out here!”

“How many of you know why the sun is late?” Skipper replied. “There is an evil in Equestria, and it is seeking every last one of you. The longer you stay out here, the more likely a target you are for something far worse than your fellow pony. Get back indoors, right now!” There was some hesitation among the group, and then they started to move out, stopping some of the other ponies and taking them with them. That wasn’t so bad, he thought to himself. Now to go round up more...

A flare launched into the air and exploded in the shape of a shield. Shining Armor was in trouble, and he wasn’t busy with any other ponies. He quickly launched himself into the air, then flew towards where he saw the flare come from.

Some of the ponies seemed to be outright attacking Shining in the street, and Skipper quickly flew down, taking out what seemed to be a small knife until he reached for a switch at the base and it extended into a full-size spear. Holding it in place with his right wing and foreleg, he stepped to cover his captain’s back against the angry mob. “What took you so long?” Shining asked.

“The park’s clear, mostly,” Skipper reported. “There’s about thirty fewer ponies on the streets right now.”

“Only another fifteen thousand to go,” Shining replied ruefully. “Watch that orange one!” An orange Earth Pony stallion charged from the crowd, and was quickly batted away by the flat of Skipper’s spear. “None of you are getting any closer! Just back off!”

A roar came from the stallion’s mouth that could barely be considered equine, as though he was being possessed by something else. Thinking quickly, Skipper turned his spear around and shoved the pole end down his target’s throat, knocking him out cold. “Anyone else want some of this?!” he asked the crowd that had gathered. “Or are you all going to do the smart thing and go back home?!” To his relief, most of the ponies that dispersed were walking, rather than running, and a few of them entered nearby homes almost immediately.

Another burst of magic filled the air, this one simply a firework with no real description. “Lightning bolts are good for getting attention,” Skipper said, replacing his spear in his pocket. “Teleport over there. I’ll handle crowd control.” Though he hated to take orders from below, Shining cut off the train of thought with the knowledge that there were only three Guards left, and Skipper was right: he had to help Midnight. In a flash of light, he was gone.

When he arrived at her location, she was busy grappling with another Pegasus, with a dark blue coat and a crazed look in his eyes. He was fast, quickly darting around and bouncing off the walls around the plaza, but the Night Guard was faster. Every one of his attacks was dodged or quickly broken out of, until she managed to catch her forelegs under his wings. With a flicking motion, she deployed the claws that were hidden under her hooves and brought one across his mane. “Shall I clip your wings next?” she asked, hissing like a stereotypical vampony.

Perhaps that was enough, as the rage was replaced by fear and he flew away as soon as she let go of him. Smirking, she turned around just slowly enough to get taken by surprise by an Earth Pony that had jumped into the air after her. This one didn’t seem to have any look in his eyes at all, though. When she turned around, his eyes were black holes in his face, and his mouth wasn’t pulled into anger or fear, but simply left neutral.

Before she had to worry about what it meant, a magic blast from Shining Armor knocked the Earth Pony off her back. He immediately got back up like nothing had happened, charging down the Captain and the Night Guard with reckless abandon. Another wave of magic knocked him back, but the same thing happened again, and the two Guards looked at each other. “What do we do?” Midnight asked. “This guy just keeps getting back up!”

She looked at his eyes again, and sensed something else behind them. She couldn’t tell what it was, but it felt familiar, and it was calling to her. “No,” she said to herself as she charged. “I won’t let you! I can’t let you have me!” With a loud war cry, she flew just over the Earth Pony, punching him in the neck with her claw. Blood burst out, covering her front, and he fell dead to the ground as she pulled her hoof back. She stepped back and returned to Shining’s side, breathing heavily.

An entire crowd had gathered around them, all with the same dead look. Shining Armor noticed that Midnight was unnerved by what she’d done, as she was making no attempt to hide it. “I killed a pony,” she whispered. “I killed a pony... I didn’t have to, but...”

Cloud Skipper chose that moment to land in the plaza, his spear at the ready. “Can you use clouds like a Pegasus?” he asked, and she nodded quickly. Anything to take her mind off the dead body. “Cover us from above. If you don’t want to fight down here, then we can manage that.” Nodding slowly, she took to the sky, relieved that most of the crowd was Earth Ponies and couldn’t follow her that high up. She also didn’t have to kill anypony with lightning bolts... No, she couldn’t think about it right now. She had to focus on shooting.

“These guys aren’t going to stop easily,” Shining told Skipper. “You might even have to kill.”

“I can handle it,” Skipper replied with absolute sincerity. Spells and spear at the ready, the two stallions stood back to back, waiting for one of the crowd of ponies around them to move.

They all charged at once, crashing into one another as Skipper flew straight up and Shining teleported out of the mob. They all turned around quickly until one of them saw where the Unicorn had gone, and they all turned to face him before charging again. A lightning bolt struck one of them in the back of the head, knocking it out. A second bolt struck the tip of Skipper’s spear, charging it with electricity as Shining teleported next to the Pegasus. “Looks like you’ve got ‘em angry,” Skipper said, readying his weapon. 

“Indeed,” Shining said. “Stand fast! Here they come!” The mob charged again, but this time instead of teleporting, the Unicorn created one of the magical shields he was known for, keeping the foes at a distance. Without missing a beat, Skipper thrust his spear forward, releasing the electricity and creating another knockout lightning bolt. Despite all that, though, the ponies on the outside of the barrier continued bashing against it, as though their only impulse was to attack no matter what.

“We can’t handle this many,” Shining said. “I’m going to break the shield and teleport to the rooftop across the plaza. Follow me up there. I don’t think that an Earth Pony could follow us. Hopefully, Midnight will join us there. We need to regroup and think of something. You ready?” Skipper nodded, though with a slight reluctance, and retracted his spear in readiness to move. “Go!”

As soon as the shield dropped, a lot of things happened at once. Shining Armor teleported to the building, and seeing the flash of light, Cloud Skipper charged up at it, only to be grabbed by the wall of hypnotised Earth Ponies and held down by his back legs. Midnight Blossom launched a lightning bolt from her cloud as she dived through it, claws extended and electrically charged. She landed on top of one of the ponies holding Skipper down, slashing through his neck and leaving a blood splatter on both of them. With the hold released, he nearly overshot the building, braking in the air and landing with Shining. Midnight had to cut through at least one other pony before she could break free and follow them, and she forced herself not to look back as she rose and landed.

The ponies below were yelling and trying to climb the building, but to no avail. Midnight started to try and shake the blood off, but Skipper seemed rather calmer even though it was more visible against his white coat. “It’ll wash out,” he explained. “Besides, we’ve got more important things to worry about.”

“It’s not that...” Midnight replied, shivering despite the warm summer night. “I... I have to go!” She darted off, disappearing before either of the others could react.

Skipper looked expectantly at his captain, and eventually Shining came up with a plan. “We can’t do much more out here. Even if we do save a few ponies, there’ll always be more behind us, and with fewer Day Guards than usual... Damn, if only those deserters still had some sense of duty left. Why’d they all have to leave?”

“Don’t worry about it, sir. You’ve got me and Midnight, and that’ll be enough.” Skipper didn’t feel it, and knew that Shining probably didn’t either, but he had to say it for both their sakes. “What’s the game plan?”

“Get back to the palace. I’ll teleport and signal Midnight, so she’ll be there as well. I don’t know if anypony’s started raiding the palace yet. If they have, we’ll get them out. If not, we’ll keep them out. Until we know for certain that Celestia isn’t coming back, we should keep her home in order even if we can’t control the city.” Receiving a nod of understanding from the Pegasus, Shining teleported away and reappeared back at the castle.

The drawbridge was still up, but there were several Pegasi flying around, trying to break the windows despite the magical enhancements. One was trying to lower it, but a magic burst quickly put a stop to that. Shining put his hoof over the rioter’s body, trying to make sure he wasn’t under the same spell. After confirming he was sane, he reprimanded the pony and sent him away, coming up with a plan to deal with the others.

It didn’t turn out to be necessary, as Skipper arrived and tackled one out of the air, turning towards the others when they noticed him. Remembering his own plan, he sent a flare skyward, hoping that Midnight would notice and come back to the palace as well. Skipper landed next to him, and two Pegasi followed, hardly even backing off until the spear came out and they were both slapped with the flat. He tried to attack a few more times, each time being knocked away until he finally gave up. Skipper didn’t know if they were going to loot elsewhere or actually find shelter, but by that point, he didn’t much care.

Before Shining could react, he’d tackled one of the looters and pinned his wings, pulling out just in time to get away before his target crashed. Without turning around, he bucked another in the head, shouting to the effect of ‘get out of here’. To stop any of the others being hurt, Shining grabbed them in his magical bubbles, tossing them outside the palace walls. Skipper seemed slightly offended at his captain’s interference, but let it pass, banking for a landing.

When Midnight landed, she quickly looked around for any other ponies to deal with, but to her relief there were none. Skipper landed next to her, panting slightly as the adrenaline wore off. “You still good?” he asked, and she shook her head. Shining was concerned by the response. They were already undermanned, and if Midnight had to bow out already, they wouldn’t stand a chance.

It was then that an explosion of light filled the air. Everypony present suddenly stopped what they were doing to stare at the sky, at the prismatic light filling it despite the night. Almost immediately following it, they noticed that the moon was down and the sun had returned. The three guards collapsed onto each other, laughing slightly in relief. The ponies in the streets below were cheering for the return of their princess.

Shining thought he felt some of his sister’s magic in the rainbow, but shrugged it off quickly. More immediately, he needed to debrief Midnight and Skipper, and see if they were both okay. Midnight, in particular, seemed shaken by the night’s events, and he had to ensure she wouldn’t give up on being a Guard just because of it.
~
Down in the streets below, Cumulus cursed the rainbow for ending his dream too early. Still, there would be other opportunities to bring about his utopia of strength. He'd risen to lead the Day Guard division from his connections, and he had several that the Princess and Shining Armor didn't know about. With a few favours called in here and there, they'd never be able to keep up. And with the chaos continuing in Canterlot, they wouldn't see him continuing his primary agenda. Chuckling quietly to himself, he walked away from the palace, the beginnings of a long-term strategy forming in his mind.
> Not a Decision
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

About a week later

Though Luna had recovered surprisingly well from being Nightmare Moon, she still didn’t have the strength to control her own moon, and she knew nothing of modern history and politics. Therefore, she had to be kept from the general populace until Celestia decided she was ready. Luna didn’t like being held down by her elder sister, but decided it was probably for the best. They also postponed her official return celebration until after Canterlot had been restored.

One night’s rioting had left the city a broken husk, with many homes and stores destroyed and thousands of ponies left homeless. Nopony had the confidence to enlist for the Royal Guard, and so it fell to the three who had tried and failed to calm the riot to repair everything. Still, they caught many glares as they walked through the streets, from ponies angry that they had protected the palace instead of the commoners. The blaze had settled for now, but Canterlot was still a powder keg, and nopony knew which spark would set it off.

Shining Armor’s conviction was that until he knew a situation was hopeless, he would do anything in his power to keep that hope alive. It was for that reason that he continued to patrol with Skipper and Midnight, trying to keep the construction efforts safe from looters. Even so, he got the feeling that the common ponies still didn’t think that highly of him or the Guard, especially now that it was common knowledge that their ranks had been severely reduced. It would be nearly impossible to train any new Guards, to boot. Still, there was hope, and while there was hope, he had to act.

For their part, Skipper and Midnight didn’t give up either. Skipper usually spent his days patrolling the city and trying to keep order, sometimes distributing supplies when they could be gotten into Canterlot. Midnight, on the other hand, usually did actual guarding work of major construction sites. She was well-adapted to noticing scoundrels trying to sneak through the night and steal something, and the workers themselves were glad never to actually see her. Still, she couldn’t be everywhere at once, and for every foreman pleased with her protection, there were two more complaining that she hadn’t been at their site instead.

Celestia was trying to get some of the guards pulled back from other regions, but they were adamant about staying where they were. Other areas were hit just as hard by rioting, and without the Princesses themselves to keep order, it was more difficult, they said. Plus, there was the fact that Cumulus had disbanded the Day Guard, and it was only their personal sense of duty keeping them in those outer regions. That, and recalling what the punishment was for desertion, which had also kept the Canterlot Day Guard in hiding.

There simply wasn’t enough horsepower to go around, and the three Guards were on the brink of losing their collective minds. Skipper was taking a night to himself, not wanting to sleep. He’d been getting some bad dreams lately. Nothing major yet, but it was enough to unnerve him and stop him from sleeping the next night. Midnight was in the restaurant district, and he decided that even if he was off duty, he might as well go join her.

The street lights were destroyed, and he didn’t have any particular light of his own to see by. He was also completely naked, and while normally that wouldn’t be a problem for ponies, his white coat made him an easier target. A group of four Earth Ponies jumped out of the shadows, blocking him from in front and behind. Inwardly, he smiled to himself. He thought he’d be bored that night.

“Nice night for a walk, innit?” their apparent leader, a dark green Earth Pony with a fringe covering his eyes asked. “Pity you chose the wrong street, guvnor. What’s ‘e got, eh? Pat ‘im down, Smooth Touch!”

A grey stallion behind him chuckled and moved up, pulling a pocket knife from his mane and flicking it out. That was just what Skipper had been waiting for. As Smooth Touch got closer, he quickly lifted his rear left leg, kicking the knife out of his assailant’s hoof. He pulled his leg back and launched it out, slightly further up, to hit the Earth Pony in the face. The other one behind him tried to move up, but he launched himself forward over the leader and his ‘partner’, a massive green stallion.

“Ooh, this one’s got hot blood,” the leader said. “Well, let’s see just how much. Hulk! Smash!” The green Earth Pony roared loudly and stepped forward. However, he was facing away from Skipper, and hit the other thug. “Turn around, Hulk,” Leader sighed. “He’s that—”

Skipper caught the leader in a headlock, using his wings to stay balanced. “Yeah, I’ve got fire,” he said. “More than you’ll ever know.”

“Really?” Leader replied, pulling out a knife and slashing across Skipper’s right foreleg. Surprised by the attack, he let go and flapped backwards, and Leader took up a position next to Hulk and Smooth Touch, who had picked his knife back up. “You really wanna keep doin’ this?” Leader asked. “You look like you’ve had enough for today.”

Skipper smirked, and for a moment, Leader’s slick demeanour dropped. “You don’t know me at all, do you?” Smooth Touch charged forward with his knife raised, only to get blocked, then countered by Skipper pulling his hindquarters up in front of him, using his wings to backflip. He picked up the knife and jammed it into his foe’s front hoof. He knew exactly where to aim to leave his target bleeding to death, and so he went for a flesh wound instead. Smooth Touch screamed loudly, and Skipper's wings flared out dramatically as he stepped away, snorting at the other two attackers.

Hulk charged forward and brought his hooves down where he expected Skipper’s head to be, but the Pegasus was faster, stepping just back out of reach before flying through the gap between his front and hind legs, landing on his back. Hulk roared again and started trying to buck Skipper off, to no avail. Skipper’s grip was too tight on Hulk’s neck, and as he reared up, Skipper pushed down with his wings to knock his opponent to the ground. “The bigger they are...” he said.

He didn’t get to finish the phrase, because that was when Leader attacked, using a knife of his own. Hearing the move before he saw it, Skipper flew forward, leaving Leader’s downward stab landing in Hulk. The massive pony was unconscious, but Leader was angry that he’d missed again. Skipper landed next to Smooth Touch, who had partly calmed down, and pulled the knife out of his hoof, causing him to scream again. He flipped the pocket knife into a forehoof position, Leader holding his as a backhoof. With a snarl, the Earth Pony lunged, missing by an inch. He repeated this a few times until Skipper brought his own knife up to parry, immediately slashing back down and leaving a cut on his opponent’s chest.

“You’ve never really fought with that before, have you?” Skipper asked, circling around and parrying further attempts from Leader. “The essence of knife fighting is hoofwork. You have to know where you’re standing, and be ready to move anywhere else.” He lunged forward, cutting across the Earth Pony’s chest. Another stab, intended to miss, and he’d pushed Leader back against a wall. “If you can't move, then you'll get cut.” He began a flurry of blows, Leader only being able to block some of them before he fell unconscious from the blood loss.

The final thug was still standing there, his mouth agape at Skipper’s prowess. He broke down crying when the Pegasus rounded on him, then stopped when he realised he wasn’t dead. “You’re a concerned citizen who heard the end of the fight,” Skipper said harshly. “The nearest hospital is ten blocks in that direction. They probably won’t have enough beds or supplies, but you can try and save them, if you hurry.”

“Why...” the pony mumbled, sobbing. “Why aren’t you killing me?”

“You aren’t worth killing.” With that, Skipper walked away, leaving the borrowed knife back with its owner and deciding not to tell Midnight or Shining what had happened.

Midnight was watching from a nearby rooftop, able to see everything perfectly despite the low light. She cringed slightly at his treatment of the thugs. Sure, they kind of deserved it, but he was such a brutal fighter that she felt bad all the same.

Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed a group of other ponies in the alley, a Unicorn leading them by shoving a bag over Skipper’s head and magically binding his wings. She wanted to fly down, until a voice in her head told her it would be suicide. There were too many of them, and she definitely couldn’t fight like Skipper could. Still, she couldn’t just abandon him, so as the group walked off with their unconscious captive in tow, she silently followed from the rooftops.

The group, not knowing they were being tailed from above, headed through several back alleys and minor streets, avoiding large crowds. Some ponies saw them passing through, but backed off when they realised what was going on. Midnight looked up at Luna’s moon—well, probably still Celestia’s, considering that Luna was still recovering from returning from said moon. The gang had stopped about half a mile southwest of the palace. Red building with a blue door. Easy enough to remember.

She went to get back to the palace, where she assumed Shining was, when one of the gang of ponies looked up. He paused, staring at the roof where she was, and she quickly stepped back. “What’s wrong with ya?” one of the others asked. “Jumping at shadows again?”

“Shadows...” the suspicious pony said, slowly. “Yeah... maybe just a shadow.” With that, they all went inside, locking the heavy blue door. Midnight breathed a sigh of relief, and took to the air.
~
When the bag came off Skipper’s head, he was tied into a chair, the rope binding his wings and clearly tied by a Unicorn. He wouldn’t be able to get out of it easily, but that wouldn’t stop him from trying. Whoever had kidnapped a Day Guard (technically the Day Guard, but that wasn’t important) had made a big mistake.

“It’s no good struggling, my friend,” a cultured voice said from the shadows. “Besides, it’s rude to try and get away from somepony who just wants to talk to you. I promise I’ll let you go as soon as I’ve made my case.”

“Do you have any idea who you’re messing with?” Skipper asked, angrily.

“A Pegasus with no wings, in a chair he can’t get out of. How very threatening.” The mysterious stallion laughed to himself, then cleared his throat and continued. “You won’t lose anything just by hearing me out, you know. You have no reason to be resisting me like this.”

“If you don’t have a reason, then I do.”

“Come now, come now. Is that any way for a Day Guard to act?”

Skipper didn’t have a response. He’d been out of uniform; just a normal Pegasus on the street, albeit one that could fight better than anypony had a right to. “Yes, I know who you are, Cloud Skipper,” the voice continued. “A decorated Day Guard... and currently, their only member. You must know that it’s futile to continue your efforts by yourself. Even with the help of your captain, you’ll never be able to restore Canterlot fully.”

“Why are you telling me this?” Skipper asked, a hint of venom still in his voice.

“I have a proposition for you. In three days, there will be an event that will shake the foundations of the mountain. All I ask is that you do nothing to stop it. You will know what it is when it comes.”

“That’s it?” Skipper asked, laughing. “All you want me to do is abandon my duty?”

“Quite,” the voice replied. “I knew we could come to—”

“Screw you.”

Skipper couldn’t see who he was talking to, but he could hear them step back. “What did you say?” he asked, his politeness gone.

“You said you know who I am, but all you know is my name,” Skipper said defiantly. “You don’t know me at all, or you’d have known before you started that I’d never accept. I don’t know who you think you are, but you don’t have anything on me. No respect, no blackmail, nothing.”

“I do have you tied into a chair,” the voice reminded him. “Blackguard?” Another large Earth Pony stepped into view, this one black with a blue mane, tail and hairs around his hooves. “Our guest has forgotten his manners. Please teach him some, would you?” The Earth Pony suddenly punched him in the chest.

Skipper gasped for air before laughing again. “Is that all you’ve got?” he asked, and Blackguard punched him in the same place, with a similar result.

