The Knight

by TheStoveHater

First published 2nd of June, 2017

A 16th Century Knight wanders the old Everfree Castle, until he doesn't.

A Knight was summoned to help Nightmare Moon take the throne, but when she fails her summon remains, following his last order to stop all beings from entering the castle while his Queen fights for the throne, but upon Nightmare's return he receives new orders...

(Light Gore in select chapters)

The End of One Road

The steady clatter of metal feet on stone echoed throughout the forest, slowly becoming muffled and quiet as the stone road of a once beautiful castle gave way to forest.

The source of this noise entered the forest fully, its armored march muffled by the new loam and old dirt of a well worn path.

The creature itself stood at roughly twenty hooves, armored from top to bottom in solid plate, with only the smallest of indications that it was a living being, a small horizontal slash atop a conical visor across where its eyes may have been, for why would a creature without flesh and blood need eyes?

Sadly, the one arguing for this life, theoretical though they may be, would still be wrong. As the creature was not alive... At least, not anymore.

Chapter 1: The End of one Road...

It might rain today. I remark, waiting for a reaction from my other half. I can tell, since water is gathering inside of us, just tiiiiiny droplets that are running down and gathering in our boot's. Might have to stop and empty them if they get too full... Y'know, stop walking... Maybe sit down even... Shirk in our duty... I hold my nonexistent breath, only to let it out with a loud and obnoxious sigh, shaking my head slightly. Some haunted suits of armor just aren't all that into conversation apparently. Although with a sample size of two I guess I shouldn't be too judgmental... I mutter, reaching out and trying to brush the tips of our fingers against a low hanging branch, only to have a certain somebody yank our arm down.

After another ten exciting minutes of plodding along, our helmet shot up in excitement. I just remembered something! The Word of the Day is 'Seasons'. Seasons, they were... Times of the year... Fall, because of leaves falling! Winter... Because... frozen water? That doesn't make any sense... Spring... I don't really remember about that one either... And... Hm... I was sure there was another... It had something to do with... Heat... Warmth? Hmm... The Sun may-

"EVIL, HORRIBLE BURNI-" My other half growled before cutting himself off, not even missing a beat in our march. Yes that word. The giant ball of fire. It had its own season didn't it? What was its season called again? I ponder, my hand unconsciously reaching up to stroke the upper part of my bevor with a gauntlet, thinking deeply only to get sidetracked again. Why do I do that? I think, glancing down at my gauntlet. It seems to help, but why? And why am I imagining furry worms? Shaking my head and writing it off as question lost to time, I resume my pondering on the mystery of the fourth season.

Hmm... Some... Soomer? Summer! That's its name! Just thinking the word makes me... Hmm... I cant remember the name of this feeling, its happy, but its like my helm wants... To stretch? To widen? Maybe that was something I'd forgotten how to do, and you're no help Mr. 'I refuse to talk to thee after getting our body ripped apart by yon Manticore!' It's not like it actually managed to do any damage... And you have to admit it was kind of fun trying to walk with just our hands! ...Ugh, fine...

Another night another long march. At least the woods were as beautiful as ever, odd how darkness never seemed to bother me, in fact its almost as bright as day. "HOR-" Gotcha again! At least you aren't screaming it out loud like you used to, it's more of a harsh whisper. That reminds me, what was it again that made that manticore attack us? I could have sworn it was something to do with someone screaming into its ear as we passed...

Oh! Here come the stump! Aaaand its gone, next up the tree with the... Fruit? I think that's what they were called. Didn't they have different names than just fruit?
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Unbeknownst to the creature, a dark blue, almost black, cloud hovered over the treetops nearby, watching it curiously. "How strange..." It whispered, its very presence darkening the area around it. "After all this time, it still follows my orders... Not that it had much of a choice, but I'm surprised it lasted this long~" With an invisible grin it descended into the creatures path.
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There goes the strange tree with weird fruit, and here comes the black cloud covered in stars, next up is- Wait... In that moment, we did something we've not done in... A really really long time. We stopped... Then, it spoke, and I remembered.

"Greetings, Knight."

My mind screeched to a halt. That voice, I KNEW that voice! But... From whe- "MY QUEEN!" Ah. Right. Well at least he remembers. Without a second to waste we slammed our knee into the earth, and bowed our head. "My Queen! This humble servant bows before thee! Right right, I forgot this was how we spoke. Hm. I think I'd prefer silence. We eagerly await thine orders!" For a reason unknown to myself I wanted to roll my visor. The cloud chuckled darkly, and from its tone I could tell it wasn't exactly 'Happy' to see us, but it wasn't necessarily 'Unhappy' either.

"I have a new task for you, soon We shall return to this world in all of Our Glory! For thine loyalty thou shalt be Our new guard Captain, thine first order shall to be to guard Our chambers against all ponies that mayhaps try to halt Our ascension to the throne! Is this Understood?"

"Yes Mine Queen! Thine will be done!" Well, it beats staring at dirt and grass all day and talking to myself... Literally.

.... Wait whats a Pony? Apparently my other half thought that was a valid question, as right before the cloud departed it raised one of our gauntlets. "My Queen... Ah... We seem to have forgotten what a 'Pony' is..."

There was silence for a moment, the black cloud roiling in place. Then an exasperated yell echoed down the path. "We are a pony! Hast thou forgotten so much already!? Ignore mine question! I shall check for Our self!"

Suddenly the world turned a dark blue, and our helmet was plucked from our body, the cloud turned the bottom of our helmet towards itself, giving us a nice view of the canopy above and the daylight streaming in between the leaves, and we felt a massive influx of power, our armor lost its dullness and instead became a deep blue that seemed to blend into its surroundings and absorb light, our armored boots seemed to weigh nothing at all, and made no noise as we shuffled about nervously, the last creature to knock our head off had made it land in a tree, took us days and lots of shouting to find it.

Even more interestingly was my mind seemed... Whole again, ignoring the giant chunk of my mind that was a dam/my other half of course.

"There! Thou art lucky the Everfree is home to such powerful latent magic, otherwise thine enchantments would have fallen apart sooner, and thine core would have unraveled even faster than it did! Now GO!" The large cloud, apparently called a Pony, roared.

With that we turned and sprinted away. Huh, I'm running, running running running, I remember that word! Hah! Spring! Summer! Winter! Birds! Timber Wolves! Manticore! Po- Oh we're here!

Author's Notes:

My first attempt at a multi chapter story, feedback always welcome.

Edited 8/28/17

Just by the way the "Hooves" I'm referring to is just "Hands" (but yknow, ponified) a unit of measurement used to measure horses. 20 hands is roughly 6 feet 6ish inches. Also heres a useful link to what a "bevor" is. Please don't gouge out my eyes if I got it wrong anyway!

And the Start of Another

I think I preferred walking in a giant circle... I muttered, as we leaned against the wall near the front door of the decrepit castle. Silence! We hath a been given a decree of the highest order! We shalt convey an aura of strength and intimidation! Something we are incapable of with thou blathering!" My other half hissed. I swear a Timberwolf has more humor.

Even so we stood up a little straighter, just to add to the intimidation factor we pulled Our sword from its sheath and held it pointing downwards, its point not an inch from the stone. "Excellent! Our Queen shalt be most pleased! Now quiet! We must remain vigilant or we shall fail in our duties." He muttered, with a silent, having no mouth with which to exhale, sigh, We cast Our senses out, searching for any signs of life that matched Our Queen's...

After ten minutes I had concluded standing guard was one of the most soul wrenching exercise in futility in existence. Now and then a four legged creature or a bird would pass by, but for the most part no giant sapient floating blobs of smoke and stars. Which reminded me... Are you sure that's what she meant by Pony? With a almost silent groan our body slumped forward, digging the point of our sword into the ground. "Acquiesce man! Our Queen said a pony is exactly as she appeared! Therefore a pony shalt be a large cloud made of stars!" He rubbed the front of our helm, before sighing and standing upright once more. "Art thou finished with thine inept blathering?" I started muttering to myself again, well, that's really all I do... Something still feels wrong about this... I could have sworn a Pony had legs... but how many...? Two...? No wait! Three! Two in the front and one in the back!

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It had been days upon days of soul wrenching torture! Of moral crushing solitude! And other equally painful horrors! My mind screamed out in agony of the pain, my body ached to be free from my constraints! My very being wept tears from the sadness and the pain! I wailed. "Oh be QUIET! It has been less than an two HOURS!" Alas! I had to resort to talking to myself! How much farther into the depth of insanity must I fall before I am released from this world!? I cried to the heavens. "How Our Queen saw fit to keep thy half of Our mind alive I shall never know. Thou should have been discarded like day old refuse. Now cease thy blathering!" My other half muttered before I gave my elegant response. But I'm booooooooorreeeddd! Oh! Here's an idea! Give me my memories back and I'll stop! I'll be too busy looking through them to bother you! Without missing a beat my other half responded. "Thou art a fool if thee thinks I shall fall for such a simple trick. Our Queen has pressed into us the need to keep thyself corralled and under control! Thou represent all that We hate in this world! A lack of respect! No loyalty! No maturity! Thou art a failure and a knave! Thou shalt never take mine memories!" Hey now that's not very nice, I am too loyal! I haven't left your side in what? A hundred years? I said with a suppressed laugh, which really just makes me sound silly since its hard to tell when a suit of armor is laughing to begin with. Over. A. Thousand. I have been stuck with thy incompetent self for over a THOUSAND YEARS." Really? That long? Huh I hadn't thought it'd bee- "Quiet fool! Something approaches!" Falling silent we both stared out across the canyon and into the forest. We could neither hear nor see anything with our normal senses, but in my minds eye I could just make out a large blob of... Something our Mind's Sight worked like a seeing eye glass, , but you could only see the outline of an object, living things appear like black silhouettes on a grey background, non living things just fade away.

The thing heading towards the castle was most certainly living, a larger blob with a single smaller blob hovering above it. As the blob drew closer however the floating one became more like a bird, so it was manually faded out, the one on the ground however seemed to pulse and writhe, with multiple limbs poking out and waving around randomly.

"How queer... Could this be a pony? Our Queen's signature was much more... Defined, but surely these art but peasants, clearly inferior in both shape and strength to Our Queen... But why does it travel by land rather than take to the sky?" My other self muttered as he readied our sword, watching the blob move closer and closer... Finally we could hear the rustling and stomping of... I don't think that is a pony... I whispered as the 'blob' stepped out of the forest. Tilting Our head to the side a little and lowering Our sword, We moved back to the gate. "Hmmm... Thou seem to be correct... These creatures must be wildlife... We shall let them pass, mayhaps they shall serve as a snack for Our Quee...n...?" He trailed off, understandably, as there, on the opposite side of the canyon to these creatures, stood our Queen. Well, parts of our Queen. She had split part of herself into three separate parts, each one in the shape of a similar creature to the floating blob we had dismissed before. We could still tell it was her due to being bound to her of course, any form she takes we know it to be her, as long as our enchantments aren't practically falling apart, like when she returned.

"How queer... Clearly they art supporters of Our Queen! Otherwise she shan't have let them pass." Hard to argue with that logic. So across the now bridged gap they went, and we waited.

