Chapter the First: What Came Before
It was the middle of the day, and so the sun ought to have been shining over the castle Krak de la Lune. As Eclipse shoved another bolt into his crossbow in the moonlight, he reflected that a number of things that ought to be happening were not, and a good deal of things that ought not to be happening were.
The soldiers assaulting the Krak—he brought another down as it tried to break through in a group—ought to be diamond dogs, or griffons, or something. They ought not to be the Canterlot Royal Guard. His platoon ought to be parading through the streets alongside them, united to protect everypony. They ought not to be shooting crossbows at them and engaging in hoof-to-hoof combat. Most importantly, his commander, Princess Luna ought to be lowering the moon to make way for the sun. She ought not to be leaving it in the sky and refusing to lower it.
He leaned over the upper ward even as he loaded his crossbow once more with his magic. The Royal Guard were making another push, and the Lunar Guard were being pushed back once more. He looked around to spot whoever looked the most like they were in charge. Finding a particularly loud-looking pegasus marshalling a group towards the postern, he raised his crossbow, and shot him. The bolt launched out with a loud crack, but he had no time to watch for results. He ducked down behind the crenellations, and breathed in as a rattle of metal resounded against the battlements. Their damned counter-snipers were too bloody good. The battle would not last much longer. He could see that, even without his magic.
“Night Blitz!”
“Sir?”
“Get this message to Red Company. Enemy attacking postern. Requesting reinforcements. Message end. Repeat.”
“Enemy attacking postern, requesting reinforcements. Got it.”
“Go. We don’t have much time.”
* * *
Things had to be pretty bad if the Looie wanting reinforcements from the medicos, but Night Blitz knew better than to answer back to an officer like that. ‘Sides, Eclipse had never led the platoon wrong. He galloped across the upper ward. His wings twitched as he did, but the bastards had pretty much grounded the loyalists over the last week. None of the darkbolts here could take flight without risking serious injury or—more likely—death. Even their few pegasus ponies had to be careful. What it meant for him is that he had to stick to his crossbow rather than his much-preferred hoof claws.
Blitz did not bother with knocking on the door to the hall, merely slamming the doors open. The smell of death flooded his nose, and he had to fight the desire to slake his thirst there. He could not control his fangs, though, and as he walked through the room, stepping over bodies in various states of health, he kept his mouth closed. No point scaring the casualties to death.
It was not too long before one of the Red Company accosted him. “Sir”—she was a young private, it looked like—“are you in need of medical attention?”
“Not me. Take me to your leader.” It was the cheesiest line ever, but he loved to use it on these new bucks. She nodded timidly enough, and buzzed through the lines of wounded quickly enough to impress him. She could not have been that new if she was that agile around the wounded. Part of it was no doubt due to the tentacle on her head, though. Those things were one heck of a lot better than the unicorn horns, even if the Princess had kept hers.
They made their way through the hall until eventually they bumped into somepony wearing scrubs with an impressive amount of rank insignia on them. It had been a long time since Night Blitz had seen a colonel wandering around, and even longer since he had seen a fellow darkbolt at that exalted rank. He saluted as the colonel turned, and had to force himself to keep steady when he saw the colonel’s eyes. They were bloodshot, and had an amazing collection of bags underneath. It looked like he hadn’t slept in weeks.
“Yes, corporal?” Night Blitz shook himself to focus again.
“Message from the Lieutenant, sir.” He scratched his head absent-mindedly. “Enemy attacking postern, requesting reinforcements. Sir.”
“Which Lieutenant, damn your eyes?” The colonel’s uniform was covered in dried blood and other things—Night Blitz tried not to think about what they might be.
“Lieutenant Eclipse, sir, of the Second Company.”
The colonel turned away at that. “Tell the Lieutenant that it is already over. My only job now is to preserve the wounded. And get out of my sight.”
* * *
As the darkbolt corporal turned to leave, Private Midnight Shimmer felt lost for what felt like the first time since she had been mobilised to the medical company. The Colonel had just turned aside, not even trying to help. She bit her lip, and then jumped up and followed the corporal, skipping across the sick and wounded.
“Hi!” she called, and he stopped and turned. “I’ll help, even if nopony else will.”
“You will?” She thought that she could see him bite back a laugh, but smiled anyway.
“Yes, I will. What can I do?”
“Do you know how to shoot a crossbow? Never mind, we don’t have time to discuss it. Follow me.”
