> The Moon and Stars: Shades of the Nightmare
>  by D4ftP0ny
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Chapter 1
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The cycle of day and night has spun on since time immemorial- an endless dance through the heavens that ancient races of ponies mimicked through sacred rituals and molded into their theology.  They worshipped the sun and the moon equally, because the sun and moon were equals in the heavens and therefore should be equals in their lives.  This was accepted for hundreds and hundreds of years, yet most of modern pony-kind knows nothing of their ancestor’s religions thanks to the Age of Discord, in which most of pony’s recorded history was either destroyed or altered so fundamentally by the draconequus that it became malleable and therefore unhelpful.  The master of Chaos destroyed or altered everything he could get his mismatched claws upon, and soon the very world itself stood rent asunder; the seas floated, the skies glowed, and the cycle of night and day ceased entirely.

Into the chaos of Discord’s reign stepped the alicorns, guardians of order and harmony in Equestria, and from the ranks of the most ancient of pony lines came the two mares who would be indelibly branded onto the history of the world: the sisters Celestia and Luna, imbued with the powers of the sun and moon, unified opposites in their fight against Discord who rose above all others, harnessed the Elements of Harmony and brought the draconequus to his knees.

The chaos settled, and with all of the power they possessed the alicorns brought harmony back to Equestria, rewriting the laws of nature that Discord had erased.  One by one the alicorns gave their lives to correct Discord’s actions, giving their massive magical energies back to the universe so that the ponies who came after them could live in a world unblemished by the mad draconequus’ powers.  They could not, however, fix everything: the ponies quickly realized that they would have to control the weather and the seasons, as well as work doubly hard to ensure that the soil itself would give forth the sustenance that they needed to survive.

Into this age of After Chaos came Celestia and Luna, and they brought with them the day and the night, returning the cycle to its natural state through the diligent use of their alicorn powers.  The cycle had been broken by Discord, and the two alicorns- the last of their kind- were determined to never let it falter again. 

More interestingly, however, is the fact that after Celestia and Luna assumed their roles as Princesses of Equestria ponies began to worship them as Goddesses, literally replacing the old religion’s adoption of the sun and moon as deities.  Celestia became the Princess of the Sun, the literal embodiment of all things light and good and wholesome, while Luna became the Princess of the Moon… and the exact opposite of all the things that Celestia was.  This was the dichotomy that the After Chaos ponies placed upon them, and after several hundred years of living in the literal and figurative darkness Princess Luna succumbed to the very forces that the ponies of her day imagined as part of her: the forces of the Nightmare, leftovers of Discord’s chaos magic that granted Luna unprecedented power and turned her into Nightmare Moon.

After the rise and fall of Nightmare Moon, the ponies of Equestria were quick to place the sum of their fears into the night.  The night became synonymous with danger, the unnatural, and even with death itself to the ponies of Equestria, and even the bravest of warriors would balk at a call for help if it came in the middle of the night.  Any pony who associated themselves with the night was labeled evil and cast out of civilized society, and even in modern Equestria the night is considered a time when all good little ponies should be tucked away in bed, gathering their energy for the next busy day.  It is a large improvement from the previous several hundred years, but the night is still foreboding to most and outright feared by some- a stark contrast to the religions of the ponies of old, who loved both day and night as two parts of the same whole.

However, it has been postulated by magical historians such as Starswirl the Bearded and his apprentice Clover the Clever that perhaps the ponies’ fear of the night is no longer merely societal or even superstitious- that perhaps there is a reason ponies fear the dark that is ingrained into their very beings, a kind of ancestral memory that protects them from something they would otherwise be unprepared for and, yes, even perhaps something they would not believe if they were told to be wary of it.

It is my hypothesis, based upon the gathered knowledge of Starswirl, Clover and their predecessors, as well as my own observations of both the forces of the night and Princess Luna herself, that the forces of the Nightmare- the very dark magic that turned Luna into Nightmare Moon, the magic that was itself born of Discord’s chaos- are very much present in this world, and that they not only actively seek renewal and a return to power but that they also will answer the call of those brave or foolish enough to seek them out.

If this hypothesis is true, and contrary to my nature I sincerely hope that it is not, our world would be in constant danger of the Nightmare returning and the ponies of Equestria would not only have a very real reason to fear the night, but a very real need of a pony or ponies capable of countering this threat.

~excerpt from Twilight Sparkle’s thesis, “Magical Similarities Between Discord and the Nightmare”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The moon hung low over Canterlot, a glowing ember crescent in the dark sky as it descended towards its rest beyond the hazy horizon.  The summer night had been warm and sticky with moisture, an unusual event in the capital but one that truly made it feel like the spring season had finally given way to the growing heat that heralded the middle of the year.  It was a night that had no doubt seen many ponies tossing in their beds, unable to sleep soundly thanks to the extra bit of warmth that the humidity had brought to their homes; none of them, however, would awaken that night suffering from ill dreams or, worse yet, a full-fledged nightmare.  Few knew who or what to thank for such a blessing, and even if they all suddenly became aware of who they should be thanking they most likely would never get the chance to do so.  

After all, Princess Luna did not protect her subjects for the recognition… she protected them out of necessity.

The dark blue alicorn stood at the edge of one of the beautiful, arching bridges that made up Canterlot Castle, her ethereal mane waving serenely in the soft breeze that wove its way around her tall frame.  Her crystalline shoes sparkled in the gentle moonlight of the waning crescent as she gazed out over the sleeping city, her teal eyes uncharacteristically open and melancholy as they wandered from one corner of the landscape before her to the other as if searching for answers in the calm summer night.  With a slow, deep sigh she turned her eyes skyward for what felt like the hundredth time to observe the moon as it dropped lower and lower in the sky.

Three days, she thought.  Three days until the new moon…  Her jaw tightened as she took another deep breath to try and relax.  Silence reigned around the Princess as her mind worked furiously.  It’s truly not much time, she admitted to herself as she turned and began to pace slowly along the railing of the bridge, her eyes staring ahead of her unseeing.  If only I had caught this sooner, perhaps…

Her hoofsteps clicked lightly along the stone beneath her, so lightly that they did not so much as echo in the near stillness of the castle; yet even her delicate steps were enough to cover the flapping of leathery wings in night sky, and the distracted Princess did not realize that she was not alone on the bridge until the other mare landed before her and folded her bat wings neatly behind her before kneeling reverently.

“May your hoofsteps guide the night, Your Highness,” the bat pony intoned solemnly.  “I apologize for my lateness- I received your message and came as quickly as I could.”

The Princess of the Night allowed herself a moment to blink before her eyes focused on the pony before her.  She was lithe of frame and dark of coat, like all of the bat ponies that Luna had ever met, with a deep blue mane and tail streaked with royal purple.  Both her mane and tail were cut short, and as she raised her head the Princess spied the one other major distinguishing mark of the other mare: an eye patch that covered her left eye, its black cloth held in place by two black cords and covered with a metal piece that mimicked the shape of her lost eye.

“You are commended for your speed, Grandmaster Feywind… I’m just glad that you’re here.”  She gestured upwards with her right hoof, her wings rustling against her flanks.  “Rise, for there is much to discuss and I fear there is little time for pleasantries.”

The bat pony rose back to her hooves and turned her good right eye to the Princess, its turquoise depths glinting in the low light.  “And what vexes you so, my Princess?” she asked quietly as she turned and fell into step with Luna as the alicorn continued on her path across the arching bridge.

“You know perfectly well what vexes me,” Luna said gruffly, glancing to her left at Feywind with a frown.  “I believe I have finally located the group in Manehatten, but the new moon approaches and if I am wrong tonight I fear that we may not reach them in time.”

Feywind’s tufted ears perked straight up at Luna’s words, and the bat pony’s polished metal eye patch glinted as she turned her head towards the Princess.  “Have they finally stopped moving?”

“They have, but they would only do so if they were preparing the final steps of their plan.”  Luna glanced up at the moon as the two mares stepped from the bridge onto one of the high castle parapets.  “I’m certain I don’t have to tell you how important it is to stop them before they are able to complete their preparations.”

“Of course not, Your Highness – I will deal with it personally if I must.”  Feywind nodded firmly, but Luna turned her teal gaze onto the bat pony with a knowing smile.

“Feywind, you are needed at the Aerie.  You know that I can’t have my Grandmaster traipsing off to personally complete every mission I give her.”

“But I would, Princess!”  Feywind turned sharply, her knee-length tail swishing sharply in the shadowy half-light of the moon.  “I would go personally and see that each and every mission you give us is completed to perfection!”  Her one good eye practically glowed with fervor, the long slit of her pupil wide in the shadows.  Luna let out a gentle laugh and shook her head.

“Feywind… your devotion to my cause is admirable as always,” she said softly.  “But you already have a team in position, correct?”

The bat pony straightened, her ears quivering slightly as her lips pressed together into a thin line.  “Yes, Highness- I put a team on standby just outside the city, just as you ordered.”

“Then you shall instruct them to move in without delay, because time is of the essence.”

Feywind’s jaw tightened firmly, as if she longed to do nothing more than to try and convince Luna that she should be allowed to carry out this mission, but before Luna could form the instructions on her lips again the bat pony gave her a slow nod.

“As you command, my Princess, so shall it be done.”  She shifted and raised her right hoof so that the waning moonlight danced across the half-dozen gemstones that were wrapped about her foreleg with a sturdy silver chain.  “I will give them the signal at once.”

“Good.”  Luna gave her a nod before turning her eyes to the sky once more, the moon shining in the teal depths of her gaze.  “I will pray for their safety… but their success is more important than anything else.”  Her ears folded back towards her mane.  “I… trust you know that, Grandmaster Feywind?”

Feywind smiled, but it was not full of joy or happiness; instead, it was the grim smile of a soldier who had thrown her life away before and would do so again without hesitation.  “I know that, my Princess… as do all of the Coursairs.  We would give our lives for you, Your Highness.”

“This is not for me, Grandmaster.”  Luna sighed sharply.  “This is for Equestria... and it is a debt that I wish you did not have to pay in my stead.”  The bat pony and the alicorn stood in silence for several long moments, their minds and hearts clouded with both memories of the past and thoughts of the future.  Finally, when the silence became so heavy that it began to weigh on her like a physical force, Princess Luna let out another sigh and nodded to Feywind once more.  “Signal them,” she whispered hoarsely.  “I will give you the location… and may their lives be protected by my night.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The night was uncannily dark in Manehatten as the hours quickly ticked away towards dawn, and as the sliver of the moon sank low in the sky the stars above the city seemed to shine brighter, their soft light glistening above as darkness soaked into city below.  It was during the interminable hours before the sun kissed the world once more that the night felt at its most malignant, drenching everything in shadows as if to remind everypony in the city that the night would always come again.  It was an uncomfortable time of night to be awake, but for some ponies it could not be avoided.

In the back of a nondescript building on the industrial side of Manehatten, a unicorn dressed in lightweight armor shivered in spite of the warmth of the moisture-laden air.  “I hate these late-night shifts,” he muttered unhappily as he shifted on his hooves.  “This time of night ain’t fit for pony nor beast.”

“Oh shut your trap, Biggs,” the unicorn next to him scolded softly, his voice echoing unnaturally in the empty back alley in which they stood.  “It’s just for a few more hours and then you can go tuck into your bunk and dream away.”  The unicorn smirked and reached up to tap Biggs on his horn, where a peculiar metal ring sat firmly around its base.  “Although I’d take that trinket off before you do- sleeping with it on will definitely give you nightmares.”

The unicorn named Biggs shivered again.  “Yeah… thanks, Wedge. I heard Silver didn’t do that and had a nightmare that made his coat three shades lighter.”  Biggs shook his head in trepidation.  “I couldn’t take my coat bein’ any lighter than it is- if it went lighter, I’d be some kind of curry-yellow instead of a dun stallion.”

Wedge sighed and elbowed Biggs in his brown side.  “Idiot- that was just a rumor; Silver just got shaken up is all.  Besides, I didn’t take you for a coward.”  The larger unicorn cast his gaze up and down the alleyway.  The structure of Manehatten made it easy for groups like theirs to move around at night before vanishing during the daylight hours, but this building had a lot more entrances and exits to cover than their last hideout and Wedge wasn’t about to be caught off guard.  Next to him Biggs straightened.

“I ain’t a coward!” he objected loudly, his voice echoing sharply in the space around them.  Wedge turned and shushed Biggs loudly, a sound that caused the smaller unicorn to wince.

“Keep your voice down, you idiot!” Wedge hissed.  “The last thing you want is to do is draw attention to us!”  He turned his blue eyes down the alleyway once more, his mottled gray and white muzzle scrunching as he did so.  “I know it’s late, but Manehatten is the city that never sleeps,” he whispered.  “SOMEpony is awake, mark my words, and if they hear you shouting and carrying on they just might call the Guards on us.”  He turned back to Biggs, his cloth and metal armor shifting over his shoulders as he did so.  “And what would we have to do then, huh?  Run inside and tell the boss that we have to move again, even after he told us that this was gonna be our base until after the new moon?”  He gave his head a shake, his navy blue mane swishing back and forth over his face.  “Not on my watch, Biggs- no way, no how.”

Biggs nodded as his green eyes grew stoic beneath his chocolate brown mane.  “Yeah… you’re right, Wedge.  We just hafta do our job as best we can, and once the new moon’s come and gone I’m sure we’ll be movin’ right along to somewhere new.”

“I’m sure.”  Wedge nodded and opened his mouth to continue, but before he could do so his left ear twitched hard enough to cause his words to falter and die.  The stallion’s head jerked towards the sound, his eyes narrowing as he gazed into the shadows of the alley.  Biggs’ eyes narrowed in confusion, but as he opened his mouth to speak Wedge lifted a hoof and held it towards the shorter unicorn, his face a mask of seriousness.