Before us, walking, or more accurately, clopping, their way down towards the gate was a large group of... Well we aren't sure, they were four legged, with long necks and curved muzzles. The closest thing we could compare them to were Timberwolves... But made of flesh and fur... With shorter muzzles... And feet encased in strange solid shoes... And taller... Actually they weren't anything like Timberwolves besides the four legs, although something in the back of our minds told us they looked familiar...

As they approached my other self exhaled sharply, apparently he had remembered something. "Horses! Those creatures art equines! Doth thou remember?" He hissed at me, fidgeting ever so slightly before freezing. The creature's ears swiveled in our direction, apparently they had heard my other half whispering. Oh certainly! I managed to break past a magical mental block, the one that just got a nice recharge by the way, that hasn't broken in the hundreds, oh sorry, a thousand, years we've been together and reach into your memories! I snarked, trying to roll my visor again.

"Did y'all hear somethin? Coulda sworn ah heard, somepony whisperin..." One of the taller horses said, she was a dark orange with...

A hat? Why does that one have a hat? Unable to respond my other half simply sent me negative vibes, making me chuckle.

"Don't be silly AppleJack! No Pony is whispering!" This horse was pink, that's it. Pink. That would be the best, no, the ONLY way to describe it. It seemed to quiet literally vibrate with energy, one second it would be bouncing in place. Then another second it would freeze and stare off into space for such a brief moment that I almost didn't believe she had done it. I could even have sworn at one point she had looked right at us... And that shouldn't have been possible, not moving, Our body blended into any environment!

"O-oh dear... I-I hope it i-isn't m-mean..." This creature was different than the first two, having wings, and it was so quiet the only reason we even heard it was because of the recharge Our Queen had given us, recharging our enchantments for our senses among other things. In fact I wasn't even sure the others of it's group had even heard it. Clearly there as an offering for Our Queen.

"Yeah? Well we can take it! Whatever is in there is goin down!" This one we'd forgotten about, as it was the one blob we had decided to ignore. Now? It was impossible to miss! Blue with multicolored hair, it was difficult not to stare. This was CLEARLY the leader of this group! Bright, multi hued hair, clearly to draw attention away from her comrades, and brash forward attitude that spoke of a deep confidence.

The rest of the creatures were rather unremarkable, clearly they were either pages or simple attendants. Hmmm... That white one is much to invested in her looks to be a simple attendant... A offering for her Harem maybe?

No sooner had the six creatures moved inside and closed the door had my other half slapped the side of our head with a gauntlet, creating a loud ringing sound throughout our body. "Fool! Clearly a seamstress! How dare thee have such thoughts about Our Queen!" He growled. Why doesn't that ever effect you! Why am I the only one who gets a headache from that! I whined, wanting to clutch at my helmet. "Because fool, We art prepared! Whilst thou are an undisciplined lout!" This went on for several minutes, primarily me whining and him complaining about what a whiner I was.

________________________________________

Ten minutes later and we were back to what we had been doing, which is to say we were doing nothing. At all. When suddenly! I cried and...! Nothing happened. I said, WHEN SUDDE-! I was rudely interrupted by my other half threatening violence upon my person. "Quiet! I shall bang Our weapon upon Our head if thee-" And He was rudely interrupted by a flash of light that teleported us to another part of the castle. Oh look! It's those creatures we let in! Hello again!

"FOOL! I TOLD THEE TO REFUSE ENTRANCE TO ANY PONY! NOW PROTECT THINE QUEEN!" From behind us came the less than pleased voice of Our monarch.

In response my other half roared in a rage and pulled Our shield from Our back, charging the six, oddly glowing, now floating creatures, which we now understood as Ponies, we made it roughly two steps forward before being engulfed in a overwhelming rainbow light, it flooded into Our armor and knocked the sword and shield from our grip with ease. For some reason I felt fine, my other half? Not so much. "IT BURNS LIKE THE FURY OF A WOMAN SCORNED!" Now whose the baby! This doesn't hurt at all-I spoke too soon! ISPOKETOOSOON! Now it started to burn, it started off gentle, like a small flame just at the tip of your finger, or in this case, toes, but it very quickly started to spread upward. Glancing down I saw Our feet turn from its black obsidian color, to a dull grey, then parts began to flake off and break away in a nasty brownish reddish color, it raced up Our body like a Timberwolf after a rabbit! The last two things that went through my mind as we fell to the cold stone below? Why would a floating blob of gas need a seamstress? and HAH I TOLD YOU A PONY HAD LEGS!

Author's Notes:

Chapter Two! Woo! Thanks for all the Feedback!

If you don't like where this is going or want to suggest something, feel free to!

There may be a LOT of typos in this one, don't edit at 4 in the morning kids!

A Change in Outlook

“Father...? Why must thee go...?”

“Thou know why my Dearest... The King hath called us to arms... As a loyal servant of His Majesty we must answer... Worry not Dearest, for we shall rejoin thee soon. These blagards shall fall before Our King’s might!” With a wide grin I wrap my arms around the bundle of joy I call my daughter, swinging her around and holding her tightly. Her mood lifted a little and like music to my ear, she giggled loudly, clutching tightly to my clothing.

“F-father! T-thou beard! I-it tickles!” She protested, which only made me hold her tighter and place gentle kisses across her brow, causing her to giggle and squeal even more.

With a sad smile I held her close, gently patting her back before lowering her to the ground. “Remember my Dearest, I shall always be with thee...” Kneeling down before her I reach out and gently raise the small locket that lay around her neck. “Just like Mother shall always be with thee...” My smile falters a little as I look upon the small portrait of a beautiful woman, in her arms she holds a small bundle, next to her stands a man, young and arrogant, but proud nonetheless. Shaking my head and fixing a smile upon my face, I close the locket and gently lower back to her blouse before standing. “Remember that my Dearest, and thou shalt never be alone...” I nod towards the maid standing a few feet away, and turn away. Already I can hear her start to weep, she’s a smart girl for her age, she may weep, but she know’s I must be away.

I couldn’t be more proud of her.

________________________________

“-T away! Now what will we do!? The Princess! How is she going to get back!?”

Nnnn... Someone needs to knock some sense into who ever is making such a racket... Preferably with a large weapon... ”Indeed... We hath not slept in a millennia... To wake us now is thee most foul of cruelties...!” My other half mumbled angrily.

Unheeded they continued, loudly and with a shrill voice. “Oh Dear! What do we do!? I don’t even know what Nightmare Moon did to her! How am I supposed act on such little information!?”

Ngggghhhh... If there were ever a time to start swinging now would be it... “Agreed... We shall have to find our sword first...” My other half mumbled as we endured the vocal torture.
“Don’t worry Twilight! I’ve got a feeling that everything is gunna turn out A-OK!”

Oh Sweet Merciful Jesus there’s another one! “And its voice is even shriller!” We groaned out, wanting nothing more than to shrink back into something we had been deprived of for so long.

“Hmm ah dunno Pinkie... I’m keen tah trust your sense, but this here is a right pickle...”

Slowly we become more aware of our surroundings, our helms faceplate was buried partially in the ground, and in the corner of our visor we can just make out a soft lavender light that did nothing for us but cast shadows. The creatures making said shadows hidden by the earth covering our face. Groaning softly my other self slowly rights us, turning slowly onto our side so we can better view our surroundings. Huh... Guess that fancy light show wasn’t good for much was it? I mused, chuckling softly. “Fool... Hast thou even checked before making that assumption?” My other half growled.

In the darkness we couldn’t see anything, which was already a bad sign. If our Night’s Light wasn’t working properly then that means we were had lost quite a bit of power after that attack, and may have to finish this fight on dregs... With a sigh I relaxed, doing the spiritual version of shutting your yap as I awaited the results of our fight.“Hmmm...” He grumbled, casting about uselessly with our visor.

My other half slowly pushed us up, I could already feel the annoyance and dismay floating away from him. “Well... We seem to have lost Our shield arm...” I groaned quietly at that, shields were so useful! Manticore stinger? Shield. Timberwolf claws? Shield. Mud that refused to come off of your boots no matter how much you tried, and you didn’t feel like scratching your sword? Shield. Although that last one didn’t make much sense since our sword was enchanted to never dull...

Quietly we sat up, and realized we were missing two other important appendages, with a quiet sigh my other half cast about, looking for an escape. “We must leave before yonder Sun Lovers catch heed of Our survival...” No really? And here I thought we could stay and chat, have some tea and scones maybe? I snark before pointing out a small hole in the stone wall across from us that, in normal circumstances would have been impossible to get through, but now that we had lost roughly one fourth of our width, we may just be able to fit...

Slowly, careful to make as little noise as possible, we moved towards the opening, the metal of our body quietly scraping against the ground as we move, glancing back now and then to see the six young creat-Ponies, still arguing and debating over their newest course of action.

After roughly a minute and a half of awkward dragging, we were about halfway to the hole. We hesitated for a moment to glance back once more to make sure we hadn’t been noticed, only to be met by a flash of light, grunting quietly we raised a gauntlet to our visor as a makeshift shield from the incredibly bright light. The light faded very slowly, and all was quiet, it wasn’t until we heard the purple one cry out that we could lower our gauntlet.

“PRINCESS!” Princess?

.... We should leave. “Agreed.” And like the worlds fastest earth worm we wiggled our way to the hole, hoping the sound of conversation would hide our increased noise, and promptly squeezed our way out of the room and into the air. I say the air because it was about a ten foot drop from where we were to the ground. “Shite.” My other half put eloquently as we plunged to the ground like a... Well like a large suit of armor. Heavier than a simple rock, and with a lot louder landing.

With a tremendous clang we slammed into the ground, quickly grabbing at the earth we started making our way towards the edge of the forest, glancing back up at the tower quickly to make sure none had noticed. Luckily it seemed none had. ”Yonder Ponies must have the hearing of thee deceased...”

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“Princess! You’ve returned!”

As the light faded away Twilight rushed forward, the tiara on her head bouncing just a little. “How were you able to escape? Not that that’s a bad thing! It’s definitely a good thing! I’d never-”

“Twilight.”

“Want that! It’s wonderful to see you again! I was so worried that I wouldn’t since we weren’t able to defeat Nightmare Moon!”

“Twilight!”

“Which I didn’t, and I’m so sorry! I-i’ve failed! O-”

“TWILIGHT!”

With a quiet yelp Twilight snapped out of her panic and stared up at her teacher, her eyes wide. “I apologize my Student, but now is not the time to panic... I am still weak from breaking free of my prison...”

With silent gulp Twilight nodded. “Y-yes Princess... H-how did you escape?”

“It seems you dealt a partial blow to the Nightmare, it is alright my student, wielding the Elements of Harmony is difficult, especially for one so young... But even that partial blow was strong enough to weaken her power significantly.”

“W-well... Actually we hit her directly... Kinda?” Twilight said quietly, looking up at her mentor and frowning, trying to remember. “Something appeared... It blocked at least part of the blast and went flying, we aren’t sure what it was...”

“Something... Blocked it...?”