“No, my hilarious friend,” the voice replied. “It is not.” Skipper stopped laughing, cursing himself for asking the question. Suddenly, Blackguard turned to where the voice was coming from and stopped. “There has been an unexpected complication,” the voice said. “Do not go anywhere.” Blackguard punched Skipper in the face one more time, knocking him out cold.
~
Shining Armor hadn’t believed Midnight at first when she told him that Skipper had been kidnapped, but eventually her insistence had gotten through to him. He’d acquired a search warrant from Luna, though she hadn’t quite understood its purpose, and followed Midnight to the house. It was as she remembered it—red with a blue door. “Are you sure about this?” Shining asked again, knocking on the door. Midnight nodded insistently, somewhat annoyed that she kept being asked.

When the door opened, the baby-blue Unicorn inside seemed just as annoyed. “Why have you come knocking at such a late hour?” he asked. In response, Shining magically pulled out the search warrant, transferring it to the other Unicorn’s magic as he walked inside, followed shortly by Midnight. “I assure you, there have been no kidnappings here, or I would know.”

“That’s for the Night Guard to determine, sir,” Midnight replied, her fake pleasantry clearly showing. “If you would kindly show us around?” She knew that Skipper had been brought here. All she had to do was prove it.

Surprisingly, the Unicorn was willing to show them into each room of the house, and none of them contained anything out of the ordinary. That only made Midnight more suspicious. The house seemed to not use all the space on the property; there had to be something she could use. As Shining and the homeowner left the parlour, she started to tap on the walls, her bat-like hearing allowing her to notice the differences in how it sounded.

Just as she hit a part of the wall that sounded hollow, a massive black Earth Pony jumped her from the side, crushing her against the wall side to side. He stepped back to crush her again, but she managed to recover fast enough to escape through the gap between his front and back legs, pulling out her claws as she landed. It didn’t intimidate the stallion at all, though. He already knew that he was intimidating her.

She drew her hoof across the ground, her claws leaving a mark in the carpet, as though daring him to approach. Faster than anypony his size had a right to move, he was up in her face again, giving her a headbutt that left her dazed. He grabbed her by the neck and was about to strangle her, when Shining came back in through the door, having heard the commotion. He grabbed the Earth Pony with his magic, using a knockout spell to bring him down.

“Are you alright?” he asked Midnight, and she staggered back to her hooves. He then turned to the Unicorn, casting a binding spell to keep him in place. “You’re not under arrest yet,” he said, “but I will want further words with you.”

“It was there...” Midnight whispered, still unable to talk without difficulty. She pointed with her hoof just to the right of the fireplace. “A hollow wall...” Shining nodded and probed the wall with his magic, pulling open a hidden passageway that led down a flight of stairs. Midnight coughed a few times, then followed him, leaving her claws extended.

There were a group of ponies standing around; four Earth Ponies and another Unicorn, all stallions. Through a semi-reflective pane of glass, Shining Armor saw Cloud Skipper tied into a chair, unconscious. He gasped slightly, which caught the attention of the ponies in the room, and they all turned menacingly towards him. The Unicorn cast a spell, quickly and clumsily. It fell apart before it could reach Shining, and he fired his own bolt of magic back, knocking his target off his hooves.

The Earth Ponies all tried to gang up on Midnight, leaving the two Unicorns to their magic duel. She quickly flew above them, slicing off one’s tail with her claws as she landed behind them. He seemed slightly worried at that, but the rest turned around and charged again. She scratched one across the chest, then turned and bucked him right in the wound. He went down for the count, leaving three.

One of them tried to grapple her hind legs, and she quickly flew into the air, dragging him and spinning him around. When he eventually let go, he flew straight through the pane of glass, waking up Skipper. Realising he’d probably be better in a fight, she flew in after him, chased by the other two Earth Ponies. She cut through the rope holding Skipper down, and then returned to the alcove to help Shining.

The enemy Unicorn was on the ropes when Midnight arrived, unable to keep up with Shining’s magical barrage. He hadn’t become the Captain of the Guard on his looks, after all, and sparring with an extremely talented little sister had taught him a lot about how to hold his own. A binding spell was enough to bring his opponent down, and he turned to Midnight, smiling. She suddenly noticed that somepony was coming down the stairs, much faster than was really safe. “Look out!” she shouted, too late to stop Blackguard from bowling over Shining.

The massive Earth Pony rolled Shining around, punching before he could cast a spell to break his concentration. A second punch followed quickly, and Blackguard raised both his hooves at once to crush the Unicorn’s head. Shining was braced for the end—

The end never came, as Blackguard kept falling backwards. Midnight was hovering above him, her hooves stained with blood, and it poured out of Blackguard’s neck in a puddle on the floor. She landed next to Shining, pulling him out from underneath the soon-to-be corpse before turning back. He was still breathing slightly, his eyes gradually getting dimmer and dimmer until they closed and his head fell to the floor.

Midnight just stared at her hooves and the blood on her claws, not wanting to think about what she’d just done. The ponies she’d killed during the riot were possessed, though she didn’t know by what, and she’d told herself that they weren’t really sentient anymore. In this case, she couldn’t excuse herself. Shining tried to put a hoof on her shoulder to hold her steady, but she threw up before he could.

Skipper flew in through the window, his opponents swiftly taken care of once he was free. He noticed the slashed neck and the puddle of blood mixed with bile, and landed next to Midnight. She was still hyperventilating, staring like she couldn’t believe it. Skipper didn’t know what to say, and Shining held up a hoof, telling him not to say anything. Closing her eyes and turning away, Midnight let Skipper guide her back up the stairs.

Back in the parlour, where everything seemed normal again, Midnight finally managed to calm down slightly. She was still on edge, and had to walk back to the palace with Skipper. She insisted on being alone once they got back to the barracks, and with not much better to do, Skipper went to debrief with his captain.

Shining cleared up the arrests and took them all back to the palace to await Celestia’s justice. The dungeons weren’t used very often, but they were kept in order for nights like that. Some of them complained of innocence, of not knowing anything about what was going on, particularly the Unicorn who had owned the house, but Shining remained impassive until he’d left them in the dark cells and returned to the main palace.

Skipper was already waiting for him, wanting to say something, but Shining held up a hoof to stop him again. “Are you sure Midnight Blossom should be alone right now?” he asked. “Even if she told you to leave her alone, she’s probably not thinking straight. You can’t just let her drown in her own feelings right now.” He paused, thinking about the first time he’d killed another pony, and the conversation he’d had with his parents. “You have to talk to her.”

“Why me?” Skipper asked. “Can’t you do it?”

“That’s an order, Cloud Skipper,” Shining replied. “Go find Midnight and talk to her about it. She needs to talk to somepony, or it’ll drive her insane.” He teleported away to write the report, leaving Skipper to sigh and walk all the way back.

Midnight was crying into her pillow when he arrived, ‘drowning in her own feelings’ as Shining had put it. “Why did I have to kill him?” she asked, muffled by the pillow. “Why? Why did I have to kill?”

Skipper put his foreleg around her shoulder, sitting beside her on the bed. He let her cry until he could think of an answer, waiting until she’d mostly stopped to say anything. “Maybe it’s good that you feel bad about killing him,” he said. “But you have to be able to kill. Do you think that both you and the boss would have survived if you didn’t?”

“What do you mean?” Midnight asked.

“Shining Armor was probably concussed after being hit so hard. He wouldn’t be able to focus magically, and he would’ve gotten rolled in a straight fight. The only way you could stop him was to put him down.”

“You don’t know that... I could have just knocked him out, or—”

“If you stop to think about that in the middle of a fight, you’re dead. You shouldn't kill for no reason, simply out of hoof. But you have to be able to act, no matter how bad you feel about the consequences. Killing isn’t always a decision; sometimes, it has to be a reaction. That’s the truth of being a Royal Guard. And since there's nopony else to do it, you have to be able to, no matter what.”

“I... I didn’t know... that it would be like this...” She cried again for about a minute, before she asked another question. “Does it get easier? Killing other ponies?”

“It’s like any other kind of pain,” Skipper replied. “It never really stops hurting, but it dulls after a while. And if you can’t feel any pain at all, then something’s wrong with you.” Neither of them said anything else. Skipper simply sat next to Midnight, holding a vigil until she cried herself to sleep.

He knew he couldn’t always be there for her, and he knew that she’d probably have to kill again, but he wasn’t worried. He knew that she’d recover, at her own pace.
~
The crowd was roaring loudly, cheering and jeering at the spectacle through the glass roof. He was cornered, hardly able to breathe or move, the pain in his side too much to bear. He raised his head to see the other gladiator standing above him, sword raised. It fell down towards his neck—

Skipper shot awake, the sudden nightmare leaving him in a cold sweat. Midnight was still asleep, somewhat roughly, but not screaming or crying anymore. Shaking his head to dispel the last of the nightmare, he pulled on his armour.

One last look at his colleague confirmed that she’d come through. If she was sleeping better than he had after his first kill, then she’d be alright.
> The Burning Question
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Three days later

The dungeons of the Royal Palace in Canterlot are still used to contain the more undesirable elements of pony society. Many believe that Equestria is a utopia of peace and paradise, but despite Celestia’s best efforts over the last thousand years, there were still many ponies who believed that they could abuse the rights of others. While most of the more barbaric treatments have been phased out, the solitude, darkness and knowledge of wrongdoing is still enough on its own to reform even the worst offender.

However, Shining Armor wasn’t interested in reformation. The Unicorn in the one currently occupied cell was a kidnapper, and had tried to accost a Royal Guard. He wanted to know why, and was starting to get frustrated at his inability to learn anything. Eventually, he brought Cloud Skipper down into the dungeon as well. “What did you need me for, sir?” Skipper asked.

“I can’t get this guy to talk,” Shining admitted. “All he’s given me is a name, ‘Number Eight’. Do you remember anything from when you were being held captive that might help?”

Skipper thought for a moment. “He said he knew me. He knew that I was a Day Guard, and he knew my name. I’ve never seen him before in my life, though.” He turned to the prisoner, wondering just what else he knew.

“Oh, come now,” Eight said. “It’s not like all of Canterlot doesn’t know about the Day Guard rebellion by now. And as for your name... Well, let’s just say that I have my sources.” He laughed quietly. “My offer still stands, by the way. My benefactor is still willing to reward you greatly for your inaction.”

“Inaction against what?” Shining asked. “And why are you trying to bribe a Guard? You’re in enough trouble already. You shouldn’t be making it any worse for yourself!”

“Oh, I don’t think that it’s going to matter all that much in a few minutes. If everything is on schedule, then you’ll be wishing you had listened before.” Laughing again, Eight stepped back into the far corner of the cell, clearly unwilling to say any more.

Skipper sighed loudly. “If there’s one thing I hate, it’s ponies who speak in signs and portents,” he grumbled. “I just want to know what’s going to happen already.” Sighing again, he walked away, Shining following after taking one last look at Eight.

“Do you think that ‘Number Eight’ is his real name?” Skipper asked. “Because to me, it sounds like a fake. I mean, I’ve heard some strange names before, but that can’t possibly be real. Right?” Shining Armor just shrugged and kept walking, wondering if it would be proper to ask Celestia about what else was done in the dungeons before his time.

Then suddenly, a feeling of wrongness overcame both stallions, and they stopped, almost falling to the ground. An invasive energy was forcing itself into their bodies, and being forced out in return, presumably by the magic of the two princesses. As suddenly as it had come, it stopped, no longer immediately attacking their bodies. However, the air still felt heavy and a bad feeling pervaded the pair as they went to report to Celestia.
~
“Stop squirming, will you?” Cumulus asked the bound and gagged Earth Pony filly. “You’re not going to get anywhere like that. Besides, you should be rejoicing, for your life is about to find purpose. A glorious, glorious purpose.” He laughed, a full hearty laugh that did nothing to ease the filly’s worries. The firepit in the middle of the underground room didn’t do much for it, either.

“This crystal contains the essence of midnight,” he said to himself as he pulled a crystal out of a pocket and tossed it into the fire. It didn’t react at all to the sudden heat, staying an inert dark blue. “A creation of Nightmare Moon herself, with three keys to open it. Three ponies, of three races and three ages. The elderly Pegasus,” and he cut across his hoof with a knife, letting some of his blood drip into the fire. A rush of smoke popped up, and the crystal glowed slightly from within.

Next, he pulled a vial from another pocket, declaring it to be “the full-grown Unicorn”. The smoke appeared again, but for longer and with darker smoke, and the crystal glowed again. “And now... the unmarked Earth.” He picked up the filly and brought his knife across her throat, letting her blood drip into the fire. This time, it didn’t stop smoking, and Cumulus laughed again.

“Nightmare Moon, I summon thee forth. Bring an endless nightmare to this place!” The crystal grew much larger and planted itself in the ground, putting out the fire and sending the smoke flying out of the room by every exit it could find.
~
Midnight Blossom arrived in the throne room shortly after Shining and Skipper, and the captain asked for a report. “Something’s wrong in Canterlot,” she said. “Everypony outside the palace is asleep. Just dropped wherever they were, it looks like. Only we in the palace were immune. I went outside, and it didn’t knock me out, but I couldn’t wake anypony up either. I don’t know what’s going on, but I don’t like it at all...”

“That makes three of us,” Skipper said. “What about Celestia? Where’d she get to?” Right on cue, Celestia and Luna arrived from the back door, Luna looking worried, Celestia angry. “Ah, your Majesty. What’s the word?”

Celestia pushed Luna forward with a wing, and the younger Alicorn gulped before saying, “One of my contingency plans as Nightmare Moon has been put into effect, and I don’t know by whom.”

The three guards were all surprised, barely able to speak. Celestia seemed to have pulled herself together somewhat, and continued for her sister. “I still remember the last thing that Nightmare Moon said to me. She said it was a trick she’d learned from me: always have contingency plans. She took the parts of her that were separate from Luna and put them in a series of crystals. Those crystals would unleash curses on an impossible level.”

“Like putting an entire city to sleep?” Shining asked. “That does sound just about impossible...”

“For an Alicorn, very little is impossible,” Celestia replied. “The only way the curses could be broken, once they were unleashed, was by Luna herself. Lunar magic, and enough of it, was the only way that it could be done. And when she did, Nightmare Moon would take over Luna again, leaving me back where I started.” She sighed to herself. “I thought I’d found all the crystals, but it seems that one must have escaped my attention.”

There was a short silence until Midnight spoke up. “I might be able to handle the crystal for you, Princess.”

“What are you saying?” Luna asked. “Even if you could convince it that you were me, the exposure to Nightmare Moon's essence could easily kill you. Are you sure you want to take that risk?”

“It’s just one crystal,” Midnight replied, smiling. “And Celestia said she had all the others. Besides, I joined the Night Guard to protect you. Let me at least try.” Skipper looked over at her like she was insane, but Shining’s glare got him looking back at his own ruler.

Luna considered the Night Pony for about a minute before nodding slowly. “If you feel that this is the best way to protect me, then I accept.” Celestia nodded her own consent. “Shining Armor, we shall go to find the crystal. I can most likely track it down, since I remember... more than I would like of being Nightmare Moon.”

“I’m coming too,” Skipper added, and everypony turned to look at him. “What? You’re gonna need all the help you can get, even if everypony else is asleep. And it’s still daylight out, so it’s my responsibility as a Day Guard. I’ll only need a few minutes to get my gear, anyway, and Midnight would need about the same.”

“Do you really think you’ll need your armour and weapons?” Shining asked. “I mean, it’s not like there’s anypony out there that would hurt us, when they’re all asleep.”

“One thing I learned as a colt: watch your back, even when you’re not in a fight. One could break out at any moment.” Skipper walked off without waiting for a response, and Shining sighed, resigned to the fact that he’d be bringing the Day Guard too.

When the two princesses were alone, Celestia turned to Luna. “Sister, are you sure about this?” she asked. “Midnight Blossom is still but a child, and I doubt she truly knows what she’s getting into. And as for you... You aren’t fully recovered yet. I don’t want to lose you so soon after getting you back.”

“There’s nopony outside but sleepers,” Luna replied. “I’ll be fine. And I’m sure that your faithful student should be able to stop me from turning again, if it happens that she is inadequate. I’m sure everything will be fine.” Luna flew off, using her magic to prevent the window from breaking, leaving Celestia alone with her thoughts, and her worries.

She had clearly made a bad decision showing Midnight to Cumulus, but hadn’t seen just how bad it would be. The strategist that had defeated the Minotaurs so long ago had failed to see a setback, and now... No, she couldn’t think that way. No general can win every battle, or come into it on the best possible terms, but she had to make the best of a bad situation, as she had been for the last two weeks.

Shining and Luna met Skipper and Midnight at the main gates. “There’s still time to leave it to us,” Luna said. Midnight shook her head in response, insistent on going. “If you are certain, then let us commence our search.” Her horn lit up in an ethereal blue, the spell searching the miasma in the air for the thickest part. Eventually, she started to walk off, her horn still glowing.

The streets of Canterlot were eerily silent, not even the snores of the sleepers making any audible sound. The silence would likely have been enough to send any normal pony insane, if exposed to it for too long. None of the group spoke, either, leaving their hoofsteps and Luna releasing magical energy as the only sound, their irregular rhythm keeping the group from creating sounds of their own imagination.

Skipper spent as long as possible looking directly at Luna’s horn, since even though she wasn’t quite the same size as Celestia, she was still noticeably taller than him. Looking at the highest point on her body helped him not look at the bodies in the streets. Unfortunately, since he wasn’t looking at the streets, he tripped over one of the bodies, landing face-first on the stone road. The body he’d tripped over didn’t even flinch, nor did it react to Midnight laughing at the scene. Shining cut her off with a glare, a trick he’d practised on his sister many a time.

“This is even worse than I thought, from what you said,” Skipper said as he pulled himself back up, ignoring Midnight’s mocking him for the time being. “It’s almost like they really are dead. What kind of pony could possibly do a thing like this?” He suddenly stopped, almost falling over again. “Unless... How many of the Chikatetsu ring did you actually arrest, boss?”

“They weren’t all there at the time, and it was never written down who the rest were,” Shining replied. “There could easily have been a few who got away... though, this is on a much greater scale. Even they probably wouldn’t have gone quite this far.”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Midnight cut in. “What’s this Chikatetsu thing all of a sudden?”

Both at once, the stallions replied, “You don’t want to know.” “I don’t have time to get into it now, and I don’t want to get into it ever,” Skipper added, walking off again. Midnight opened her mouth to ask why not, but closed it without a word when Shining glared at her again. Fuming slightly at being unable to learn anything, she followed.

Luna stopped in front of a small tavern, saying that the miasma seemed to be coming from below. “How many Canterlot houses have basements where bad things are happening?” Skipper asked. “I mean, eventually you’d dig through the whole mountain.”

“It means that Number Eight is definitely connected to some kind of conspiracy,” Shining said. “And if they’re trying to release Nightmare Moon’s curses on purpose, then we’re out of our league here.” He looked down at the ground, showing his resignation.

“No good thinking that way, boss,” Skipper consoled him. “We’ll manage this, one way or another. Starting with this incident.” He pointed into the building after Luna, who had already found the door to the basement.

It wasn’t a full-size underground room like the last one had been, being only the size of a regular wine cellar. However, it was clear that something had been going on there, from the large blue crystal and the dead filly at its base. Midnight nearly threw up at the sight. “They killed a child to cast this curse?” she asked, unable to believe it.

“Equestria isn’t a utopia. Far from it,” Shining replied. “That’s why the Royal Guard is here, and it’s why we have to stop this.” He looked at the crystal again. “You said you could handle this?”

Midnight gulped and craned her neck to see the whole crystal. “It’s pretty big... I don’t know if I can do this.” When Luna stepped forward, she immediately added, “But I’m still going to try, Princess. I won’t let Nightmare Moon take you back.” She stepped up to it and removed her horseshoes, placing her bare front hooves on the crystal’s sides.

It immediately started glowing, a pulse of light in sync with the blue gem on her breastplate. She pulled backwards, uselessly, and breathed with the exertion. “I can’t pull it out,” she said finally. “There’s just not enough I can do.”

“Let me help,” Skipper said, a bit too quickly.

“Are you insane, Cloud Skipper?” Luna asked. “There’s no way that you could help! And besides, you shouldn’t be trying to help me!”

“I know. But I can’t just stand here and let you turn back into a monster.” Luna tried to interrupt, but Skipper held up a hoof to stop her. “I’ve done a lot of bad things in my time, but I’ve never just stood by. If I became a bystander now, then I’d never forgive myself for it. Please, Luna, let me at least try to help you and Midnight.” The princess had no response, and Skipper took off his own horseshoes, placing himself on the opposite side and similarly to Midnight.

All of a sudden, the basement seemed to disappear in a flash of light, and the pulse sucked both Skipper and Midnight into it. They tried to scream, but no sounds came out, and they tried to pull back, to no avail. Suddenly, the light disappeared, revealing a meadow of white flowers, identical to those on Midnight’s Cutie Mark.