“Stop- who goes there?” Wedge demanded into the night.

“Have you lost your marbles, Wedge?” Biggs demanded in a whisper so soft that it barely left his lips.  “You’re hearing things- there ain’t nothin’ in this alley but us!”

The taller unicorn waved his already upraised hoof at his partner, his features still serious and calm as he waited for a response from the darkness.  For several long seconds silence reigned in the alleyway, and for Manehatten it was an all but deafening silence; there was no hum of traffic, no sound of movement or even sighing of the wind to disguise the sounds in the alley, but try as he might Wedge could not hear the sound that had drawn his interest.  Finally, after Biggs started to shift nervously from hoof to hoof and mutter softly to himself Wedge let out a sigh and ignited his horn with magic.

“Last chance- who goes there?” he challenged again, and this time he accompanied his demand with a beam of light from his horn that lanced into the clinging darkness of the night and filled the left side of the alleyway.

To the surprise of both Biggs and Wedge, the beam of light illuminated another pony in the darkness, a pony who was much closer to them than either of them would have liked.  The light poured over a soft pink coat and a rich magenta mane that faded to a pale bluish-purple, and as Wedge refocused his horn-light up to the pony’s face she winced and raised a wing to cover her eyes, displaying pinion feathers that faded from the soft pink of her coat to a darker pink at the tips.

“Whoa, sorry- didn’t mean to startle you guys,” she said jovially, her voice light and pleasant despite the late night.  The feathers of her wing cast shadows across her face in such a way that only her disarming smile could be seen by either of the guards, but despite the ease of her words Wedge felt his shoulders tense.

“State your business,” he ordered.  “This area is off-limits to unauthorized personnel.”  The Pegasus nodded, her mane bouncing gently above her shadowed face.

“Of course, sir,” she replied, her voice dropping some of her former lightness and replacing it with an almost military formality.  “I’m reporting in for the last stage of the ceremony, as I was instructed.”

Wedge’s gaze darted to Biggs, who simply arched an eyebrow at him and shrugged.  The taller unicorn frowned hard at Biggs, but after a moment he let out a silent sigh and turned his eyes back to the Pegasus.

“Last stage of the ceremony?” he asked as he took a careful step towards the mare.  “I was under the impression that the three ponies we required were already here.”

The Pegasus sighed, her wing still protecting her face from view.  “The boss said that he wanted to try and get a full six in, and I’m the first of the second batch.”  Suddenly her body tensed in irritation and she snorted loudly.  “Look, do you really intend to keep me standing out here in the alley all night or are you going to let me in?”

Wedge’s eyes narrowed, and the next step he took towards the Pegasus was an aggressive one.  “I was told that we would only be expecting three ponies for our mission, not six.  Comet Tail never said anything about another batch of ponies coming in.”

“COMET TAIL- that was his name!” The mare stamped her hoof in recollection, a large string of beads around her right hoof clacking audibly in the silent alley.  “Right, Comet Tail was the one who sent for me.  You can ask him about it tomorrow if you want.”

The tall unicorn winced behind his horn-light, and without turning his head too much he made eye contact with Biggs once more.  The shorter stallion was frowning too, and Wedge made a discreet horizontal motion with his hoof followed by two vertical taps.  To his relief, Biggs didn’t ask for clarification of his orders for a change; instead, the other stallion simply nodded and took a step back towards the door, his eyes once again sweeping the alleyway as Wedge started towards the Pegasus mare once more.

“Again, I wasn’t told about anypony else coming in for the mission, especially this late at night.”  He squinted at the mare, his horn-light focusing tighter on what little of her face he could see.  “Why don’t you lower your wing and let me see your marks.  Then we’ll take you inside and get you a room for the night, and in the morning you can get all the time with Comet Tail that you want.”

The mare chuckled as Wedge stepped closer, his horn still glowing brightly.  “Why don’t you relax on that headlight of yours so I’m not totally blind when I drop my wing?”  She hid a little more behind it, her right hoof raising off the ground demurely as her other wing rose behind her.  “I was flying in the dark, y’know, and bright lights don’t feel the best on night eyes.”

Wedge felt a twinge of guilt despite the suspicious nature of the situation, and after a moment he allowed the beam of his horn-light to widen and soften until it once again lit her whole body… and as soon as he did so, the Pegasus moved.

Her wing dropped just as she had promised, but instead of simply revealing her face it kicked back in tandem with her left wing and pushed the mare forward.  Her muscles bunched as she launched herself into the air, and within a heartbeat she drove her right front hoof into Wedge’s face with enough force to knock the stallion out instantly.  His eyes rolled back in his head and his horn flickered once before falling dark, plunging the alleyway into the uncomfortable semi-darkness that it had been before.

Wedge’s body fell to the stone of the street with a clatter, and Biggs’ eyes bulged in his head as he made a wild grab for his own magic; just as his horn began to glow, however, a dark shape plunged out of the sky and swooped at the stallion, its momentum carrying it past Biggs as it bashed him in the face with a hoof.  So hard was the strike that the unicorn spun in place on his hooves for one full revolution before his knees buckled and he joined Wedge on the cobblestones.

The dark shape turned sharply in the confined space of the alley, its dark wings pumping furiously as it landed next to the Pegasus mare who still stood next to Wedge’s unconscious form.  The mare glanced at the figure next to her, a dark stallion with vibrant red eyes and a dual toned green and blue mane that was almost as long as hers.

“Good timing,” she muttered, kneeling in the street.  “I was worried I was going to have to get the other guy myself.”

The dark stallion snorted.  “You should know better.  I’m just glad you got some information out of him.”  The mare extended her wing and wrapped her pinions around the ring that sat at the base of Wedge’s horn.  She grimaced in disgust, but despite her obvious distaste she plucked the ring from his head and placed it quickly into one of the saddle bags she wore across her flanks.

“It’s not much, I’m afraid.  The group is being led by a pony named Comet Tail,” she said as she rose to her hooves again, “and it sounds like he’s got his party ready to go for the new moon in a few days.”  The dark stallion stepped past Wedge’s body and moved to Biggs, where he used his own pinion feathers to remove the ring from Biggs’ horn and place it into his own saddlebags.

“It’s a pity he’s never going to have that party,” the stallion said, flaring his wings so that the brilliant streak of white that sat beneath his leading feathers was displayed in the soft starlight.  He turned towards the door, his eyes hard and his face calm as the mare stepped up next to him.

“A crying shame.”  Her face was impassive as she reached a hoof out and placed it onto the door knob.  “But every party has to have some crashers.”

The stallion nodded and launched himself into the air as the mare turned the knob.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Less than ten minutes later a pair of stallions huddled in a room near the top of the four story building, their eyes wide and their horns glowing feverishly in the low light of a single overhead light bulb that swung back and forth slowly from the ceiling.

“Did you see where they went?” the first one asked, his voice a tight whisper.  The stallion to the right of the door shook his head jerkily, his ill-fitting helmet bouncing against his horn as he did so.

“No, I just saw them come up the stairs before I bolted in here,” he hissed back, his eyes wide and his pupils dilated.  “I didn’t even get a chance to get a good look at them before they started attacking…”  He shivered uncontrollably for a moment as adrenaline pounded through his veins.  “I don’t even know what’s going on…!”  The first stallion opened his mouth to snap an angry response to his room buddy, but before he could do so both stallions’ ears twitched as they heard loud shouting from down the corridor outside their small room.  The shouting grew louder and was followed by the sound of beams of magic sizzling through the air accompanied by the irregular pounding of hooves, and before the two stallions could so much as blink a trio of unicorns poured through their door, their horns glowing brightly as they retreated with all due haste.  Two of the newcomers, a pair of stallions, plastered themselves to the left wall next to the first stallion while the third, a mare, threw herself against the wall to the right.  The first stallion threw the new ponies an incensed glare as the sound of pounding hooves and sizzling magic filled the hallway outside.

“What in Equestria are you idiots DOING in here?!” he snapped, his voice full of venom despite being little more than a stressed whisper.  “The enemy is out there- go get ‘em!”

The mare leveled a malicious glare of her own at the first stallion, her ears pressed tightly against her long black mane.  “If you can hide in here then so can WE,” she whispered angrily.  Her eyes darted to the open door as a wail of pain filled the hallway outside and the number of horns firing magic decreased noticeably.  “Besides, we’re not going to do anything except get slaughtered out THERE.”

“Has anypony been able to get downstairs to alert the boss?” one of the other stallions asked, his chest heaving as he took deep, sharp breaths.  “He needs to be told about this!”  The first stallion turned his head and glared at the stallion who had spoken, his lip twitching in derision.

“Oh, you think?” he hissed.  “We TRIED to get to the stairs when we heard fighting on the floor below, but by the time we mustered everypony those other ponies came up at us!”

The second stallion huddled a little lower towards the floor, his eyes wide.  “That means that they trapped us up here,” he muttered, his tail flicking back and forth jerkily against the mare’s rear legs.  “W-we’re stuck… we can’t get to the stairs and there’s no other way down!”

“Shut up, Dusk!” the first stallion snapped.  “We’re NOT stuck, we’re NOT trapped!”

The stallion named Dusk raised his head, his eyes wide and his pupils shrunken in terror.  “We’re not TRAPPED?!” he moaned loudly, despair rising in his voice.  “If we can’t get down and we can’t get out somewhere else, we are TRAPPED, Aries!!  That’s the DEFENITION OF TRAPPED!!”  Out in the hallway the cadence of hoofsteps was interrupted by a series of much louder, more concussive thumps that shook the walls of the room the five ponies were inside.  The small group shared worried glances as the sound of magical attacks in the hall fell off dramatically until only one horn was firing, the hissing of the magic beams sounding almost lonely and desperate despite their deadliness.  A voice rose, presumably from the last unicorn in the hallway as he retreated: he snarled and shouted as his hooves thumped down the hall, his words colored with swears that would make a sailor blush with embarrassment.  A discordant thumping resounded in the hallway, followed by a rushing sound almost like a rising wind that grew louder and louder until the unicorn in the hall let out a strangled cry and fell silent.

The five unicorns exchanged glances once more, their eyes wide as a horrible, clinging silence filled the dark hall beyond their open door.  Dusk’s shivers returned and within moments he was hunched down on the floor, his entire body wracked with uncontrollable convulsing.

“We’re gonna die,” he whispered hoarsely.  “We’re all gonna die..!”

“Not if we all go out there together, right now!” Aries rose from his crouch and moved to the center of the door, his jaw set tight.  “We’ve got five unicorns here in this room… there’s no way that anypony could stop five of us!”

The stallions to the left of the door nodded, their eyes narrowing in determination that was echoed by the mare standing above Dusk’s shivering form.  Aries’ horn glowed brighter as he grasped every ounce of magic he could muster and stepped up towards the door.

“All right,” he said in a louder voice, “we’re all going out there on the count of three- everypony with me?!”  As soon as the words left his mouth the sound of rushing wind in the hall rose again, low at first but growing louder by the second as three of the remaining four unicorns stepped up to stand with Aries.  The sound rose in Aries’ ears, and in spite of his strong words the stallion’s eyes grew wide in fear.  “Ready?!”

“Ready!” the three others answered him, their faces set in the firm masks of trained soldiers.  Dusk, on the other hand, made an incomprehensible babbling noise from his crouched position near the door.  Aries managed to throw the other stallion a disgusted glance before taking a deep breath.

“All right, on three: One!  Two!  Th-,”

The rushing sound filled Aries’ ears as a dark pony darted into view from the hallway, and before the unicorn could even finish uttering the number at the tip of his tongue the pony in the hall gave its wings an enormous flap and launched itself off of the opposite wall straight through the door and into Aries.  The unicorn only had the time to jerk his head back in surprise before the Pegasus had his front hooves wrapped around his neck; Aries felt the winged pony flap his wings in a complicated twisting motion, and quick as lightning Aries’ whole world shifted as the Pegasus planted his back hooves onto the floor behind the unicorn and used his momentum to flip and throw Aries bodily into the far wall.

Chaos erupted in the room as Aries’ body crumpled against the back wall of the small room, his hoof kicking the hanging light and causing the dim illumination to begin swinging wildly around the room in a shifting dance of light and shadow.  The Pegasus moved like lightning as the three standing unicorns tried to bring their horns to bear on him, their different colors of magic casting brilliant contrasting colors against his impassive face as he darted at the mare first, the white streak in his otherwise dark wings catching light and color as they propelled him forward.  His hoof connected to the mare’s face, driving her head backwards with enough force that it knocked her out instantly.  As her body dropped towards the floor the Pegasus’ wings flared and pumped mightily, sending the pony shooting backwards and out of the path of the pair of magical beams that filled the air where he had been moments before.  The stallions valiantly shifted and tried to shoot him again, but the Pegasus twisted in mid-air and before they had a chance to even try to aim a second shot the dark pony drove his hooves against their heads, bashing the pair of stallions together like a pair of cymbals in a marching band.  The duo groaned and dropped to the floor, joining the mare and Aries as unmoving lumps of shadow as the light continued to swing overhead.

Dusk felt his stomach tighten, and if he hadn’t been so scared he was certain he would he would have thrown up as the dark Pegasus landed silently on the floor and turned his red gaze on him.

“You’re the last one,” the Pegasus whispered, his voice deep and terrifying, “which means you’re the lucky winner.”