*CLANG*

Everypony in the room froze and slowly turned their head towards the wall on the farthest side of the room. “Twilight...” Princess Celestia said quietly, worry starting to bubble up a little from deep within her. “Did the thing happen to be rather tall... With a shield and sword...?” Princess Celestia asked, almost whispering.

“I... I-i think so? I-it was difficult to concentrate on the thing while also concentrating on using the elements... But it seemed to be quite tall... Do... Do you know of this thing Princess...?” Twilight asked, her worry and fear mixing with curiosity and confusion at her mentor’s sudden change in demeanor.

“You and your new friends must leave. Immediately.” Princess Celestia said, turning towards them and herding them with out stretched wings towards the door

“B-but Princess! We can help! We have the Elements of Harmony!” Twilight protested, being shuffled out of the castle along with her friends.

“Twilight, you MUST return to Ponyville as quickly as possible. Do not stop, do not slow. Whatever you may hear or see, do NOT under any circumstances allow you or any of your friends to be captured... O-or...” Shaking her head quickly she looked down at her student. “Promise me Twilight!” Princess Celestia stared into her students eyes, practically demanding the promise from her.

Even more worried and confused Twilight quickly promised, turning away with her friends and trotting towards the rope bridge. “Y-yes Princess, I promise...”

Nodding in relief Princess Celestia spread her wings and took to the skies, her magic practically exhausted, she barely had enough power to create a low level metal detection spell, normally such a low level spell would not be able to find her quarry, as she had used it once over a thousand years ago and Nightmare had quickly realized the flaw and made a spell to disguise it, but surely after taking the full power of the Elements of Harmony it would have failed, as would many of the wards and illusion spells Nightmare had placed upon the foul creature...

Sure enough, upon circling around the castle once Princess Celestia was forced to return to the castle where she found bits and pieces of steel inside the castle, in front of where the Elements had been used. Following the trail she found followed it to the wall, where she found a sword... And there was no mistaking the obsidian coated sword that had struck down so many of her beloved Ponies...

Following the trail further to a hole in the wall she frowned, realizing the creature may have lost much more than just its sword and to have fit into something so small... Trotting outside Princess Celestia moved to the side of the castle, huffing irritably, as she stared down at the small trail of rusted metal and small pieces of steel that led farther into the forest... “I must conserve what little magic I have left... Or i’ll be defenseless against the creature..."

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Now we just need to find a good patch of moonlight, and we can start the recovery process... Although with how little power we have now it may take some time... “Indeed... We were fortunate to not run afoul of the Sun Tyrant... But we shan’t push our luck...” Relief flooded through our body as we made our way deeper into the forest, glancing about now and then to make sure none of the wildlife had gotten bolder.

Luckily for us the wildlife knew who was the keeper of this forest, and after the first hundred years or so they had found out, rather painfully, to not go near the old castle, but some of the bigger ones had taken a bit longer to learn that lesson, and every now and then a brash young creature would try to claim the Everfree as its territory...

So when we found a patch of moonlight, a decently large clearing with soft looking grass and a gentle breeze flowing through it, we excitedly, and tiredly, dragged ourselves to it. Flopping down onto our back we sighed, staring up into the life giving light of Our Queen’s moon. Of course the peaceful, calming atmosphere had to be ruined by my other half trying to plan.

“We shalt wait here for roughly two nights... Then we shall retrieve our sword and shield from yonder castle. It is doubtful that thee Sun Lovers shall remain for so long in such an unsafe castle... Then we shal-” With a sigh I shake my head, well, I would have if i could have. Cant you just relax for a little? Always trying to plan and prepare for something. Let us sleep or focus on repairing this bucket of scrap... “We shan’t relax for a moment! Even a minor lapse in our vigilance may bring ill fortunes upon us!’ He growled, squirming a bit on the ground as our head slowly swiveled back and forth, trying to see all sides of the forest at once.

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There! She could hear a voice... A deep, whispery growl that had haunted her nightmares for almost a year, taunting and threatening those closest to her... She was too far away to make out what it was saying, but even the sound of its voice sent shudders of rage through her body. Stopping for a moment to calm herself and peer out of the forest, spying a large meadow she could just make out the tip of a helmet as it lay in the grass...

The creature was known to be a master when it came to subterfuge and camouflage, it was probably waiting just outside the meadow with a weapon... Waiting for Celestia to walk right into its trap... But she would not make that mistake again! Quietly she stalked the edges of the meadow, hearing the voice continue to growl and whisper to itself.

She circled the meadow once... Then twice... Not once running into the creatures body or head sitting in a tree... Frowning even deeper Celestia stopped and stared out, listening to the quiet growl of the creatures voice, finally a thought dawned on her... “Who could it be talking to? If the Nightmare was near I would feel it... Surely it couldn’t be...?”

Celestia blinked, realizing the voice had stopped... Then she heard it growl out loudly, loudly declaring its refusal to stop being vigilant? With that it all clicked into place. The head truly WAS over there, after being blasted by the Elements it was surely in pieces and trying to recover, and... And the spirit she had thought destroyed, was still somehow alive... There could be no explanation about why it would be talking to itself...

So she slowly moved out into the meadow, inching closer and closer to where the creature laid, her wings flared and her ears constantly twisting about her head for the slightest disturbance, but none came, and slowly, ever so slowly, she crept up to what was left of the creature...

There on the ground lay half of a torso, cut off just below the chest plate, an arm, missing its pauldron, and a slightly dented helmet. Which was currently cursing quiet loudly and desperately trying to sit up, as it had seen her. “FOUL WITCH! BEGONE SUN TYRANT! WE SHALL SMITE THEE IF THOU COME ANY CLOSER!”

With a raised eyebrow most of the anger Celestia had been feeling towards the demonic creature simply dissipated... The core anger which had been forged from the need for Justice for her little ponies remained of course, but the extra emotions had been replaced by something else... Amusement... This thing, this demon, had been her second most dangerous enemy during the Nightmare crisis, and here it was, rolling about on the ground cursing like a drunken sailor, without even the power to right itself without wobbling...

“DOTH THY FOUND ME AMUSING!? HOW DARE THEE! PREPARE THYSELF TYRANT!” With that the suit of armor slowly crawled its way to Celestia’s forelegs, slapping at her hooves and cannons. “DIE FOOLISH WITCH! THOU REIGN ENDS NOW! LONG LIVE QUEEN NIGHTM-”

It’s voice cut off as Celestia slammed her hoof into its arm, crushing it and wrenching it from its already decayed body. The mention of Nightmare had brought Celestia back into the reality of the situation... “You are indeed brave Demon... But the Fight is mine. Now you will face justi-”

“FOOL! I SHALT NEVER FALL TO THEE! MINE FURY CANNOT BE HALTE-” The demon cried out before being rudely interrupted, banging its head weakly against Celestias hooves.

“Look you Bastard! You’ve got no limbs left!” Celestia growled, her earlier fury starting to return as she stomped on what was left of its chest plate, leaving only its head.

“TIS BUT A SCRATCH!” The helmet cried, wiggling its visor about in a vain attempt to grasp one of Celestia’s hooves.

With a deep growl Celestia raised her hoof into the air, ready to end a thousand year old war once and for all... Then hesitated, watching the cursing helmet wiggle around weakly on the ground, Celestia slowly took control of her rage, breathing deeply and slowly, lowering her hoof. Shaking her head she placed her hoof gently on top of the helmet, holding it in place and tilting it back to look up at her, her horn glowing softly. “I wish to speak to the other one.” She said quietly, causing the helmet to cease its wiggling and cursing.

“Thou speak foolishness... There is no ‘other one’! Twas alwa-”

With a soft sigh Celestia dove into the buckets mind, using what magic she had left to survey the creatures mental landscape...

Inside she found a massive array of dark blue light, at one point it may have been beautiful, but now it was in tatters, Nightmares detection wards were destroyed, her camouflage spells shattered across the beings mindscape, even the regeneration spells were in pieces... If she had crushed the being like she had wanted, it may have been gone for years, even decades...

Even the link to Nightmare herself had not been spared from at least some of the Elements power, a small blast of magic would be all it would take to sever what was left of it... But no... If Celestia did that she would have that much of a harder time finding the Nightmare before she recovered and managed to hide herself more efficiently. Moving past the connection and deeper into its mind, she finally reached its core... It was like a river that only went a few straight feet up, and into a large orb. There, right in the middle, was a dam that split the soul of the creature in half, letting the left side, which was a deep blue, and seemed to radiate a combination of heat and ice all at once, continue unabated while diverting the right off into the rest of the mind... It seemed to have circled back at one point, but it could go no where near the large orb. Parts of it were flaking off, and swirling about inside its confines, but nonetheless it pulsed almost as powerfully as the left side.

Frowning Celestia circled the core, strangely the dam itself hadn’t been damage nearly as much as the rest of it. More than likely it had been protected by the layers upon layers of others spells and wards... But under close scrutiny she found some small cracks in the foundation, they had been patched, rather recently even, and were just as impenetrable as ever, but it was clear that one side of the mind did not always agree with the other...

Moving her attention back to the dam Celestia spied a small switch... Raising an eyebrow in surprise Celestia reached out and flicked it, and just like that, the wedge cut off the flow of the left side of the soul, and allowed the other to go free, as long as she applied a little bit of pressure to the switch now and then, it would remain in place... For a moment nothing happened, the right side waved and wiggled in place, then, like a powerful magnet, rushed to the orb.

And with that, Celestia was flung from the creatures mind, the last of her magic spent, gasping she leaned back onto her haunches, blinking rapidly and panting softly. Shaking her head to try and clear the large amount of fatigue from her mind, she glanced down at helmet, worrying slightly as it refused to move.

For a few tense moments nothing happened... Then “FOOL! DID YEE THINK I WAS SO EASY TO MANU-MANIPEL-Uh... Maniuplsation? Oh whatever, WHAT’S UP SUNBUTT!?”

Author's Notes:

Feedback, corrections, etc welcome and encouraged! Welcome to my new readers and to everyone I say: Thanks for taking the time to read this story so far! I’m really enjoying writing, even if I end up losing sleep a little too often.

Also, all of you had to of realized I would put a Monty Python reference in here eventually

Hitching a Ride

Author's Notes:

WARNING: The first part of this chapter is a LOT Darker than previous chapters. (Hence the Gore tag being added and going from rated E to T) Actual Author's Notes in Comments.

"WITH ME! WITH ME! FOR KING AND COUNTRY!" We couldn't falter, not now, they were reloading, we had time! If we hesitated for even a moment we would be ripped apart and the battle would be lost...

The screams of men and horses alike ripped through the air, barely muffled by the stomp of hooves on dirt like a thousand drums. My horse, Midnight, charged forward, leaping over fallen comrades and enemies alike, our target, a large group of cylindrical metal tubes swarmed by men, all desperate to re-arm their fearsome weapons. My men stayed with me, keeping close ranks despite the risk, we would break these cannons like we had broken so many before!

With my men alongside me, we sped towards the cannons, determined to put a stop to their slaughter, but through my visor I squinted, trying to determine how close we were, but for an unknown reason they only seemed to move marginally closer with every hoofbeat... Glancing down to check on my horse, she was unchanged, galloping as if the dead bodies and haphazard weapons were nothing, as were the horses of my... My men... They were gone...