With that, he headed back out, and opened the door to the brisk night. Midnight shivered a little and kept following, only pausing to close the doors behind her. The implications of her disobedience only now began to be clear to her. Maybe she sho-
Her introspection was cut short when the corporal tackled her to the ground. “Stay low!”
She looked up to see several pegasus ponies flying over the castle at high speed, in the golden armour of the Royal Guard. They dropped several objects, which began to make a whining noise as they fell through the sky. When they hit the ground, they exploded, sending dirt and dust and metal everywhere. The wounds of those ponies last night and before became horrifyingly clear to her. How could somepony do that?
The corporal was up, and looking around, he dragged her across the ward. She had seen it when she first came here, and it was flat and perfect. Now it was cratered and blasted, the architect’s work being put to a destructive test. “Grab a crossbow, and point it at the bad guys!”
Midnight took the proffered object, and remembering her basic training, she slowly lifted it up to point down the wall. The eyes of Luna made the night clear to see, and she spotted the Guards approaching the walls below in shining gold armour. She gingerly aimed the crossbow at one of them, and pulled the trigger.
The bolt cracked off, and she almost dropped the crossbow in shock. Eventually, she lifted it up again, and pulled the trigger. This time, though, nothing happened.
“Not that way, young ‘un.”
She turned to see a heavily built earth pony. Keshi, she reminded herself, noting the darker coat. It was not impossible to distinguish them, but to do so meant you had to look close. Particularly at the teeth.
“Sorry, sir.”
He laughed. “I’m no sir, I work for a living. But you have to reload your crossbow before you can shoot it again.” He shot his crossbow at another pegasus in gold armour, and as it fell, he guided Midnight along the delicate process of reloading the crossbow.
* * *
How long it had been since the fighting started, Cloudshadow could not really remember. It had been too long, and the little Red Company private fumbling her way through loading a crossbow was proof enough. The sergeant looked down at her, and with a fatherly touch corrected her errors.
“That’s the way. Now keep doing that. And stick close to the corporal. He’ll see you through it.” She nodded, and Cloudshadow shook his head. He had almost forgotten that some ponies were still unused to war at this point. Ambling off towards the postern, he looked over the wall to see what was happening on the lower ward.
The Royalists had pushed through the outer wall two days ago, but Command had refused to let them hold the lower ward without a fight. The sergeant spat, shaking his head in disbelief. Their will had been done, and now the front lines were filled with exhausted troopers. He looked at the defenders below, and he could see the signs of deprivation—sleep and otherwise—upon them. There was no way they could hold much longer.
He did not really care for watching for the enemy trying to shoot him down from the wall. Even if he had been out of his armour, accepting Luna’s blessing had made his coat almost invulnerable. Not the fancy tentacle of the former unicorns or the bat wings and fangs of the former pegasus ponies. No, the keshi merely received protection. That was sufficient for his profession anyway.
Another group was assaulting the postern again, and he sighed as he leaned down over the battlements. Another crossbow bolt cracked off, and he loaded again. Another shot, and he made to reload only to find that he had run out of bolts. “Blast it.”
He dropped the crossbow, and looked down again. The group had been repelled, and the postern was clear but for a few of the Lunar Guard that had been deployed to hold it. It would be the only opportunity that they would get for some time, so without much time to come to the decision, he made his way down the postern to the lower ward.
Even as the metal portcullis opened before him, he could see the officer in charge—the darkbolt looked like he had only just got his cutie mark—tense, and he could almost taste the fear in the air. That was not good. He had got there just in time.
“Sir!”
“Yes, yes?” His voice was rushed and almost did not hold without breaking. His head kept moving, and Cloudshadow could almost imagine his eyes flickering from one place to the other.
“Orders from up top.” That in itself was not a lie. He had come down from the higher ward. “You need to withdraw, as best as you can, sir.”
The officer turned at that, and Cloudshadow almost felt shaken—almost—at the sheer hope that was in his gaze. “We can go? Really?”
“I would say so, sir.”
He wasted no time at that, but turned to his soldiers, panting with relief. “You heard the sergeant. Withdraw to the upper ward and assemble as you can.”
Cloudshadow had to stand aside at the almost mad rush that followed the order, but had to concede how timely it was. Those ponies could not have stood another hour in that state. Even as they did pull back, he could see the Royals getting ready for another charge. Thank whatever gods there were that they could not see in the dark like the Lunar Guard could. Another blessing from the Princess.