Dusk’s unintelligible babbling filled the room and his helmet dropped to the floor as the dark Pegasus grabbed him roughly by the scruff of the neck and threw him against the back wall of the room, the unicorn half tripping over Aries’ crumpled body before the Pegasus reared up on his back hooves and pinned Dusk bodily to the back wall, his front hooves held above his head.

“All right, tell me where the ceremony chamber is.”  The Pegasus’ red eyes burned into Dusk’s own, his words firm and uncompromising.  “I didn’t see it anywhere up here, so where is it?”

“I-I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Dusk squealed as he wriggled against the Pegasus’ powerful hooves.  “I haven’t seen any chamber of anything anywhere!!”

The Pegasus’ eyes narrowed.  “Don’t play with me,” he growled.  “Where is the chamber, unicorn?  It’s got to be in this building somewhere, so tell me where it is!”  He shifted his weight and pushed himself against Dusk’s upraised legs as he spoke, causing the unicorn let out a shriek of pain as the hard edges of the Pegasus’ hooves dug into his flesh.

“AAAAAGH!  I swear!  I swear I don’t knooooooow!”  Tears of fear and pain sprang into Dusk’s eyes as he shook his head vigorously.  “I don’t know!  Please, please don’t kill me!!”

The Pegasus’ lip curled into a snarl, but as he opened his mouth to ask his question again a third voice cut into the room and stopped him in his tracks.

“I think you might be asking the wrong question.”  The dark Pegasus’ eyes narrowed in irritation and after giving Dusk a threatening glare he turned his head towards the door as a pony flitted into the room, her pink wings flaring in the yellow light of the room’s one light bulb.  The mare settled gently to the floor and leveled her gaze at the stallion.  “Don’t ask him about a ceremony chamber,” she said as she hurried to the stallion’s side.  “Ask him about a secret room or a place he wasn’t allowed to enter.”

The stallion sighed.  “It’s all the same thing,” he muttered.  “I don’t see what good it could do to ask-,”

“Oh, y-you’re looking for the secret room!”  Dusk’s eyes were wide and his breathing was fast and shallow as he nodded his head briskly.  “Yeah, I know where that is!  I-it’s in the study, on the first floor on the north end of the building!  Behind the bookcase!  None of us guards were ever allowed in there!”  The mare looked pointedly at the stallion, her green eyes gleaming in the low light of the room.  The stallion rolled his own eyes before turning his gaze back to Dusk, who gave him a broad, slightly unhinged smile.  “That’s what you’re looking for, right?  S-so you’ll let me go now, right?!”

The dark stallion sighed.  “Why do they always ask that question?” he muttered under his breath.  Dusk’s eyes widened in terror, but before he could even attempt to form words to plead his case the Pegasus pulled his right hoof away from Dusk’s leg and coiled it tightly against his body before driving it into the unicorn’s midsection with enough force to drive all of the air from Dusk’s lungs in a single burst of exhalation.  Dusk’s eyes went wide and his mouth dropped open as he gasped silently for air that would not come, and after a few moments the Pegasus let him drop to the floor in a heap next to Aries.  Dusk writhed on the floor as his vision slowly went dark, and in a matter of seconds he was unconscious.

The mare arched an eyebrow at the stallion, her wings rustling against her flanks.  “Was that really necessary, Vision?” she muttered.  “He told you what you wanted.”

Knight Vision dropped back to all four hooves, his wings flaring wide before retracting to his sides.  “I couldn’t just leave him to run free while we go deeper into this place,” the stallion said, his voice cool and collected.  “He had to be dealt with, and I dealt with him.  He’ll wake up with a monster of a headache, but he’ll survive.”

“Unlike the unicorn you smashed into the wall?”  The mare’s voice was very matter-of-fact, but the stallion winced and dropped his gaze to the floor.

“I… that is regrettable,” he muttered, his ears drooping against his long blue and teal mane.  “I forget that unicorns are sometimes much more delicate than they appear.”  He sighed and shook his head.  “But regrettable as it is there is no changing what happened, and we still have a mission to complete.  Are the lower floors clean, Dreamy?”

Sweet Dreams nodded once, her voluminous pink and purple mane bouncing as she did.  “All ponies are neutralized, and I collected as many of the rings as I could.”  She patted her saddlebags with a wing.  “I don’t think I missed any, but I’m sure the Elucidators will find them if I did.”

“Good work.  Now let’s get downstairs and find this secret room.”  Vision reached out with his left wing and plucked the ring from Dusk’s horn before snatching Aries’ ring with the same feathers.  With a smooth, practiced motion the Pegasus tucked the pair of rings into his saddlebags before turning to the door, where Sweet Dreams was tucking away the last of the rings from the unicorns.  The pair shared a look and a nod before darting out into the hallway, Vision’s hooves pounding on the floorboards as Dreamy took to the air, her wingtips brushing the walls as she flew behind the larger stallion.

They hurried down the stairs, their hoofsteps and wing beats echoing eerily in the now-silent building – a monument to the team’s precision and skill.  Every single pony in the four-story structure had been silenced in a matter of minutes, and as they hit the bottom floor and started for the northern side of the building, Vision could not help but glance around and arch his eyebrows at the piles of unconscious ponies strewn around the halls.

“Did you have a hard time down here?” he muttered to Dreamy.  The mare pursed her lips and gave her head a shake.

“Not really,” she whispered in return, “though it got a little tougher when your two floors started to empty downwards to try and get away from you.  Not a lot of ponies got through, but I’d say a good ten of them were from your floors.”

Vision’s lips quirked into a smile at the mare, his steps slowing as the pair approached the section of the building the now-unconscious unicorn had indicated.  Dreamy’s flapping wings slowed significantly as she and Vision split up without a word to each search a side of the vacant hallway.  They began to duck their heads into the quiet rooms, each searching for the one that held the supposed bookcase that would lead them to the last part of their mission.

After less than a minute of searching, Sweet Dreams landed outside a room, raised her right wing and slapped it across the wood twice.  Her wing against the wood created a sharp pop sound that caused Vision’s ears to snap towards her from further down the hall, drawing his head and gaze with them.  He turned and hurried to where the mare stood waiting, and without even pausing at the door, he entered the large study, Dreamy close on his heels.

The room was beautifully decorated, a stark contrast to the rest of the building which had been extremely minimalistic in décor and more suited to a barracks than anything else.  Thick red drapes hung from the windows, their folds drawn back to let in the soft light of the crescent moon outside, and the walls were lined with paintings, portraits and other items that a pony might associate with an upper class sitting room.  A small assortment of candles still burned on the large desk and small table that sat to the pair’s front and to their right, casting quivering illumination against walls painted a color so deep that Vision could only assume it was black.  There were a myriad of trinkets and playthings scattered in display cases around the room, but the only item that Dreamy and Vision were interested in was the bookshelf that stood tall against the wall to their left, and it was to that particular piece of furniture that they hurried.

The bookshelf itself was beautiful and made of the same antique wood as the rest of the furniture in the room, but the two Pegasi wasted no time admiring its craftsmanship; instead, the two ponies began pulling books from the shelves and discarding them haphazardly, working downwards from the top in unison until they pulled the last book from the bottom shelf, exposing every square inch of the unit.

“I don’t see a switch anywhere,” Vision murmured.  He moved to the left side of the bookcase and shifted a large tapestry out of the way to reveal a set of tracks built into the wall.  “The case should slide to the left without a hidden trigger.”

Without another word the two ponies moved to the right side of the bookcase and gave it a mighty shove, but the unit refused to budge.  Dreamy and Vision shared a confused look before putting their shoulders to the bookcase again, harder this time, but again the wood did little more than creak beneath their combined efforts.

“Hmm… maybe there’s a switch hidden somewhere else in the room?”  Vision took a step back from the shelf, his eyes wandering the space surrounding them.  “Some kind of mechanism designed to be hit from the desk or one of the display pieces?”

From her place next to the bookcase, Dreamy shook her head.  “I’m afraid not, Vision – take a look at this.”  Vision turned and looked back to his partner, who lifted her right hoof and held it out until she almost touched the shelf with it.  The stallion frowned at her, but the mare nodded towards the beads wrapped around her foreleg and, more importantly, to the crystalline crescent moon that hung from the string of beads.  Vision’s eyes darted to the ornament as Dreamy touched her hoof to the shelf, and as she did so the crystal moon’s edge faded from its normal clear blue-white color to a deep purple, the darker color seeping into the rest of the crystal like a pervasive fog.  Vision’s eyes narrowed as Dreamy put her hoof back to the floor, the purple clearing from the crystal moon as she did so.

“Tainted magic?” asked Vision softly.

“You’ve got it,” affirmed Dreamy with a quick nod.  “This thing’s sealed up tight to the wall and won’t unlock unless a unicorn can take care of it.  Who knows, it might even be personalized to the unicorn who cast it – magic is funny like that, and Nightmare magic even more so.  And considering it’s tainted with the Nightmare it may take one of the Elucidators to open it.”  She took a step back from the shelf and shook her head.  “So unless you happen to have an idea that doesn’t require us waiting for the cleanup crew to arrive, we’re stuck.”

The stallion touched the bookcase with one hoof, his gaze calm and calculating as he pressed his weight against the piece of furniture once, then twice before stepping back and flexing his shoulders.

“I might have one idea,” he said with a determined smile.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

“The ritual is almost complete, Master,” the unicorn named Comet Tail said with a bow.  “We have three ponies who have been prepared for the night of the new moon, and thus far our location has been kept secret.”  He straightened and smiled broadly, his short mane spiked so it would stay up out of his face.  “With everything going according to plan, I think that-,”

“Do not think, Comet Tail.  It is not your task to think, it is your task to obey.”  The unicorn stallion winced, and in spite of his previous confidence he felt his tail droop almost between his legs at his Master’s voice.  He brought his eyes back to the large crystal that sat before him, its multiple facets gleaming with internal light as the image of his Master filled it.  “You are there for a very specific task, Comet Tail,” the image in the crystal continued, his voice so deep and powerful that Comet could feel it in his chest as his Master spoke, “a very specific task that has a very specific ending, as you recall.”

“W-well yes of course, Master,” he stammered, “I could never forget your orders, of course… but I thought that we may as well continue with our plans if nothing goes amiss.  See, I have the three ponies I require right here.”  Comet turned so that the image in the crystal could see the three ponies standing behind him, two unicorn stallions and a Pegasus mare who stood loosely at attention with their heads high and their hooves together.  Comet moved to the first stallion and tugged his head lower, pointing gingerly to the other unicorn’s face where a small collection of black patterns swirled away from the corner of his eye in delicate sable filigree.  “See?  I have three in possession of the Nightmare right here, and on the new moon we can work to complete the ritual!”  Comet released the unicorn stallion and hurried back to the crystal, his eyes wide as sweat began to bead across his forehead.  “There’s no need to assume that we’ll be stopped, Master!  W-we might be able to go ahead as planned!”

The figure in the crystal laughed softly and shook his head, the long, slender horn atop his head shifting in the three dimensional image of the crystal.  “Oh Comet Tail… ever the optimist.”  The figure sighed.  “Did you remove the spells as you were commanded?”

“Of course, Master!”

“And did you comply as soon as I gave that command?”

“Y-yes, Master!  Without hesitation!”

The dark figure in the crystal did not change, but Comet could have sworn that he felt his Master smile.  “Then you have done well, and your loyalty will be rewarded.”

Comet frowned, but before he could give voice to the horrible feeling surging in his stomach, he heard a loud crash from the hallway on the other side of the room.  The unicorn spun on his hooves, the sound of splintering wood cascading down a staircase echoing in the dank stone basement as he threw worried glances at the ponies who stood with him, his concern mirrored on their faces.

“Master,” he whined, spinning back to the crystal, “th-they’re here, Master!  What are we supposed to do?!”  To his horror, the figure simply nodded its head once.

“Complete your instructions to the letter, and do not fail me.”  The light in the crystal surged for a moment before dying away completely and leaving only a blank faceted crystal pillar that reflected Comet’s own dismayed expression.

The stallion’s eyes widened and he turned to bark orders at the three ponies before him, but before he could even get a word out of his mouth, it was already too late.  Into the room swooped a pink Pegasus, her wings pumping furiously as she dove headlong at the group of ponies near the crystal.  Comet Tail dove out of the way as she flared her wings and drove her front hooves into the first unicorn stallion, her blows striking the unicorn along his face and neck with such speed and precision that in less than a heartbeat she had put him onto the cold stone of the floor.  The second unicorn turned and leveled a magical blast at her, his beam much broader and more powerful than the ponies who had been placed as sentries in the building above.  The mare’s wings pumped once and shot her up out of the way of the blast as the Pegasus from Comet’s group took to the air in pursuit.

As she rose towards the high ceiling, however, another pony joined the fray – a dark colored pony darted out of the doorway and plowed himself bodily into Comet’s Pegasus, knocking her sideways and away from the pink mare who looped her way quickly around the room, dodging magical beams from the second unicorn stallion.  Comet rose to his hooves and joined his comrade, their horns blasting away at the nimble mare as she swirled through the air like a cherry blossom, her movements so smooth and tight that they simply could not hit her.  Comet’s teeth ground together as he elbowed the stallion next to him, goading him on to greater accuracy in his desperation but to no avail: the pink mare was too fast and too agile, her long mane and tail fluttering behind her as she dove and made a lap around the large room, her wingtips so close to the floor and walls that they brushed the stone as she flew.

Above the unicorns, the dark stallion fought Comet’s mare, blows from his larger hooves blasting through every defensive measure she tried to put up until finally he made his move.  He darted in and grappled her, knocking her backwards in the air as he used his momentum to wrap his legs around her and pin her wings to her body.  The pair hung in the air for a heartbeat as the stallion swiveled his body around her, but all too soon they were falling, the stallion shifting his weight so that the smaller mare was beneath him as they smashed into the unforgiving stone floor of the basement with an audible crunch.