Turning in my saddle I saw nothing but a field filled with the bodies of my men and their mounts, replacing the faceless that I had seen before. Ice started to fill my veins as I turned back towards the line of cannons, almost all movement had ceased among the soldiers manning them, slowly the cannon's open maws turned towards me like some sort of creature straight from the depths of hell.

"No..." I whispered, spurring Midnight to increase her speed, only for her to rear and scream as one of their number fired early, throwing me from the saddle. Groggily climbing to my feet, I started to charge towards the cannon's line on foot, my heavily armored feet slamming into the blood soaked ground in desperation, if they fired I would be dead, like so many before me. The faces of the comrades I had lost flashed before me, all accusing and angry.

Before my very eyes specters of my fallen comrades became more than just apparitions, their bodies soaked in blood and riddled with arrows, knives, swords, and other weapons of war. Some were even missing huge swaths of their bodies, but stood as if no more inconvenienced than a pebble stuck in ones shoe.

"THY FOOLISHNESS WAS MINE END!" One screamed, half of his head missing, his brain spilling out from the jagged bones that once made up his skull.

"MINE DEATH IS UPON THY HEAD!" This one's scream was mixed with blood, his jaw partially blocked by a sword through his throat.

They started to crowd around me as I started to slow, my helmet echoing with their cries, shaking my head desperately in denial, trying to think of an excuse, any excuse! To justify my decisions, my folly... But none came.

My sword and shield slid from my grip and dropped to the mud, the dirt made slick with the blood of men, my arm lacking the strength to hold them any longer, and I slumped forward to my knees as if the weight of the world itself had burdened my shoulders. The cries of those long dead howled in my ears, their cries reverberating inside my very soul.

"MY CHILD NEVER RETURNED! THOU PROMISED TO KEEP HIM SAFE!" A mother who had personally seen her son off. I had assured her he would be fine...

Do I deserve this? I asked, flinching away at every scream.

"I SHALT NEVER SEE MY KIN AGAIN!" A brother who was ill fit to fight, but had helped pay for a new sword anyway.

Was all of this truly my fault? I did as much as I could... How were we to know they're cannons could reload so quickly?!

As if hearing my thoughts the crowd grew in volume, shouting their derision at me. "THY FOLLY KILLED MY SONS!" A father who had lost both sons in the first day of battle.

My armored hand clutched at my breast plate, my mind picturing the brothers, dead, they're bodies mangled upon the field of battle like so many before.

"Daddy!"

No... It wasn't my fault! I didn't know! I cried out, desperately surging to my feet, staggering under the weight of their cries.

"UPON THY ORDERS! MINE CHILD FELL" Their voices screamed as one, the heart felt cries of sons, daughters, mothers, wives... Each one tearing me apart... Finally trying to meet their gazes I raised my head, only to find the flaming maws of the cannons a few meters away, all primed and loaded... I had never stood a chance...

No! I had no choice! No Please! Please you must und-! I tried to back away, only to be stopped by more of the crowd.

"Daddy!"

"MY BELOVED SHALL NEVER SEE HIS CHILD!" Each cannon manned by someone I had wronged, someone I had betrayed. Cold fury emanated from their eyes as they, as one, lowered their fuses to their respective cannons.

Please! No! It wasn't my inten-

"DADDY!"

With a jolt I sat up in bed, my eyes flying open. "NO! NO! PLEASE!" I sob, clutching at my chest, only to be met with darkness and the sound of my own ragged breathing instead of the roar of cannons and the screams of men...

"Daddy... Did thou have a bad dream again...?"

I blinked slowly, my breath starting to slow, my hands slowly releasing my night shift. "D-daughter...?" With a slow groan I reach out, turning towards the edge of my bed. "I apologize for waking thee, Dearest..." Finding her head I gently reach over, picking her up and pulling her close. "Yes... Father had bad dream again..."

Gently my daughter hugged me, laying her dolly against my chest she pulled the blankets back over us both, patting my head gently. "Worry thyself not Daddy, thy sunshine is here!" She giggled sleepily, snuggling into me.

With a quite chuckle I wrapped my arms around her, sleep starting to reclaim me. "Mine Sunshine... Mine Sunshine in the... darkest of nights..." This time, I dreamt of nothing.

________________________________________________

"Suuuuunnnnbuuuu-"

DESTROY THEE WITCH! RIP THE WENCHES FETLOCKS FROM HER BARR-

"-uuuutt, Cmmooooon Sunnnnyyyy~ What happened to Ms. Always Worki-"

-EL AND FORCE THINE PIECES DOW-

"ng? Don't you want to at least give me a hug? Or am I getting... A HEAD of myself?"

After a moment of silence and baited breath my other side groaned, remarking quietly, .... I hate thee with every fiber of mine very being...

With a giggle I roll over, using our visor to inch our way over to Sunny's side as she slept, starting to tap my visor against her large posterior. "Wake uuuuupppp! It's rude to fall asleep after rooting around in a person's mind you know!"

Thou sound like a petulant Child begging for the attentions of thy mother.

"If I remember correctly-" I managed to say before my other half helpfully interrupts me.

Doubtful.

Always so encouraging my other half. "She WAS called the Mother of Equestria!"

LIES! THE QUEEN OF THE NIGHT IS THE RIGH-

"Yes, yes, All Hail Queen Dark and Edgy, now do you have anything helpful to add or am I going to have to try and escape via visor locomotion?" I ask, rolling in a circle next to the Princess of the Sun, it wasn't quiet what I wanted to do but it would suffice until I figured out how to roll my visor.

With a grumble my other half quieted down, both of us trying to think of a way out of our predicament. Surrounding us was forest, but it would take entirely too long to crawl back to the old castle, find our sword, our shield, and the pieces of our body, and wait for it all to piece itself back together, (It would do so by itself, but that would take longer) all before the golden punching bags arrived. So with a heavy sigh I started to drag our way towards the edge of the clearing and towards the forest, trying to find something to aid our escape. Or at least delay our capture.

"PRINCESS!"

"Fuck." Indeed.

_________________________________________________

"Snrk! Hwa? What?" Sitting up suddenly Princess Celestia became painfully aware of a migraine, groaning softly she massaged the side of her head, glancing up just in time to see six of her Companion guards dive down and surround her, spears pointing outwards. Smiling softly and taking a deep breath, Celestia climbed to her hooves, carefully concealing her exhaustion. "Captain Sub-Sonic, it is good to see y-."

"No time for talk Your Majesty! As soon as the chariot arrives we are removing you from this area!" To anyone but Celestia, and maybe those close to Sub, Sub-Sonic's voice was calm, collected, and filled with the confidence befitting a member of one of the most elite branches of the Equestrian military. To Celestia, who was slightly miffed at being interrupted, she sounded agitated and... Slightly afraid... This whole debacle would must have shaken the guards heavily...

"I understand Sub, but I will need you and your team to stay here, the Nightmare is unlikely to strike any time soon, as she took a, although minor, hit from the elements, we may be able to strike her before she can amass her strength once more."

The Captain, one tufted ear facing her Princess and the other constantly searching for out of place noises, her blue eyes darting back and forth across the landscape, her spear steady in her hoof and her wings twitching slightly. "I'm all ears Princess. The sooner we get rid of the Nightmare the better."

Smiling, Celestia turned towards the forest, pointing with a raised hoof. "You will seek out an informant, he is roughly three hooves in height and made entirely of metal, he is an ally of the Nightmare and will be the key to finding it."

As she spoke several large, enclosed chariots, descended into clearing, more guards pouring out and spreading across the clearing, so many that even a hydra might have second thoughts about coming close. Frowning Sub-Sonic tilted her head slightly, "Are we trying to find a foal, Princess...? Or a Fairy?" To some this would be seen as some sort of sarcastic remark, but when dealing with the Princess, nothing is off limits... Even foals or fairies allied to ancient evils and made entirely of metal, it certainly wouldn't be a first...

"No, I can safely say we won't have to deal with those again, the enemy we seek is a helmet." The Princess stated, her ears flicking in various directions, trying to find any sort of clue to his whereabouts before spotting a furrow in the ground. "He will most likely try to hide in the forest or head back to the castle, and every minute we give him is another minute he spends recovering." Pointing at the two lines of dirt on the ground and tracing the lines towards the forest, only to stop and frown, as roughly half way the lines disappeared...

The Captain, understandably, paused for a moment and followed the Princess'es upraised hoof. The lines disappeared, but then not but a few hooves away was a small indent in the dirt, then it was gone again, then it reappeared... As the dirt was replaced by loam and leaves however, the strange tracks disappeared. "Princess... Please tell me this isn't like the Minotaur Totem incident..."

With a small smile the Princess turned and headed towards the chariots, shaking her head. "No my dear Companion, although I am unaware how he managed to get away, he cannot teleport, but be careful, the longer we delay the more dangerous he shall get, and whatever you do, do not underestimate him."

The Princess swiftly climbed into one of the two enclosed chariots, nodding to her captain. "I have the utmost confidence in you and your squad Captain, and please, be careful..." Shutting the door, half of the guard's that had gotten off of the chariots quickly got back on, the rest, roughly eighteen Earth Ponies, stayed and moved to surround the Captain and her Squad.

"Alright Mares you heard the Princess! We're searching for a helmet, although its a rather large helmet it's still small enough to hide! Search each area carefully and extensively. Going fast is worthless if you miss it.

"First Lieutenant Thunder Bolt, take Alfalfa squad and head west, stay in the forest, and should you come across any wildlife don't be afraid to use the Bill's. This place will be treated like a war zone, anything that seems even remotely hostile you're to take down or high tail it back to here, understood? Which reminds me, everypony is to meet back here two hours time!" With a chorus of 'Yes Ma'am!' Thunder Bolt and her group headed into the forest.

"Sergeant Storm Wing, you're to take Bronco and spread around the eastern edge of the forest, its smallest part of the forest and closest to a nearby village so we do NOT want one of Nightmare's ilk getting anywhere near it, got it?" The aforementioned Pegasus quickly saluted and waved for Bronco squad to pile into the remaining chariot before he took off like a lighting bolt, only circling once before flapping hard and flying east.

Finally Sub-Sonic came to to last three ponies, Corporal Stroke O'Luck, Specialist Accurate Maps, and Private First Class Brown Snafu. "You three are with me. We're headed towards the nearby river, Maps, what can we expect?" Without pausing the three fell into line behind her, constantly scanning the area as they cantered along.

Pausing only momentarily to grab a small map from his saddlebag, Maps quickly starting listing off possible escape routes as well as dangers. "Yes Ma'am. The river is extremely deep and rough, practically unnavigable without wings or experienced sailors, its doubtful the object in question will be heading towards the river as something of its size would sink quite quickly, and I doubt the Nightmare would have placed such vital information as her whereabouts with an idiot. My suggestion is-"

______________________________________________________

Fool! What doth thee think thou is doing!?