A pair of Night Ponies, one male and one female, were standing in front of him. They were looking right at him, and from their frowns, he thought it was disapproval. “You came back,” the stallion said. “Why have you come back?”

“I...” Skipper said, trying to figure out what was going on.

“Don’t bother,” the mare interrupted. “You clearly failed the princess. And you failed us. Failed our name. You are an insult to the Thestral!” She turned her back in a huff.

“What are you even saying?! I’m not a—”

“Say no more, child. You disgust me.” The stallion flew off, following his companion, leaving Skipper more confused than ashamed. It was almost like it wasn’t meant for him to see. It could have been Midnight’s nightmare, but if that was the case... He ran off, not thinking enough to know that he couldn’t reach her anyway. He was so desperate not to let her see his own nightmare that he couldn’t think of anything beyond that.

In another place and time, Midnight was staring at a patch of bloody sand, the blood almost entirely her own. Several other ponies were strewn about, dead or dying, and one standing over her. “Looks like you just didn’t have what it took,” he said, his voice sickeningly confident. “Only one can leave... and it’s not gonna be you, runt.”

All of a sudden, she jumped forward, biting at his neck. Her sharpened teeth cut right through her target, and he clutched at the massive hole, his screams muffled by the fact that his vocal chords had been partly severed. He lunged at her again, but she turned and bucked him in the neck, in the same part she’d attacked just before, and a sickening snapping sound signalled his sudden death.

She suddenly noticed the taste of another pony’s blood in her mouth, and quickly spat out the flesh. The cheers of an invisible crowd filled the air, and suddenly stopped with a gasp as the stallion stood back up. “You enjoyed it, didn’t you?” he asked, his voice perfectly clear again.

“What are you...?” Midnight started, unable to think clearly.

“You try to hide it under your attempts to help other ponies, but you enjoy fighting, and you always have. You can’t get rid of that part of yourself. It’ll always be there, eating at your soul...” He laughed, and the laughter faded into that of a mare. Midnight screamed and covered her ears, unable to block out the laugh or the taste of blood.

Both dreams suddenly came to a close, and the two ponies were catapulted back into reality. Luna had grasped the crystal with her magic, unable to watch the others. Shining Armor ran over to the pair, pulling them away and asking if they were fine. Neither of them heard, both still disoriented from the dreamscape.

The crystal suddenly shattered into a thousand pieces, all of them falling back in on the centre like a miniature black hole was sucking them in. They disappeared, creating a single light, and Luna braced herself for its impact into her chest. To her surprise, the impact never came. The sphere of light split itself into two parts, and fired at Skipper and Midnight, the first two ponies who actually touched it. They both fell into a spasm for a few seconds before both falling entirely into the dreamless sleep of unconsciousness.
~
As the ponies in the street began waking up, Cumulus knew that he had succeeded. He’d never intended to let the curse last forever, and releasing Nightmare Moon’s soul from the crystal ensured that she would eventually return. In the meantime, Celestia would probably be sent reeling from the blow at the heart of her own empire, leaving her uncertain and second-guessing her next moves.

He was somewhat surprised that both the two young guards were unconscious as they came out, but he paid it little mind. His plan was still proceeding, and Number Seven could probably have put the sleep to good use.

Patience would win out, and he would be constantly wearing away at Celestia’s. The Guards, thinned out as they were, would never find him, remaining always on a reactionary stance while he took the initiative. As any good general would tell you, and as Celestia had told him, the initiative would always determine victory. And with the guards run ragged, he had it in spades.
~
It was about two days later that Skipper and Midnight finally woke up, both in beds in the palace’s medical wing. The Royal Canterlot Hospital was still trying to rebuild after the riots, and if anypony knew that any guards were there, they’d probably be killed in their sleep. That was Celestia’s reasoning for keeping them both as close as possible.

Shining Armor had tried to keep to his own duties, but had been mostly distracted by the knowledge that his only two guards were practically in comas. He was overjoyed to learn that they were awake after such a short time, but both of them were too busy wondering what they’d seen to celebrate with him.

They were both given one more day in the hospital to ensure that they really were fine before they returned to duty. Neither one spoke to the other, or to anypony else who came to see them, about what they’d seen. It wasn’t until after they were both alone that they finally spoke. “I think I saw your parents,” Skipper said, through the darkness.

“My parents?” Midnight asked. “You mean... the crystal showed you my parents?”

“They were disappointed in me. Or, perhaps, in you. I think what I saw was your nightmare. Are you really so scared of your parents’ disapproval?”

“Did you really kill so many ponies?” Midnight replied, in the same wondering tone. “Your nightmare was this pit full of dead bodies, and a pony told me that I wanted to taste blood...”

Skipper fell silent, unwilling to respond. “I really don’t want to talk about it. I won’t push you, either. Just let it go.” Midnight nodded, unseen, and turned over to go back to sleep. Neither of them were haunted by any further dreams that night, but Skipper still slept fitfully, wondering whether the dreams would return, and whether he could continue to suppress the part of him that Midnight had been shown by Nightmare Moon.

No, that was just stupid. Nightmare Moon was gone, and she wouldn’t have switched a pony’s nightmares around with another’s. It was impossible. So why did it seem like the only logical explanation? The question haunted him long after the nightmare.
> Culture Shock
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

A few days later

Gilda had been surprised at how much Rainbow Dash had changed since they were together. Then again, she’d changed a lot as well. Full military training and service in the Griffhala Reserve had left her tougher than before, and she’d hoped that her oldest friend would have been improving as well, but it seemed that the Pegasus had gone the other way. She was too eager to associate with ponies well beneath her, and pushed Gilda away when she tried to make her side clear. Still, if she didn’t want to be friends anymore, she could live with that.

On a whim, instead of just returning home, she travelled just up the mountain to Canterlot, staying in the larger city for a few days using the money she’d ‘borrowed’ from Ponyville’s mayor. The large city hadn’t been what she’d expected, with most of the buildings destroyed and the ponies not trusting anything bigger and scarier than them. The inn she was staying at almost hadn’t accepted her, until she’d offered to pay almost twice as much as she really should have.

All in all, her little holiday in Equestria was turning out to be a disaster, and she was about to write the entire week off when she met Cloud Skipper.

Skipper had been pointedly avoiding both Midnight Blossom and Shining Armor, avoiding talking to them as much as possible. What Midnight had seen was an old wound that he badly wanted to keep closed, and with Equestria pulling itself out of a downward spiral, he didn’t need to remind anypony that it was never all sunshine and roses to begin with. He took more patrols out in the main city and only came back to the castle well after dark, refusing to debrief even if he brought a scoundrel back to be placed in the dungeons.

It was late afternoon when he caught the griffon stealing from a roadside fruit stall, a lemon that she picked up with her tail while the owner was haggling over a bunch of grapes with a pony with a duck for a Cutie Mark. She thought that nobody had seen, until she heard Skipper call after her, “Hey! Are you gonna pay for that?”

Turning her head, Gilda saw that he was a Pegasus, in full armour and armed. But that worked to her advantage; he’d never catch up to her in all that armour. Looking forward, she only saw about five other ponies, and none of them could fly. “Catch me if you can, sucker!” she shouted as she took off forward, and made it about twenty feet before he’d pinned her wings and tackled her back to the ground.

“Bad move,” Skipper whispered where he assumed her ear was. He grabbed the sides of her head, but she quickly bucked with her back half, spreading her wings to throw him off. She turned around as he landed on three hooves, picking up his spear with his right foreleg. “Don’t make this harder than it has to be,” he said, shouting across the plaza. “You can’t run. Come quietly.”

Gilda just laughed at him, unmoving. “It’s nice to finally see a pony with some guts. But it won’t do you any good.” She drew her claw across the ground, scratching an invisible line into the stone. The meaning was clear enough: cross at your own peril. He simply nodded slowly, considering her.

Skipper lunged with his spear, and the griffon caught it in a claw. He’d been expecting the move, and yanked back, pulling her across the line she’d drawn into range of a punch. He nailed her just below the beak, using his other hoof to spin his spear around and shove her backwards before she could counter with her own punch. “That’s once,” he said, flipping the spear to leave the point towards his opponent once again. He drew a line in the ground with it, mimicking her previous action.

Growling with rage, Gilda stepped back a bit. Charging wouldn’t work, and he was too fast to stop her from running, but maybe a bit of misdirection would help. It wasn’t how she’d learned to fight in the Reserve, but since when had she ever fought that way?

She picked up the lemon in one claw and threw it at the Pegasus. He caught it on the end of his spear, and the juice exploded all around, leaving everyone flinching away from it, including him. She took the opportunity to move in close, scratching at his face with her talons. All she got was the wood of his spear. She was surprised by the move, and his blue eyes met her gold. In that instant, seeing the sheer steel behind them, she knew she’d picked on the wrong pony. He headbutted her to knock her away, striking with the flat of the spear just below the beak in the same place he’d hit with his hoof before. “Twice,” he said, almost smiling. “There’s still time to come quietly.”

The one trick that had saved Skipper in a fight more times than any other was making his opponent angry, because angry opponents made mistakes. The griffon was no exception. The area around the beak was sensitive, and getting hit there twice had clearly made her too angry to think straight. She flew into the air, and he followed, holding his spear with both his forelegs and using his wings to balance. Yelling incoherently, she pushed her wings back and charged forward, talons extended.

What she got for her trouble was a spear in the shoulder, and she tried to pull out of the dive, but Skipper had pinned her wings again, driving her down into the stone from a much greater height. She was still barely conscious as she hit the ground, but Skipper pulling his spear out pushed her over the edge, and her eyes closed slowly. “Three strikes,” he quipped. “You’re out.” He flicked the blood off his weapon, almost laughing to himself as he heard the cheers of a crowd...

But none of the ponies around were moving. They were just staring at the spectacle, unable to comprehend it. If Skipper hadn’t already had a white coat, then they all would have seen him blanch at the realisation that he was having flashbacks to his past. He quickly stammered something out about moving along and pulled out his flare to get Shining Armor’s attention. The fight hadn’t gone on for long, but it was unlikely he’d be able to carry an unconscious griffon back to the palace anyway, and he needed to tell the only other pony he knew knew about Chikatetsu that it was coming back to him.
~
Cumulus turned away from the window, having seen all he needed to of the fight below. Cloud Skipper’s sudden panic was an interesting development, one he’d want to keep tabs on if he could. As for the griffon, she seemed slightly familiar... Something about the way she carried herself, and how she so blatantly disregarded the ponies around her, triggered something in his mind.

Of course. Junior Speedster Flight Camp. She’d come over for an exchange, and almost instantly befriended his daughter. From what he’d heard from the filly, she was the only pony she had any respect for. In that case, what was she doing back in Equestria?

Oh, his dear daughter... He’d have to make plans to see her soon. After leaving the Day Guard, he had so much more free time. And there was almost no way the day could go badly. If she didn’t remember him, they could spend time getting to know each other again. And if she still did, then that made things so much easier. He’d be able to get right back into their lessons... her preparation for the new world.

Before long, he’d even come up with a way to work it into his campaign against the Royal Guard. This would both teach her daughter a valuable lesson, with the help of someone who agreed, and make the guards continue to second-guess themselves. He even remembered seeing her in the news after the Nightmare Moon fiasco. Ponyville was only at the base of the mountain; not a long flight at all. He smiled to himself as he left the city, anticipating the events of the day to come.
~
Gilda was vaguely aware of two males speaking nearby as she woke up. She was still feeling the hits she’d taken from that guard, and she couldn’t see or hear anything clearly for about a minute after she could feel the rest of her body. Her shoulder had stopped bleeding, though it still hurt a lot. Focusing on that pain was what allowed her to fully return to consciousness. It was a trick she’d used before in the Reserve, when she had to wake up from passing out. She’d never admit to anyone that the Reserve had knocked her out before, though.

“For the last time, I’m not going to tell Midnight,” the guard from before said to the other stallion. “You saw how she reacted to the first time she killed another pony. I don’t think she could take hearing about my sordid past.”

“You can’t shelter her forever!” the other replied, raising his voice. “Besides, she deserves to know the truth, and if what you’ve told me is true, then she’s seen the important part anyway!”

Gilda yawned loudly, and any further argument was cut off by the guard’s statement of “Oh, look who’s awake.” She shook out her head, taking in the new stallion, a Unicorn wearing a red jacket. Since she was seeing him through the bars of the cell, she assumed he had to be another Guard, possibly a superior if he was wearing something decorative rather than armour.

That was something she’d never understand about ponies. Why did they have their commanders not do any actual work with the troops? Why did they always have to remain separate, until the leaders lost touch with their underlings and grew fat and lazy? Maybe it was different with magic, but the question remained of why they kept them so separate.

Then again, this one seemed to be directly interested in the lower soldier. There were exceptions to every rule, and she knew that all too well by then. Come to think of it, she hadn’t seen any other guards around until the Pegasus surprised her, and this was supposed to be the capital. She’d have to keep an eye on that. Maybe they were the only two guards left, and so they had to stay together despite a senior/junior relationship...

“Anyone in there?” the Pegasus asked, derailing her train of thought. “You seemed pretty talkative just a few hours ago.” She didn’t respond, not wanting to talk to him. She was still reeling from the beating he’d given her, and her pride hadn’t recovered yet. “Suit yourself. How long do I have to watch her for?” he asked the Unicorn.

“Should only be about half an hour until moonrise,” the Unicorn replied, and Gilda noticed for the first time the waning shadows from the cell’s window, surprised at how long she’d been out. “Luna’s not holding court tonight, so Midnight will probably take over for you, and I can handle any incidents. You deserve the rest, anyway, or what little you can get.” The Pegasus scowled at the statement, but didn’t respond beyond a noncommittal grunt, sitting down nearby as his senior disappeared in a flash of light.

He didn’t look at her, sitting so he was facing to her right and never turning his head to either side. It wasn’t long before he spoke, though, his words partly muted by the direction he was speaking in. “You’re self-taught, aren’t you?” he asked. “I’ve never encountered that style before. And from how you were throwing your weight around without much control, you probably never had a teacher.”

“You had a weapon,” Gilda replied, her anger clearly rising. “It wasn’t much of a fair fight.”

“And I gave you a chance to back off. You decided to fight anyway, even though it wasn’t fair,” he countered, still not looking at her. She backed off slightly, forced to concede the point. “Besides, if it was a fair fight, I’d still have beaten you.”

She had to restrain herself from immediately shouting back at him. “How do you figure?” she asked. “I’m stronger than you.”

“I’ll admit that. I remember how close you came to getting my spear off me. But strength alone won’t win you every battle. That’s the other reason I could tell you were self-taught: you only have one strategy, and that’s to rush in blindly, hoping your brute strength will carry you through. And maybe it works against most ponies, but that wasn’t the first time I’ve been in a scrap with a griffon. You were predictable, and that’s the last thing you want to be.”

When she didn’t reply, he continued, “You can’t just throw your weight forward all the time. You can’t do any one thing all the time at all. Most of all, don’t double down on something you know doesn’t work. If charging in gets you pushed back, find another approach. Sweeping attacks, dive bombing, feints, counters... You can’t just trust that you’ll get the initiative. You need to be able to take it by force.”

“Where did you learn all that?” Gilda finally asked. “From what I’ve seen of you ponies’ military, you don’t really train in fighting, and certainly not at that level.”

“I wasn’t trained by the military. I spent several years doing nothing but fight, and I’ve gotten better at it than anypony has a right to be.”

“I thought you said that self-taught fighters weren’t that good?”

“No, I never said that. Nor did I say I was self-taught.”

“What do you mean?”

He closed his eyes for a few seconds before turning to make eye contact, showing an intensity that she hadn’t expected. “My past is my affair, and I don’t appreciate some common criminal trying to delve into it. We’re done here.” He stood up and started walking away, nodding to another pony who was just walking into her field of view.

Gilda failed to contain her surprise when she saw who the new pony was. She’d heard rumours about ponies that had wings like a bat, eyes like a dragon and teeth like a predator, that ate meat, sometimes pony meat, and lived entirely under the moonlight, shunning the sun. The first time she’d heard it, she told Rainbow Dash that it was a story meant to make her behave. Seeing one in the flesh surprised her a lot, and the guard noticed her expression.

“You’re not the first to give me that look,” she said wistfully. “Most ponies didn’t even know that my kind existed for the longest time. And everypony still assumes that I’ll eat them if they step out of line.” She laughed to herself. “Makes it a lot easier.”

“So you don’t actually eat other ponies?”

“Not even suck their blood. Though, these teeth aren’t just for show.” She smiled broadly, showing off her pointed fangs. “They’re for eating griffons.” With a noise like a hissing cat, she dived towards the bars of the cell, and Gilda stepped back a bit, only to find her guard laughing on the floor. “I can’t believe you actually fell for that!” She banged the floor a few times with her foreleg before finally calming down and standing back up.

Gilda laughed as well, trying to hide her own actual surprise and fear. “Mostly small things then, like rabbits or whatnot?”

“Pretty much,” the guard replied. “But I also eat fruit, grain and sometimes hay like any other pony. Most ponies don’t see that, though.” She stretched out her wings, silently making her point. “So don’t worry about being rude. I get it from so many ponies that I’m not surprised a griffon does too.” She paused for a while, then added, “What I don’t get is why you act like that to everypony else.”

That threw Gilda off-balance. She stuttered for a response, but didn’t get time to form it before the guard spoke again. “Would you act like that in your own country? Do you treat other griffons the way that you treat ponies? You’re a petty thief, a belligerent bully, and you act like everypony is beneath you.” Gilda seemed surprised. All she’d done was steal a lemon, and somewhat try to defend herself when she was attacked. “You made a few waves in Ponyville. I’m almost glad that Skipper found you before I did. You’re better off in here,” she growled.

“Send me back to Griffhala, then,” Gilda retorted. “They’d probably treat me better than you.”

“Really? Why did you leave in the first place? Was it because they didn’t want you around, either?”

“You have no right to be asking me about...”

“There had to have been some reason. Why don’t you just tell me before I...”

“Keep out of my life, spawn of Tartarus!”

Midnight would have retorted, but suddenly stopped in shock, and not at the statement. She’d heard it a thousand times before, like she’d said. What stopped her was a feeling of malice coming from the direction of the guard barracks. She couldn’t explain it, but she had to go right then, and left Gilda wondering what she’d said to break her so badly.

“I thought that would never come into effect,” a stallion’s voice proclaimed from the shadows. Gilda was immediately unnerved, as though he had heard of emotions second-hand and never quite learned how to display them himself. “And here I thought that the zebras never managed anything useful. Wouldn’t you also just love the ability to make others angry as a distraction, Gilda?” He laughed mirthlessly at her surprised gasp. “I was an instructor at Junior Speedster Flight Camp, all those years ago. I believe you and my daughter got along quite well...”

The grey-on-grey Pegasus stepped into the moonlight, pushing in another pony with his leg. Again, Gilda gasped in surprise to see who it was. “You met again just recently, didn’t you?” he asked, in the same fake-emotional tone. “But there were too many other ponies in the way for you to really get along. Don’t worry. I’ve arranged this meeting so that you two can catch up as friends. My daughter needs to have some contact with a stronger being, after all. Unfortunately, she didn’t quite see it that way. She needed some... persuasion in order to come here.” He laughed again before unlocking the cell.

Gilda immediately charged at him, completely overcome with anger, but he simply caught her charge on his shoulder, throwing her against the far wall. The impact left her dazed and unable to see clearly as he dragged her back into the cell by her tail, throwing the other Pegasus in as well. “I see that Cloud Skipper was right,” he mused. “You are too reliant on simply exerting your strength. Then again, that’s better than never exerting at all. Perhaps you could help teach my daughter about that? I’ve already laid the groundwork; I leave it to you to build upon her lessons.” Chuckling to himself, as if at some private joke, he walked off into the shadows again, leaving the griffon alone in the cell with the battered remains of another pony.

The bruises and blood covering her body, some still coming from open wounds, made it nearly impossible to tell what colour her mane and coat actually were. Gilda thought that it couldn’t possibly be true, and wanted to see anything that proved it was just someone else, but as she opened her eyes, the truth struck like a freight train. The battered pony in her cell was, until recently, her best and only friend, Rainbow Dash.

Gilda wasn’t thinking about the trouble they’d had in Ponyville, though. Both of them had changed, and that meant they didn’t fit as friends anymore. But there was something more important on her mind. Even if they weren’t currently friends, and Gilda didn’t want to get involved with her other pony friends, she still felt a surge of anger that wasn’t from some invisible powder. The look in Dash’s eyes, even though they were still mostly closed, was something she never thought the Pegasus was capable of showing: genuine fear.