The pink mare’s wings pumped furiously as they propelled her faster and faster around the room, the blasts from the unicorn’s combined efforts to bring her down throwing up chunks of stone debris all around her as Comet and his last ally fought for their lives.  The mare’s body twisted and darted to and fro, deftly avoiding every beam and blast until she was upon them once more, her movements so fast that Comet hadn’t realized she was retaking the offensive.  Her wings flared as her hooves hit the ground to the unicorn’s right, her feathers shining in the dim light of the closed up room as she twisted her body and lashed out at the second unicorn, her glowing left wing striking him firmly across the chest.  The stallion cried out in pain as he was knocked aside, but before Comet could even attempt to react, the mare used her incredible momentum to half-slide, half-hover across the stone floor towards him, her body rotating so that she could deliver a powerful double-hoofed kick into his side.

Every breath of air inside Comet’s body left him in a dramatic whoosh as he was propelled through the air to the wall, where he impacted with a loud thud before slumping to the floor, his vision swimming.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Vision gave his head a shake as he rose from the floor, the body of the injured and unconscious mare remaining unmoving beneath him as he turned to where Sweet Dreams stood folding her wings back into place.

“Nicely done,” he said as he stepped away from his foe and hurried to his partner.  “Will they all survive?”

“I believe so,” said Dreamy with a glance at the pony she had hit with her wing blade, who lay motionless on the floor in a small pool of blood.  “I tried to dull my blades enough so that they would be blunt instead of sharp, but I may not have succeeded.”  Her ears folded against her mane as she looked at the unconscious, bleeding form of the stallion, but Vision held up a hoof and shook his head.

“No time for sympathy right now, Sweet Dreams – we need to do a room check.”

The mare’s ears pressed more tightly against her mane for a heartbeat, but in the blink of an eye she met Knight Vision’s gaze and nodded.  “Right, let’s do it.”

The pair split up and performed a quick search of the room, their trained eyes sweeping the cold stone basement for any indicators as to what their targets may have been doing.  The room was sparsely decorated even for a basement, with only a single, large table flanked by two smaller ones occupying the wall opposite the door.  There were no chairs or cabinets to search, but the three tables were stuffed full of candles, ancient-looking texts and a set of three long ceremonial knives arrayed around a large crystal pillar that occupied the center of the table.  Dreamy and Vision approached the table, their faces drawn into contemplative frowns.

“This is a first,” muttered Vision.  “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a crystal like this at any of the other locations.”  He glanced to his partner.  “Time to impress me, Dreams: what’s with the crystal?”

To his surprise the mare shook her head, her green eyes wide.  “I don’t know… I’ve never seen one before.”  Vision’s eyebrows climbed into his long bangs.

“You haven’t?”

“Afraid not,” she confirmed as she took a step closer to the table.  “The knives are standard for this kind of ceremony, but the crystal is definitely not…”  She brushed the long knives aside, their cruelly curved blades glinting in the light of the candles as she reached her hoof out to touch the crystal.  Before she could touch it, however, the shimmering sound of magic filled the basement and a beam of light lanced past Dreamy, missing her by mere inches.  Both Pegasi leaped backwards as the beam struck the crystal and blasted it into a million pieces, the force of the explosion sending sparkling dust into the dank air of the basement.

Vision’s wings took him into the air and carried him to Comet Tail in a heartbeat, his left hoof snagging the injured unicorn by the coat on his chest and yanking him upright as his horn went dark.  The Pegasus’ right hoof drew back in a strike that would have ended the unicorn’s threat for good, but before he could follow through the unicorn gave him a cross-eyed, quavering smile.

“N-now you’ll never get your hooves on that crystal, s-scum,” he slurred, his face swollen and bruised.  “N-never…”  Vision’s eyes narrowed and he pulled his hoof back a little further, but before he could strike, the unicorn’s eyes rolled back in his head and he passed into unconsciousness, his head lolling back as his mouth dropped open.  The stallion made a disgusted sound in his throat before dropping the unicorn roughly back to the stone and turning to face Dreamy, who stood near the table once more.

“Well, I guess that ends that investigation,” she muttered unhappily as she brushed the crystalline debris around with her pinion feathers.  “There’s barely enough left to even identify.”

Vision stepped up next to her, his long mane bobbing as he glanced around the table.  “Is there anything left at all?  Anything big enough we can take back to the Aerie with us?”

“Um…”  Sweet Dreams shuffled through the items on the table until she found a large shard of the crystal that had survived mostly intact.  It measured just longer than her hoof was wide, but with a shrug she held it out for Vision to see.  “That’s as good as we’re going to get, I’m afraid.  Take it or leave it.”

“I’ll take it,” he muttered.  He took it from her hoof with his wing and dropped it into his saddlebags.  “It’s better than nothing, and maybe somepony there can tell us what it is.”  He glanced around the table and room once more before turning back to Dreamy and nodding.  “All right, signal the Grandmaster and let her know we’ve neutralized our target.”

The mare nodded and reached over with her left hoof to touch the beads wrapped around her right leg.  With a subtle turn, she revealed one bead that was not quite like the others – a bead that was not rounded on all sides but rather had a small blue sapphire embedded into it.  Dreamy rubbed it three times with her hoof before tapping it sharply in a series of sequential clicks, the tapping the only sound in the basement as Vision moved silently to each of their four opponents to check their vital signs.  Dreamy finished her tapping, and mere moments later, the small sapphire began to flash a soft blue in a similar sequence.  The mare raised her right hoof to watch it as it flickered, and when it stopped, she lowered her hoof back to the floor with a smile.

“The Grandmaster says good work and that both the authorities and the Elucidators are on their way.  Time to head back to the Aerie.”

Vision nodded.  “All right, then.  No further orders?”

“Other than returning to the Aerie, no – although she did say that the Princess thanks us personally.”  Sweet Dreams smiled broadly.  “It’s always nice to get a thank you from Princess Luna.”

“Indeed it is,” Vision agreed.  “Indeed.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

A few minutes later, the two Pegasi flitted away into the darkness of the night before the dawn, leaving behind a building full of ponies behind them.  The moon was slowly setting in the west as Sweet Dreams and Knight Vision put it to their backs and winged their way towards the Aerie – towards home.

But instead of feeling comforted by the prospect of rest, both Dreamy and Vision found themselves wrestling with nagging thoughts: thoughts of the strange crystal that Comet Tail had risked his life to blow up, a crystal whose remains now rested in Vision’s saddlebag.  Both ponies felt in their hearts that there was more to this crystal than first appeared, and they both hoped beyond hope that one of their compatriots could tell them more about it.

It had been a long night, but the dawn was not far away – and with the dawn came peace.
> Chapter 2
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“The first thing I noticed was the sadness – the ineffable, unfathomable sadness that engulfed me as I merged with the foreign entity inside of me.  The crushing weight of it pressed in on me from all sides until I sobbed from within its cocoon, the despair of a thousand lifetimes filling my heart, mind, and body.  Despite my resolve, I felt my conviction waver in the face of such torturous sorrow.
It did not last long; soon the deep blue sea of misery sparked alive with red, yellow, bright blue and purple, lances of color in the dark underworld I found myself in.  They closed in on me and consumed me, and soon I was one with fear, anger, fury and hatred, all coursing into me and filling me until I felt as though I would burst.  I screamed and raged and lashed out with my magic, and as I did so the cocoon around me exploded into bright white light, revealing my new form: coat black as coal, mane shining like a dying star – the epitome of power and rage with the unbridled forces of the universe at my command.
I had done it.  I had successfully merged myself with the Nightmare... and as I marveled at my newfound power I found it easy to ignore the cost.  For it was not until a thousand and more years later that I realized what it had stolen from me that day.”

~entry from Princess Luna’s personal diary, on her union with the Nightmare

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The eastern sky was just beginning to lighten towards dawn as Knight Vision finally arrived at the ancient temple that was the home of his order, and despite the long and eventful night Vision still found it in him to smile warmly at the cool tan stones that had given him so much.  He and Sweet Dreams tipped their wings gently to the right, sending both ponies into broad, sweeping spirals that would take them down towards the huge mountaintop structure.

In ancient days the Aerie had been a Temple of the Moon, a place where ponies could go to worship and pay respects to Luna, who they worshipped as a goddess alongside Celestia.  According to the information they had received from Princess Luna, there had been more than a dozen of these huge stone structures dotting Equestria and the lands beyond, each with a corresponding Temple of the Sun; after the Nightmare Moon incident, however, ponies had done what they could to erase Luna’s mark on their land.  All of the Moon temples had been destroyed by ponies eager to put the darkness of the Nightmare behind them – all of them but one.  Vision’s eyes swept the beautifully preserved building below him, his smile broadening as his vision followed the temple’s perfectly straight angles and undamaged façades that stood out starkly from the rough mountain stone beneath it.  It was truly a marvel to behold, and whether it had been forgetfulness or the machinations of ponies unknown that had spared it from destruction, he was grateful to have it.

Movement out of the corner of his left eye drew Vision’s eyes from the temple below to the sky above him, and against the slowly brightening sky he saw the silhouette of another Pegasus fall into formation with Dreams and himself.  It was a Pegasus mare, her brilliant blue feathers catching what little light there was in the sky and shimmering like an aurora as she tossed him a salute with her right hoof.  Vision offered her a nod of thanks and turned his head to glance at Dreams, who gave him a smile as the trio descended towards the Aerie below.

The morning air was cool and dry around the mountaintop and offered little resistance to the pegasus’ wings as he swooped in low to the enormous balcony that protruded from the southern face of the square-edged pyramid.  According to the Princess, each temple had a balcony on whichever side received the most light from moon and sun to allow the ponies who worshipped there an unobstructed view of the objects of their worship no matter the time of day, but what really mattered to Vision was that it made the perfect landing area.  His broad wings flared and flapped firmly as the dark stallion brought himself in for a landing, the bright white markings on the interior of his pinion feathers all but glowing in the waxing dawn as he hovered for the barest of moments then settled his hooves to the cool stone beneath him.

Vision let out a sigh of relief and shook his long mane out as he folded his wings against his body, hoping against hope that he could shake the long flight out of his hair before having to present his report to the Grandmaster.  Never let it be said that I’m not a little vain, he thought with a quirk of his lips, and with an expert shake of his head and brush of his wingtips he ensured that his mane was untangled before turning towards Sweet Dreams and the other mare, who had landed along with the duo.

“Good morning to you, Artemis,” Vision greeted with a respectful nod.  “Good to see that you were guarding the skies tonight.”

Artemis Rose gave her wings a single sharp flick before retracting them and offering Knight Vision a charming smile.  “And a good morning to you, Vision,” she said, returning the nod.  Her voice was light but sharp, like the refined edge of an elegant rapier, and Vision knew that despite her ladylike appearance Artemis could and would knock just about anypony out of the sky if she had to.  “I’ve heard that your mission was a success.  Congratulations to the both of you.”

“I think we earned those congratulations last night,” Dreams said, rolling her shoulder with a furrowed brow before turning to face Vision, her hooves scraping across the stone.  “There were a lot more guards there than usual, weren’t there?”

The stallion nodded.  “There certainly were.”  His red eyes shifted back to Artemis, whose shimmering aqua feathers rippled like sunlight on water as she turned to face him more squarely.  “And I assume that the news of our success means Grandmaster Feywind has returned as well?”

“It does,” Artemis said with a nod, her dusty rose mane bobbing around her ears.  “I’m certain she’ll want to speak with you as soon as she can.”  She pointed a hoof towards one of the half dozen large doors that connected the balcony with the inside of the Temple.  “She should be in the Heart with Valkyrie.”

Vision nodded and offered the mare a small smile.  “Thank you.”

“Thanks a lot, Artemis,” Dreams said as she turned towards the door with Vision.  “I hope the rest of your patrol goes well!”  Artemis gave the pair a brief wave with her hoof before turning back to the edge of the balcony; her wings flashed open, and in a heartbeat she was gone.

The dark stallion gave his long mane a toss as he and his partner walked through one of the two middle doors to the Aerie, the portal wide enough that six ponies could have walked abreast through it and tall enough that even a minotaur wouldn’t have had to duck to enter.  The blazing morning sunlight outside faded away as the pair entered the ancient building, and as their eyes re-adjusted to the dark Vision couldn’t help but smile.

With the exceptions of the living quarters and outermost hallways the Aerie was devoid of any natural lighting, relying instead on glowing crystals that decorated the hallways and rooms.  Each crystal gave off as much light as the full moon, their silvery-white illumination filling the otherwise pitch black interior of the pyramid.  As Vision passed the first crystal of the hallway, its round, faceted form tucked tightly into a corner next to the door, he felt a sense of peace return to him – a peace that he never felt anywhere but here.  His shoulders relaxed, and in spite of the fact that he hadn’t officially finished his mission yet, he couldn’t keep himself from decompressing just a little bit.

The two pegasi moved down the long hallway, passing two smaller halls and six doorways as well as a few other ponies on their journey towards the Heart.  The few ponies they met were all pegasi, as well, and for good reason: it would be nearly impossible for any other kind of pony to reach this place, and even if they were brought here the altitude would have made them sick.  The Aerie was one of the highest points in Equestria, and certainly the highest land-bound community to be inhabited, yet despite not being a cloud city like Cloudsdale or Windsoar it was one of the few places that earth ponies and unicorns couldn’t comfortably make their homes.  Pegasi were the only ponies naturally suited to living at all altitudes in the world, and Vision believed that was what had spared this structure from the purge a thousand years ago.  It would have taken an army of ponies much stronger and more magical than one made of pegasi alone to destroy a building like this, he thought as he and Dreams moved towards the Heart.  I suppose that puts into perspective how badly they wanted the others destroyed…

Their hoofsteps echoed softly off of the stone walls as they passed the last pair of doors in the hall and approached the room known as the Heart, but even before they had officially entered it Vision’s ears twitched violently as a pair of angry voices bounced discordantly off the walls, slowly rising in volume as they walked.