"What's it look like? I'm going to swim across!" I proclaimed, as if it wasn't obvious, perched upon a stone right at the edge of a river, quite a large river at that. But Apparently my other half doesn't like water or is an idiot... Probably both, and the former is understandable, seriously, who likes deep water?

Imbecile! We would sink in an instant! What then hm? We wait an eternity at the bottom of yon misbegotten river!? My other half cried out, clearly too scared of the extremely deep, dark, foreboding river to think clearly about swimming.

"Oh please, I just lay us on our front, then use our visor to swim across, it would be like dragging ourselves across the ground like earlier, just with water!" Simple mathematics! Or something along those lines, from what I can remember math never really made much sense. Either way it'd be fine!

"Besides, we can't make it to the castle in time before the golden guards arrive by just hopping along, buuuuut the castle is like, RIGHT by the river right? So we just take a little trip down the river, swim out, and viola!" I start to roll forward, only to jerk back and slide almost a foot away from the water. Apparently whatever Sunbutt did to let me stay be control was falling apart... Which was a shame really, it'd been over a thousand years since I'd been the one in charge.

No! We shall simply find a tree, retreat to its roots, and hide amongst them! Thy plan is foolhardy! He growls, trying to drag us back towards the treeline.

With my own growl I lurch us forward, slamming our visor into the rock with a loud clang. "I'm in charge! And I say Water!"

Roots! With another lurch we were once more spun around, this time falling off the rock and into the slightly muddy part of the shoreline.

"Water!" I grunted, having the upper hand I wiggle in place, trying to roll into the nearby water. Only to jerk back the other way as my other half focused less on arguing and more on rolling. "Nooo! WATER!"

________________________________________________

Corporal Stroke O'Luck was a simple Pegasus, she liked to fly, play her guitar, and hunt Equestria's most wanted criminals. It helped that her Cutie Mark, that of the fabled seven leaf clover, constantly kept her from becoming one of the many guards who fell in the line of duty.

Just last week on a border investigation, the gang she and her colleagues were tracking had ambushed them at a safe house, of course she had 'just happened' to have left her post by the front door and gone to the bathroom when an assortment of Griffons, Diamond Dogs, and Ponies, armed with magic enhanced crossbows, had literally blown through the front wall of the house. Or that she just happened to hit the gang leader with the door to the bathroom on her way out.

So it was no real surprise that when Stroke 'just happened' to trip over a seemingly non existent rock, causing her group to pause in their marching and wait for her to recover, in that brief lapse of total silence they heard a faint noise... Like a piece of metal on rock...

Instantly Sub-Sonic froze, her ears twitching back and forth before she started creeping forward, motioning for her group to stay low and follow at a distance while she moved closer... Slowly she made her way towards the direction of the sound, the sound of rushing water gradually growing in volume as the trees started to thin. They had been nearby but had elected to stay inside the forest while simply skirting the river.

There upon a rock, lightly flashing and reflecting moonlight, was a strange helmet, it tottered and teetered in place, rocking one way then the other, faintly she could hear it yelling. The rushing water drowned out the words, but they were short and persistent, almost like they were crying out for help!

She waved for her group to spread out and be on the lookout, wary of anything or anyone that could sympathize with the Nightmare, it was unlikely, but so was a teleporting Totem pole that somehow knew about the pajama's she wore as a foal, specifically the bright pink flower pattern ones, and liked to proclaim it loudly to everypony within earshot.

She shook her head from that nightmare and focused on the one in front of her, frowning as she continued to creep closer, her armor making nary a sound, its enchantments having turned her and it dark green to better blend into the environment around her. Slowly she started to make out the sound of its cries, stopping and tilting her head slightly as she listened.

"WATER!" Water...? It wasn't crying for help... But for water? Why would a helmet need water...? Frowning she waved for her group to move up slowly, surrounding the helmet as it continued to shout at the water, or for water, or just because that is what it felt like doing...

Suddenly the creature fell off of its rock and into the mud, despite sinking deep into the mud it still tried to wiggle its way out, but only succeeding in digging itself deeper. "Fooiot! Now look what tyhou've done!"

_________________________________________________________

Fool! Now we've accomplished neither of our goals! My other half had at least stopped trying to wrest control from me, but even so it was starting to take a conscious effort to keep the reins in my metaphorical gauntlets. It seems the moon light we absorb, while repairing our body, is also weakening whatever Sunny did...

"It's not my fault! You refused to let us drop into that deep, dark, nasty... Horrible... Water... All because you're scared of it!"

There was silence for a moment before my other half spoke. Art thou mentally challenged? Queen Nightmare, in her supreme intelligence, gave thee our fears! So that I shan't balk at the sight of a puddle more than knee deep! I am INCAPABLE OF FEAR.

Before I could respond we felt something pulling us from the mud and lift us, made evident by the copious amount of mud that started to fall of us and splatter onto something metallic below. Wait what?

"Pardon me? But is someone there?" I asked politely, wobbling a little on the stick they had stuck into us, and trying to get a better look at them. It only succeeded in making us wobble too and fro even more and create an odd tickling sensation at the back of our helmet. "And would you mind putting us down please ? It is quite a nice night and this view is lovely but I'm afraid I have places to be..." It always pays to be polite, especially in or around dark forests in the middle of the night.

For a moment there was naught but silence, even from my other half, then a quite rustle and we started moving, our helmet bouncing along quietly on its long wooden prison. "Er... Hello? Come now, its rather impolite to ignore someone when they're trying to make conversation." With a quite growl my other side cut off anything I was about to say. Quite fool! Look at the direction we art moving, our destination is ahead, and if yon stick wishes to take us then we shall let it.

With a silent grumble and a slow spin around the stick to make up for my lack of visor turning, the stick making a curious scraping noise like metal on metal as I did so, we settled down to wait...

A Flight Through the Forest

"Promise me Twilight!"

Twilight Sparkle and her friends had made it back to Golden Oaks Library, and now everpony, bar Twilight and Rainbow Dash, sat in a loose circle on the worn wooden floor, relaxing on cushions. Rainbow Dash was doing lazy laps around the library, her wings barely moving as she flew. Twilight sat in a large comforter in the corner of the room, mulling over the events of the night.

She had led her new friends back through the Everfree forest, and this time there were no manticores, rock slides, or even unusually scary trees to slow them (even so it took nearly an hour to get back to Ponyville). Now she watched her friends talking quietly as they digested what had happened.

Everypony knew Celestia as the calm, gentle, and soft spoken Goddess that she was, unflappable and strong as a mountain. That's how she appeared to most ponies anyway, including Twilight... At the same time, Twilight was probably the closest pony in the world to the Princess of the Sun. So when Twilight replayed things in her mind and examined what had flashed across her mentors face when she talked about the strange being that had intercepted the Elements... Why had she seen anger, concern, and a tiny bit of fear...?

Shaking her head Twilight looked up, examining her friends as they lounged about, conversing quietly, clearly not as shaken as she was by her mentors brief show of weakness, if they had caught it at all. Twilight observed them for a moment, only to frown as she realized Pinkie was missing. Half a second later she knew why as her vision was obscured by something bright pink, and very, very fluffy. "Twilight! Let's play a game!"

With a squeak Twilight jerked back into her chair, almost tipping it over as Pinkie Pie leaned over her from above, her hooves perked on the arms of the chair and keeping it from falling. "P-Pinkie?!"

With a giggle the pink mare hopped down off the chair and sat in front of Twilight, smiling widely. "Cmon! You've been sitting in the corner with a big ol' frowny face since we got back!"

Blinking a few times and waiting for her heart rate to slow down, Twilight shook her head. "P-pinkie, I don't have any games, besides, if I did they would probably still be in Canterlot. Aren't you even slightly worried about what happened? A giant 'thing' blocked the elements and stopped us from beating Nightmare Moon!"

Pinkie giggled again and shrugged, suddenly pulling a game of Monopony from her mane. "Don't worry Twilight! I brought games!"

Gawking for a moment before refocusing, Twilight glanced over at her other friends. "Girl's? Are you all not worried about that thing either?"

Rarity, from her position on a cushion simply smiled and shook her head, "Darling whatever that ghastly thing was I'm sure the Princess can handle it."

Rainbow Dash, circling lazily around the room on her back shrugged. "Yeah Twi, don't worry about it! You said Nightmare Moon was like, a million years old right? That means anything she throws at us will be like, super old! I think we can handle some old geezer."

Applejack nodded in agreement before putting her two bits in. "Besides, Princess Celestia beat Nightmare ah long time ago right? Stands tah reason she can beat 'er again!"

Twilight frown deepened, clearly nopony else shared her concerns over this strange being... Should she be worried? She didn't have enough information about this strange creature to... With a gasp Twilight jumped up, rushing to the history section of the Library. Rarity watched her with a raised eyebrow "What has you so excited, Darling?"

Without a backward glance and a sparkle in her eye, Twilight started pulling history books from the shelves,explaining her sudden burst of energy excitedly. "Girls, before I got here I was worried about the Mare in the Moon, which was a Myth! Or so I thought! Which is why I only found a child's book with barely anything in it. I was looking in the wrong place all along! But if I can check history books I'm sure I can find something!"

With a new stack of books Twilight sat back down in her chair, placing the stack on the side table next to her. Before she could even crack open the first book however, a loud knock came from the door of the library. A second later it opened and a small purple lizard walked through, talking to somepony behind him. "Dude, you're her brother, and this is a public library, I don't think we need to knock."

Twilight froze for a moment, having totally forgotten about Spike in the rush to find the Elements of Harmony. "It's always polite to knock Spike." The second voice said from behind the door, it would have sounded familiar, but Twilight was too busy tackle hugging Spike and checking him over.

"Spike! Oh Sweet Celestia I'm so so sorry! I totally forget in all of the panic! Aren't you supposed to be sleeping??" Hugging the small dragon to her Twilight continued checking over him, even as he squirmed and protested.

"Twilight I'm fine! They're are bigger things to worry about than me sleeping y'know!" Spike said irritably, tired and a little cranky from having only a few hours of sleep, he motioned to the stallion in armor behind him, which Twilight hadn't noticed until now.

"Good Morning Twilight! Or should I say Good Evening? But then again its supposed to be Morning." He said with a chuckle, sliding his helmet off and placing it on the floor next to him.

It took Twilight a second, but the moment the helmet hit the wooden floor with a quiet thunk she gasped and placed Spike down, carefully, before leaping and wrapping her forelegs around her older brother. "B.B.B.F.F.S! Why're you here?! Oh! Are you going to help find the Nightmare??" Shining Armor shook his head, returning his sisters hug.

"Not quite Twily, I'm actually here for you and your friends. Princess Celestia has ordered the guard to escort you all to Canterlot Castle for your safety." Pulling away Shining pulled his helmet back on, motioning for everyone in the room to follow. "We've got chariots awaiting outside for everypony here. We can catch up on the way!"

Rarity was the first to speak up in protest. "My Dear I simply cannot! Who shall watch over my Dearest Sister?" Rarity moved a little closer, pointing out the door and in the direction of Carousel Boutique.