The sight of her former friend afraid of her own father triggered something in Gilda’s mind. The reason she’d left Griffhala rushed into her mind unbidden, and the memory she’d been hoping the guard wouldn’t dig up forced its way to the surface.
~
A year ago

Gilda knew that her father was drunk before she even entered the tavern where they lived. The smell of cheap alcohol was overwhelming, and since it was well past closing time, it was clear that he’d been hitting the bottle himself. She sighed to herself, knowing that the night was unlikely to have much sleep, if any at all.

She pushed the door open quietly, looking around for her father. He was snoring in a chair, slumped with a bottle of Zebrican whiskey. The bottle was nearly empty, and he’d probably drunk it all himself. That worked out well enough for her; if he was already drunk to the point of sleep, then she wouldn’t draw his attention on her way back to her bedroom.

A creaking sound made her stop suddenly, but it was just the chair. She knew where the creaky floorboards were, of course. Since her father couldn’t be bothered paying to fix them, she had to know where they were to keep customers from tripping on them, or herself from waking her father out of his drunken stupors. Sighing with relief, she kept moving towards the stairs. The chair creaked again, but she ignored it until she heard the crash and shout.

She gulped to herself, knowing that her father had definitely been woken up by falling off the chair, and started running for the stairs. Unfortunately, she wasn’t quite fast enough. Even drunk and just barely awake, her father was surprisingly fast, able to tackle her to the ground. “What’re you doin’ so late home?” he asked, the smell of alcohol overpowering Gilda and making her want to throw up. “You brought money, right?”

She knew it was pointless to argue that he brought in money with the tavern, but wasted it on drinking his own alcohol. He was both drunk and angry, and that guaranteed that he would listen even less than he normally did. He suddenly punched her while she was trying to get away. “Don’t you go turning your back on me like your whore of a mother!” he shouted.

The smell of alcohol and her father’s continued abuse had finally snapped something in Gilda’s head, and she reached for a bottle behind the counter she was pressed against, smashing it over her father’s beak. He screamed with an incoherent rage and resumed pounding against her, but she hardly felt the blows, having fallen under the red haze herself. As he reached back for another punch to her chest, she lunged forward with the broken bottle, shoving it into his left eye. He screamed loudly, and his blood sprayed over her as he fell to the ground. With a loud grunt, she shoved the bottle in even further, forcing it into his brain and killing him.

With the fight suddenly over, the adrenaline drained away and Gilda realised what she’d done. She’d never killed another griffon before, and even if it was her father, she still felt sick about it. She threw up over his corpse, and out of the corner of her eye, noticed a neighbour coming in, concerned. It was only a matter of time before she was arrested and executed for murder, even if she thought she was justified in killing her abusive father.

Unless she left, and never came back. She hadn’t gone on an exchange to the Junior Speedsters Flight Camp for no reason, after all. There was no way they’d catch her, and once she left Griffhala, she was outside their jurisdiction.

Where would she go? Again, the answer came from her past. Equestria had always seemed like a utopia of peace and paradise compared to her home, and surely she could find some way of living there, even if they didn’t want a griffon around. With her mind made up, she pulled herself together as best she could and flew out the open door, never once looking back.
~
Her time in Equestria had made it seem like the ponies were weakened by their peaceful lifestyle, and she’d taken advantage of it. But the day had forced two revelations on her. The first was that there were strong ponies, even if Rainbow Dash had somewhat contradicted that thought. The other was that they had come from a culture that, below the surface, wasn’t much better than the one she’d come from.

Seeing a pony that was like her father snapped something in Gilda’s brain. In a way, he was possibly worse than her father, because Gilbert was always completely drunk when he abused her, and could hardly be said to be consciously knowing. The grey Pegasus knew exactly what he was doing. He was perfectly sober and sane, and that just made his actions even more despicable.

Rainbow Dash was looking at her fearfully, wondering if she was going to actually beat her as her father had. But even if she didn’t approve of the company that her friend kept, Gilda could never, in good conscience, allow the stallion to go unpunished. Abusive parents were the worst kinds of beings, whether they were equine, leonine or what have you.

Gilda walked up to her friend, and the Pegasus shied away, fearing retribution. Instead, what she got was a shoulder to cry into and a comforting wing around her back. That was all she could offer for the time being, but when the guards came back, she’d explain everything.

She didn’t care about their mission of keeping order, or that she was technically a criminal herself. She didn’t know if she could keep herself on the straight and narrow, having been a thief for so long, or if Rainbow Dash would forgive her for what she had done, both to her friends and to herself. The only thing she knew was that whoever thought that they could get away with beating their child and being proud of the fact was going to pay with their blood, if it was the last thing she ever did.
> NEXT TIME...
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It seems that crystal wasn't as harmless as we thought. I've gained some kind of connection to Skipper, and I can feel his nightmares. What he dreams of, I can only imagine, but even he can't keep up his strong face forever under a strain like the Queen of Nightmares can place on a pony, if even half of the Thestral legends are true.

Meanwhile, it seems that even Celestia doesn't know everything. If Cumulus is able to sneak into the palace unseen, then none of us are safe from his machinations, even here. Why is all of this happening? The truth is out there somewhere. But will we be able to pay the price it asks of us?
> The Secrets We Keep
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Three years ago

The roar of the crowd was deafening. That was only to be expected; it was the largest crowd that Chikatetsu had seen in all the time it had run for. An unforgettable clash between two champions: Hakumen and Mitsuyoshi. All the ponies who fought at Chikatetsu had been given arena names, to detach them from themselves. Cloud Skipper, he thought to himself, a small act of defiance against those who had forced him to become a warrior. My name is Cloud Skipper.

Are you certain of that? a voice asked, feminine and sultry. Skipper turned, seeing nopony else around. The mare, if she truly was, only laughed. It is not that simple, child. Tell me, what do you truly fear?

Skipper ignored her, walking out towards the blinding light of the arena as the large gate rumbled open. Immediately, he could tell that something was wrong. The sand below his hooves was gone, replaced by a hard stone, and the cheers of the crowd were much louder than before. As his eyes adjusted to the light, he saw that he was standing in the middle of the crowd, unarmed and unarmoured. Surprised, he started looking around, and heard the laugh again.

This place... It holds the truth about you. But you don’t want that truth to be known, do you? Skipper started to force his way through the crowd, trying to get a look down through the glass ceiling he knew covered the arena. The ponies cheered loudly, with a climax they knew could only mean that somepony had died. Fearing the worst, he shoved an Earth Pony out of his way and looked down through the glass.

He couldn’t make out who the corpse was, but pulling her hoof out of his throat was Midnight Blossom. The child of mine... So young and innocent, as you once were. But will she stay that way forever? Midnight looked up through the glass, and made eye contact with Skipper. She took off, charging towards the glass. He was rooted in place as he watched her break through it like it wasn’t there.

And your own code of honour, to protect her from the worst of you... can that last forever?

The claw plunged straight through his throat—
~
Skipper screamed loudly as he woke up, flailing around as if it would push the nightmare away from him. He reached for his spearhead and extended the polearm to its full length, stabbing at an enemy that wasn’t there. It took him a few seconds to realise and calm down, though he was still sweating and hyperventilating. Midnight burst into the room not long after, and he pointed his spear at her for a second before dropping it in relief.

Before she could ask what he was doing or explain her own presence, he charged at her and pulled her into a hug, mumbling incoherently about her still all being there. She tried to pull out of the hug to no avail, and resigned herself to trying to calm him down as quickly as possible. “It was just a nightmare,” she said, “and it’s over now. Everything’s going to be fine.”

At length, Skipper finally calmed down and noticed that she shouldn’t have been there. “Why did you come here?” he asked. “Aren’t you supposed to still be on duty?”

“I felt... something from you,” Midnight replied at length. “It must have been that nightmare. But... why?” Both of them looked up at once, suddenly realising: Nightmare Moon’s crystal. Since both of them pulled it out, they were both affected by Nightmare Moon’s magic. “We have to tell Luna,” she said quickly.

“And what are you telling Luna before you tell me why you left your post, Midnight Blossom?” Shining Armor asked from the doorway. He looked at how they were embraced and added, “Did you get lonely in there?”

“Laugh it up while you can, boss,” Skipper replied, “because I think I’ve figured out what that crystal did to us. That’s why we need to talk to Luna.”

“What about the prisoner? Somepony needs to keep an eye on her.” He looked out the window and saw that the stars were still shining against the darkness. “Go back to the cells until further notice. We’ll report to the Princess.” Midnight didn’t take it well, but after a hard look from Skipper, sighed and started cantering back to the dungeons.

The walk to the throne room passed almost entirely in silence. Shining attempted a few times to get details on what had happened, but Skipper stayed tight-lipped. Every question was deflected by absolute silence, and after the third time, the Unicorn gave up, simply leading the way.

Nopony was waiting outside the throne room when they arrived, nor was anypony actually inside petitioning Princess Luna for anything. That was to be expected; most of the nobles didn’t even know that the Night Court had been reinstated. Luna didn’t mind, since she was still recovering and trying to learn about the current political and cultural climate. She almost dreaded seeing the two ponies walking inside until she realised that they were guards.

“Ah, Shining Armor, it pleases us to see you,” she intoned, her archaic language forcing Skipper to hold himself steady in order not to cringe. “What news do you have for us?”

“It’s not what I have, but what Cloud Skipper has,” the Unicorn replied. “And you may no longer be pleased once you hear it.” Skipper detailed the nightmare that had woken him up, and the voice that had told him about what had happened. Luna frowned openly, and the frown only deepened when Shining added his own analysis: “We can only assume that whoever used that crystal knew exactly what it was for and who created it, and that they intend to bring back Nightmare Moon.”

“But who would want to do such a thing?” Luna asked. “Most ponies know not of the Nightmare in the first place, let alone what she did so many years ago. And for somepony to want to recreate that terror... I know not of a single pony, now or then, who would wish for such a thing.”

“I think our guests might know something we don’t about that,” Midnight suddenly called out from the entrance, Gilda standing behind her and holding Rainbow Dash steady. Skipper immediately jumped into a battle-ready position, even without any of his equipment, but a raised hoof from Midnight and a look at Gilda’s expression told him to stand down even before Shining said it outright. “This is Gilda. She had a few visitors while I was away, and one of them left the Pegasus behind in the cell.”

“He was grey, two different kinds of grey, with a big white cloud on his butt,” Gilda supplied. Luna flinched at the informal language, but Shining and Skipper were surprised at something else. “Do you know this guy?” the griffon asked.

“Know him?” Skipper echoed. “I used to work for the crazy son of a...” The expletive that followed wasn’t in Common Equis, and only Luna understood its true meaning. It was probably better off that way, as the others all caught the gist of it well enough. “Cumulus, the only other pony who was as comfortable around the subject of death as I am. He’s always had a grudge of some kind against the boss,” he pointed a wing at Shining Armor, “but it’s never been bad enough to summon an ancient evil unto the world. There’s gotta be something else that drives him.”

“Strong...” Rainbow Dash breathed, and everyone turned to listen. “He wants... me to be... strong... everypony... strong...” She collapsed with the exertion, and Gilda pushed the ponies away to give her friend some space to breathe.

“What did she mean by that?” Skipper asked, tilting his head. “And how does she know so much about Cumulus? There’s hardly anypony outside the Day Guard who knows he exists.”

“She was his father,” Gilda replied, almost spitting the word ‘father’. “And he was responsible for how she looks right now. As for ‘strength’, that’s something we’d better leave Dash to say, but only once she’s ready to. Right now, she needs attention, and I... I want to join the Guard.”

Everypony there was surprised and made no attempt to hide it. Shining was the first to recover. “The Guard is an organisation to keep criminals out of Equestria. You’re a criminal. There’s no way that you’d ever qualify.”

“Maybe ‘join’ was the wrong word,” Gilda admitted. “And believe me, I know I’ve done some bad things, and I don’t really care about that. But I want to wring that Cumulus guy’s neck, and I’m willing to do whatever it takes, even staying on the straight and narrow. I have my reasons, as I’m sure you do. But you don’t need to know, only that I’m the enemy of your enemy.”

“You’d never pass basic training, either,” Skipper added. “I beat you without even trying. You’d never stand up to the commander, and you definitely don’t look like the disciplined type.”

“Even so, you can probably use all the help you can get. Only having one guard on me at a time means you’re short on numbers,” Gilda replied. Skipper just looked at her like he’d been placed in the path of a raging train. “I learned a lot in the Griffhala Reserve. And yes, that includes discipline. I can handle myself in an outfit like this.”

Skipper, Shining and Midnight pulled together for a moment, arguing about whether it was worth allowing a griffon, a criminal, to work with them. “She’ll listen to me, don’t worry,” Skipper finally said, interrupting the others. “Griffons respect ability; doers, not speakers. And she knows that I can lay her out if she has any relapses. I can keep her in line, and I reckon that we definitely need more units active than we have. If I’m wrong, you can court-martial me when we get there.”

Shining considered it for a moment, then finally said, “I’m holding you to that.”

“Hey, griffon,” Midnight called out, and Gilda flinched at the use of her race as a label. “Looks like you’re in. The boys want you around, so you can stay for a bit.”

“I have a name, you know. It’s Gilda.”

“And why should I care? You’re going to be working under Skipper, mostly.”

“Don’t start,” Skipper sighed, putting a hoof on his forehead. “For now, Gilda, I’ll help your friend get to the infirmary. There should be somepony awake at this hour, anyway.”

“Allow me,” Midnight interjected. “I’m the one who left the cell, and let this happen. Besides, it’s still night-time, and that means the Night Guard are in charge.”

“And when did you learn such a sense of duty?”

“When I saw a young pony get hurt because of my negligence.” Midnight forced herself into Skipper’s face, gold only an inch from blue. “Maybe I can’t kill as easily as you can, and maybe I’m still new at this Night Guard thing, but that doesn’t mean you can just write me off like that!”

“Simmer down,” Shining cut in, pushing them apart with his magic. “You can both go. I’ll keep watch over Luna’s court.” The argument settled, the two guards filed out of the room, Skipper in front of Gilda and Rainbow Dash, and Midnight behind. Skipper was more easily able to deal with a back attack if it came to that, he reasoned.

Luna called Shining over as the doors closed. “I recognise the mare that was menaced by the commander of your Day Guard,” she said, glossing over the fact that he’d long since quit. “She was one of the six bearers of the Elements of Harmony, one of the six that exorcised Nightmare Moon. Rainbow Dash, the Element of Loyalty. I do not like the omen... If she can be caught by this monster of a pony, then the others aren’t safe either. And with his plans for Nightmare Moon...”

Shining thought for a while. “The outlying pockets of the Day Guard are still in their cities, though they’ve refused my requests to fall back. The Ponyville group could help, but Cumulus probably knows them all too well. But it’s something, and as short as we are, we have to do whatever we can to keep Equestria safe.”

“But will it be enough?” Luna asked.

“Who can say?” a voice said from behind the throne, laughing slightly. Luna flinched at the invasion of her privacy, and Shining Armor raised defensively, knowing that the voice belonged to the Unicorn known only as Number Eight. “You know, you really do need to hire more guards. Escaping your cell was a pitifully easy task.”

“What do you want?” Shining asked as the baby-blue Unicorn stepped around the throne. “And why are you still here?”

“I came to give you a message, from my benefactor. He’s not pleased with you, but he finds you amusing enough to keep around, for now. But this is not the end of the fun and games he has planned for you. All of you, even our absent friends.”

“What do you mean?” Luna asked. “And who is your ‘benefactor’?”

He raised a hoof and waggled it in the air, smirking. “Not so easy, Princess of the Night. But, if you must know something, then I have a riddle for you. Solving it will make your lives much easier, but I doubt even Celestia herself knows the truth...” He cleared his throat as the other two ponies silently readied a spell in case of an attack.

“Nine forged iron underground, five escaped when they were found, soon the world will know the sound of four’s lament and one black hound.” He laughed loudly and suddenly teleported away as Shining tried to cast a spell. The laughter echoed around the wide hall, but they could only hear the riddle, repeating itself over and over.

“Forged iron underground...” he said, trying to figure out its meaning. “Five escaped... four’s lament...” He suddenly looked up, having realised exactly what happened. “And he knew Cloud Skipper from before they met. Chikatetsu. How could I have forgotten about that?”

Luna turned her head sideways. “I’m sorry, but why did you say ‘Chikatetsu’?”

“It’s a long story, and one I’m not very proud of,” the Unicorn admitted. “But you ought to know what happened. I know that Cloud Skipper will probably hate me for telling the story behind his back, but you have a right to know. I’ll bring him around, don’t worry.”
~
As Shining Armor told his tale to Luna, Gilda was waiting in the infirmary, waiting to hear just how badly Rainbow Dash had been hurt. She was starting to realise just how much she appreciated the company of her friend, even after the betrayal that she’d gone through. Was it really? Or was she as bad as Midnight had made out to her? Even if those words were spoken in an unnatural anger, she was still thinking about them, their truth echoing in her mind.

Staying in Canterlot would probably help. She’d be able to stay close enough to keep an eye on her friend, but far enough away that none of the others would be able to continue chasing her down. And Skipper definitely understood her; the way he carried himself, both in a fight and out of it, was a lot like the best of the griffons.

She wondered for a moment if he understood what it was like to kill someone. He’d spared her in the fight, but considering how he treated his boss, it probably wasn’t out of a sense of justice. He could easily have killed her, but avoided it. Had he blooded his hooves before, like she had her talons? If he’d fought enough to be able to read her and try to advise her, then it seemed likely that at least one of those fights was to the death, but she couldn’t be sure.

As for Midnight, they were still on strained terms even after whatever Cumulus had done had probably long since worn off. She clearly lacked her colleague’s experience, and seemed completely immature to boot. She was surprised to see anyone like her as full-fledged military personnel, but stranger things had happened at sea, she supposed. Besides, Midnight was nocturnal and she wasn’t, so their paths wouldn’t be likely to cross more than she could bear.

A nurse stepped out of the closed-off room, and Gilda didn’t have to fake the worry in her expression, or the relief as the nurse nodded. “She’ll be fine, with a few days’ rest. A few lacerations, but mostly still intact, and no major injuries.” Gilda stepped down and hugged her, only pulling away when she noticed how uncomfortable the pony was around a griffon.

Seeing her gleeful expression, Skipper and Midnight decided that enough was enough, and that they should probably get back to what they were meant to be doing. The night was nearly over, and Midnight would be going to sleep pretty soon. Skipper, on the other hand, had to be awake despite lacking a lot of sleep.

“I’ll be fine,” he’d told Midnight. “I have the all-powerful, awe-inspiring magic of caffeine on my side. Or I will with a quick stop at Donut Joe’s before sunrise. Seriously, I don’t think that guy ever sleeps, and coffee might as well be his other Cutie Mark for how well he...” He cut himself off, noticing how much he’d said at once. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have rambled.”

“Hearing you say more than three words at a time is a rare treat,” Midnight replied honestly. “I like hearing your voice. I can’t really say why, but there’s something about your voice that I just want to hear more of it.”

Skipper chuckled slightly. “I don’t know. It’s just that I don’t look out!” He saw a blue burst of magic coming from the top of a tree and dived out of the way. Midnight wasn’t so lucky, taking the hit head-on. Landing on all four hooves, Skipper immediately charged at the branch where the shot had come from, passing through a patch of burning-hot air and a bright flash that indicated a teleport. Instinctively, he threw himself further into the air, knowing that the teleport could have been anywhere except above him.

Midnight saw the blue flash directly, and another like it out of the corner of her eye. Having barely felt the magic bolt, she charged at the second flash, colliding with a pony-shaped body until he suddenly teleported again, leaving her legs wrapped around nothing as she crashed into the ground. Skipper landed next to her as she flipped her claws out. “How the hell are you still standing up?” he asked. “That bolt could’ve knocked out a manticore!”

“Nightmare Moon gave the Thestrals an immunity to Unicorn magic and Ican’ttalkrightnow!” She charged off into the darkness, leaving Skipper wondering what she meant. However, as long as she was still busy fighting that Unicorn, he had to help her out. He didn’t have a weapon, but the Pegasi of the Day Guard were taught to build a static charge in even the calmest cloud, and if he could find one, then he wouldn’t have to leave Midnight fighting alone.

Midnight didn’t know about her companion’s technique for countering teleportation, so she decided to go for another tactic. As Number Eight disappeared, she flew into the air, looking down at the ground to where he’d gone. As silently as the night wind, she dived on his location, bringing him down with her claws in his side. He barely seemed to notice the pain at all, besides falling down and not teleporting away that time.

“Can you do it, child?” he hissed, and Midnight backed off slightly. “Can you kill me? Even knowing what I’ve done, and what I will do, can you kill me?” She hesitated for a few seconds. He’d tried to kill her and Skipper, true, but she still remembered the last pony she killed, and didn’t want to see the life drain out of another pony’s eyes... She pulled back, getting her claws free, but didn’t bring them down on her target. Number Eight simply laughed as he stood up, teleporting away.