“…fall into line with the others right this instant!  You will NOT receive another warning!”

Vision’s eyes narrowed, but his pace remained unchanged.  “That sounded like Valkyrie,” he muttered out of the corner of his mouth, just loud enough for Dreams to hear him.

“Yeah, it was definitely her,” the mare responded, and Vision didn’t have to look at her to know that her normally smooth brow was now crinkled with a frown.  “And that means…”

“And why should I?!” a deep, loud voice responded to the first, its bass tones booming and filling the hallway as Vision and Dreams came to the exit.  “I’m twice the fighter they are – ten TIMES the fighter they are!  I shouldn’t be in the same league as them!”

Vision’s lips quirked into a wry, knowing smile, and he glanced at Dreams just long enough to share a shrewd look with the mare.  “And that means Ronin,” Vision finished for her as the pair stepped from the passageway into the huge chamber know to everyone at the Aerie as the Heart.

The Heart was the enormous inner chamber of the pyramid, and despite being inside a grand structure the Heart somehow managed to be considerably more formidable and awe-inspiring than the pyramid itself.  It stretched the entire height of the Aerie in one perfectly formed column, its square sides rising through each of the levels of the great pyramid until it broke free into the sky beyond.  The sides of the square were broad enough that the pegasi of the Aerie could perform most of their aerial training in its cavernous maw, and an open hallway around the edges of all three levels of the pyramid ensured that anypony who wanted to watch could do so.  Vision had wondered about the usefulness of viewing areas when he had first joined the Coursairs and had voiced his curiosity to one of the veterans at the time, and the older pony had told him that, when the Aerie was still a Temple of the Moon, pony priests and priestesses would hold grand ceremonies in the Heart that many ponies would want to see and be involved with.  The addition of viewing areas allowed a great many more mares and stallions to join in the ceremonies, so they made sure to have them on each level to ensure that everypony had an unobstructed view of the Temple’s greatest treasure: the Eye of the Moon, a suspended diamond the size of a pony that was said to have been formed from moonlight itself.  The brilliant white faceted form of the Eye floated magically halfway between the opening to the sky and the floor below, and was truly a wonder of Equestria… but today, Vision’s gaze did not immediately dart to the enormous diamond that hovered above the second floor where he stood; instead, his eyes shot down as he reached the edge of the balcony to a pair of figures on the Aerie’s floor below him, and as his hooves came to a stop the smaller of the two figures spoke again.

“You will not disrespect them like that, Ronin, if for no other reason than you are disrespecting ME when you do so!”  The smaller figure was a mare, her snow-white coat shining in the bright full-moon glow from the Eye.  She shook her head slowly and the light danced across the golden braid of her mane, her wings flaring in agitation at the figure before her.  “Stormberry and Cardinal are exemplary students, and if you were even half the warrior they are then-,”

“Half?  HALF the warrior they are?!”  The other figure, a sizeable griffon with red-gold feathers on his upper half and tan fur on his lower, opened his hooked yellow beak and gave a laugh so full of disdain that Vision felt his own feathers bristle at the younger creature’s tone.  The griffon, Ronin, raised a claw and pointed to a spot behind the white mare that Vision could not see.  “If you put those two together, they STILL wouldn’t be half the warrior that I am!”  He placed his claw back to the floor and gave the mare a disgustingly superior smile.  “Griffons are more skilled in combat than you ponies are – even a pony with a warrior pedigree as strong as yours, Valkyrie.”

The white mare’s wings rose even further from her body, the light catching her pale blue pinion feathers and dancing across the bright blue filigree tattoos that she had across her neck, shoulders and front legs.  “You know nothing of my birthright, griffon,” she snapped, “and my pedigree has nothing to do with your rank in this Aerie.  Now get back in line!”  The authority in her voice as she gave the command was heavy enough that a few of the ponies who shared the balcony with him took that as their cue to leave quickly, and Vision nodded to himself.  Valkyrie has always had such a tender way with the new recruits, he thought with a smirk.  That tone of hers had snapped even the most stalwart of troublemakers out of their self-destructive ways and turned them into top-notch fighters.

To his disappointment, however, Ronin the griffon did not move.  Instead, his wings bristled in much the same way that Valkyrie’s had, his golden eyes glinting in the light.  “Make me, old maid.  MAKE ME get in line, if you can!” 

The dozen or so ponies gathered on the two tiers above the ground level did not gasp audibly, but Vision knew that they had: no pony, griffon or other creature known to Equestria had ever challenged Valkyrie’s authority in such a manner, and everypony present knew that the Archangel of St. Petershoof would NOT let such an affront go unpunished.  Ronin took a step towards the much smaller mare, but instead of backing down Valkyrie stood up taller than ever, her blue eyes flashing like lightning in the low light of the Heart.

“Oh I’ll make you get in line,” she declared loudly enough for every pony present to hear, “and what’s more, I’ll make an example out of you so that nopony ever questions my orders again!”  Ronin’s predatory smile grew broader, and Vision could see the muscles of both parties tense in preparation for the fight to come.  His eyes widened, and the thought that he should probably do something flitted across his mind, but before that thought made it to his hooves a third voice filled the large hall, its tone more commanding even than Valkyrie’s.

“That is ENOUGH, both of you.”

Vision’s ears flicked back towards his mane, and out of the corner of his eye he saw Dreamy’s posture slouch as a single figure strode out from the shadows of the first level, silence following her like a pitch-black bridal veil.  The newcomer was a bat pony, and even if Vision hadn’t known who she was it was painfully obvious that she was a born fighter; she moved confidently across the ancient stones, her hoofsteps neither hurried nor hesitant as she made her way towards where Valkyrie and Ronin stood, her leathery wings tucked in tight against her slate gray body.  Vision was just close enough to see the royal purple highlights in her dark blue mane, and the proud set of her shoulders and neck allowed everypony on Vision’s side of the room to see her single brilliant teal eye, its normally cool depths simmering as she stopped in the middle of the room.

Silence held sway for several long moments after the mare’s appearance, and it was Valkyrie who broke it first, the white mare turning away from the griffon before her in favor of the bat pony.

“This is my fight, Feywind,” Valkyrie declared, and while her tone was carefully devoid of the anger that had tainted it earlier Vision noted that her ears remained pinned to her mane.  “Ronin has pushed me too far, and now he is going to pay the price for his disrespect!”

“He has pushed too far,” agreed Feywind, her tufted ears still fully erect as she stared at the pair across from her, “but you’re not going to fight a trainee, not the way you are right now.”

Valkyrie’s eyes widened and Vision felt his own eyes do the same.  “But Grandmaster,” Valkyrie began, her tone indicating that she would not be brushed aside so easily, but before she could get any further in her argument Ronin’s brash laughter filled the hall.

“Hah!  See?!  Even the Grandmaster knows better than to let you fight a griffon!”  His chest feathers puffed up and he swept his golden eyes across the second story balconies.  “There isn’t one of you who could stand up to me,” he boasted, the corners of his beak curving into a disgusting smile.  “And that brings me back to the topic we were… discussing earlier, Valkyrie.”  His gaze slowly came to rest on Vision, and the griffon’s smile grew slightly.  “I’m above doing all of this training.  It’s time for me to take on missions with the masters.”

A wave of murmurs tickled the edges of Vision’s ears, but a murmur was as far as it got before Feywind gave her head a slight shake.

“You’re not ready for missions alongside the masters of this Aerie, Ronin,” she said simply, her voice firm.  “The ponies who carry the title of master are disciplined and capable of-,”

“I am disciplined!” the griffon interrupted, his head jerking back towards the bat pony as his eyes flashed.  “I am a student of the Star of Asgard, the griffon art that no pony can master or defeat!  I am stronger, faster and more capable than even the masters here, and as such I have a right to be fighting alongside them!”  His wings flashed open, their impressive wingspan filling the space around him with golden feathers that shimmered in the magical light.  “I demand to be counted among the masters!”

Feywind’s eye narrowed.  “You demand to be counted among them?” she muttered.

“I do,” Ronin answered, his eyes burning.  “I have the right!”

Silence fell among the assembled ponies as Feywind stared hard at the upstart griffon, her expression as unreadable as stone for several heartbeats.  Vision felt his anger rising at Ronin’s absolute gall, and in spite of himself he felt his jaw tighten.  I swear that if Feywind thinks he is going to get away without a firm beating, I am going to do it myself, he thought, his heart pounding in his ears.  He shot another glance at Sweet Dreams and found her face wearing a similar mask to his own – a carefully neutral façade that he knew hid roiling anger beneath.  I’m certain Dreamy will join me in teaching our young outlander a thing or two about how this Aerie is run.

“Very well, Ronin,” Feywind said into the silence.  “If you wish to be counted among the masters, then you will have to earn it.”  A smile slowly spread across her face, baring the elongated fangs that all of her kin were born with.  “Fight us, young griffon, and if you win I will bestow upon you the title of Master and all the responsibility that comes with it.”

Now an entirely different sound rose from the gallery: the soft yet unmistakable sound of quiet, confident chuckles, and Vision added his own to them.  He heard Dreams actually giggle aloud, a sound that filtered through the rest of the voices and tweaked the ears of the griffon, who puffed up indignantly.

“I accept!” he declared, his voice rising in anger.  “And once I win you’ll all see how superior the Star of Asgard is to any of your pony styles!”

Valkyrie cast an angry glance at Ronin and Feywind alike, but after a heartbeat’s hesitation she spread her wings low and bowed her head towards the bat pony before backing out of sight.  As soon as the white mare was gone, Feywind turned to her right and began to walk slowly, her hooves clopping solemnly on the stone beneath her.

“Any of our styles?” asked Feywind, her voice disconcertingly casual.  “That’s a bold claim, especially when you consider that, as a trainee, you probably haven’t seen all of our fighting styles just yet.”  Across from her Ronin turned and began to pace as well, his talons scraping as he stalked along, his eyes burning with anger.

“I’ve seen enough,” he spat.  “I’ve seen Knight Vision’s Eagle style, Valkyrie and Sweet Dreams’ Kestrel style, Artemis Rose’s Swallow style – all weak compared to the Star of Asgard!”  Even from his second story vantage point, Vision could see the griffon’s muscles bunching along his shoulders as Ronin prepared for his attack.  “They’re too specialized and not versatile enough!  The Star of Asgard was designed to be able to fight any opponent, anytime, anywhere.”

Feywind’s laughter echoed in the silent room.  “The Star is certainly a well-rounded style, I’ll grant you that.  What it lacks is focus.”  The bat pony’s muzzle split into a smile once more.  “Just like a certain griffon I know.”

Vision smirked at Feywind’s comment and turned towards Dreams to whisper his agreement, but as his eyes fell upon the pink form of his partner he caught sight of movement beyond her – a black shadow that oozed through the dark corners of the room, slowly and precisely as if it were a mountain lion stalking its prey.  The stallion’s eyes widened in surprise, and without speaking he turned back to the main hall.  His trained gaze darted around the rest of the room and in a matter of moments he had located two other shadows slithering towards the first floor of the Heart.

“The Star does not lack focus, nor do I!” Ronin spat, his wings flaring broadly.  “I am a warrior who can fight on any battlefield with incredible success – does that sound like a creature who lacks focus?!”

Vision reached out with his hoof and tapped Sweet Dreams on the leg and, when she glanced at him, he gave an infinitesimal nod towards the nearest creeping shadow.  Dreams’ gaze shifted from him to the shadow for the briefest of moments before darting back to him, and without hesitation she offered him a nod and a grin that Vision returned.  It would seem that my desire for Ronin to have his tail kicked is going to be fulfilled in the most spectacular way possible.

On the floor below Vision, Feywind stopped in her tracks and offered the griffon a soft smile that was full of pity.  “You lack what you lack, young griffon, and no amount of anger or posturing can get it for you.  But perhaps you’re just confused about your shortcomings.”  Her leathery bat wings flashed open as she slid her hooves into a fighting stance, her brow knitting as her eye narrowed.  “Allow me to point them out.”

The griffon let out a screech and gave his wings a mighty flap that propelled him forward at a frightening pace, his rear paws barely touching the ground as he brought his vicious talons to bear at the bat pony before him. Feywind’s wings gave a flap of their own, but instead of sending her flying towards the griffon she skittered sideways, her hooves floating above the stone for the briefest of moments as she darted nimbly out of the griffon’s way.  Ronin’s talons slashed into thin air and drove down into the bare stone where Feywind had been, and as his wings flared to stop his forward momentum the bat pony lashed out, spinning in mid-air to deliver a sharp backhand blow to the side of Ronin’s face.  The griffon shrieked aloud and grated his talons against the stone as he spun around to face Feywind, his eyes blazing with anger.  For her part, Feywind’s face betrayed no emotion as all four of her hooves touched the floor a few feet away from the griffon; her legs bunched, her wings rose, and like a gust of wind she shot herself back towards the larger creature before he had time to gather himself for another attack.

Feywind’s front hooves smacked against the griffon’s face and neck twice before Ronin could gather his defenses, and even as he brought his front legs and wings in to protect him Feywind still scored an extra strike through a gap left between Ronin’s left leg and wing… and Vision found himself smiling as the sound of strikes hitting flesh and feathers filled the room.