Applejack nodded in agreement. "And what about mah farm? And mah family? Ah can't just leave em." She said with a frown. Fluttershy didn't want to leave her animal friends alone, but nopony realized she was talking so when Shining Armor spoke up she was still muttering quietly behind her mane about needing to feed Harry before he got too hungry and found dinner for himself.

Shining nodded and waved a hoof behind him. Just past him was several large chariots, filled to the brim with Royal Guards. "Don't worry everypony, we've deployed Guards to every one of your homes to protect your family and property. Plus Intel suggests that the Nightmare is more focused on getting itself back to full strength, rather than attacking."

Twilight blinked and tilted her head, wondering where this 'Intel' could have come from, only to pull back and head back towards her chair, pointing to her books. "Wait! I still need to do research! Where else am I supposed to find information on that thing?"

Raising an eyebrow Shining pointed to the stack of books "Those? Why don't you take them with you?"

"I haven't had time to make myself a library card yet, I can't check out any books without a card!" Twilight exclaimed, shaking her head vigorously. Shining and Spike glanced at one another, both knowing how much of a stickler for rules Twilight was.

"Twilight can't you forgo the rules this one time? Why do you even need those books?" Frowning Shining totted over, glancing at the history books she had pulled off of the shelves.

"I have to do research on Nightmare Moon, and that thing! For that I'll need all the books I can find!" Twilight waved the assortment of books around in her magic to push her point, then gestured to the library. "And where else would I find books but a library?"

Spike sighed and dragged a claw down his face, waving to get Twilight's attention "Twilight, you do realize if we go to Canterlot we can just go to the Castle's library right? It's like, ten times bigger than this one!"

Twilight stared at Spike for a moment, opening her mouth to retort, only to blush slightly and silently return the books to where she had taken them. "Ehe r-riiiighht..." The promise of more books quickly overruled her embarrassment, and she was eagerly trotting out the door to the chariot where the rest of her friends waited.

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"Duuuuuuh~ Duuuuuuh~ Duh Duuh Dun Duuuh~ Duuuuh~ Duuh Duuuh Duh~ Duh Duh Duh Duuuuh~"

Why must thy do this?

"I'm bo~ored~ Oh So very Bo~ored~ This is the Ooonly~ Way to keep me saaaane~"

Thou realize the only reason thou art still in control is because thy singing is so annoying that even our new 'traveling companions' mayhaps toss us away correct?

With a chuckle I lazily spin around the stick we sit upon, still singing. "I beeee~et~ You like my siiing~ing~ But you're too shhhyyy~ To let it shooow~" This song pops into my head any time I get bored and apparently I didn't get even a tiny bit of patience, so that was often, and any time I feel like things get boring I start singing! Or humming, whatever feels right for the moment.

My other half of course didn't approve, although he never does of anything unless its 'For the Glory of our Queen!' bleagh. I continued spinning, giggling as the tip of the stick (we were fairly certain it was a spear at this point) grated against the inside of our helmet. "So Mysterious Stranger, how are you this fine morning hm? Well, evening I guess? But its technically morning... Hmm..."

My other side growled and pointed us towards the forest. Doth thy feel it? Our armor, or at least parts of it, grows near... It shall only be a short time more...

"Not really~ But whatever you say boss!" I spun around on the spear excitedly, I couldn't feel it, as it was considered part of my other half's jurisdiction, he got all of the cool things like, how to stab things and how to be a stick in the mud. I got all the fun things! Like singing and a crippling fear of water! Anyhow, our body was reforming! That means I could have proper graspy things again! This was wonderful!

Fool! Thou speak aloud!

Woops did I? Ehe... Guess we should leave then?

"GAH! Imbecile!" Suddenly we were moving, blasting off of the tip of the spear with a burst of magic we flew up into the air, apparently I had lost my driving privileges. We didn't even turn to look at our former escorts, but I managed to shout out a quick "Thanksfortheridegottagobye!" before we flew away. Well, jumped away.

A moment later we slammed into the tree branches of the forest, my other half easily navigating the thick foliage as agile as a squirrel, hopping from tree branch to tree branch. Meanwhile I was giggling like a drunk, I barely even knew how to do this magic jump thing, much less use it to fly from tree to tree, (My version looked more like a drunken fish flopping about) and it was exhilarating!

"Must you act like a child with everything?" My other side grumbled as we flew along.

Hey hey! If it weren't for me we wouldn't even be able to enjoy this! I remark without even trying to hide my smugness.

My other half only grumbled in response, knowing this was the reason I was even still around. Nightmare had not quite been able to separate the 'use that poor sap in front of us as a battering ram to get past his buddies' side of our mind from my 'might betray you given the chance' side, as they were both part of the Ingenuity side of the mind.

The branches parted around us, and suddenly we were in open air, well, for half a second before we smacked visor first into a crumbling stone wall. "Ah. We hath arrived." What gave you that idea? I ask with the last of my giggles as we slid down the wall. "Our torso still rests a distance away, however our leggings and one of our arms await us inside. Most likely with our sword and shield." We hopped along, occasionally landing on cobblestone with a loud clang, making our way around the large building and towards hole that was once a grand door.

Yes a lot of good those do without something to connect it to. Now that I think about it, didn't we lead our 'escorts' here? Shouldn't we have waited until after our pieces were assembled?

"Imbecile, such fools who think that we can be contained by naught but a spear stuck up our neck have no more brains than thyself." He said with a grumble.

I started to retort, only for somebody, or should I say somepony, to interrupt me from behind. "Oh yeah, total fools, certainly fooled us. Right guys?" The Pegasus said with a growl, its blue eyes narrowed behind her helmet.

We froze, my other side growled lowly, slowly turning in place. His growls only grew in volume as we found our former 'escorts'. My other half's growl grew as we noticed something interesting about these guards.

"Companions." He spit the word like poison recently taken from a grievous wound, it seemed to surprise even the group in front of us with its venom. Although only one of them actually flinched, the rest just flicked their ears to varying degrees. I couldn't remember exactly why he hated them so much, but Sweet Luna on a Moon Pie he did NOT like these guys! Er, girls? It was difficult to tell with all that armor on.

Standing straight, spears and armor gleaming in the moonlight, the six Pegusi stood in a loose semi circle around us. Each wore the symbol of the companions, a spear with a pair of wings embossed over a stylized sun, stamped proudly on the front of their chest, the one in the center spoke again. (Due to the voice I assumed it was a female, or a prepubescent colt... Probably a female.)

"Oh? So you've heard about us huh?" She said cockily, standing a little straighter. "Seems even some old rust bucket knows about the Companions." That jab did nothing for my other half's mood, the visor slowly raised and I tilted my head mentally, he rarely raised our visor, not unless he wanted to summo- EYES! That's what they're called! 'Rolling your EYES!' My other half ignored my outburst as two red flames (and two faded blue ones) sprung from the depths of our helmet, the first step to defeating an enemy is to demoralize them, make them think they will lose before the battles even won. Plus, you could roll them!

My other half chuckled, it wasn't a real chuckle, as it was cold, quiet, evil... At that moment, if I could, I would have shivered."I only know of thine pitiful organization, because I once wiped thine kind from the face of this wretched planet..." My other half's eyes sparked and crackled audibly, the red flames flickering in the night. One of the Pegasi, situated on the far left and indistinguishable due to his armor's enchantments, seemed to hesitate at this, his spear shaking ever so slightly. The Pony front and center however? She laughed.

"Hah! The Companions have been around for over a thousand years! The last time we even lost a Pony in combat was the Celestial Wars! And you!" She jabbed her spear at us, her words lowly and menacing. "Wiped out the entire five hundred guards without even having limbs? Taur Shit!"

I rolled my eyes (Sweet Moon that felt nice) and waited for my other half's response, he stared at her for a moment, then started to chuckle again, it was low, menacing, devoid of all mirth, and existed only to make those in social situations feel awkward at best and downright worried at worst. For those in a combat situation however? It was enough to make the poor guard on the left whimper and take a step back! "Five hundred? Truly? It seems the Solar Wench has kept herself occupied. In our era the Companion guard consisted of no more than two hundred soldiers, each one equal in combat to that of fifteen standard guards."

My other half started to chuckle, again, rocking back and forth slowly, the chuckling turned into a full blown laugh, then finally we fell onto our 'back', my other half still laughing loudly. It was the single most creepy and terrifying thing I've heard in the last thousand years. A-are you done...? I asked hesitantly as it started to fade, only to be ignored as he suddenly lifted us up, the crimson fire that made up his eyes blazing like a furnace.

"Know this Child. Thou shalt perish. Thou comrades shall cease to draw air. All thou hold dear shall be wiped from this world!" At rising of our flames the mare took half a step backward, only to grit her teeth and step forward with my other half's threat. "We shall purge thine 'Holy Order' from this world once more! The fact that there now exists five hundred of you shall only serve to sweeten my Queens victory! Starting with thee!"

With a roar we charged forward (well, hopped aggressively forward) towards the group of 5 ponies (one had decided to take a nap). Without a word the group watched as we hopped furiously towards them, and with a roar of triumph we leaped above the group and came hurtling down upon the foolish ponies that dared challenge us!

...Only to be received with a spear shaft to the visor, and with a loud clang we were sent hurtling back into the forest, smashing through leaves and branches (Weeeee!). To my disappointment we quickly lost momentum and dropped towards the ground, only to be caught by... A gauntlet? Wait! That's our gauntlet!

My other half casually placed our helmet back upon our torso and I groaned in relief, it felt unbelievably nice to have a body again. Especially one that had been absorbing direct moonlight for the last few hours! Power coursed through us, no where near our full, but to regain the rest of our body and wipe these cocky punching bags away? Plenty! ...Probably. "The Moon shines its glory upon us! I knew our body was near!" My other half said triumphantly, checking over our newly mended torso and arm.

I almost chocked on my laugh as I realized what had happened. W-wait! You-you didn't know that would happen?! I tried desperately to reign in my laughter, but the flight over had not helped.

"... Twas planned." My other half answered quietly after a moment.

It wasn't was it? I failed once more to hold back my laughter, my blue eyes dancing and flaring behind his larger crimson ones.

"... Silence! We have ponies to destroy!"

A-and! And what! W-what about our legs and- HAH! At this point I was practically flailing about inside our helmet, unable to complete my sentence.

"I said Silence!"

Author's Notes:

Criticism (and stuff) welcome as usual! Link to blog post about this fic here.

A Trip to the Library

Celestia lay in an open meadow, the rays of the sun running over her outspread wings like liquid gold, a cool breeze ruffling her feathers and mane like the gentlest of massages. Her hair did not flow like an aurora, but simply hung from her body, ruffled only by the gentle breeze that flowed around her. She was at peace, her mind was not clouded with politics, nor the stewardship of the sun and moon, her mind was empty except for the total bliss she felt as she lay in the meadow...

"So... This is what hath been wrought from use of those stones..." A voice whispered, it was distant and Celestia tried to ignore it, focusing instead on the meadow, but she felt the wind blow a little harder as the voice spoke once more. "A sliver of thine former majesty..."