Skipper arrived too late to see the flash, only knowing that he’d teleported from Midnight’s description. “Probably another secret passage,” he fumed. “You can’t teleport in or out of the castle directly, so he went into a passage and left that way. And since we don’t know where they are, we’ll never find him. Damn it all!” He fired off the charged-up lightning bolt at nothing in particular, trying to vent some of his frustration with it.

Midnight put a hoof over his shoulder, flying up to the cloud as well. “It’s my fault. I should have killed him while I could.” She looked down slightly, ashamed of her weakness.

Seeing her shame had a calming effect on Skipper, dispelling the red haze that had come down over him. “Don’t feel bad,” he said quietly. “Not everypony’s cut out to be a killer, no matter how justified you are. You can’t suspend your morality, and that’s not a bad thing.” He sighed to get rid of the last of his anger and helped her back down to the ground. “We’d better report back to Shining Armor. Coffee can wait; the adrenaline’s enough.”

He was still in the throne room, telling Luna about something or other. “I don’t know what that means. All I know is that if Chikatetsu is coming back, then we’re all in for a hell of a time.”

Skipper flew up to his captain and said, “Boss, are you telling Luna about Chikatetsu?” Shining nodded, and the Pegasus groaned. “Damn it, I thought that we were never going to talk about it. What brought this on?”

“Number Eight said something about it, and Luna wanted to know,” Shining replied. “Don’t worry; I’ve only told her what I know. I can’t imagine your side of the story.”

Skipper sighed. “Alright. How much have you already told her?”
> Pits of Tartartus
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Two years ago

I hate to tell you, Princess, but Equestria isn’t the utopia you left. Things have changed, but there’s still bad ponies out there, and bad things happen to those who don’t deserve it. You never really see it when you go to places and stay in the royal suites, but outside, it’s like another world entirely sometimes. And there’s nothing that exemplifies this better than Chikatetsu.

What? Yes, Neighpon is still around. Technically, they’re part of Equestria now, but they still have a degree of autonomy, and the Emperor rules over a few cities, not just Heikyo. And they still revere you more than most. I’m surprised you became Nightmare Moon, even knowing that they were enjoying your nights... You don’t want to talk about that? Okay.

Celestia was there on a diplomatic mission. Apparently the Crown Prince had gone missing, and he wanted help from the Day Guard to find him. Anyone who could capture even a mortal Alicorn is definitely not someone you want to mess with, he reasoned, and Celestia agreed. I was part of the contingent sent to deal with it, but Cumulus didn’t want me on the main teams. Even then, he didn’t like me, and the current Captain, West Wind, agreed. At the time, I thought it was because I was a Unicorn in a regiment made up mostly of Pegasi, but that wasn’t it at all. I’m getting to it, don’t worry.

I spent the first day getting to know one of the Emperor’s advisors. Kobun seemed eager enough to show me around, but he was always deflecting my questions about what there was for outsiders to see in the city. Most of what he pointed out, he said it was forbidden to outsiders, and there was one part of the city he said even the locals were afraid to go into.

I knew he was hiding something from the get-go, but I didn’t know how to make him spit it out. It wasn’t until I saw the poster that I finally got him to crack.

The poster was one of the few I could read, written mostly in the two basic scripts. ‘Laguna vs. Mitsurugi, only at Chikatetsu,’ it said. “What’s that poster for?” I asked. “And if you say that I’m not allowed, then I’m going to tell the Emperor about your lack of hospitality. I thought that was something you were known across Equestria for?” Yes, it was mean, but I was running out of options and patience by that point. I didn’t have to go any further and possibly disgrace myself, thankfully, because that was when Kobun finally relented.

He said he’d actually wanted to show it to me, but didn’t know if he could get away with it. He led me through the alleys, to a set of hidden stairs leading underground. Two Earth Ponies were standing guard in a corridor, but they stepped aside for Kobun when he said something. I can only assume that he was saying I was his guest, or something like that.

No, I don’t remember exactly what he said, and I never bothered learning Neighponese any further, so... Look, let’s just get on with it.

There were about a hundred, hundred and fifty ponies all crowded around a glass-covered hole in the floor, about a thirty-foot radius or so. When we managed to get to the front, it was nearly over, but I could see what the spectacle was easily enough. Two Earth Ponies, both armed with the curved swords they favour, were fighting one another.

Both of them had clearly never used a sword before, and their injuries made it even harder. “They’re brought in off the streets,” Kobun explained. “Forced to fight to the death for the amusement of the crowd. The Bakufu,” that’s their government just below the Emperor, “ignore them because it gets rid of who they see as undesirables. But sometimes they kidnap children and force them to fight, and not just the homeless ones.”

“That’s terrible!” I exclaimed. “If you knew about this the whole time, why haven’t you told anyone?”

“There are Bakufu members in on running Chikatetsu,” he explained. “If I was to raise an objection, they’d shut it down and have me dishonoured.” That’s a serious thing in Neighpon. They take their honour very seriously, and—wait, you knew that. Anyway, I understood at least that much, and so I didn’t say anything else as I watched the fight end.

The red pony fell to the ground, overcome by his wounds and clearly not getting back up. At some prompt I couldn’t see or hear, the white chopped his opponent’s head off, and then threw up on the body. He had to be dragged out of sight by a pair of uniformed guards, while another pair dragged the body off.

That was when I decided that even if Kobun couldn’t do anything, perhaps as an outsider, the Bakufu wouldn’t be able to touch me. Discreetly, I placed a tracking spell I’d helped my sister study on one of the ones dragging off the body. If I knew where the bodies were taken, I’d have a starting place for my investigations.

Yeah, it’s a high-level spell, especially to hide like that, but my little sister’s something of a prodigy. She’s Celestia’s personal student, actually. No, she’s not in Canterlot right now, and I haven’t heard from her in a while... Not since she moved to Ponyville.

I’m getting off track. The spell took me down to the riverside, where there seemed to be a whole cart full of rotting bodies. They didn’t float it into the river right away, though; clearly they were waiting for something, like a few more corpses. When they’d walked away, they didn’t know I was there at all, and that allowed me to go down and investigate. Maybe there’d be someone in the pile that was important enough to justify the Emperor overruling the Bakufu regarding Chikatetsu, I thought.

Well, I got that in spades, sure enough. One of the bodies, near the bottom... It was slightly deformed from the time it had spent, but it was unquestionably Crown Prince Keiji. I mean, how many Alicorns are there around?

There’s actually another one besides you and Celestia living in Canterlot? I can’t say I’ve... wait. I think I remember... Twilight’s foalsitter. Cadence. I’d probably better look her up again. Argh, why do I keep getting off topic?

Okay, no more distractions this time. I couldn’t carry the body back through the streets, knowing it would look suspicious if I did. However, the river went upstream to the castle, and I decided to float the barge that way. Leaving the rest of the bodies behind and covering Keiji’s with my dress jacket, I managed to slip through the night, entering the castle via the river by saying I had news for the Emperor.

As I expected, he was outraged to know that his son had been killed. I tried explaining the arena to him, but I didn’t have the proof I needed, and a Bakufu member in the room kept on shouting me down, saying that I was being ridiculous and asking why anypony would listen to an outsider. With no other real options, I decided to bet all in, and accused the pony of being a ringleader.

When he sputtered, unable to come up with an answer, the Emperor repeated the question, and Kobun confirmed what I’d said. My shot in the dark had hit its mark, and the Emperor himself placed me in command of a unit to shut down the arena. Our mission was to return to the site, subdue any involved in the conspiracy, free the captured fighters, and bring everypony back to the palace to hear exactly what had gone on there.

Celestia seemed shocked at the news as well, and the Emperor apologised quite profusely to her. The Neighpon ponies worship the two of you as gods, above even the Emperor himself. Her displeasure at something so vile was all he needed to give me the authority to shut it down, and that was exactly what I did.

With the ten ponies I’d been given command of, we managed to raid the entire arena, arresting about twenty guards and two of the ringleaders. There were only five surviving gladiators, and all but one of them seemed pleased to be rescued. Oh, and I should probably mention that that was where I first met Cloud Skipper, though he was called Hakumen at the time.

Apparently they all got names specific to the arena to detach them from themselves, and were encouraged not to even think about the past. Skipper only managed to remember his own name through sheer force of will, he told me. But anyway, there was one other that was involved, but he didn’t get arrested; I killed him.

At the time, I thought it was justified. I was taken by surprise and wasn’t thinking straight, and so I went straight to killing. Who was it? The then-Captain of the Guard, West Wind.

I didn’t even wait to hear his explanation, or anything. I attacked first, trying to magically strangle him where he stood. He was a Pegasus, so I assumed that it wouldn’t be too hard, but he charged me down as he recognised the spell, and it came directly to blows.

We grappled for a few seconds, with him on top of me, until I managed to force him away with a quick magical push. After that, since I knew I probably wouldn’t get time to charge another spell, I gored him in the neck with my horn. Then I charged another spell, one that I knew would kill him regardless just from the magic being forced into his blood.

Like I said, I wasn’t really thinking. And when my horn came out and he gasped his last, I wanted to hide away forever, but the Emperor’s guards insisted I come back and make a report. Some of them were even proud of me for killing, but I didn’t feel that way.

There was still blood all over my horn when I returned to the palace, and Celestia seemed concerned for me. I insisted that I didn’t want to talk about it, and let her handle the interrogations. Surprisingly, it was Hakumen that stopped me as I turned to leave. I don’t think I’ve ever forgotten what he told me:

“If you want to stay sane, remember how you feel right now. Never forget this feeling, or you’ll lose yourself in the death of others.”

Cloud Skipper has never told me, or anyone else, what he did as Hakumen, but it’s clear that Chikatetsu left a pretty big mark on him. I can only imagine how he’d feel if it came out that the ponies we’re dealing with now have connections to it. There’s still five we haven’t caught, and it’s unlikely we ever will, unless we can somehow manage to deal with everything we know is coming.

But as for the black hound... I don’t know what that means. All I know is that if Chikatetsu is coming back, then we’re all in for a hell of a time.
~
“That’s all I told her,” Shining Armor finished, “and I don’t intend to force you to tell your side of the story. What’s done is done.”

Skipper shook his head. “Not anymore. If it’s coming back, then we’ll need to stay on our toes. And if Cumulus is involved in it... that wily old bastard will keep us very busy. The greatest strategist since Celestia herself is against us, and we only have four reliable units.” He shook his head again, more slowly. “But I promise you this. Until I can stand no longer, I will fight for the cause of Equestria. For pulling me out of the pits of Tartarus, I owe you that much at least.”

“I’m with you all the way,” Midnight affirmed. “You can leave everything to me...” She suddenly yawned and fell asleep on the spot, having completely worn herself out with the battle.

The two stallions laughed slightly, and Luna smiled. “The night is almost over,” she said. “I shall return to my chambers. Cloud Skipper, although you are not of my division, I would request that you take mine back to her bed as well.” Skipper nodded silently and pulled Midnight onto his back, leaving the room.

If the black hound is who I think it is, then she’ll need the rest. Everypony will.
> NEXT TIME...
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

You thought it would just be the so-called heroes giving these sections? You thought wrong. Typical... Their weakness blinds them to the truth. There is nothing that is beyond my grasp.

However, as blind as you all are, I doubt that any of you missed what my associate said. I have a surprise in the works. Oh, I'm not going to just tell you; that would spoil the surprise. All I can say is that this is larger than anything that anypony has done so far, and I doubt that everypony will make it out entirely intact.

As for Nightmare Moon, perhaps she did not infect Luna's mind as planned, but this is merely a small complication. A vessel is a vessel, and if I'm right, which I usually am, then she may yet be strong enough to take over...

...and under her eternal cloak of night, the utopia of strength I have worked for so tirelessly will arise. I shall see you all then, my little ponies. Take care...
> Total Eclipse
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The next day

Nopony ever went into the Everfree Forest without a very good reason. This made it all the more convenient for those who did have a good reason, as it was unlikely that they would be disturbed by anything sentient. The forest was also a nexus of magical power, which was why things acted on their own within its depths, and why Celestia, before Luna’s transformation into Nightmare Moon, had built her palace there.

Cumulus had spent a long time searching the archives of the palace in Canterlot even before his insurrection. There were many things besides Nightmare Moon that had plagued Equestria in the past, and though many of them were confined to Tartarus, there was still a way to bring them forth. Ancient magic, outlawed in nearly every society for its usage of blood, was the key to the gates of Tartarus, and he intended to open them, just for a moment long enough to let something out.

Number Eight joined him at the palace shortly before what he judged to be midday. “You’re late,” Cumulus said pointedly. “But no matter. Did you bring what I asked for?”

“Of course,” Number Eight intoned. “All of it is here. I had to ask a zebra living further out in the woods about some of the herbs here, but I acquired them all.”

“And what of the zebra?”

“She won’t be a problem. Trust me.” He started to lay out the items, one by one, as Cumulus moved them into various positions. The Pegasus drew a circle on the ground, filling it with runes as a griffon spellcaster would, only with a piece of chalk. As each rune was drawn, he lay a different leaf on top of each, crushing them into powders matching the runes’ shapes. The four different kinds of powders started to glow slightly, as a group of four departed souls were called back to open a gate.

Smiling, he drew a circle with blades of grass, creating a thin outline to contain all the runes, also in accordance with griffon magic. “What now?” Number Eight asked, standing just over the circle.

“You’ve done all that is needed,” Cumulus replied. “I just need one more thing...” Before Eight could react and cast even a basic spell, his throat had been cut, his blood leaking out onto the circle and spreading through the grass. The powdered runes inside the circle started glowing brighter, and the screams of the four filled the air, but Cumulus didn’t stand around to watch. He was already leaving; he’d done what he needed to, and the sooner he got to a safe distance to watch the fallout, the better.

An unearthly growl filled the air behind him, and he smiled to himself. Let’s see even the legendary Hakumen fend off a beast like Cerberus...
~
Of all the races of ponykind, Alicorns were easily the hardest to quantify. It’s clear enough that they have the attributes of all three of the other races at once, and usually at an above-average level for each as well. What’s less known is that each Alicorn has a special talent of their own that they can manipulate in ways that a mundane pony couldn’t even imagine. They only lived for the same length of time as a normal pony, whether they were born that way like the royal family of Neighpon or ascended like Cadence, with two exceptions.

Celestia and Luna were the only two ‘true’ Alicorns in existence, immortal and revered as gods by most sentient races whether they knew it or not. They were marked by their ethereal manes, and controlled powers beyond even the ‘mortal’ Alicorns. Luna had yet to regrow her ethereal mane from the amount of power that was stripped by the Elements of Harmony, but she was certain that it would return soon.

It was while she was pondering this that a wave of energy pulsed over her from the southeast. No mortal pony, even an Alicorn, could have felt it, but she knew it for what it was: somepony had opened a gate to Tartarus. For now, nothing had come through, but that was likely to change in the near future. The only point of note in the southeast was the Everfree Forest; whatever was happening was happening there, and they’d have to move immediately before anything happened.

Cloud Skipper had been standing guard in the throne room when he saw Celestia stand up. Gilda, learning the ropes from him, noticed as well, and she was concerned that the princess might have been insane, earning her a knock on the head. If Celestia heard the griffon’s comment, she paid it no attention as she cleared her throat. “There has been a disturbance in the Everfree Forest,” she said. “I would like the two of you to fly there and investigate. I shall close the Day Court early, so there is no need to continue guarding me. Shining Armor should be sufficient to guard my quarters.”

“How do you know?” Gilda asked, looking out the window at the forest. “I don’t see guano down there.”

“What you don’t see is more dangerous than what you can, most of the time,” Skipper replied. “Anyway, you should probably listen to Celestia. She’s kind of your sovereign if you’re going to be Day Guard.”

“Not officially. I’m just hanging around to get a shot at that Cumulus guy.”

“In that case, it’s entirely possible that he was behind this,” Celestia added. “Even if he isn’t there now, we may be able to find something. And we can’t just let him act.”

“Are you sure this isn’t just a distraction?”

“Nightmare Moon’s crystal may have been a distraction, but I’d hardly say it was ‘just’ one. Go and investigate, immediately. That’s an order.”

She looked down at Skipper, who looked right back up at her. She believed that a pony’s eyes were a window to their soul, and she could see the doubt behind the practiced hardness in his. It wasn’t long before he looked away, though, telling Gilda to follow him out to the flight deck. As they left, she turned to the Everfree Forest again. The pulses were getting stronger, and closer together. If the pair were lucky, they’d arrive late enough to see what they were up against. If not...
~
“So what’s the plan?” Gilda asked, calling back to Skipper in her tailwind. She was a more experienced flier, due to the time he’d been stuck on the ground in Chikatetsu. They’d both arrive faster if he flew behind her, he’d said. Gilda agreed, of course; she wasn’t comfortable having him right behind her, but she knew he was right. “Do we land outside the forest or try to fly over?”

“I’ve done flyovers before, and it never ends well,” Skipper replied. “It’s difficult to go through the forest on the ground, but there’s no way we’d survive in the air. But there must be somepony who know the woods. Maybe we’ll find a guide.” He looked down, seeing a cottage near the edge of the woods. “That seems like a good place to ask.”

Gilda looked down, following him. “Uh, yeah, you go ahead, boss. I don’t want to go near that place right now.”

“What’s the matter? Afraid you’ll get bitten?”

“It’s not me who’s going to be afraid. You’ll never get anywhere with that pony if I’m around.” She banked off, landing a short distance away and acting like she wasn’t involved. Sighing, Skipper landed outside the cottage, scaring a few of the smaller animals around it.

After the initial surprise of all the animals was gone, he knocked on the door. “Excuse me,” he said. “I need your cooperation for a matter of royal importance.” He kicked himself mentally for having come up with such a stupid line, but he hadn’t really had any practice before. Besides, it’d probably at least have gotten the message across.

The Pegasus that opened the door was a canary-yellow colour with a pink, slightly curled mane. She looked out at him through a crack in the door, unwilling to step out entirely. “Um, have I done something wrong?” she asked.

“What? No, of course not. I just wanted to know if there was anypony around here who knew their way around the Everfree Forest.” She whimpered slightly, looking around furtively before opening the door more widely. “I’m afraid I don’t have time to step inside,” Skipper said. “I just need to know if there’s a pony I could use as a guide around here.”

“Well...” she started again, before stopping to breathe deeply. “Sometimes, the animals run into the forest, and they get lost and I have to get them back. And there was this time I went all the way in, but we won’t have to do that, right?” As Skipper opened his mouth to reply, she added, “Oh, but it’s okay if you want to go further in. I mean, you are a Day Guard and all...”

“Do what you can. It’s all anypony can ask.” He turned to leave, then turned back to the door to ensure she was following. “Oh, and what’s your name? I can’t just say ‘hey, you’ all the time.”

“I’m. uh...” She stepped slowly out of the cottage, as though she was uncertain whether the ground was safe or not. She said something barely above a whisper, but caught it and repeated herself slightly louder: “I’m Fluttershy.”

“Alright then. Let’s get going, Fluttershy.” As soon as he’d said it, a noise came from within the forest. It had been dulled by distance, but it was still very loud, and unmistakable as a roar of some sort. Neither of them knew what it was, but Fluttershy immediately hid behind Skipper, using him as a shield as he raised his spear towards the unmoving treeline.

As Fluttershy poked her head out, she immediately pulled out the rest of her body, gasping in alarm as she saw a frightened chicken run into the forest. “Oh, no!” she cried, more loudly than anything else she’d said so far. “Gertrude, you can’t! It’s too dangerous!” Immediately, she ran into the forest, chasing after her lost chicken. Shrugging, Skipper followed, and Gilda slightly behind.

“See what I mean?” the griffon asked. “She’s afraid of her own shadow. A griffon would probably be too much for her. Besides... I kind of have a history with her. With this whole town.” Her tone suggested she didn’t want to elaborate. That was fine with Skipper; he didn’t have time for her life story right then. A pony was in danger, and it was possible that whatever had roared before would leave more than just her fearing for their lives.

Skipper suddenly started as something landed on his back. It was too heavy to be a leaf, and it was doing a remarkable job of holding onto him, but it wasn’t actually attacking. When he turned to look, he saw it was a white rabbit, pointing hurriedly in the direction that Fluttershy had gone. It seemed to have a strange intelligence in its eyes and its manner, and Skipper sighed, dreading the taunts he’d get from Gilda later for talking to a rabbit. “Fine, but you’d better not slow me down,” Skipper told it, and it held onto his neck again.