“He’s done,” he muttered to Dreams, and out of the corner of his eye he saw the mare nod her agreement.

The Grandmaster’s front hooves became almost a blur as she struck time and time again, her back hooves counterbalancing her body weight as her wings held her aloft. As Vision watched, Feywind’s wings twitched laterally every so often, moving her to a slightly different position as she probed the griffon’s defenses with blow after blow of her hooves.  To his credit, he’s skilled defensively, the stallion thought grudgingly.  Not many ponies here could hold off the Grandmaster, even in the early stages of a fight.

“Your defense is quite good, Ronin.”  Feywind’s voice carried over the rhythmic sound of her blows, her tone sounding almost relaxed despite her physical exertion.  “But are you going to try hiding in there forever?”

“Hah!  What’s the matter, Grandmaster?!” the griffon’s voice called out from behind his wings, his voice much less relaxed despite the bravado in his words.  “Can’t get through the Shield of the King?  It’s no surprise – many foes have broken against the might of the-!”

Ronin’s words turned into a sharp grunt and a loud gasp as Feywind shifted abruptly to her left and delivered a hoof straight through the pinion feathers on Ronin’s right wing, striking him square in the chest with enough force that it echoed in the Heart.  The griffon staggered backwards, his wings retracting as he clutched his chest with his right talon.  Feywind dropped back to all four hooves, her face still impassive as she turned and immediately began to pace once more, presenting her right side to the clearly stunned griffon.

“Defense alone will not win this fight, Ronin.  You can’t simply hide and hope that I will tire – I assure you that I will not.”  Her hooves clopped softly against the stone, the rhythm of her steps filling the hall like the ticking of a clock.  “Do you yield?”

Vision could see the seething anger filling the young griffon even before he heard it in his voice.  “You Crows and your dirty tricks!” he hissed, his beak clacking sharply as his tail lashed back and forth, the tip whipping his flanks.  “I will never yield, least of all to a weakling like YOU!  This is a battle of strength – use your strength to fight me and not your silly techniques!”

“Those so-called silly techniques allowed me to land a hit on you despite your ‘impenetrable’ Shield of the King.”  Feywind continued to circle Ronin, her posture loose.  “And more to the point, that ridiculous philosophy of yours is exactly why you’re not fit to be a master yet.”

“Wh-what?”  Ronin’s eyes narrowed and he took a step away from the Grandmaster, though his posture remained aggressive and defiant.  “What are you talking about?”

“The idea that strength is what makes a master.”  Feywind’s ears twitched atop her head and her one-eyed gaze rose to the second floor as she continued to pace.  “The notion that physical prowess and power in combat are what you must seek to join their ranks...”

Ronin let out a shriek and lunged forward at Feywind while her eye was elsewhere, and for a heartbeat Vision’s stomach clenched as the much larger griffon’s talons grasped greedily for the Grandmaster’s exposed neck; before he even got close to her, however, one of the shadows that he had seen lurking around the dark corners of the grand chamber flashed out into the center of the room and intercepted Ronin with a strike that Vision felt even from his place on the balcony.  The impact sent the griffon flying, his wings flailing as he struggled to stay upright, and to Vision’s surprise he managed to get all four of his feet onto the ground, a move that turned his flight into a skid that sent him almost to the edge of the huge room.

In spite of the very real nature of the fight happening below them, Vision could feel every pony in the room smile as one of the ‘shadows’ he had seen earlier spread her webbed wings and landed gracefully next to Feywind, the leathery skin of her wings a shining silver instead of the typical dark blue-gray of normal bat ponies.  The new mare gave her pitch-black mane a toss as she turned to Feywind and the light from the Eye glinted across the silver streaks in both her mane and tail.

“…or that you must fight alone to be a master,” Feywind finished before nodding to the newcomer.  “Excellent timing as usual, Eclipse.”

“An honor, Grandmaster,” the darker mare said, her voice deep and melodious.  She bowed respectfully to Feywind before turning to face Ronin, who stood with his wings extended and his eyes narrow.

“You said that I had to fight you, Grandmaster!” he hissed, but Vision could hear that a good deal of the wind had quite literally been knocked out of his sails by Eclipse’s strike.  He stood where he had stopped, his left front leg raised in a posture that clearly denoted injury as he glared daggers at the second bat pony.  “You never said anything about fighting Eclipse, too!”

“That’s where you’re wrong,” said Feywind with a smirk.  “I said that you would have to fight us.  What did you think – that I decided to use the royal ‘we’ for a moment?”

From opposite sides of the room two more shadows rose and darted out into the brilliant light of the Eye, both forming into two more bat ponies who flitted down to land around Feywind.  Vision’s smile grew broader as Solstice, a mare with short red mane and bright golden eyes, and Moon Veil, a light gray mare with a pale blue mane that was much longer than any of her companions, both settled lightly between the Grandmaster and the griffon, their gazes sharing the determination of trained fighters despite their many physical differences.  Ronin’s eyes widened slightly, and Vision could practically taste the second thoughts that the griffon was having.

Feywind’s teal eye met the gold of Solstice, the silver of Eclipse and the purple of Moon Veil, and without a word the three newcomers leaped back into the air, the flapping of their leathery wings filling the space as Feywind took a casual step towards Ronin, her tufted ears twitching occasionally as she walked.

“The first thing you lack is a cool, clear head,” she said, her voice as calm as if she were giving a lecture in a classroom.  “If you’d started this fight with that, you would have heard me slip in that ‘us’ and could have restructured your attacks… or given up entirely.”

The three mares darted through the air to hover over Ronin, their eyes intent on him as they slowly rotated around him in broad, sweeping arcs that brought them close to him but never within his strike range.  Ronin’s eyes darted to and fro, this way and that as he tried to simultaneously keep his eyes on all four mares around him; however, that slowly became more difficult as Eclipse, Solstice and Moon Veil increased their speed, swirling around the griffon in a steadily increasing vortex of gray, red, silver and blue.

Feywind took another step towards Ronin.  “The second thing you lack is insight – the ability to see past what is happening right now and into what is going to happen.  This is the key to anticipating your opponent’s moves and ensuring that you stay one step ahead of them.”

The griffon’s wings flashed open once more, clearly intent on darting out from beneath the circling menace of the three bat ponies, but as he threw himself towards Feywind one of the mares darted out from their whirling dance and planted her hoof into his chest so fast that even Vision couldn’t see who had done it.  Ronin’s eyes bulged above his beak as his momentum faltered, leaving the griffon to stagger a few steps to his right before throwing his wings and legs back up into his defensive Shield.

“This isn’t fair!” he gasped amid the flurry of wings.  “This is not how this was supposed to go!”

“Of course it’s not,” said Feywind lightly, “real combat rarely goes how it is ‘supposed’ to.”

As Vision watched, the whirling vortex of bat ponies shifted until they were encircling Ronin again, and in a matter of moments he could hear the blows landing – solid, forceful blows that staggered the griffon every time they landed, hitting him from all sides at random moments.  The proud griffon shrieked and whirled in place, trying to get his wings and legs between himself and the ever-present hooves of his attackers, but his Shield was seemingly always where the bat ponies weren’t.  The sound of wings and strikes grew louder and louder as the whirlwind around Ronin turned faster and faster, and Vision saw Ronin’s resolve waver then shatter as Solstice, Eclipse and Moon Veil’s hooves found their mark time after time after time.  Finally, Feywind let out a single sharp squeak that pierced through every noise in the room, a strange sound that seemed to tickle the inside of Vision’s sinuses and made him wrinkle his nose.

As one the three mares ceased their attack on Ronin, their whirlwind of death immediately fading into long, gentle arcs that took them into a holding pattern over the griffon; Ronin, for his part, flopped onto his right side as his legs gave out.  His right eye was swollen mostly shut, and Vision could even see a small trickle of blood staining the yellow of his beak.  His breathing was heavy and ragged, and as Feywind approached him it was clear that none of his previous fire was left in him at all.

Silence filled the room as Feywind looked down on the defeated griffon, her expression carefully neutral as she stood over her defeated student; then, after a very long moment of quiet, she raised her head and stood proudly, and when she spoke again her voice was as firm as her gaze.  “Do you know why you lost today, Ronin son of Gyrron?”

“B-because…” he wheezed, but Feywind cut him off with a sharp wave of her hoof.

“You lost today because you allowed first anger and then fear to rule your mind and spirit.  You grew angry at your fellow trainees, and that turned into anger at Valkyrie, and that anger transferred to me when I appeared.  That anger became fear as you lost the upper hoof, and both smothered your spirit into an inability to fight.”  The bat pony placed her hoof back to the ground with a loud, authoritative clop.  “The opponents we fight are merely pawns, Ronin.  The ponies we do combat with are puppets to a greater evil: the Nightmare.  You know this, correct?”

Ronin raised his head a little higher off the stone.  “Y-yes, Grandmaster.”

“Then know this, as well: if you ever go on a mission for our Princess and succumb to the same emotions that you did today, you risk allowing yourself to fall prey to the very enemy we fight.  The Nightmare thrives on hate, anger, fear, jealousy and hopelessness, and if you allow your spirit to be tainted by these things you open the doors of your heart to its wheedling tendrils.”  The other three bat ponies swirled down out of the air and landed next to the Grandmaster, the room falling totally silent as their wings stilled.  “We train our bodies to temper our minds, Ronin son of Gyrron,” Feywind said finally, her words echoing to every ear.  “We train our minds to protect our spirits, and we train our spirits to support one another, for it is only through strong minds and stronger spirits that we will emerge victorious in the end.”

Another heavy silence fell as Ronin gazed up at the four mares before him, and as Vision watched the griffon shifted his legs beneath him and forced himself up off the floor.  Feywind made no move to help the injured Ronin as he struggled to his feet, and after almost a minute of struggle the griffon finally stood straight and tall once more.  Although he’s definitely a little worse for wear than he was before… Vision thought with a smirk.

“Grandmaster… I…”  Ronin swallowed audibly, and after a tense moment he bowed his head so deeply that his beak almost touched the floor.  “…forgive my insolence, Grandmaster.  I… I did not realize-,”

“I know you didn’t,” Feywind said abruptly, a wry smile touching her lips, “and that was why this was necessary.  You’re not the first student to question our methods, nor will you be the last…”  Her smile vanished.  “Ronin, you are confined to your quarters until you apologize not only to your classmates but to Valkyrie as well.  And while we’re on that subject you should probably add thanking me to that list.”

Feywind gestured behind her, and two ponies hurried out from beneath one of the other balconies; they rushed to Ronin’s sides and each took one of his wings across their shoulders, supporting the large griffon between them.  They started to turn away, but Ronin shook his head and managed to keep them facing Feywind for a moment longer.

“Grandmaster… why should I thank you?” he asked, a wafer-thin thread of his previous defiance sneaking into his voice.  “You… you had me beaten to teach me a lesson… why should I thank you?”

The Grandmaster’s smile grew broad.  “You should thank me for not letting you fight Valkyrie.  She’d have REALLY hurt you.”

The griffon’s eyes widened, and the ponies supporting him turned gently before helping him from the room.  The collective breath that the ponies around them had been holding was released, and Vision felt as though time had suddenly returned to everypony.  He gave his head a shake before turning to Dreams, who offered him a broad, satisfied smile.

“Well, that was totally worth watching,” she said quietly, and Vision nodded with a small smile.

“I agree.”  His gaze shifted back to the floor below them, where Feywind stood speaking quietly to Valkyrie as Solstice, Eclipse and Moon Veil stood a respectful distance away.  “But now we need to get down there and make our report to the Grandmaster.”  He stepped to the edge of the stone balcony, spread his wings, and leaped off into the air.

It was an amusing distraction, he thought as he glanced in the direction that the injured Ronin had gone, but a distraction was all that it was.  We have to tell Feywind about last night’s mission, and hopefully answer some of the questions that it raised.
> Chapter 3
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	For generations untold, the ponies of Equestria have feared the shadows and the night… and in truth, I am among them.  When the moon is high and the cold hours before dawn stretch until they appear to be eternal, I feel the cold grip of fear deep in my chest that I have had described to me so many countless times by ponies who have served me – the feeling, like frigid mist settling across your flanks, that unsettles even the most stalwart of ponies and stirs our most primal fears into being.
I am not immune to this feeling, though I do my best to appear that I am.  Perhaps I am even more susceptible to it than my dear subjects… for it is half of what I am.  Luna, my dearest sister, was half of me, half of my life and half of Equestria, and even though it has been nine hundred years since her banishment was carried out I still keenly feel her loss each and every night.  Whenever the moonlight touches my coat I feel as though it is crying out to me, begging me to save her… but I cannot.  The magic used is too deep and too powerful even for a pony such as myself to undo, and all I can do is wait… wait while the light of the moon turns cold against me, spite and hatred and jealousy growing with each night that passes.
I cannot blame Luna for what she did, nor can I blame what she has become – the being that calls itself Nightmare Moon – for feeling the way that she does.  All I can do is become the light that shields my ponies from the darkness, an unstoppable force that will never allow them to be harmed...
…yet my nightmares persist… and I cannot bring myself to shield my mind completely… because even buried beneath a mountain of hate, rage and jealousy, Nightmare Moon is still my sister… and I would suffer ten thousand years of nightmares to be with her once more.