The voice seemed curious and amused as Celestia focused more on her surroundings, on the blue sky dotted with small brilliantly white clouds. "Oh? Has mine sister practiced mine own art?" The voice asked, now even fainter than before, giving Celestia a small amount of satisfaction. "The same art she ridiculed so?"

Celestia bit her lip slightly as the voice seemed to resist, no longer growing fainter with each passing second. She felt the source of the voice grow steadily closer, she forced her mind to picture the verdant meadow, filled to the brim with poppy and dandelion flowers... Yet something disrupted it... The sun seemed to dim, the wind died down to the point that it wasn't even strong enough to brush the petals of the flowers around her, and the air grew colder...

"Dearest Sister, thou forget that this is Our domain, even with a millennia of practice, thou shalt not keep Us at bay." The voice said quietly, but now very close. Wincing slightly, Celestia opened her eyes, the field she had pictured in her mind was gone, and in its place was a mockery. The poppies and dandelions that once filled the meadow were replaced by pure white moon flowers, bathed in dim beams of light from their namesake, partially hidden behind the newly formed clouds, and the wind had stopped entirely.

Standing three or four pony lengths away sat a midnight black Alicorn mare, who gazed back at her quietly, her slitted, cobalt eyes looking deep into Celestia's own rose tinted ones. "What do you want, Nightmare?" Celestia asked quietly, her lips barely moving. The black Alicorn closed her eyes and took a slow, deep breath, before speaking.

"We art glad thee still remember our name at least, Dear Sister..." The Nightmare replied quietly, her midnight blue mane shining softly in the moonlight. Celestia's ears twitched slightly at these words, watching as Nightmare slid down to her forelegs, copying her sister's position.

"You are not my sister..." Celestia whispered, barely audible despite the silence that pressed in on the two. "What do you want?" She asked again, louder, her wings starting to ruffle in irritation.

"Thou truly still believe that? That the one who now sits before thee is not thine sister? We had hoped thee had changed in a thousand years..." Nightmare said quietly, her eyes dropping to the ground at her hooves.

"My sister is Luna... Not... You... You are a tool that we were forced to use, a parasite that refused to disappear when it were no longer needed." Celestia hissed, trying to bore holes into the other Alicorn's head with her rose colored eyes.

For a moment nothing happened, Celestia continued to stare at the dark Alicorn, her eyes like embers trying to ignite the alicorn across from her. Then quietly, almost sadly, Nightmare spoke.

"Thou really have not changed have thee, Day Breaker?" Nightmare whispered, her hair slowly turning to stars and her wings hugging tightly to her side, as she slowly climbed back to her hooves.

Celestia's eyes narrowed and she stood with Nightmare, gritting her teeth. "I told you to never call me that again. That name is not mine, that thing was not who I truly am! I cast it off, why couldn't you!?" She shouted, stomping her hoof and crushing the pearly flowers underneath.

Nightmare stood, her mane and tail moving like a calm ocean of stars, pushed by an unknown force, the stars shining and blinking in the dim moonlight. "Fine... If thee shall not accept Us as We are... The next we meet Celestia, know that thou shalt not find Us as amicable as We art now..." Nightmare said quietly, her voice sounding almost sad as she stared back, slowly fading from Celestia's dream. "Fair thee well, shell of sister mine... We shall see thee on the morrow." Nightmare whispered before fading entirely, leaving only a single large flower in her place.

In the span of a blink, the meadow returned to its former glory, but Celestia did not notice this, for she once again lay upon the ground, tears slowly sliding down her muzzle as she stared at the only hint that Nightmare had been there, a large moon flower seemingly still bathed in moonlight...

_______________________________________________

Celestia's eyes snapped open and she shot up from her bed, her breathing heavy and ragged. She stared into the dark corners of the room, expecting at any moment to be attacked... On instinct Celestia tried to turn on the lights with her magic, only to wince and bring a hoof to her temple, luckily she didn't get another headache, but magic was out of the question for now. Sighing softly Celestia rubbed her eyes, only to pause as she notices the tracks of wet fur. Before she can ponder further a knock echoes through the room, causing her to freeze for a moment, her mind flashing back to her dream, shaking her head and slowly taking a deep breath Celestia climbed from her bed.

Hurriedly wiping her face clean with a nearby blanket, Celestia took another deep breath and walked towards the door. Instinctively knowing where everything in her room, most importantly the light switch, Celestia flicked it on carefully and blinked a few times, letting her eyes adjust before cracking the door open a little. "Yes...?"

"Princess! you're alright!" Came an excited voice, before Celestia knew it a small purple body had pushed the door open and wrapped itself around her forelegs. "Oh we were so worried! The guards said you stayed in your room all day, well, night, but you know what I mean!"

With a shaky sigh Celestia sat down, looking down at the beaming face of her Student, just seeing her lifted some of the exhaustion from Celestia's shoulders, giving her the energy to smile in turn. "Yes my Dear Student, unharmed, but very, very, very tired..." Celestia hoped Twilight would get the hint, but instead she simply nodded and stepped back, blushing lightly at her brash hug, standing in front of her mentor.

"That's what all the guards said, but I REALLLLY need your help, so I snuck past them! I need to check out a book, well several, but the Librarian won't let me!" She says hurriedly with a slightly embarrassed but hopeful smile.

Celestia stared down at her student for a moment, watching the hopeful comparatively little filly flicker between happiness at seeing her mentor and worry that she might be reprimanded. Finally a quiet giggle escaped the Solar Princess, and picking Twilight up in her forelegs she hugged her close, laughing as she held the innocent mare to her chest. "Oh Twilight how I have missed you."

Twilight squirms with wide eyes and a red face, looking up at her mentor. "But Princess, I've only been gone for two days at most! Although without the sun rising it is a tad difficult to tell..."

Chuckling softly Celestia sets her student down, gently tapping her hoof against Twilight's nose she opens the door fully, waving her forward. "Come Dearest Student, let us see about these books you want to check out. I'm sure it's nothing to worry about."

Getting back to her hooves Celestia and Twilight made their way down the staircase, Twilight glancing up at her mentor every few seconds and chewing on her lip. Celestia, not having the the patience to wait for Twilight to speak up, spoke first "Is there something you want to ask Twilight...? ...Is it about Nightmare Moon?" Twilight immediately looked away, not realizing she had been so obvious.

Gulping softly Twilight looked back up at her Mentor, seeing no signs of anger or disappointment, only a tired resolve, she spoke. "Princess... Did you know she was coming back? A-and if you did why couldn't you tell me? I could have missed that story book completely, or, or have been more prepared!" Twilight winced, realizing she had raised her voice slightly.

Nodding, Celestia draped a wing over her students back in reassurance before speaking. "Yes... But if I had informed you before hoof, do you think you would have been more focused on Her eminent return rather than making friends? Would you not have insisted on staying at the library, or with me, until she returned?"

Twilight thought for a moment, before nodding slowly. "I suppose that... Without my friends we wouldn't have been able to banish her back to the moon at all, much less defeat her for now..." Celestia held back a wince at the moon comment, but simply nodded. "Is she really your Sister, Princess? Was she really a Princess like you?"

This time Celestia did wince, stopping in the middle of the hallway before taking a deep breath and continuing. "That question is... complicated... Nightmare Moon is not my Sister, but the mare that lies underneath all of that darkness is. Her name was Luna, and yes, she ruled alongside me over a thousand years ago... My hope is that the elements will cleanse her of the Nightmare rather than simply send her back to the moon..."

"But how do you know the Elements will Cleanse her?" Twilight asked, her scientific mind piqued.

Celestia thought for a moment before speaking, trying to put over a thousand years of study of the elements in as simple terms as possible. "The elements are strange, truly ancient artifacts, predating even my own birth. But they do have a set of rules, they cannot kill, not truly, and they gather power primarily from their wielders strongest emotions, or in times of desperation, the wielders magic itself. The more stable and the more power, the better. How it decides what punishments or effects it has on others is still rather... Unknown, due to ah... Lack of proper test subjects..."

"But with the right amount of power it can accomplish amazing feats, but when I used them to banish the Nightmare I was forced to draw partially from my own magic, as unfortunately the emotions available to draw from were rather... Erratic at the time..." Celestia finished with a whisper, her ears drooping and her eyes staring into the floor.

Taking a deep breath Celestia shook her head, standing tall again, she had had a thousand years to mourn her Sister's betrayal, it may still hurt, but it would not keep her from continuing. "Even so the Elements managed to banish her to the moon, as I said the Elements never truly kill, only contain or banish depending on the amount of power its wielders can supply. I think with enough power you and your friends can cleanse Nightmare from my Sister... The creature I mentioned before is the only reason she was not cleansed when you used the elements on her the first time..."

Twilight's did not speak as she digested this information, chewing on her lip. After a minute of silence they turned a corner, the large doors to the castle's library stood shut, guarded by no less than four guards from the castle's personal barracks, moving quickly and with precise steps the guards stepped aside and opened the doors for the two, saluting as Celestia walked past.

The library was one of the first rooms to be created when the basis of the castle was constructed, as such it technically had more space than even the throne room. Although due to most of this room being taken up by shelves that seemed to stretch endlessly away from the doors, desks, and reading areas, a pony would be unable to tell just how big it was by comparison unless they attempted to map it out.

Upon stepping inside Twilight took the lead, quickly trotting towards a table where, along with a large stack of books, sat Twilight's new friends, all chatting happily amongst themselves. Pausing for a moment Celestia reflected, watching as Twilight started to tell them what had happened and what Celestia had told her. Twilight had been quite a bit calmer than what was typical, and seeing how easily she slid into conversation with these mares, and how they openly accepted anything she said with the utmost trust, as if they had been friends for years rather then less than a week, set Celestia's mind at ease. Twilight had a brilliant mind, but one often marred by anxiety and nervousness, if these new friends of hers were her rocks, then the only advice she could truly give Twilight was to trust in them...

Turning away Celestia walked over to the Librarians desk, sitting she very gently tapped the bell, resulting in a soft bang and an even softer curse sounding from the slightly ajar door behind the desk. A moment later an older, probably in her late 50s at best and early 60s at worst, Thestral, one known as Midnight Star, stumbled out. She had a graying mane that had once been a deep shade of blue, and eyes that were uncharacteristically pink, an oddity among her kind, hiddben behind a pair of thick reading glasses which were balanced precariously upon her nose. "Miss Sparkle I told you, without direct confirmation from the Princess I cannot-" The mare froze, her mouth agape as she looked up at the still tired, but awake Princess. "Y-Your Majesty!"

Quickly bowing the Librarian popped back up, her wings hidden beneath a dark purple sweater, twitched nervously. "A-are you here to approve of the books Miss Sparkle wanted your Majesty...?" The mare quietly lifted a stack of rather thick books, all of them clearly being hundreds of years old, if not older, and in remarkably good condition, which is to say they might still be readable. "Princess I know you say to give her any book she requires, but these books are from the most restricted areas of the Library, I'm not even sure how she found them! And their content... Lets simply say that it was written when the idea of 'peace' as we know it was considered the insane ramblings of a Mad Mare..." The thestral mare looked up at her imploringly, gently laying out each book in front of her.