Thusly motivated, Pegasus, griffon and rabbit charged headlong into the forest after a pony and a chicken. Gilda thought it sounded like the start of a bad joke, but the humour quickly disappeared as the forest became denser and denser. All the sounds of the forest were gone, and a much louder roar from just up ahead made it clear what the reason was.

“Fluttershy’s probably either there, or running away back to her cottage,” Skipper told Gilda. The rabbit seemed to disagree, pointing towards the sound as though he knew his owner would be there. “Either way, we’d better check it out.” He kept moving forward until he heard the loud footsteps and the trees falling aside. Fluttershy was nearby, staring upwards, and everyone followed her eyes to see a beast that would most likely stay in their nightmares forever.

On the surface, it seemed like a dog that had simply grown to a monstrous size, as tall as a tree and easily five times a pony’s height. Its head was snarling and rabid, the saliva flying out and covering all the plants nearby. Its eyes were a pure red, eternally tilted downwards in a pose designed to strike fear into the hearts of anything nearby. But none of those were its worst qualities. The very worst thing about it was the other two heads on either side, equally enraged and unstoppable.

Skipper and Gilda had no idea what it was. Fluttershy whispered a name, barely heard under the growls of the creature:

“Cerberus.”

At the mention of its name, the centre head looked down, pausing in its constant growl. Fluttershy looked up, meeting its gaze for a moment before backing away. When she looked again, though, what happened next surprised everyone else nearby. Fluttershy’s gaze grew in intensity, and she flew up to meet the canine eye to eye. “How dare you. How DARE you run around acting like you’re the king of everything, just because you’re big!”

Cerberus shrunk away slightly, but Fluttershy didn’t let up. “You can’t just tear into somepony else’s home like you own it, just because they’re too small to fight back! Now go home and think about what you’ve done!” It seemed to be considering it, and for a moment Skipper was relieved.

Then the other two heads roared in unison.

The force of the sudden roar threw Fluttershy back into a tree, and she slumped down on the ground. Skipper launched himself into the air to avoid a swipe of its front paw, and landed next to Fluttershy as the beast set its paw down again, loudly raising a cloud of dust. “You shouldn’t stay here,” Skipper said. “Get back to Ponyville, find Celestia’s student, and have her get over here, as soon as you can.” She barely seemed to notice, stunned either by the impact or by Cerberus’ rejection of her.

He shoved her out of the way as its other paw came forward, pushing over the tree she’d been leaning on. “What are you waiting for? Go! All of Ponyville is in danger!” That, plus a kick from the rabbit, seemed to wake Fluttershy up, and she immediately took flight back down the path. The centre head snarled and took off, following her at a gait that its size should have made impossible. “Gilda!” Skipper shouted over the resounding steps. “Where are you?!”

“Did you see that thing?!” Gilda shouted back. “I can’t believe that even exists here! And it’s headed right for Ponyville! We have to get after it, and stop it!”

“Are you crazy?! It’ll kill you, if it even notices you!”

“And you’ll just let it follow her, and lay a whole town to waste?! Even if it is full of loser ponies, I can’t just let them all get destroyed! What do YOU suggest we do?!”

“I don’t know! Okay?!” Skipper stopped and took a few panted breaths, trying to vent his anger without actually hurting the griffon. “I don’t know,” he repeated finally. “I’ve never done anything like this. I’m not used to looking out for anyone but myself.” After a short pause, he added, “This is why I didn’t want to take over the Day Guard. I’ve mostly just been listening to Shining Armor. I can’t make leadership decisions, because I’m too focused on myself after...”

Gilda slapped him across the face suddenly. “Get a grip, will you? You need to do SOMETHING, or Ponyville is going to be demolished! And if you don’t want to lead, then I will. And I ORDER you to follow me back there!” She turned around and took off down the path, now much clearer with all the trees Cerberus had pushed down. After a moment’s hesitation, Skipper followed.
~
“Twilight! You have to write a letter to the Princess! Everypony’s in trouble!”

Twilight shook herself awake. Had she really fallen asleep while reading again? And why was Fluttershy shouting more loudly than she’d ever heard the Pegasus speak before? Actually, it was Fluttershy shaking her awake after a while. “Twilight! Where’s Spike?”

“Fluttershy? What’s going on?” Before she got an answer, she heard the rumbling sounds coming closer and closer. Out the window, everypony was in a blind panic, running amok through the town. It didn’t take long for the source of the commotion to appear: Cerberus. The centre head sniffed at the ground while the other two barked at anypony unwise enough to venture nearby. Fluttershy was shivering in place. She knew what, or rather who, it was sniffing for.

Twilight and Fluttershy ran out the nearby door, and Cerberus’ left head barked, leading the centre to roar and turn towards the two. “Spiiiike!” Twilight shouted. “Where are you?!” To think that now of all times is when I send him out on a list of errands... She started running for where the closest errand was being run, barely hearing the house being destroyed by the massive beast chasing her and the Pegasus next to her.

Fluttershy banked off, trying to get it away from Twilight and from Ponyville, even if it was only for a little while. The right head turned to follow her, and the left tried to snap at it across the centre, still focused mostly on Twilight. It stumbled back and forth for a little while before the centre head snapped at the left, leaving the right to follow Fluttershy.

When her wings finally gave out, she fell next to the wall of a building, cornered by the three heads blocking her from moving left, right or ahead. Whimpering, she closed her eyes and curled up into a ball, waiting for be bitten or mauled in half, or however the inevitable end would come.

A smacking sound came first, but Fluttershy couldn’t feel anything. It had been Skipper charging into the side of the beast, ramming his spear into the rightmost eye of Cerberus. It roared loudly, rearing up on its hind legs as he pulled it out, spraying its blood partly over the cowering pony. Before she could react, she was scooped up by another, pulled away from where its paws came down.

Gilda set Fluttershy down on her hooves, to the best of her ability, and pointed with a talon towards the northern edge of town. “Get towards Canterlot,” she said, ignoring the look of absolute fear that she was receiving. “It’ll be safer there. I’ll try to evacuate as many as I can. Get going!” Nodding slowly, Fluttershy started running, almost as scared of seeing Gilda again as Cerberus. Sighing and holding a talon over her beak, she flew back into town, shouting an obscenity that no pony would understand the true meaning of into the air to get the attention of as many ponies as possible.

Seeing her assembling the ponies, Skipper tried to lead the now-enraged Cerberus away from where she was gathering them, trying to prevent any more deaths than had doubtless already occurred. Gilda was right; he had to do something, and distracting Cerberus was the best he could do. He dived out of reach of another swipe, pulling up to avoid a bite, and laughing at how easy it had seemed.

Suddenly, he felt the grip of a Unicorn’s magic pulling on him. Instinctively, he tried to break free, but the Unicorn was stronger than most, and he was thrown to the ground in a rough landing. The reason for it became apparent as a massive fireball flew through the space where he’d been, singing the top of his mane. All three heads closed their mouths at once, growling at their target and the pony who’d taken it from them.

“Sorry about the rough landing,” Twilight said quickly. “I had to get you out of there.” As soon as she’d let go of Skipper, she was charging up for a second spell, releasing it into Cerberus’ open centre mouth and dousing the fire that was building up in it. This caused Cerberus to roar again, and this time it was Skipper who carried Twilight out of danger.

“You’re Celestia’s student, right?” he asked as he set her down again. “Nopony else could throw out a spell that quickly. Did you get a letter to her?” Twilight shook her head quickly. “Send up a flare. That should get somepony’s attention back in Canterlot. If we’re lucky, Celestia herself should be coming to help us...”

“What about the Day Guard?”

“There aren’t enough guards to deal with something like this.” He left out the fact that there were literally only four of them. “Just launch the flare.” Cerberus’ roar filled the air again, and Twilight snapped into focus, charging up a spell that she fired skyward, releasing what seemed like a massive firework in the shape of her Cutie Mark.

“What now?” she asked, as Cerberus stepped towards them.

“We keep the dog away from Gilda and the ponies she’s evacuating. We’ve already got its attention, now let’s put that to use!” He took off into the air and flew over Cerberus’ heads, even as it reared up to snatch him out of the air. It turned to chase after him, lumbering along through the town, paying no heed to the buildings in the way. Twilight tried to fire a bolt to get it to turn around, but it barely felt the impact. For a moment, she was reminded of the Ursa Minor that had come a few days earlier, but that had only had one head.

And it had been smaller.

Focusing on Skipper magically, she teleported as close to him as she could safely manage, and the right head sensed the magical burst. It snarled and spat a smaller fireball, which Twilight quickly teleported away from again. She landed in front of Skipper, and he quickly scooped her up again, flying over a building which Twilight recognised as Sugarcube Corner just before Cerberus crushed it under his massive frame. Pinkie’s not going to like that, she thought. If she’s still alive...

Skipper noticed she was slumping slightly as she looked at the building, but didn’t pay it much heed. He had to get her and Cerberus out of the populated area, and keep it busy until Celestia arrived. Ducking under another fireball at Twilight’s warning, he finally landed on the crest of a hill shortly outside the bounds of the houses.

“Well, I’m out of ideas,” he said as he looked up at the hulking figure bearing down on them. “Damn, if we’d gotten here sooner, maybe Celestia could’ve...” He stopped as everything seemed to light up, just before a beam of sunfire came down and struck Cerberus in the tail. It yowled with all three heads at once, turning to face its attacker.

Twilight would have bowed immediately if the situation hadn’t been too dire to waste on formalities. Her teacher, the oldest Alicorn known to exist, and the spirit of the sun itself, Princess Celestia.

“Let's get back in the game,” Skipper said. “We need to back her up, as best we can. Try to stay out of its range, but do anything else you can. You can do that, right?” Twilight nodded quickly, teleporting to a slightly safer distance as he flew up to a cloud, rubbing his hooves to create a static charge.
~
Wake up, my child.

Ever since she was a filly, Midnight had always come to the field of white flowers as a kind of sanctuary. Whenever she was sad, or alone, she would go into the forest and sit in the clearing for a while, the smell of the flowers and the sight of their dances lifting her spirits no matter how often she saw them. Her dreams also often took her to the field, and she would sit in the illusory flowers until life saw fit to return.

You must wake up, Midnight Blossom. Your rightful queen commands it!

She jolted awake, but the voice continued. Your inaction is dangerous for the ones you care for. The Pegasus will die if you do not act!

“Skipper?” she asked. “What’s going on? And why are you telling me this?”

My reasons are entirely selfish, I assure you. But if you do not get the lead out, then both of us will regret it. So move, before I MOVE YOU!!

Midnight cringed over as a force within her started to force its way out. She felt as though it was tearing through her skin from inside, and she screamed loudly, her eyes closed. After about a minute of screaming like that, she slumped over unconscious. When Shining Armor found her, and she opened her eyes again, it wasn’t Midnight in control.

Her eyes had turned the full turquoise of Nightmare Moon, and an illusory horn had grown on her forehead, made entirely out of a black magical aura. Before he could react, she had flown off past him as though he wasn’t even there, and he wondered at what was going on. He had to tell Luna about the development, he decided. If Nightmare Moon had fully taken over Midnight, then that would probably work against them.

Luna had come down to him first. “I felt the presence of Nightmare Moon coming from here,” she said. “It’s heading towards Ponyville. I can only imagine her purpose...”

“We need to stay here,” Shining said. “With everypony else gone, anything could be happening here. Cumulus isn’t the type to do anything in a vacuum...” He trailed off as he saw the shadows creeping over the ground.

“I have lost control over the moon,” Luna said quietly. “This is more of a problem than I thought...” The eclipse covered all of the palace before long, becoming a total eclipse not long after.

Shining suddenly looked up, as though he’d remembered something. “One of the security alarms has been tripped,” he said. “The archives! Somepony’s headed for the archives!”

“Go, Shining Armor!” Luna replied. “I shall catch up, once you have apprehended the villain!” She ran at a gallop back into the palace as the Unicorn teleported away, wondering why anypony would try to access the archives without being detected.

When Shining arrived just outside, the doors had been torn off their hinges, though he didn’t detect any magic from it. The interloper was most likely an Earth Pony, in that case, but a very strong one if he could break through such a door. He wondered why there was only an alarm on the door rather than any stronger protections, but pushed the thoughts aside as he entered, casting a light spell to try and flush his target out.

Too late, he heard running hoofsteps from the side, and turned only to be tackled by a mountain of an Earth Pony. His black coat and massive bulk seemed familiar, but the resemblance didn’t matter to Shining. He teleported just in time to avoid having his head crushed, standing up as his opponent turned around.

He created a shield spell, his Cutie Mark’s talent, to deflect the next charge. It didn’t seem to faze the Earth Pony, who simply backed up and charged again. It was then that Shining noticed the two puncture marks in his neck. He’d definitely seen that pony before, except that Midnight had definitely killed Blackguard. To see him alive and still attacking was impossible, unless Cumulus had somehow learned to raise the dead.

Blackguard didn’t seem to have much intelligence besides just attacking, but his strength plus the corruption of his dead body was taking its toll even on Shining’s magic. He dropped the shield spell and rolled to the side, watching Blackguard charge into a shelf, toppling it over. Shining quickly lifted the shelves and pushed them around, keeping the Earth Pony down. He knew it wouldn’t last long, and started to retreat, trying to come up with a plan.

A magical bolt from the shadows brought him back into focus, slamming into his side and knocking him over. “Not bad,” a mare’s voice called out. “But you’ve already lost, I’m afraid. I’ve already found what I’m looking for.”

“You’ll never get out alive,” Shining shouted back. “You can’t teleport inside the archives, and Princess Luna is coming even as I speak! You might as well just surrender!”

The mare laughed, a full, genuine laugh of amusement. “Oh, you foal. Did you really think I came here unprepared?” A bright blue flash of light filled the air, and Shining sensed that it was a teleport spell. He tried to focus on the remaining magical residue, but the sound of several books crashing behind him brought his attention back to Blackguard.

He charged again, but a blue aura surrounded him, stopping his charge. Before long, his body had completely crumbled into dust as Luna applied a spell Shining had never seen the like of before. All that was left of him was the dust, which fell apart as the Alicorn stepped on it. “What news?” she asked.

“It’s not good,” Shining replied. “There was a Unicorn here, I think she animated him. She took a book and left. Somehow, she removed the magical safeguards, including teleportation. I didn’t get a good look, but she had a light blue aura...” He sighed, looking down. “My apologies, Princess. I have failed.”

“You did all you could, Shining Armor,” Luna intoned. “Feel no guilt for your actions. But as for Ponyville, and my darker half... All we can do is wait for word from my sister, whenever it may come. Let us return, in the meanwhile.” Nodding, Shining left the room behind his monarch.
~
With Celestia’s help, it seemed like Cerberus could at least be hurt, but even she couldn’t bring the beast down fully. It continued fighting back, despite everything that was thrown at it, and the ponies couldn’t keep up forever. When Gilda turned towards the fighting, she saw Skipper make a hard landing, and took off in his direction.

The train of ponies behind stopped to look, but kept moving away from the area nonetheless, now that the initial panic had mostly subsided. Time, the efforts of the Ponyville guards (at Gilda’s prompting) and the arrival of Celestia had had a calming effect on Ponyville, and they all moved away from Cerberus without running or screaming. Everypony stopped and looked up as the shadow fell across them, and the sun was covered by the moon, its corona the only visible light.

Celestia was stunned, and barely managed to avoid a swipe from Cerberus. How had there been an eclipse that Luna hadn’t told her about? All of a sudden, she felt the presence of Nightmare Moon, and therein lay her answer.

The Nightmare had returned, though it was weaker than before. It was unmistakable, however, especially when she saw the vessel land, Midnight’s golden eyes taken over by turquoise. It didn’t immediately try to attack Celestia, however. Instead, it focused its energy on Cerberus, firing a beam of magic that tore into Cerberus to an even greater degree than the sunfire.

“Now, Celestia! Burn the wound!” it shouted, and without stopping to think about why Nightmare Moon was helping her, Celestia fired a beam of her own. The sunfire burned inside Cerberus, and it howled in pain, unable to get away from the attack. Both Alicorns, true and borrowed, fired their magic at Cerberus’ wound, finally bringing it down to the ground.

“Midnight...” Skipper said, seeing the fight continue. “She’s...” Gilda couldn’t get any more out of him, and she simply continued watching, her beak hanging open at the power on display. Suddenly, she felt Skipper kick her in the hindquarters, convulsing at something.

Nightmare Moon’s illusory horn was absorbing Cerberus somehow, tearing apart its body and taking it into her. As soon as the hound was entirely gone, Skipper stopped, falling unconscious. Midnight fell as well, as the Nightmare relinquished its control over its vessel. Celestia, Twilight and Gilda were left staring at one another, wondering what had happened and how to respond.

Nightmare Moon was returning, and clearly gaining in strength, but wasn’t immediately hostile to its half-sister. Skipper and Midnight shared its essence, but the Thestral was affected far more. Cumulus had summoned a beast from legend to attack Ponyville, and only the intervention of an ancient, powerful enemy had stopped it. Everything was piling on them at once, and there was nothing that anyone could think to do.

“Twilight?” Fluttershy asked, appearing seemingly out of nowhere. Applejack, Pinkie Pie and Rarity were all in tow behind her, and they all shared a sombre expression, even the Element of Laughter unable to find anything cheerful about the situation. She looked at Ponyville, wrecked and burning, a few dead ponies lying in the streets. All her friends looked to her, and she looked to Celestia.

“Twilight, you and your friends need to be here, to help Ponyville recover,” Celestia said at length. “I doubt that this is truly the end of the trials to come. I must return to Canterlot.”

“Wait!” Twilight shouted, as her mentor turned around. “Can’t you tell me anything concrete about what’s going on?”

Another long pause, until Celestia finally said, “Be glad that you are not directly the target of these events, Twilight Sparkle.” That was all she said as she picked up Midnight Blossom with her hooves, placing the smaller pony over her back as she flew off. Carrying Skipper in her talons, Gilda followed, leaving five ponies wondering why their homes had been destroyed to spite Celestia.
~
The Unicorn stepped into the pitch-black room, only able to sense the table and the Pegasus in front of her with her magic. “Is Ponyville gone?” she asked.

“Not quite, I’m afraid. It seems that the Nightmare is a more complex being than I thought. Perhaps she merely wanted Cerberus’ power, but either way, it was defeated. No matter. That was not my objective. Do you have it?”

“Of course.” She placed the book on the table and slid it across with her magic, still unable to see who she was speaking to despite the soft blue light. “Why did you want this book, specifically?”

“Oh, I have my reasons. I always do. That’s why, regardless of how many battles Celestia thinks she’s won, she’s going to lose the war.”

“I see. What do you want me to do, then?”

“Return home, for the time being. Act as though nothing has changed. My next course of action will require some time to prepare, but worry not. You shall get your chance to act soon enough, Number Six.”

“Understood.” She turned and left as she heard the book being opened, despite the darkness of the room. It wasn’t her task to understand all the things that Number One did. She shared his ideal of strength, and would act to carry it out. That was her purpose in life.

As she stepped out into the sunlight, though, her thoughts wandered back to Shining Armor. I look forward to our next meeting... We shall see your true strength then.
> Celebration
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

A month later

It was the last day of summer. If Cumulus was planning anything, it had taken him the whole month to do so, and no incidents had occurred that could be traced back to him. Canterlot, as a city mainly composed of Unicorns, had repaired quite a bit of the damage from the riots. Ponyville would need more time to recover from Cerberus’ invasion, however.

Gilda watched the sunset with some trepidation. She’d grown somewhat accustomed to taking orders from Shining Armor directly, but still didn’t want to call herself a Day Guard. Rainbow Dash had gone back to Ponyville without saying much, and nopony had written since except Twilight on her various friendship reports. She’d have written herself, but she’d never learned Equestria’s written language and didn’t want to ask for help. Besides, with Cumulus gone to ground and no other major incidents occurring, she had nothing to write about.

A knock on the door turned her head away from the sunset when it was mostly gone. “Skipper wanted everyone in the statue garden for something,” Shining shouted through the door. “He didn’t order you to come, but if you want, you can.” Before she could think of a reply, she heard his hoofsteps leaving the area.

He’d made it sound like a casual thing, but Gilda still wasn’t sure. She didn’t know who ‘everyone’ meant: if it was just three, four or even six. If the Princesses were there, she didn’t want anything to do with it; the Alicorns still made her uncomfortable, particularly Celestia being connected so closely to Ponyville. Eventually, though, watching the sunset became boring, and she left her room for the statue garden as twilight fell.

Midnight was the first to see her through the moderate darkness, and waved her over to where she, Skipper and Shining were sitting. They’d laid out a picnic blanket, facing the east side of the city for moonrise. None of them were dressed up. “You made it,” Skipper said without looking over as the griffon sat down next to him, away from the other two ponies. “I was starting to wonder.”