He was about to loose the heavy portcullis when he spotted a straggler. A darkbolt was crawling through the dirt to the postern, and a quick look told the sergeant that the wounded pony would not make it in time. Well, that meant there was only one thing to do. He hurried out across the bloody earth, and grabbed the crawler and tossed him over his back. A quick look at the charging Royals left him no doubts as to the speed he would need to get back in time.
He galloped across, feeling the darkbolt wince and flinch at the pace, and made it through the portcullis just as it came tumbling down behind him. He looked to see who had done it.
“Sir.” He saluted the pony, Lieutenant Eclipse. “Good timing, if I may say so, sir.”
“You may. Though we’re not out of this yet, sergeant. Get this lad to the Red Company, and get back on the walls. They’ll find out what we’ve done soon enough.”
“Yes, sir.” With another salute, the sergeant hurried off up the postern stairs.
* * *
Eclipse sighed, and walked slowly back to the upper ward. The postern would not hold for too long, but better they wasted their strength against the gates than against the soldiers. There were not enough of them to waste like that, despite what the Princess might be thinking. As he walked into the ward and saw the survivors, his mood did not significantly lift. Princess Luna was too proud for war, and the number of soldiers was far too little. The Royals outnumbered them too much for the outcome to be in doubt.
Even so, orders were orders, and nothing on Equestria or above it would stop him from obeying those orders. He wandered around the exhausted soldiers. They appeared to be a mix of the Seventh and Tenth hoof companies. That in itself was bad. The Eighth had been wiped out at Altloona, but Ninth had joined them at the Krak. His was the only platoon surviving from the Princess’ Own Crossbows. If you added the Reds to that, you might be able to make one full company. Even then, there were no officers except him, the colonel of the Red (who had refused to even consider fighting), and whoever had survived the slaughter down there.
The tactical situation was in the toilet and the strategic situation was already lost. Well, there was not much else to do but keep going. There was shouting from below, and his stomach sunk even more. They must have found out what the defenders had done. That was sooner than they had hoped.
He made his way over to the wall, and crouching down besides Night Blitz, he looked below. They had unicorns blasting at the gate, but that would not help them much. It was guarded by better spells than they could muster. Another group was showering light over the battlefield, and dragging the bodies away. What they were doing with them, he had no idea. What they did with the dead was obvious—burial—but what about the wounded?
“Report, corporal. What have I missed?”
“They’ve pulled back the heavy soldiers. Only those mages now.”
“Flyers?”
“They haven’t sent any over just yet.”
“So something special is happening. Anything else you’ve spotted?”
“Look over there.” Eclipse looked where the corporal was pointing. “You see it?”
“I think I do.” It was a light in the darkness. That was the strange part. It was not the light. Luna’s blessing took care of that at night. No, the strange part was the darkness. That should not be present at all.
“What do you think it is?”
“I don’t think I want to know, corporal. Keep those mages ducking, if you please. If those gates open before that gets here, we’re goners. Once it does, something might change.”
“Sir.”
* * *
Night Blitz lifted his crossbow over, and sent a bolt downrange. It did not require much thought now. That was something that had changed. He remembered before the civil war started. This would have been unthinkable. Now it just came naturally.
“Keep shooting, you idiots. They haven’t pulled back just to throw you a tea party.” He matched his actions to his words, loading another bolt and discharging it at the Royalist unicorns. One went down, but the others just flattened to the ground and kept doing whatever they were trying to do. It did not seem to slow their magic, and part of the postern gate fell in.
Blitz frowned at that, but kept up the barrage of crossbow bolts. Another one fell, and with it, another part of the gate. There were four more unicorns left. At the fall of the second part of the gate, though, Blitz stopped shooting.
“Hold,” he said, looking down at the mages. One pony did not hear in time, and a bolt found its mark in one of the unicorns’ head. As the Royal crumpled, another part of the gate fell. “Damn it, don’t shoot! Listen to your bloody orders. They’re linked to that gate.”
It was too bloody little too bloody late, though. The gate was already half gone, and he could see the unicorns trying to pull it open. Dammit, there was nothing they could do except wait.
It did not take too long for the news to get back to the Royals, and another wave of the besiegers launched itself at the walls. Blitz potted one before they made their way past the lower walls, and another before they breached the postern. “They’re coming up! Stand by to repel!”
“Belay that order.” Night Blitz turned to see the Princess herself behind him. He prostrated himself. “My sister is coming. Let us see what honour she has left.” The armoured alicorn walked unhurriedly to the upper gate to the postern, and as the first group of Royalists came up, they slowed to a halt around her.
“Princess Luna. Your sister commands that you lower the mo-“ The Royal did not get any further, for a strand of mist emanating from the Princess’ mane had taken hold of his neck and lifted him into the air.