~excerpt from Princess Celestia’s personal diary, roughly one hundred years before Luna’s return.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Sweet Dreams soared down into the middle of the Heart alongside Knight Vision, her green eyes lingering on the spot where the Grand Master was speaking to Valkyrie in low tones.  The pink mare could tell from the distance that Eclipse, Solstice, and Moon Veil were giving the pair that the conversation was probably not one of encouragement, a fact that made Dreamy think twice about approaching Feywind right then; Knight Vision, however, landed a short distance away and hurried forward, his mind fixed on completing the mission.  Dreamy rolled her eyes.  I swear, that stallion forgets everything in the face of a task that needs finishing, she thought as she flared her wings and landed where her partner had landed, her hooves clacking loudly in the almost silent room.  With an inward sigh and an outward wince, Sweet Dreams proceeded forward to where Vision stood waiting, and as she approached the conversation between the Grand Master and the Master of the Aerie slowly touched her ears.

“...unacceptable behavior,” Feywind was saying, her single teal eye cool as she glared at Valkyrie.  “Ronin has always been a problem, yes, but I never expected things to get as out of control as they got today.”

“It wasn’t out of control – I was handling everything until you interrupted.”  Valkyrie’s neck was straight and she met Feywind’s gaze without flinching, but Dreamy noted that her ears were pinned back against her golden mane as if they were physically stuck there.  “You have to trust me to deal with these newcomers the right way if I’m going to do this job.”

Feywind sighed, and her shoulders slumped almost imperceptibly as she closed her eye.  “I do trust you, Valkyrie.  You wouldn’t be Master of the Aerie if I didn’t…”  Her eye opened again, and Dreamy saw Valkyrie’s shoulders stiffen beneath the bat pony’s gaze.  “…but you have a lot of learning to do if you’re going to keep Ronin and any future recruits from challenging your authority,” she finished, her words suddenly full of steel.  “If you cannot maintain control over the recruits in your care then I will turn your duties over to somepony who can.”  Feywind’s eye narrowed.  “Is that understood, Valkyrie?”

Now Valkyrie’s blue eyes widened and Sweet Dreams winced in spite of herself as the white mare’s mouth dropped open in shock.  “G-Grand Master, are you insinuating that-,”

“I am insinuating nothing,” Feywind interrupted, her words slicing through Valkyrie’s like a well-honed blade.  “I have given you your orders and informed you of the consequences if you do not follow them.  We will speak more on this incident later, but for right now you are dismissed.”

Valkyrie’s shrank slightly, and as Dreamy watched she lifted her left hoof from the ground as if to take a tentative step towards the bat pony.  “Feywind…”

“You are dismissed, Valkyrie!” the Grand Master snapped, her tufted ears standing straight up as she spoke.  Valkyrie flinched, but Feywind’s words had their desired effect on her; without another moment’s hesitation the white mare bobbed a quick bow to her superior and hurried away, her ears against her mane and her head held low.  Sweet Dreams watched her hurry towards the north entrance, hoping that the other mare would cast a look back so that she could give her some sign of encouragement, but Valkyrie disappeared into the darkness of the Temple without so much as a glance behind her.

The pink mare’s own ears drooped against her voluminous mane at Valkyrie’s departure, but before she could begin to dwell on the subtle aching that had started in her stomach the Grand Master turned her one-eyed gaze to Dreamy and Vision.

“You’re here,” she said, and the tension in her shoulders eased slightly.  “I was beginning to wonder if you’d had complications.”  She turned to face them, her metallic eye patch all but glowing in the light from the Eye, and without preamble she fixed them both with a tight-lipped gaze.  “Report.”

“Yes, ma’am,” said Vision, tossing the bat pony a salute before returning his hoof to the stone.  “We found the Nightmare cult exactly where Princess Luna said it would be – in a storage building in Manehatten, just off the docks.”

“Observations?”  The bat pony turned and began to pace slowly, her eye unfocused as she listened.  Now that Valkyrie had moved on the three other bat ponies had made their way closer, their eyes fixed on Vision and Dreams as the pair gave their report.

Sweet Dreams stood up straighter as she too gave a salute to her commanding officer.  “We scouted the building as quickly as we could given the circumstances, Grand Master, and discovered that there was but one entrance that hadn’t been blocked off.  It was kept under light guard, so the decision was made to attack.”

Feywind nodded as she turned and began to pace the other direction, presenting her metal eye patch to the pair.  “And once you were inside?”

Dreamy shifted on her hooves, and out of the corner of her eye she saw Vision’s wings rustle in agitation.  “There were guards, Grand Master,” the stallion said.  “More guards than we had expected, and certainly more than an organization of that size should have had.”

Behind Feywind, Solstice gave a snort as she sat down onto her rump.  “We’ve run into heavily guarded cults before, Knight Vision – this is nothing new.”

“I agree,” said Vision, his expression betraying none of the irritation that had flared behind Dreamy’s eyes at Solstice’s interjection.  “It’s hard to imagine something worse than the Canterlot Incursion two years ago-,”

“Or the Sisters of Shadows, let us not forget them,” said Moon Veil with a frown, her voice soft and breathy.  “One of our greatest failures…”

Eclipse nodded.  “Both fine examples of instances when we were surprised and prevailed, despite our losses.”  She turned her silver eyes to Knight Vision and Sweet Dreams, her expression carefully neutral.  “Yet you would have us believe that this cult was unique.”

“Yes,” Sweet Dreams said without hesitation.  “The number of guards with Nightmare enhanced items was easily three times the number we have encountered in the past.”  She turned her head and grasped her saddlebags in her teeth, a motion that was mimicked by Vision.  Dreamy lifted the bags, brought them around in front of her and deposited them onto the floor, where the clinking of metal within left little guesswork as to what the half-full bags contained.  “We stopped counting around fifty.  Each.”

Feywind stopped in her pacing and turned back towards the pair, her wings fidgeting against her sides.  “A high number indeed,” she muttered as she fixed her gaze on the saddlebags.  “More than we had anticipated…”

“Again, that’s nothing new,” muttered Solstice with a wave of her hoof.  “The cults always think that packing more ponies into their guard contingents will stop us.  It never does, and it never will.  We’re better trained and better led.”  She dropped her hoof back to the floor, her red mane bobbing as she nodded firmly.  “With Luna guiding us, Feywind leading us, and the three of us training everypony, we can’t lose this fight.”

“I beg your pardon, ma’am, but we can.”  Sweet Dreams felt heat gathering behind her eyes as her anger rose.  “What Vision and I walked into tonight can only be described as one thing: a trap.”  Solstice’s eyes widened at the word, but Feywind remained silent so Dreamy plowed on.  “The ponies they had were almost exclusively unicorns, all armed with Nightmare rings that boosted their magical powers.  They had only one way in and out of that building, meaning that they weren’t planning on escaping: they were making it easier to cut off our escape routes.  I believe that was their plan, at least.”

Solstice narrowed her eyes at Dreamy and opened her mouth to refute Dreamy’s words, but to the pink mare’s relief the Grand Master held her hoof out towards Solstice, silencing the red-haired bat pony.  Dreams let her eyes dart to Feywind and found herself pierced by the other mare’s teal gaze.  The Grand Master is nothing if not intimidating, she thought as she struggled to suppress a shiver.

“You believe this was a trap, Sweet Dreams?” the bat pony asked softly.

Dreamy swallowed.  “Yes, Grand Master.”

“And what evidence do you have to support your claim?”

Now Sweet Dreams winced as the needle of Feywind’s query pierced her.  “…I have very little, Grand Master – only the numbers we encountered and a suspicious item we found in the basement of the facility.”  The pink mare dipped her head and flipped open the right side of her saddlebags with her nose as Vision began speaking once more.

“Once we had dealt with the guards in the building, we interrogated a stallion and discovered the location of a secret subterranean room where the ceremony was to be held.  When we arrived there, however, we found that the room was clearly not staffed as it should have been.”  Dreamy grasped the shard of crystal in her teeth and brought her head up, the item cold in her mouth as Vision continued.  “We found only four ponies in the room: three with the marks of the Possessed, along with the leader of the group – a stallion by the name of Comet Tail.”  The stallion’s eyes shifted from Feywind to the other bat ponies as he spoke, ensuring that each of them were giving him their undivided attention.  “According to what little information we could get from the guards, Comet Tail had all of the ponies that he’d wanted for this ceremony… but his numbers simply didn’t add up.”  Vision’s marching gaze came to rest on Feywind once more, his red eyes serious.  “Once we had neutralized Comet Tail and his Possessed, we found a large crystal on the ceremonial table… a crystal that we have never seen before.”

Now all four bat ponies frowned, and Feywind frowned deepest of all.  “A crystal..?” she murmured, her one-eyed gaze turning inward for a moment.  “What kind of crystal?”

“We don’t know,” Vision admitted with a shake of his head.  “When we attempted to investigate it, Comet Tail roused himself just long enough to shoot a beam of magic and destroy the crystal.”  The stallion’s wings shifted.  “I would like to point out that he shot past Dreams and me to shatter the crystal, passing up a golden opportunity to kill one of us to keep whatever secret it was hiding.”

Feywind’s gaze returned to the present, and her single eye darted to Dreamy.  “Is that what remains?”

The pink pegasus nodded before stepping forward and depositing the large shard into Feywind’s outstretched hoof.  “It was the largest piece we could find after he destroyed it,” said Dreamy once her mouth was empty.  “Whatever it is, he didn’t want us figuring it out.”  She cleared her throat before adding, “And for what it’s worth, Grand Master, I’ve never seen a crystal used in any ceremony these cults perform.”

The Grand Master’s eye stared at the crystal shard, her ears twitching sharply to and fro as she did.  Dreamy stepped back into line with Vision and cast him a glance, receiving a small smile in return.  Good – at least she’s thinking about this seriously, the mare thought.  Vision and Moon Veil are both right about one thing: none of us want repeats of the Canterlot Incursion and the Sisters of Shadow.  The more information we have here, the more likely it’ll be that we come out alive on the other side.

After several long moments of silence, Feywind extended her right membranous wing and grabbed hold of the shard with the claw on its leading edge; she tucked it tightly against her body before dropping her hoof back to the ground and turning her eye back to Dreams and Vision.  “I will study this crystal myself, as well as allowing our allies to probe it as necessary.”  Her lips curved into a minute smile.  “You both did very well on this mission… and I promise you that I will consider every aspect of your report with the seriousness it deserves.”  She offered them both a gracious nod.  “You are dismissed.”

Vision and Dreamy both bowed, and as soon as they straightened Dreams turned on her hooves and hurried for the north door, her wing feathers fidgeting against her flanks as she left Vision and the others behind.  The knot in her stomach had slowly morphed into a sick, floppy feeling deep in her gut, and she needed to go and see the one pony in the Aerie who could cure it.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Knight Vision watched his partner hurry off towards the barracks on the north side of the Temple, his lips curving into a slight smile as the pink pony disappeared from sight.  Normally he and Dreams would have spoken at length about their mission after the debriefing had finished, but tonight it was clear that her mind was elsewhere and, more importantly, that she needed to be where her mind was.  At least I’ll know where to look if I need to find her again.  The stallion let out a breath of a chuckle before turning back to Feywind, who was likewise watching Sweet Dreams hurry off, her expression carefully neutral.

“I wonder where she’s off to in such a hurry,” she muttered, and Vision couldn’t help but chuckle louder at her tone.

“Off to see Valkyrie, I have no doubt,” said the stallion, his smile changing into a grin as the bat pony turned to face him.  “She didn’t seem to take your reprimand very well, so Dreamy’s probably off to check on her.”  Feywind’s shoulders relaxed, and after a moment she managed to offer him a tired smile.

“Good – she needs somepony around her right now.  I know it’s not easy to be told that you’re not doing a good enough job, but-,”

“But it needed to be said, I know,” said Vision with a nod, his long mane bobbing against his shoulders.  “Although I will say… the argument could be made that Valkyrie only seems soft when compared to you, Fey…”  From Vision’s right came a snicker, and Feywind’s single eye narrowed as she turned to glare at the culprit.

“I’ll have none of that from you, Solstice,” she growled.  “You know good and well that I’m holding you just as responsible as Valkyrie in this matter.”  Vision turned his gaze to the red-haired mare, who glared back at Feywind with her golden eyes.

“Me?!  This isn’t my responsibility – Valkyrie is the one in charge of the new recruits, not me!”

“Valkyrie’s only overarching task is to ensure that the recruits STAY on task,” Feywind growled.  “You, Moon Veil, and Eclipse are each just as responsible for the training of the newcomers as she is, and you, Solstice, were in charge of teaching Ronin and Speckled Comet, were you not?”

Solstice’s glare wavered, and as Vision watched she shifted from hoof to hoof, her shoulder muscles rippling as she did so.  “I was,” she confirmed after a few moments of silence.  “It was decided that I would begin Ronin’s training because the Star of Asgard is similar to both Lark and Eagle styles.”  Her molten gold gaze came to rest on Vision.  “And since Knight Vision has been on so many missions for the Princess in the past few months he’s had little to no time for teaching, leaving me to deal with Ronin and his growing problems.”  She made sure that Vision got a solid eyeful of her unhappy stare before turning her attention back to Feywind.  “I understand why I was chosen to train the griffon, but what I don’t understand is why I’m being held responsible for his attitude – something that clearly falls under Valkyrie’s jurisdiction.”

“The attitudes and mental well-being of our students are concerns for all of us, Solstice.”  Vision’s gaze shifted to Moon Veil, her soft blue mane shifting like a curtain of pale morning sky as she took a step towards the other mare.  “Valkyrie may be in charge of our new students, but she is meant to be a supervisor over all of them.  She can only correct her own students without our help, and I’m afraid that the Ronin situation was not something she could have dealt with on her own.”  The normally placid Moon Veil narrowed her amethyst eyes at Solstice.  “So while you may not like it, his behavior today is as much a reflection on you as it is on Valkyrie.”