“Why’d you call me out here?” Gilda asked, looking around. “You didn’t bring any food or anything, so this isn’t just a picnic...”

“Every year, on the last day of summer, there’s a fireworks show,” Shining explained. “When Celestia learned about them, she insisted that it become a tradition. Perhaps it was her way of coping with the guilt of banishing her sister, or some such.” Skipper and Midnight turned to one another for a moment, but didn’t say anything.

“Well, the moon hasn’t risen yet, so nobody’d see the fireworks even if they went off,” Gilda pointed out.

“True enough,” Shining replied. “So while we’re waiting, who wants to tell a story?”

Everyone was taken off-guard by the request, and he continued, “Everypony... rather, everyone has a story to tell. Even if it’s not really their own story, I’d still like to hear it. Legends, stories of the distant past... they’re a hobby of mine. Not a talent, but just a hobby.”

“I’m not sure any of you really want to hear my stories,” Skipper said, “but there was a reason why I asked you here. It relates to my time at Chikatetsu.” At that, Midnight flinched back, and though they didn’t show it, Shining and Gilda were slightly perturbed. “Don’t worry, it’s not to do with a fight. That wasn’t quite the only thing we did there...”
~
It was about my third year, and I’d grown accustomed to being called Hakumen. By that time, I’d forgotten nearly everything about my past life. All I still had was the night I’d been taken, and I knew my name from that time.

I was alone in my marefriend’s house, and we’d slept together. I still don’t remember if we were more intimate or less, but I was only fifteen at the time, I think. As Hakumen, I hadn’t remembered what she looked like, or her name, but I remembered that she’d stirred beside me as I left the bed, halfway woken up by the noise outside.

“We will meet again,” I’d said. “I promise.” With that, I’d gone into the night, and never returned. I didn’t know how to fight then, and three ponies, one of each race, overwhelmed me. I had a lime green coat then. You know what four years without sunlight does to a pony? You’re looking at it.

I’ll spare you the details, and skip to the night I really wanted to talk about. There were about six of us in the common room at the time, all blooded. Between fights, we spent time together, though talking was discouraged. Mostly we spent our time training or, for some ponies, crying in the corner and planning to throw their next fight to escape their own guilt and fear. Whatever they were doing, everypony stopped to look when the guards brought a new arrival in.

She was a Pegasus like me, orange with a bright blue mane. I don’t remember her Cutie Mark. She was clearly terrified out of her wits, unlikely to survive even the first night, let alone the first day. Everypony had to fight on their first day, and every fight at Chikatetsu was to the death. It seemed like she knew that, and she didn’t want to accept it, until she saw me.

I recognised her as the mare from my one memory, and she clearly recognised me as well, standing up and slapping me in the face. “So this is why you didn’t come back?” she asked. “How many ponies have you killed? How can you possibly live with yourself?!” I didn’t answer. Doing so would only have made her more hysterical, and I doubt she would truly have understood. Besides, I couldn’t think of an answer.

She ran off onto one of the cots, crying sadly for herself and angrily for me. Everypony went back to what they were doing, but I just sat there, watching her. A few ponies asked why, but my lack of an answer was enough to drive them off. It lasted until lights out, when she came up to where I’d laid down to sleep.

“I’m sorry about before,” she said. “I don’t know what I was thinking. Is it true that I have to fight?” All I could do was nod. “I see. Then I suppose this is the end.”

“I’m sorry it had to be this way,” I said, but she put her hoof over my mouth.

“No, it’s not your fault. I’m just worried, for myself... but mostly for my daughter.”

“What?”

“Do you remember the night when you were taken? I didn’t want it to be true, but you gave me a daughter. I’d have liked for you to meet her, but I guess that’ll never happen now. I don’t want to say her name, or else they might look for her. She’s only two years old; she doesn’t need to know about this place.” She sighed before continuing, “I just want you to promise me one last thing.”

“What is it?” I asked.

“Promise me you’ll never lose your joy for life. That was what I remembered most about you, and now you seem so serious... I don’t want that to be all that’s left of you. I don’t want it to just be... what do they call you now?”

“Hakumen.”

“I don’t want it to just be Hakumen in there. I want Cloud Skipper to stay alive, too.”

Hearing my own real name threw me off balance, and nothing was said for about a minute until she continued. “You were always so happy, always able to find something to celebrate,” she whispered. “Promise me you’ll stay that way. Even if it’s only celebrating because you’re still alive.” With that, she walked back to her cot without waiting for an answer.

She died in her initial fight, and I think she threw it. She wasn’t cut out to be a fighter. Then again, I suppose neither was I, but I changed. I’d changed so much that hearing my own name, and being told to stay like I was before, threw me off guard like no foe could.
~
“That’s why I called everyone here tonight,” Skipper finished. “I want to pass on that lesson. No matter how bad things get, you always have something to celebrate. Celebrate because you’re alive, and that’s the one thing that you’ll never give up on. We’ve been through some hectic times, but all of us are still here, still alive and kicking. And that is why we’re all celebrating tonight.”

Almost on cue, the fireworks began, cutting off anything that Skipper could have continued into. Everyone turned skyward, watching the bursts of light and sound, of all shapes, sizes and colours. Midnight, in particular, was awestruck by the display, her jaw hanging open for a full minute after it ended. Gilda acted aloof, but in reality, she was almost as impressed.

"The four of us will never be broken," Skipper intoned. “Because we are the Royal Guard of Equestria. We serve as the shield of our sovereigns and our nation, and though foes within and without may batter against us, we will never bend or break.” He placed his hoof towards the centre of the picnic blanket. Midnight and Shining, and with some hesitation Gilda, reached out to touch it. They didn’t bother throwing their limbs skyward or cheering, but simply looked at one another.

Eventually, Shining was the first to pull away and leave the garden, followed by Midnight. Gilda and Skipper spent a while together, but neither of them said anything, and eventually they went their separate ways. Skipper went to sleep early, but Gilda stayed up almost all night, refusing to explain why when Midnight came to check on her.

Just before sunrise, Celestia heard a piece of parchment being slid under her door. Written on it, in the griffons’ runic alphabet, was the following:


Dear Princess Celestia:

I know you usually get these from Twilight in Ponyville, but hopefully you’ll be able to make an exception just this once. You see, I used to think that friends were just around to make you look better, and if they couldn’t do that then they weren’t worth having around. But the events of the past month or so have opened my eyes.

Seeing Rainbow Dash, who I’d rejected back in Ponyville, in the state she was made me feel angry for her sake, despite the bad terms we’d parted on. I haven’t seen her since, so I can’t say she’s really still my friend, but I’ve made some new friends in your Royal Guard. Cloud Skipper was willing to take me under his wing, despite the fact that I was a criminal, and the other two have come to accept me as well.

I don’t know if I can call myself a Royal Guard yet, or ever since I’m not really a pony, but tonight, I learned something: friends are the ones that you can celebrate with, no matter the occasion. Even if you’re just celebrating the fact that you’re still alive, it’s always better to have someone to celebrate with, be they higher than you on the social ladder or lower.

May the wind ever be under your feathers.
Gilda Stonebeak

> By Any Other Name
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

A week later

Sweetie Belle was starting to wonder about the wisdom of hiding in a suitcase. Sure, it wasn’t like there wasn’t plenty of room for her among all the clothes and other supplies, but it sure wasn’t that comfortable, and the warmth was oppressive. Still, she didn’t say a thing, barely daring to breathe, afraid to be found out.

When she’d heard from Rarity about the visit in Canterlot, she wanted immediately to go as a consolation for her older sister, who was stuck back in Ponyville. She was behind on her orders after the Cerberus incident, so she’d snuck aboard the train to bring back news of the celebrations. She hadn’t expected it to be this difficult to travel, though.

Finally, she heard the train braking, and felt the rest of the luggage slamming into her, pressing her against the back of the suitcase. She resisted the urge to scream for as long as possible, but when the suitcase started moving quickly, her horn bumped into something, and she shouted in pain.

But that wasn’t right. Her mouth had been closed the whole time. Meaning...

The case was opened, and Sweetie Belle was dumped unceremoniously onto the pavement, along with two other fillies she’d barely even noticed. One was a straw-yellow Earth Pony with a red mane and a ribbon, and the other was an orange Pegasus with a tomboyish look. Both of them were at about her age, and somewhat gratifyingly, neither had earned their own Cutie Marks. Staring at them were Rarity’s friend Twilight, and a white Pegasus in gold armour.

“Little young to be pulling a stunt like this, aren’t you?” he asked, shaking his head. “Your parents must be worried sick. You’d all better get back on the train, before it...” He was about to say more, but the sound of the train pulling out drowned him out. He stared at its rear for a while, in disbelief of the coincidence, not seeing the fillies twitch slightly.

As he walked towards the end of the platform, Twilight turned to the trio that had stowed away on the train. “He’s right, you know. You shouldn’t have tried to leave home on your own like that. You all live in Ponyville, right?” Sweetie Belle nodded, along with the yellow filly.

The Pegasus, however, shook her head. “Las Pegasus originally,” she said, “but I’ve been moving around a bit. Whole lot of world to see, you know?”

“You’ll have plenty of time to see it once your parents stop worrying about you,” Twilight reprimanded her, and all three of them seemed to twitch at once again. She didn’t really notice, as she had turned towards the guard again. “Excuse me, sir, but what do you think we should do with them? The next train isn’t for a few hours yet.”

The guard snapped back to attention, stumbling with his words a bit at the surprise. Eventually, he finally looked Twilight in the eye and said, “It’s really not my place to decide. All I can suggest is that we bring them back to the palace, and let Princess Celestia determine their punishment.”

“Punishment?” the Earth Pony filly murmured. “You won’t... put us in the dungeon, will you?”

The guard looked down and met the saddest pair of puppy eyes he’d ever seen. Despite his practiced stare, he couldn’t hold with her for long, and eventually looked away, saying, “I’m sure that some accommodation besides the dungeons can be arranged.” He looked back down and added, “That’s assuming you all behave yourselves on the way there. Can you do that?”

All three of them nodded quickly, and Twilight stepped back in shock. As they walked off, she cantered up to the guard and asked him, “Are you serious about that?”

“Are you sure they want to find out?” he replied, and ignored the look she gave him. The fillies were all walking in a single file behind him, not even glancing to the sides.

Twilight looked at him again, and finally recognised the guard. “I remember you,” she said. “You were in Ponyville when Cerberus attacked. Didn’t you...”

“I really didn’t do that much besides make it angrier,” he cut her off. “To be honest, I was kind of dumb, thinking I could handle it...”

“Even so, I wanted to thank you for what you did. Without your help, a lot of ponies could have died.” She paused for a moment, and then added, “But where were the rest of the Guard? Why did Celestia come on her own?”

Skipper sighed loudly, stopping in the street. Confused, the fillies stopped too. “I was hoping you wouldn’t ask. It’s not something I’m really at liberty to discuss, either. You’d better talk to the Captain about that.”

“I’m not sure... He always seemed to be leaving something out in his letters to me.”

“Wait, you know the Captain?”

“He’s my brother.”

Skipper paused again, looking over at Twilight carefully. The twin streaks in her mane and tail were right, and he’d definitely remembered hearing Shining Armor wondering about his sister before. He shook his head as he started walking again. “Well, if you tell him why Cloud Skipper is the only guard who both helped you with Cerberus and escorted you to him, then maybe he’ll open up.”

Shrugging, Twilight looked back at the fillies walking behind Skipper. They seemed to be whispering together about something, and for a moment she considered casting a spell to listen in, but decided against it. Eavesdropping was wrong, after all, and doing it to kids was even more wrong.

The rest of the trip passed without incident. Sweetie Belle had once asked if it was possible to get a Cutie Mark in being a decoy, but the Pegasus had reminded her of the dungeon threat. That kept the noise to a minimum, at least until Skipper called out to the gate. “Hey, boss, I’ve got Celestia’s student and a few train-hoppers here. Wanna open it up?”

Twilight definitely recognised her brother on the gate. Surprisingly, Gilda was standing on the other crank. If the Captain of the Guard was busy opening the main gate with the help of a griffon, then things were different to what she’d expected, and not in a good way.

“Shiny!” she shouted as she teleported up to the rampart, and the stallion nearly lost his grip on the gate’s crank. As he did, she grabbed it with her magic, pulling it all the way open for Skipper and the fillies to walk through. She panted slightly as she let go, the exertion being more than she expected, and she was immediately thrown off balance by the hug her brother pulled her into.

“It’s great to see you again too, BBBFF,” she eventually said as she pulled apart. “How’s life in Canterlot going?”

“It’s been difficult,” he said, “what with preparing for the Emperor’s visit and all. Then again, you already knew that, that’s why you’re here...”

“Cloud Skipper must be a pretty capable pony, though.” She thought about what Skipper had told her, and added, “Especially if he both fights and escorts. I thought the Guard were usually kept separate for those?”

“There’s been some changes to the training regiment,” Shining said with practiced speed and fluency.

“To account for the fact that most of them left?” The observation threw Shining off-guard, and Twilight proceeded with the proof without being asked. “It was strange that Celestia came to Ponyville without a contingent, and it was strange seeing one pony in two duties, but what sold it was that a griffon was on the gate. If you don’t even have enough numbers to man the gate without bringing another species into it, then something’s gone badly wrong with the Guard.”

Shining Armor paused, looking over at Gilda across the ramparts. The griffon shrugged, flying down to meet with Skipper, leaving him alone to face his sister. He trusted her, there was no doubt about that, but there were some things that he shouldn’t have to talk about with her. Eventually, under her questioning gaze, he finally cracked. “I’ll assemble the Guard,” he said slowly. “Meet me in the throne room.” He teleported down to Gilda and Skipper to give them the orders as Twilight walked towards the doors leading into the castle. She’d forgotten just how much leniency on teleportation there was in the palace, and didn’t intend to test it too much.

When she arrived in the throne room a few minutes later, her brother was already there, along with Celestia. Cloud Skipper came in shortly after, followed by the three fillies from before, the griffon (Twilight swore she looked familiar, but couldn’t quite place it) and a pony she’d never seen anything like before.

Except that wasn’t quite right. She’d seen a pony with bat-like wings in Ponyville when Cerberus attacked... and even before that, Celestia had told her about what she called a ‘pet project’. She’d never seen it up close, but clearly this was the basis of the Night Guard, planned for Luna’s return.

Twilight didn’t realise she’d said all of that out loud until the Night Pony nodded. “Yep, that’s me,” she said. “Name’s Midnight Blossom. I suppose that makes us kindred spirits, since we both studied under Celestia for a while.”

Twilight wanted to ask how the Night Pony had managed to tolerate the presence of the Princess of the Sun, but Shining cut in. “What you see before you, right now, is the extent of the Royal Guard,” he explained. “Hearing about the return of the Night Guard caused a few problems, and the Day Guard left under their rabble-rousing leader, Cumulus. So far, we haven’t gotten any recruits to replace them, not that we’d be able to train them if we did...”

“I trained Midnight Blossom, did I not?” Celestia asked. “Surely, between the two of us, we could at least train somepony else.”

“Be that as it may, we’re short on numbers right now, and this isn’t a good time for it. The Emperor of Neighpon is coming, and we need everyone we have here to handle it.” Twilight looked at the griffon for a moment, and her brother filled in the mental gap. “They don’t have any problems with griffons around. It’ll be strange, but they won’t mind Gilda as much as some others.”

“So, that’s why you wanted me back?” Twilight asked Celestia.

“Indeed. It only seems right that I introduce my protégé to such a dignitary. He even asked personally after you.”

At once, Twilight felt both excited and worried. “But I haven’t been practicing my Neighponese for years! How am I going to handle myself around the Emperor when I can’t even...?”

“They aren’t coming for three days yet,” Skipper said. “You’ve still got plenty of time to practice.” He looked at Shining for a moment, and then added, “Shinpai shinai yo. Ore ni makasete!” He bumped his right foreleg against his breastplate, laughing slightly, and Twilight giggled as she worked out what he’d said: ‘Don’t worry, leave it to me.’

“Show-off,” Midnight grumbled. “Just because you grew up there...”

“I’d rather not get into that right now,” Skipper replied curtly. “We’ve got other things to discuss. There were a few stowaways who wanted to come with Twilight,” and at that he waved a wing towards the group of fillies. They immediately stopped chattering among themselves and turned to the two princesses.

Seeing Celestia up close for the first time was nothing short of awe-inspiring. They’d been trying to avoid looking at royalty, but placed under the spotlight by Skipper, they didn’t have a choice but to step forward. Her body, far larger than any pony could hope to be, simply radiated presence and power, and that was before the magic that went into maintaining her mane was taken into account. Their mouths hung open for the longest time before Skipper spoke again.

“The train left before I could send them home, so I took them here. I wanted to know if you thought any punishment was appropriate.” That snapped them all back to reality, but they all reacted differently. Sweetie Belle, for her part, looked like she was about to cry. The Earth Pony seemed disappointed, like she was hoping he’d forget to bring it up, and the Pegasus seemed angry enough to attack him despite her lacking size. He looked at them for a moment before turning back to his liege.

“I feel that punishment is for their parents to decide upon, no?” Celestia asked, and unlike the Pegasus and Unicorn, didn’t fail to notice their reactions. She was about to amend the statement to ‘their families’, but the time had passed. “I apologise. I was not aware that...”

The Pegasus was the first to brush it off. “It’s been like that since my mother was... since my mother’s been gone. I never knew my dad, either. Didn’t want to get stuck in an orphanage, so I’ve been on the move. Everywhere I go, ponies who’ve never seen me before ask the same thing. It’s easier that way, never having to make too close a connection.” For a moment, Skipper tilted his head at the filly. For someone far below his age to have come to that conclusion...

“My mother died giving me,” the filly said. “But we’re Apples, so I’ve got a brother and a sister to help look after me. Name’s Apple Bloom.” She smiled broadly, infecting all the others except Celestia and Skipper, who were respectively too practiced and too detached to join in.

“I usually live with my sister,” Sweetie Belle offered. “I don’t see my parents often; not since we left home together. But they’re still alive,” she said, as if it would give comfort to the others. She tried to take it back when she looked at the other two of her age, but Apple Bloom just nodded her off.

“Maybe I’d like to meet them someday,” the Pegasus said. “Name’s Scootaloo.”

“Even so, you can’t just ride on a train without paying,” Skipper reprimanded them, “and you shouldn’t leave your families like that.” You never know how much longer you might still have one, he thought ruefully. “None of you did tell your families, did you?” Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle nodded slowly. “What should we do? I doubt we can manage to get them back to Ponyville on the next train and prepare enough for the Emperor’s visit.”

“Well, perhaps they could stay here until everything’s calmed down?” a new voice called from the entrance to the throne room. Everypony turned to stare at the new arrival, who quickly swept into a low bow. “I was not aware that Amaterasu was present. Forgive my intrusion.”

“Amaterasu...” Skipper mused. “You must be from Neighpon. What are you doing here?”

“I am one of Emperor Heishiro’s personal honour guard. My name is Minazuki, though you may call me Mina, and I have been sent here in advance to prepare for His arrival. Although...” She looked at the assembled group, trying to piece together what she’d heard. “It seems like you have everything just about under control.”

“Well, we will in three days,” Midnight said, smiling. “I hope.”

“It will be fine, I am certain,” Mina replied.

Skipper nodded slowly, looking her up and down. “I know you from somewhere. Weren’t you... Kiryu? The Devil Dragon?”

Mina looked up suddenly, realising what everypony else in the room missed. “Hisashiburi desu ne, Hakumen,” she said. “It seems we both found gainful employment after all.”

“Where did you two meet exactly?” Twilight asked.

“Not in front of the foals,” Skipper said, “and I’m not sure you even want to know at all. I’ve done things I’m not proud of, and Mina played into that.”

“Aww...” Apple Bloom said slowly. “I wanted to hear the story of how you two met.”

“Or a story, at any rate,” Scootaloo added. “Anything to get away from this adult stuff.”

Skipper nodded, turning to his colleague. “Midnight, do you want to take these three to the guest quarters? You can probably tell them about how Celestia recruited you. That should keep them out of trouble.” For now. As if we needed any more trouble, given that we’re short as it is...

“Alright! Girls, follow me. I’ve got some time before my shift starts, anyway.” Midnight had avoided talking about her training period before, but telling three fillies whose friends back home probably wouldn’t believe them about meeting a Thestral...

Skipper had once told her, when she refused to tell him about her past, that at some point you had to confide in somepony. He’d always found it easier, knowing the lengths that gossip could spread to were limited where he’d grown up, but she was happy to have finally found her ‘perfect stranger’, as he’d called it.

“It was about a year ago, when I’d finally gotten my Cutie Mark...”
~
Midnight’s parents were arguing again. And since they thought she was out of earshot, she knew before she could make out exactly what they were saying that the argument was about her.