“You dare speak to the Night Mare without showing obeisance?” Night Blitz watched in a kind of horrified fascination as she crushed the Royal’s throat, and threw him over the wall. The rest of the Royals began to draw back, and Night Blitz felt his throat catch as he saw one ready a crossbow in what she must have felt was a surreptitious manner. Nopony would seriously attack the Princess, surely.
The Princess walked through them, up to the mare who had loaded the crossbow. “So it is treason, then.” She lifted up the mare’s face to look at hers, and Blitz thanked whatever forces guided the universe that he did not see the Princess’ face. What looked like a glass dome appeared and surrounded the Princess and the Royals, and the Princess began to summon her magic. He could not look away, transfixed as he was by his imaginings. What would happen?
One of the Royals, the mare, began to smoulder. First her mane, and though she tried to put it out, it did not work. It spread through her coat, and her pained expression left no doubt as to its reality. Before long it was covering her. That was when the real torture started, for what had previously been merely smouldering burst into total flame. Before the smoke filled the dome, Blitz could see her beat a burning limb at the wall. Rather than going out, or merely not working, her leg was held in a green glow. The fire on the limb disappeared, but the skin and flesh underneath disappeared in strips, leaving the bone. That too collapsed into dust, and there was nothing left.
Blitz let out the breath he had not realised he was holding in. Whatever was happening in that dome was—was unthinkable. He turned away, to look over the walls, and the light was there. It was Princess Celestia, who flew up to the upper ward. The darkbolt collapsed before her.
“Do not be afraid, little one. Where is my sister? This little tantrum has gone far out of hoof now.” Blitz could only point at the dome, at which the Princess frowned. “What magic could that be?”
The dome shattered and fell away, leaving only Princess Luna and a burst of smoke. “Welcome, sister. Your minions have already shown your plan.”
“What plan? What are you talking about, Luna? I merely came to ask you to lower the moon. It is time for the sun.”
Luna laughed, and Blitz almost winced at it. It no longer sounded like the Princess. What in Tartarus had happened to her?
“There will be no sun in my Equestria, sister.”
“What have you done, Luna? This is not you!”
“I have done nothing, sister. I only realised that the throne of Canterlot only has room for one ruler.”
“So this… this was not a mere misunderstanding, then? It was deliberate.”
“Correct.”
“Then you are guilty of murder, of mass destruction. I cannot grant you any clemency now, sister.”
The Princesses stared at each other, and then suddenly Princess Luna sent a blast of magic flying at Princess Celestia. “Clemency? I do not want your pathetic mercy!”
* * *
The Princess was sent flying back, and it was all Midnight could do to stop herself from moving. Everything had just gone horribly wrong, and now there was no way out. She dropped the crossbow she had been holding as if it was burning hot, even though it was held in her magic. She could not bring herself to touch it.
Princess Celestia forced herself up to her hooves. “Then so be it. Oh, my dear sister, I am sorry. But you have given me no choice than to use these.” With her magic, she lifted up several gems, plucked from her armour and Luna’s. Midnight watched in terrified awe as the gems spun around Celestia, creating a rainbow blur.
Luna did not pause in her combat, sending several further blasts at her sister. They washed over the rainbow blur, almost like a water balloon bursting, and then were sucked in. At last, with a terrible silence almost like a still breeze, a rainbow beam shot out from the blur, and wrapped around Princess Luna. When it faded, the Princess had disappeared with it.
In the few seconds that followed, there was only silence. Then one of the other soldiers, one who had held the postern, yelled something incomprehensible and ran at the Princess. He had taken three steps when another pony, the one who seemed to have been the closest to a commander they had had, stood up and clotheslined him.
After that, silence reigned again. Nopony seemed to know what was going to happen. The Princess looked at the commander, and the commander looked at her. It felt like a lifetime passed before either moved.
“Soldiers. Drop your weapons. The battle, the war, is over. By all that is holy, it is over.” The commander matched his words to actions by dropping his crossbow to the ground, and prostrating.
There was a pause for a second, and then one by one and gradually spreading, the other Lunar Guards followed suit.
Slowly, the Princess walked up to the commander, and lifted him up. “Rise, Lieutenant. It was not your will that pitted you against your comrades this day. That one has already been punished. You and your fellows will be fairly treated, I swear this to you. Now come, follow me.”
With that, the Princess began to walk from the Krak, and Midnight Shimmer watched in fear and trembling as her commander followed.