Solstice’s eyes widened in surprise at the accusation and her mouth snapped open, bitter words poised at the tip of her tongue; before she could speak, however, Knight Vision cleared his throat and took a step forward, his posture loose and non-threatening.

“And while I may not like it, I must take responsibility for my own actions as well,” he said quickly.  “I am well aware that Ronin’s training is part of my duties here, and missions do not place me above my tasks at the Aerie.”  Solstice turned towards him, her eyes narrow with suspicion, but Vision held her gaze in his as he dipped his head into a bow.  “I apologize for leaving his training solely in your hooves, Solstice.  As soon as he has recovered and apologized as he was instructed, I will begin training him as well.”  He straightened his neck and offered the bat pony a strong smile.  “Who knows?  Perhaps I’ll be able to squeeze that poor attitude of his right out of him.”

Feywind snickered and gave her head a gentle shake.  “I think you might be able to do just that,” she said softly.  She let out a sigh before glancing at Solstice.  “The new moon will be upon us in two night’s time, and then it is a few weeks before our missions will begin again in earnest.  Vision will assist you in training the griffon as soon as the new moon is passed and Ronin has done as he was told.”  She arched the eyebrow over her metal eye patch.  “Does this satisfy you, Solstice?”

“Doubtful,” said the hitherto silent Eclipse with more than a hint of mirth in her voice.  “Solstice is never satisfied.”  Vision snickered, a sound echoed by Moon Veil and Eclipse herself, and Solstice’s cheeks colored as she whirled around to face the bat pony with the black and silver mane.

“You shut your mouth,” she hissed, but her sharp words lacked the venom that they had earlier and after a moment her tight lipped frown melted into a ghost of a smile.  “But yes, Feywind, I suppose I am satisfied.”  She turned her head back to Vision and gave him a nod.  “I thank you for assistance in the matter, Vision.”

The stallion bowed his head once more, this time dropping his gaze and closing his eyes.  “It’s my pleasure,” he said, holding his bow for a heartbeat before straightening.

Feywind gave a nod, her wings bouncing against her flanks as she did so.  “Now that we have everything settled, I’m going to take this crystal and study it.”  She twitched her right wing where the large chunk of clear stone was clutched tightly, and Vision nodded.

“I would appreciate it.  Please let me know if you find out anything – I’m certain that Dreams would like to know, as well.”

“If there’s anything to be found out, I’ll inform you.”  The Grand Master turned and headed for the western door, her tail swishing behind her as she left the group behind.  “Let’s just hope that there is something to find,” she said over her shoulder, “because if there isn’t we’re going to be in the dark about something the cults are doing… and we all know where that leads us.”

Vision’s shoulders slumped, and in spite of being at the center of the most secure location in Equestria he couldn’t suppress a shiver that coursed its way down his spine.  “Yes, Grand Master,” he muttered at her retreating form.  “We all know.”

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Like the rest of the ancient stone building around her, the hallway that Sweet Dreams found herself in was all smooth tan stone trimmed with white and black along the floor and ceiling.  Crystals glowed gently for illumination as the pink mare hurried along the corridor, her stomach knotted so tightly that she thought she might throw up.  There truly wasn’t much in the way of decoration anywhere in the Aerie, so for anypony new to the Coursairs or for somepony who wasn’t supposed to be there it could be a little difficult to get around in the cold, almost sterile halls.  For a pony who had been there as long as Dreamy had, however, it was an easy task to get around in the unmarked halls, and even if she had been new to the group it would have been an easy guess as to which section of the structure she was in.  Doors lined the long hallway on both sides, the portals much closer together here than they had been in the main halls to the south, east, and west, and that meant more rooms of uniform size – the perfect place for a barracks.

The pink pegasus hurried about halfway down the hall before turning to a door on her left, a door that was visually identical to every other door in this section of the Aerie except for symbol that had been delicately painted on the wooden surface: a golden ring encircling the blade of a winged sword, its blade pointed upwards.  Dreamy lifted a hoof and rapped it against the wood three times, her stomach clenching even tighter than before.  Please be here, she begged silently, oh please be here…

“You may enter,” said a voice from the other side and, in spite of the words being formal and the tone being callous and annoyed, Sweet Dreams felt the tension in her stomach ease and her ears drooped in relief.  Thank Luna… I’m not sure I could have handled trying to find her if she wasn’t here.  Her hoof darted to the doorknob and gave it a smart turn before pushing the door open.

The room inside was sparsely decorated, containing only a bed in the far left corner, a small table with two chairs at the right side of the room, and a short bookshelf that sat between them to round out the furniture.  The room was bare otherwise, and even if it had been filled with the most interesting things in all of Equestria Dreamy’s eyes wouldn’t have strayed from the bed, where the mare she’d come to see sat with her head in her hooves, her golden mane draped over her shoulder to hide her face from the door.

Dreamy felt her heart break as she stepped into the room and closed the door behind her, her chest aching with a horrible, gut-turning clench that made all of her sick feelings from earlier come rushing back; without hesitation she hurried to the bed and turned so she could sit down next to the blonde mare, the frame of the bed creaking as she did so.

“…are you okay, Valkyrie?” she asked after a moment of silence, her wings quivering along her sides as she stared at her friend.  The other pegasus shook her head silently, and as she did her hair shifted, allowing Dreams to see the tell-tale traces of tears on Valkyrie’s face.  You poor thing… she thought with a wince.  Feywind wasn’t kind to you today.  Without another word, Sweet Dreams extended her left wing and wrapped it around Valkyrie, pulling the other mare closer so that Dreams could lay her head against Valkyrie’s blonde mane.  The warmth from her long-time friend nestled tightly against her and, as if she had been waiting for just such a moment, Valkyrie’s tears began to flow.  Her shoulders shook as tension filled her body, and Dreams made gentle shushing noises as the frustration and outrage poured out of her friend.

“It’s going to be okay, Val,” she cooed softly into the golden fibers of Valkyrie’s mane.  “It’s okay… everything’s going to be fine…”

“H-how could she talk to me that way?” choked Valkyrie, her words hoarse and virulent.  “I’ve done everything I can think of to straighten that damned griffon out, b-but it wasn’t enough for Queen Feywind…”  The muscles along her neck bunched beneath Dreamy’s wing, the sinewy fibers as strong as corded steel beneath Valkyrie’s deceptively soft coat.  “It took everything I had not to hit him… not to hit her…”

“I know,” murmured Dreamy before gently nuzzling Valkyrie’s mane.  “I could feel your anger all the way on the second floor… and I’m proud of you for keeping it together.”  Now a snort came from beneath Valkyrie’s mane.

“Keeping it together… right… that’s what we’ll call it.”  She managed to bark a coarse laugh.  “It felt like my whole body was on fire… I literally saw red, Dreamy, a-and I wanted nothing more than to plow Feywind’s face with my hoof so hard you could pant seeds there next season…”

Valkyrie’s tone was as serious as could be, but her analogy struck Dreamy deep in her gut and sent a wave of mirth rising through her whole body.  It shot through her chest and burst from her lips as a bright giggle, the sound echoing off the sparse walls of the small room.  Her right hoof rose from the bed and pressed itself firmly against her muzzle, but the giggle would not be stopped: it forced its way around her hoof and out into the air, its joyful peals washing over everything.

“Oh dear Celestia,” she managed to wheeze between fits, “Valkyrie… d-did you seriously just say that..?!”

Valkyrie shifted and turned her gaze to Dreamy, her muzzle scrunched into a tearful frown.  “You’re laughing at me again,” she muttered huffily, her hooves sliding down her face to her chest.  “I hate it when you do that…”  Dreamy’s giggles continued, however, and despite Valkyrie’s tough words the pink mare felt her friend relax beneath her wing as she did.

“I… I’m sorry, Val,” she said after a few long moments of laughter.  “It’s just… plow her so hard you could plant seeds…!”  She snickered again, her eyes squeezing shut tight as her hoof pressed against her lips.  “Sometimes I wonder if you’re not more country pony than you let on.”  She opened her eyes, and to her delight she saw a smile flicker across Valkyrie’s lips.

“Yeah… you would think that, Dreamy.”  Valkyrie sat up a little straighter and gave her rear hooves a kick that sent her legs swinging between the bed and the floor.  “I’ll have you know that St. Petershoof is not a farming community,” she said, a hint of imperiousness entering her voice despite the scratches that her tears had left behind.  “It is a city with a lot of history and great significance in-,”

“-in the construction of modern Equestria as we know it,” finished Dreamy, her eyes narrowing playfully as she scrunched her muzzle at her friend.  “Yes, I know – I’ve heard it from you a thousand times, farm pony.”

Valkyrie’s mouth dropped open in mock horror that, when coupled with a playful wink from Dreams, quickly melted into a warm smile as she let out a sigh.  “Dreamy… why won’t you just let me stay mad, hmm?”  Her pale blue pinion feathers rustled against her snowy sides so that they lay in place once more.  “It seems like you’re always here to make me laugh instead of letting me stew.  I’ll have you know that I’m perfectly capable of dealing with my anger all on my own, thank you very much.”

The pink mare shifted closer to Valkyrie and pulled her tight with her wing, her left foreleg snaking around the other mare.  “Because we both know that the Aerie can’t afford to have you breaking any more furniture,” she said matter-of-factly.  “And that has proven to be your way of ‘dealing with your anger’ on multiple occasions.”  To her delight the white mare blushed, the red in her cheeks contrasting sharply with the bright blue of the tattoos on her neck.

“Hey, that was a long time ago…” she muttered, but in spite of her words she relaxed against Dreams a little more.  “But you’re right – it’s certainly a lot less complicated this way.”  Valkyrie’s smile quirked up a little more at the corners and she gave Dreamy a nod.  “Thanks.”

The pink mare leaned over and gave her friend a firm nuzzle on the side of the head, enjoying the closeness as she squeezed Valkyrie with her wing once more.  “Anytime, angel,” she said softly.  Valkyrie blushed again and with a laugh Dreamy slid away from her, putting a little bit of space between them on the bed.  “And hey, look at the bright side: the new moon is only two days away, which means that tomorrow Feywind is going to take off for the Gathering in Canterlot.”

“And she’ll be gone for three days,” Valkyrie said with a grin.  “Yeah, that thought occurred to me and it’s a welcome one.”  She let out a sigh and shook her head, her flaxen mane swaying around her face as she did.  “I’ll have to apologize to her, I’m sure, and try my best to keep Ronin under control in the meantime.”  She winced, and her ears drooped down into her hair.  “I swear, Dreamy… sometimes I wonder why I ever took this stupid position in the first place…”

Dreamy rolled her eyes.  Oh boy, here we go again…  “We both know why you took the position as Master of the Aerie, Val,” she said in her most patient tone.  “You care about the training that our new recruits get, and out of anypony here you were the one who was willing to take responsibility for them.”  Her grin returned as she met Valkyrie’s gaze.  “And in the end you took that ‘stupid position’ because you know good and well that you wouldn’t have felt comfortable letting anypony else take it.”

Valkyrie opened her mouth as if to protest and Dreamy opened her mouth in a similar fashion, her eyebrows raised expectantly.  She stared at Valkyrie openly, meeting her friend’s gaze for several long moments before the other mare’s ears drooped back into her mane in defeat.

“…I hate it when you do that,” she muttered, giving Dreams a look so sour it could have curdled milk.  Dreamy giggled, and despite Valkyrie’s glare she could see that the anger had truly left the white mare’s eyes.  That’s really what I came here for, she thought as Valkyrie’s glare melted away into a knowing smile.  To make sure she didn’t get herself into even more trouble.

“Well, hate it if you want to,” said Dreams after a moment, “but as long as I’m here I’m going to keep on reminding you why you took that job.”  She leaned towards Valkyrie, her wings rising slightly off her back to balance her properly as her mane draped itself over her right eye.  “And I’m going to keep you from flying off the handle, too,” she added with a grin, “as long as I can do something to stop you, that is.”  She gave Valkyrie a wink before straightening, her eyes never leaving the other mare’s muscular form.  “Besides, if I know Vision – and I do – he’s already promised to take Ronin’s training into his own hooves, so I doubt you’ll have much more to worry about from the griffon.”

“Oh is that so?”  Valkyrie’s smile warmed as she winced dramatically.  “I almost feel sorry for the kid now.  Vision’s going to wring him out like a dirty dish cloth.”  

“Oh you know he will,” said Dreams with a chuckle.  “But at least he has a few days to recover before his new training regime starts.”

“Yeah… another new moon comes and goes.”  Valkyrie’s eyes unfocused as she stared ahead, and Dreamy knew exactly where she was looking: the past.  It was a look that the pink mare knew well, and one that she did everything in her power to avoid.  “No training for the three days that Feywind is gone, the Vigil on the night of the New Moon… plenty of time for the griffon to regain his strength.”  Silence fell between the two mares for several heartbeats before Valkyrie gave her head a brisk shake and turned her smile back to Dreamy.  “I suppose he’ll be fine by then.”

Dreamy nodded.  “Yeah, I’m sure.”  Her grin returned.  “And I guess if he’s not, then he’s not cut out to be a Coursair.”

Valkyrie returned her grin with a predatory one of her own.  “That’s the truth if ever I’ve heard it.”  The two mares shared a laugh, and Dreams felt her worries ease as Valkyrie stood from the bed to shake out her wings.  It’s a dark path we all walk, she thought, but as long as each of us can find a light, it makes bearing that darkness a little easier.  Her mind flashed to the image of Valkyrie’s face, her eyes staring back into the shadows of her memories… and without a doubt Dreamy knew that, despite her desire to never look into the past again, she would face those shadows for the sake of her comrades.

And face them I will… a thousand times and more.