“...but what could it possibly mean?” her father said, holding himself back from shouting. “That her talent is lazing about in that field?” The field was her sanctuary, and the white flowers always comforted her. Perhaps that was why she’d found her Cutie Mark among them, but to be honest, it was something of a mystery to her too.

“I’m sure there must be some explanation,” her mother replied.

“But are you sure you’ll like it any more than I?”

“You’ve never loved that girl, not since the day she was conceived. Empty sky, she’s your daughter as much as mine!”

The conversation paused for a moment, and their voices dropped too low to hear. Curious, she pushed her ear against the door, but was still unable to make anything out. They stopped as she pushed the door open, hearing the creak as though it were right next to them, despite all the care she’d taken. “I’m sorry,” she said meekly, but it was too late.

“Your mother and I have been talking,” her father said. “I think it’s time you found your place in the world. Now that you have your Cutie Mark, it’s important that you leave this place.”

Midnight didn’t understand. “What do you mean? I thought we were never supposed to go too far away...”

“I mean that you should leave, and never return,” her father said. “I do not expect you to understand. I merely expect you to listen to your... to listen to me!” Midnight stepped back at the sudden change, still unable to understand. She looked at her mother, whom she’d always thought would support her, but all she saw in those eyes was pity, not the support she wanted.

After a long standoff, Midnight finally turned and left the room. She’d never liked her father, but to see her mother abandon her after so long... it was too much to take. And she didn’t have anywhere else to go besides the family’s home.

Nowhere except the white flowers.

The flowers had calmed her down, like always, but she still couldn’t understand what it meant. The mark that had appeared out of nowhere, the rejection she’d been given by her parents, and the suddenly growing light in front of her. She looked up at the light, throwing a hoof in front of her face to protect her eyes, unused to such bright light.

“Child, do not fear me,” a voice said, powerful and yet controlled. “I have a proposal for you. I am Celestia, Princess of the Sun.”

“I don’t like the sun,” Midnight said, still averting her eyes. “Thestrals usually don’t.”

All of a sudden, much of the light disappeared, and when Midnight looked, Celestia simply had a straight pink mane and tail. She still stood imposingly tall, but the light no longer forced Midnight to look away. “You are aware of the prophecies, then. The thousandth year approaches, and we all must prepare for her arrival.”

“The Mare in the Moon,” Midnight said softly. “She’s returning? But why are you asking me for help?”

“There is much that you do not know about her. She was good once, and I feel that this can be possible again. But there must be someone to help her return to life in Equestria. I feel there is no better choice than one of her own brood.”

“Are you not worried that I’ll betray you for her?”

“I am certain, once you understand fully who Luna is, you will be safe. Come, walk with me.” She walked off into the forest surrounding the glade, and with nowhere else to go, Midnight followed.
~
“You probably don’t need to hear much about the training she put me through,” Midnight finished. “But Celestia picked me personally, and I’m sure it wasn’t just because I was there. There must have been some reason, that I’m still not aware of...”

“A chess-trawl?” Sweetie Belle asked, unfamiliar with the word. “Is that some kind of boat?”

“Most of you call us Night Ponies,” Midnight replied, smiling. “Don’t feel bad. We don’t mind it. Anyway, here’s your room. There should be a bed there big enough for all of you, if you don’t mind sharing. If you need anything, there’s plenty of servants about even at this hour, just ring that bell.” With that, she closed the door and bolted it from the outside.

“Aw, man, we’re locked in here,” Scootaloo pouted, before yawning suddenly. “I must be more tired than I thought...”

“Hey, I’ve got a great idea!” Apple Bloom said suddenly, smiling broadly. “She said she didn’t know how she got her Cutie Mark, right?” Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo nodded. “And there’s plenty of stuff to do around a castle, right?” They nodded again. “Starting tomorrow, why don’t we make a project of finding out what our Cutie Marks are around the castle?”

There was a long pause, and Apple Bloom’s smile started to droop. “That,” said Scootaloo, “is the best idea anypony’s ever had!” She pulled her new friends into a group hug, not lowering her voice despite the short distance. “But we need a name! What are we going to call ourselves?”

“ABSBS?” Sweetie Belle offered.

“No, how about the Cutie Seekers?”

“Guys, you’re doing this all wrong,” Scootaloo rebuked them, and both of them turned, more from the unfamiliar slang term than anything. “We’re in a palace full of guards, right? They must all be knights of some kind, like in the books. And if they go on a quest... what’s a knight’s quest called?”

“A crusade?” Sweetie Belle offered.

“That’s it! We’re...” All three joined in at once, agreeing upon the name immediately.

“The Cutie Mark Crusaders!”

Back in Ponyville, Rarity suddenly shuddered all over, unable to understand why.
~
The roar of the crowd was deafening. That was only to be expected; it was the largest crowd that Chikatetsu had seen in all the time it had run for. An unforgettable clash between two champions: Hakumen and Mitsuyoshi. All the ponies who fought at Chikatetsu had been given arena names, to detach them from themselves. Cloud Skipper, he thought to himself, a small act of defiance against those who had forced him to become a warrior. My name is Cloud Skipper.

You didn’t see it, did you? Nightmare Moon’s voice asked.

“Go away,” Skipper replied. “You’ve been quiet for almost a month now. You don’t want to break that streak.”

What are you going to do about it, you foal? she replied, angrily. Calming down slightly, she continued, Besides, there was a reason why we are here again. But you didn’t see it, did you?

“See what?” Skipper asked, as he stepped into the arena. Instead of Mitsuyoshi, as he’d expected, it was the Pegasus who’d known him, her bright orange coat seeming to brighten the entire arena. Her electric blue mane spiked in a set of curls—

and flashed purple for a fraction of a second—

“That can’t be right,” Skipper said. “There’s no way it’s more than a coincidence.”

There was a long silence as he stared down the Pegasus, her mane switching colours more and more rapidly.

Are you sure?

She dived for his throat, too fast for him to react—
> The Legend of Hakumen
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The night before the Emperor’s arrival

Skipper sighed loudly as he closed the door on the Cutie Mark Crusaders’ room, with all three of them inside at last. Mina had helped more than he’d care to admit, picking them up with her magic to stop them getting away, but it had only kept one of them down at a time. Still, he was glad they’d finally been herded back to their room so nothing could go wrong during the night.

None of them seemed sleepy, though, and that was a problem. Even with the door bolted, they needed to be asleep before he could turn his back on the hyperactive fillies, and they’d need their rest for the big day tomorrow. He looked at Mina for a moment. “Dou suru?” he asked.

“Komori uta?” Mina suggested. “Mata wa, shūshin-ji no monogatari. Tashika ni, Chikatetsu ga nai no monogatari wo shitteimasu.”

Skipper thought to himself for a moment, recalling his time at Chikatetsu again. Mina was right; he didn’t want to talk about it to the CMC, but he didn’t know many other stories, or at least none about himself.

All of a sudden, he perked up and called out, “Girls, settle down! I want to tell you a story.”

Apple Bloom and Scootaloo didn’t seem to notice, being too busy chasing one another around and laughing about their exploits of the day, ‘Cutie Mark Crusader gourmet chefs’ or some such. Sweetie Belle heard it, though, and at a volume Skipper wouldn’t have thought possible from such a small filly, shouted “SKIPPER WANTS TO TELL US A STORY, SO LISTEN!!!!” That got the other two, who seemed affected far less than Skipper, to settle down and sit beside the Unicorn.

After about half a minute rubbing his ears to get the ringing out, Skipper finally began, “For a while, when I was living in Neighpon, I went by the name ‘Hakumen’. It wasn’t until later in the visit that I found out what it meant. Hakumen was a legendary hero in their myths...”
~
About five hundred years ago, there was a village on the border between Equestria and the minotaurs’ kingdom. It was a small village, where everyone knew everyone else, and all the kids played together as though families meant nothing. It was to a normal family there that an extraordinary child was born one day.

His name in the minotaurs’ language is lost to history, but he was remarkable at first for his white colouring. Most minotaurs are a dark blue, or some similarly dark colour, so an albino stood out, and not in a good way. The other children wouldn’t play with him, as their parents warned them against any number of diseases the albino could be carrying, and they whispered among themselves about how he was going to bring doom to the village.

As he grew older, and the other children started to forcefully push him away, he learned how to fight from his father, one of only two in the village who cared about him at all. He could defend himself just fine, and for a while it was okay. But when he nearly killed one of the other children in a fight, even though he hadn’t meant to, the village elder told him to leave.

He had nothing keeping him there anyway, so after a last goodbye to his parents, he headed south, towards Neighpon. At the time, they were still independent of Equestria, and a war was being fought to maintain their independence. Many of the villages were made much smaller by conscription, and there were many groups of bandits who took advantage, attacking and making off with whatever they could. Because of this, the minotaur was regarded with suspicion, and he was never able to stay in one village for very long.

When he came to a certain village one day, though, he arrived during a bandit attack. Despite his rough upbringing, he still had a good sense of right and wrong, and since the villagers were unable to defend themselves, he fought off the bandits single-handedly, completely forcing them to leave without any spoils. The villagers were grateful, but feared that his actions would bring the wrath of the bandits’ leader, Hazama.

Following the trail of the escaped bandits, he went to Hazama’s camp and called the self-styled Bandit King out to a challenge of single combat. They fought almost until sunrise, when a bandit took advantage of the minotaur’s weakened state and fired an arrow into his shoulder. Rather than making him easier to kill, however, this only enraged him, giving him the strength he needed to defeat Hazama once and for all. With their leader gone, the bandits scattered and the village was saved.

The villagers allowed him to stay with them, accepting him into their clan. Because of his white coat, they called him Hakumen, meaning “white surface”. Hakumen stayed in the village for about a year before the Emperor heard of his exploits and called him to the royal court, where he served as a bodyguard for a long time.

During this time, he came into the possession of a magic sword, called Murakumo, which means ‘gathering clouds’. Murakumo had the ability to seal the evil of any being, and Hakumen used it to reform many a would-be assassin. It was also instrumental in his final battle.

A crazed pony had summoned a demon named Orochi from Tartarus. Orochi was a massive snake with eight heads, and Hakumen arrived too late to stop it from being summoned. With Murakumo in hand, he fought the beast bravely, but he could not even dent its scales. All of a sudden, the sun was covered by the moon above, and the gods Amaterasu and Tsukiyomi, of the sun and moon, came down to assist him.

The trio fought together, weakening Orochi to the point where Murakumo could seal it. Because Orochi was a being of pure evil, it was entirely sent back to Tartarus, and Murakumo forced itself into the middle of the battlefield to maintain the seal. Hakumen was mortally wounded by the demon, however, and without the sword’s magic, he died that very night.

Hakumen was given a hero’s funeral in the Imperial Palace’s own crematorium, and the Emperor himself held the vigil for him, along with Amaterasu and Tsukiyomi. Because of advice given by the gods, the Emperor declared peace that very morning, accepting the terms with Equestria: in terms of trade and taxation would submit to the Princesses’ rule, but otherwise they had complete autonomy, the Emperor remaining head of state, and their language and culture would remain.
~
“Because of an outsider, forced out by his own people, the end of the world was averted and two kingdoms were united. That is why, even if you seem to have nobody who cares about you, do not give up, for you may still change the world.” Skipper looked at the three fillies, who had all fallen asleep despite the story’s relatively short length. Mina applauded politely, offering to tuck them into bed and lock the room afterwards.

“To be honest,” he admitted while the fillies were asleep, “I wasn’t always called Hakumen. Not until my coat turned white.”

“Turned white, you say?” Mina asked.

“Four years without any sunlight. I’m surprised I have any colour left. When they noticed I’d turned albino, I’d already built a reputation for being indomitable. That’s the only time they ever changed anypony’s arena name, so they could call me Hakumen.”

“And if you continued after that, I suppose you do live up to the legend,” Mina said. “It’s been two years since you left, though. I hope you haven’t gotten soft.”

“What are you suggesting?”

“The Emperor and his guards may want a show put on. Perhaps a friendly duel between the two of us should entertain them.”

“A duel, you say?” Skipper clarified. After a moment’s deliberation, he replied, “Alright, you’re on. It’s been a while since I fought a Unicorn. Considering that, you’ll have about one minute before I lay you out.”

“One minute is all I’ll need,” Mina replied. “At noon, the day after they arrive, in your training ground. Don’t be late.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it.” But knowing I said that, Nightmare Moon will probably force me to.

She didn’t.
> Omake: Bath Time!
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I’m really not sure when this takes place; use your imagination

Skipper definitely wasn’t expecting Midnight to not already be on-duty when he returned to the barracks. There was a note posted on the door saying only “Meet me”, with a drawing of part of the castle and another of Midnight’s Cutie Mark. Gilda told him she’d be taking over Midnight’s shift that night. He wanted to ignore it and just go to bed, but his curiosity got the better of him. Whatever was worth Gilda talking to a Night Pony was something he had to see for himself.

The area of the palace marked on Midnight’s map was an area he’d never really had a reason to investigate on his own. As he pushed the double doors open, he snorted slightly. He was almost insulted that Midnight had asked him into the royal bathhouse. He could preen himself easily enough, and the bathtub in the barracks was enough for him. Before he could leave, however, he was tackled from behind by a grey ball of fluff.

“Hey, Skipper!” Midnight shouted as they rolled around. “I never get to see much of you around, y’know? I wanted to do something together, and what’s better than a nice bath?” Skipper could think of a lot of things, but he couldn’t get a word in edgewise. “Let’s face it, we both probably need one. So let’s go!” Somehow, she lifted him up and dunked him into a tub of warm water.

With his wings soaked through, he couldn’t fly out, so he tried to crawl out of the tub. “Hey, where ya goin’, Skipper?” Midnight asked as she entered the tub behind him, pushing him back down. “We’ve barely even gotten started, and you’re already leaving? Boo!” With one hoof, she reached out of the tub and picked up a bottle he hadn’t seen, adding a whole lot of bubbles to the bath. “There, that’s better. It’s not that you’re dirty, you just seemed pretty stressed lately. So just relax.”

“Relax? Midnight, what are you...” He didn’t get to say any more before Midnight picked up some of the bubbles and started rubbing them in between his wings. It was a Pegasus reflex that forced his wings out slowly as he found himself unable to speak. He had to admit, Midnight was surprisingly good with her hooves, and she was quickly pushing out kinks in his back he didn’t know were there.

“Hey, what’s this?” she suddenly asked, pulling her head around to his side. She rubbed down a scar that had been hidden under Skipper’s wing, and he immediately tensed up again. “Oh, sorry,” she said. “I didn’t know it was there, and I was just kind of surprised...”

“Don’t worry about it,” Skipper replied, trying to relax. The warm water was definitely having an effect on him, and Midnight’s massage was helping it. Slowly, he felt himself relaxing again.

“How’d you get it?” Midnight asked suddenly.

“What?”

“That scar, under your wing. How’d you get it? Looks pretty old...”

Skipper paused for a moment. He really didn’t want to tell her any of the gory details about his life before the Day Guard, but he couldn’t just brush her off, either. She’d never let him live it down, and when she repeated the question, that made him finally think of an answer. “I got it fighting an Alicorn,” he finally said.

“No way!” Midnight replied. “You’re pulling my leg, aren’t you?” Skipper turned his head back to face her, trying to keep a poker face. She was getting too close, though, and the half-smile he’d fallen into was what Midnight saw. “C’mon, who’s gonna believe that you ever fought an Alicorn?”

“Certainly, it was a horn that left the scar there,” he said. “But do you really think that a Unicorn could ever get that close to me?”

“It’s possible. I mean, you didn’t always know how to fight like that, right?”

“...No. Nopony ever starts out being able to fight like I do. I certainly didn’t.”

“So, you got it early on, before you were as good as you are, right?” She reached around his neck to rub on his chest, and he slowly turned around in the small tub to face her. “Because really, who in their right mind would ever actually fight an Alicorn, even a mortal one?”

“Who, indeed,” Skipper replied wistfully. She was right; nopony in their right mind would fight an Alicorn in single combat. But then, he hadn’t been in his right mind at the time. Whether she believed him or not, it had happened.

But seeing her smile, as though she was silently laughing at the ridiculousness of the statement, was enough to finally get him to smile too. She was right; he’d needed to relax pretty badly. He sighed slowly and lowered himself down into the bubbles, humming to himself.

“Hey, I know that song,” Midnight said. “I learned that lullaby a while ago. It’s a Thestral thing, since we mostly lived on the ground...”

There are loved ones in the glory,
Whose dear forms you often miss...

“It had lyrics? I never knew...”

When you close your earthly story,
Will you join them in their bliss?

“Midnight, you really don’t have to...”

Will the circle be unbroken
By and by, by and by?
Is a better home awaiting
In the sky, in the sky?

“A better home...” Skipper paused, and as Midnight continued, he thought to himself, No, I don’t think so. I’ve already found one here.
> A Sign-Off
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The day of the Emperor’s arrival

As stressful as the job of Captain of the Royal Guard could be, Shining Armor had to admit that the job did come with benefits, like his own personal coffee supply. It was part of his morning ritual: he put the coffee on as soon as he woke up, then brushed his hair and put on his dress jacket just in time for it to be done. The warmth of the drink was almost enough to pull him together in the mornings; the caffeine did the rest. Silently, he praised the all-powerful, awe-inspiring magic of caffeine as he walked down the palace corridors.

Something definitely didn’t seem right to him, though. As of late, there’d only been three others around, but the hallways of the palace were teeming with activity, with a guard posted on nearly every door. Maybe Celestia had been training others and made Skipper the new commander, but he doubted that Skipper would have taken to it so quickly.

As he reached the barracks of the Day Guard, which were understandably empty, he saw a letter on the bed that Skipper had, until recently, occupied. Underneath it were a few other letters, none of which were labelled at all. He didn’t know what to think, so he picked up the stack and took them back to his office.

Celestia was waiting for him when he arrived. “Ah, Shining Armor,” she started. “There’s something I wanted to talk to you about. It’s to do with Cloud Skipper and Midnight Blossom.”

“Yes?” Shining asked. He was starting to get confused.

“They won’t be taking any more rounds for a while. Neither will Gilda. There’s been a complication, and they’ve had to disappear. But the Guard is back to full strength now, so it shouldn’t be a problem.”

“What happened to them? They were pretty important before...”

“It’s a long story, but you might be able to learn more if you open those letters.” Magically, she picked up a letter-opener and passed it to Shining. He cut open the first letter, which was written in a neat, if cramped, script:

Dear Shining Armor:

I wanted to thank you for how well you’ve treated me over the past few months, but I’m unable to do so in person. Something’s come up, and I’m not sure if I can explain it. Somepony... or someone, rather, told us that the timelines are frayed, whatever that means. He said Celestia would know, and he’d explain to us later.

Though for now I’m not going to exist in this world, in my heart, I know we’ll meet again. You might not recognise me, and I probably won’t know you right away, but I hope that won’t make our reunion any less meaningful. Goodbye, and thank you.

~Midnight Blossom

“The timelines are frayed?” Shining asked.

“Time flows like a river, splitting into tributaries. Sometimes, the tributary that one lives in can get out of control, and has to be dammed off for everypony’s safety. I imagine the story you knew of Skipper and Midnight was such a situation. But there’s still more letters to open.”

She picked up the second letter off the floor, and Shining opened it. This one was written in a loose, almost childlike manner, as though they hadn’t had to write before:

I’ve never been good at saying goodbye, so instead, I’m going to tell you, and myself, that this isn’t the end. We’ll all come back for more, because that’s just what we do.

“Who wrote this one?” Shining asked. “I can barely even read it...”

“I believe it was Cloud Skipper. He never had much of a reason to learn to write before.” With that explanation, Celestia opened the third letter. It was written in a language he didn’t understand, so he passed it to the princess to translate:

If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that hardly anything ever wraps up with a neat bow. Stories are left unfinished all the time, and all we can do is find our own forms of closure. It’s probably no comfort to you, but I hope you find some closure from our story.

May the wind be ever under your feathers, even though you don’t have any.

“May the wind... That’s a griffon thing, isn’t it?”

“Correct. Gilda gave me the same salutation before. But we’re still not finished yet.” The fourth letter seemed almost mechanical in its print:

Take care, my old friend. I’d hate if you were unable to match wits again.

Shining shuddered at the statement, throwing it away harder than necessary. “Is that all of them?” he asked, and Celestia nodded. “So what do we do now?”

“Live as we did before, with a full Guard and no Nightmare Moon to worry about. Life goes on, as life always does. But just in case, for their sake, don’t forget the two Guards who held Canterlot together at the seams during the longest night of the year.” Shining nodded slowly in understanding. “Now, come with me. We mustn’t keep the Emperor waiting.”