Celestia looked down at the books, their covers cracked and faded, she was only able to make out the title of a single one... The Massacre at Jǫrmun... Celestia slowly nodded in agreement, glancing over at the happily chatting group of ponies. On one hoof... This book, along with with the other three, if her memory served her correctly, would undoubtedly scare them, maybe to the point of inaction... On the other hoof, they must understand the severity of the situation should they encounter that creature again... Making up her mind Celestia nodded to her librarian. "Please place these with the rest of the books from the old castle, sadly this is a story I must tell personally..."

Turning away Celestia walked slowly to the table of waiting mares, trying to think of a 'gentle' way to tell a story about hatred and violence on a scale unseen for over a millennia and a half...

Author's Notes:

It's Back! Apologies for the delay. I'm lazy, next chapter is coming! Eventually

Please ask any questions you may have, point out any story flaws, etc, along with grammar and spelling errors.

I know, the Canterlot Library (as for as I know) isn't actually in Canterlot castle, much less a short monologue away from Celestia's own rooms. Good thing this isn't that library! This one is supposed to be a combination of Celestia's personal library that she's collected over the years (hence why its massive) and a lot of the books from the original castle. Imagine it like a combination of the layout of the Starswirl Wing, with the sitting area of the Canterlot Archives.

An Old Story

Author's Notes:

Comments and Corrections are greatly appreciated!

With a deep breath Celestia walked towards the table of waiting Ponies slowly, her steps hesitant. This was not a tale that ones so young should have to hear, even a watered down version of it. Approaching the table conversations petered out and slowly each pony turned and bowed lowly before the Princess. Sighing mentally Celestia spoke "Rise, my Little Ponies, you should not feel the need to bow around me, as you have become just as important to Equestria, if not more so, than I..."

The group of 6 rose, most with confused looks on their faces, while one simply beamed up at her. "Let me elaborate. Within you all is the power to protect Equestria, through the bonds of your friendship the Elements can stop those who would wish you and your fellow Ponies harm, or ruin upon our fair Equestria." The ponies around her sat a little straighter and their faces flushed ever so slightly from the praise, their eyes moving from the Princess to each other, their smiles growing a little wider. Celestia blinked, noticing a faint glow coming from a saddlebag sitting nearby, and chuckled softly, obviously the Elements agreed.

Leaning over Celestia gently took the strap into her mouth and tugged the bag on to the table, carefully pulling each of the Elements out and arranging them on the table. "Saying that, I would like each of you to continue wearing these, and try to stay together as much as possible. Until Nightmare is located, we cannot afford to lose one of you, or have one of you away should she appear again. With one of the Elements missing, they become nothing more than intricate stones..." Twilight looked down, feeling a little ashamed for running off, leaving her friends and the Elements behind to wake Celestia. "I am very proud of you, My Little Ponies, you've done a great service to your country and fellow Ponies, I watched from inside Nightmare's cage as you overcame each obstacle through the strength of your friendship, and refused to yield to her tricks... But I am afraid she is only a single problem among many. The more dangerous foe we face is the creature that stopped Nightmare from being cleansed. I managed to disable most of its body after chasing it down in the Everfree, however it disappeared afterwards, I seem to have ah... Exhausted myself..."

Blushing ever so slightly Celestia looked away for a moment, briefly longing for her bed, then shook her head, turning back towards the table. "Now, what has happened since I was returned to the castle? I see you all look rather awake...?" And rather clean now that she thought about it. Biting her lip imperceptibly Celestia glanced slyly down at her own coat, groaning mentally as she realized she was still covered in mud and grass, her poor bed must look even worse!

"Weeeeeeeeeeelllll! We got through the forest, which was like, SUPER easy without big blue chasing us! Then Twilight was like 'BOOKS' and her brother was like 'CASTLE BOOKS' and we got to ride in a CHARIOT which was a ton of fun! Then we got here and had breakfast! Which was weird because it was still dark outside y'know? I think only Applejack wakes up and has breakfast BEFORE the sun comes up, do you do that Princess? Is that why the sun is always up at the same time? Is it? Isitisitisit???" Celestia leaned back in surprise as the pink pony in front of her continued to babble, not taking a breath or slowing down. Celestia looked around the table cautiously, hoping something had not gone wrong with Pinkie, but instead she was met with amused smiles and stifled giggles. "AND THEEEN! We all took a shower and then a nap! OH! Those beds are amazing! It almost feels like I'm still in one! And then we came here cause Twilight needed more books!! Then she needed to get you so she went and got you and now here you are!"

Blinking a few times Celestia's eyes wandered the table only to find the pink pony back in her seat, she hadn't seen her move, but one moment she been talking animatedly only inches from her muzzle, and the next she was sitting down patiently... Shaking her head slowly Celestia snuck a look at Twilight, only to get a shrug and soft smile. "I... See... Well... I'm glad you all had time to eat and sleep, as a long search is ahead of us. Once my guards bring in the Knight we shall be able to track down the source of his power, which should be Nightmare Moon herself."

"Speaking of which, Twilight, about those books you requested." Twilight's ears perk up at this and she glances over at the Librarians desk, not seeing Midnight Star she turns back, tilting her head in confusion. "I'm afraid they will, for the most part, not be of any aid to you... However, I can answer any questions you have about the creature, and Nightmare herself... The same invitation extends to all of you, any questions you may have I will answer. To make this simple lets start with you Applejack." At this Applejack's eyes widened and she sat up a little straighter, gulping softly.

"A-ah me? Well uh.... What exactly is it? Ah only saw some shadow pop outta nowhere, it looked kinda big but other than that ah couldn't make heads or tails of it. Ah thought maybe the Nightmare had tried blocking th' Elements with a piece ah stone or somethin now that I think about it'" Applejack said, rubbing a hoof over her chin. Around the table most of the other ponies nodded along, frowning as they try to think back on what had happened.

Nodding slowly Celestia looked around the room, hoping that one of them had seen more, but only Twilight looked even remotely certain that what they had seen was in fact a creature. "And you Twilight?"

"Well... I certainly saw the outline of some sort of creature, but the Elements blocked most of its features, it looked vaguely like a Minotaur with some sort of sword, and thinking back maybe a shield, but I couldn't make out more than a general shape..." Twilight frowned, looking down at the desk as she replayed the fuzzy memory over and over in her head.

Thinking for a moment Celestia let the group think for a few moments longer, hoping one might remember something, but unfortunately no new questions came. "I see. Well then I shall have to describe it. The Knight is roughly twenty hooves high, made entirely out of metal, it can move faster than a manticore and absorbs most magic used against it, hence why it was able to survive being hit by the Elements. However, it still is badly damaged. Even now my most elite guards are most likely picking up its remains and bringing them back to the Castle for safe keeping, and help in finding Nightmare, however, this is not why I bring it up now."

"There may be a small chance that several of these constructs are still in existence. Either deactivated, their magic sleeping so to speak, and awaiting Nightmares call, or roaming endlessly on the orders of Nightmare, like the one you encountered. When Luna and I ruled together there were no more than one hundred of these constructs, each holding a a modicum of intelligence, copied from a soul that was from a once living warrior who lived his entire lifetime in battle. This, coupled with its incredible strength, speed, and endurance, makes it an incredibly powerful foe..." Finishing Celestia bowed her head, expecting justifiably scared silence.

Instead, her head jerked up in surprise as Rainbow Dash laughed. "Oh c'mon Princess! That thing got wiped with one hit from the Elements, easy peasy! Something that slow isn't gunna be an problem for the Dash" Smirking Rainbow casually floated around on her back. "And twenty hooves? That's like, what, not even the size of bear? We took on a Manticore and won! No way this thing could beat us even without the Elements!" Around the table several heads bobbed in agreement, although Fluttershy simply shrunk into her seat a little and Twilight frowned.

Sighing Celestia shook her head. "Then I suppose I shall have to tell you the story you would find in the books Twilight wanted... This story is about the Queendom of Ord, it once rested far to the west, and was a relatively small land, at least compared to Equestria or the Griffon Kingdoms, but it held a now, as far as we know, extinct race."

Celestia motioned to a globe on a nearby table "Twilight, if you would be so kind?" Twilight lit her horn and pulled the globe from the other table, setting it down in the center. Nodding in thanks Celestia leaned forward, carefully turning the globe until she found an area far west of Equestria. "This was once the land called Ord, you may not be able to see it properly bu-Oh thank you Twilight, as you can see it is a relatively small land bordered on all sides by mountains." Celestia pointed up to the three dimensional magical construct Twilight had made, showing a massive rolling desert that was indeed surrounded by mountains, in fact there only seemed to be a single way in, or out, of the desert, in the top left of the map where two mountains did not touch.

"This land was once inhabited by an incredibly hearty race known as the Lamias, a hybrid race whose origins are lost to time. Nevertheless the legend goes that the first creature to enter this land, a great adventurer, fell in love with the first Lamia he met. Their union created the city of Jormungandr in the center of the desert, and the land of Ord was created, named after the Ordian mountain range that surrounded it." Without prompting a small city appeared in the middle of the map, with two Saddle Arabian like ponies, one dressed in rugged adventuring gear and the other with a comically large crown, happily watching over it.

"Er, Princess, what did these 'Lamia' actually look like?" Twilight said, frowning as she tried to imagine the two Monarchs, the visages changing to Minotaurs, then Griffons, then back to ponies before Twilight looked to the Princess.

Celestia thought for a moment before speaking "I cannot speak of the appearance of the first Queen and King, as I did not meet them, in fact Equestria as a whole did not make their acquaintance until the Queendom had been established for several hundred years. However, when I did meet them the Queen resembled that of Abyssinian, but with a snake below the waist." Confused silence reigned around the table as they all stared at the Princess, and then eyes slowly traveled to the magical picture as a 'Lamia' appeared...

"Like this...?" Twilight said, her eyebrow raised as the strange creature materialized next to her adventurous husband.

Nodding and smiling in approval Celestia continued, "Very good Twilight! Very similar to that, however there was no King at the time I met the Queen, but that was due to how long Lamia's live. Each Lamia could live up to an excess of two hundred years, as a result they often had multiple partners throughout their long lives. Don't forget back then ponies did not live long past their 60's, and many other races much younger."

Rarity shook her head, frowning as she stared at the image of the Lamia Queen, now missing a husband "How sad... To know you have to watch a beloved age and fade away before your very eyes... I cannot even imagine..." The table grew somber at the thought, and Celestia quickly moved on.

"Ahem... Moving on... When I finally met the Queen of Ord we very quickly grew to enjoy one anothers company, and agreed upon setting up trade routes as well as free migration between our two countries. As a result of this both our country and hers was improved, the influx of ponies into her country meant the city expanded even more, and became a very popular tourist destination, and Equestria gained access to the vast mineral riches her Queendom could provide. As time went on more ponies arrived and decided to stay, as a result their population expanded, unfortunately that also meant the more water was needed."

"The primary source of water in the region was from aquifers, buried deep underground, and with the help of Equestrian engineers and the Lamia we managed to create a proper water system, soon the desert city was turned into a paradise. However, this caused one major problem for the Ordians... You see, deep underground, hiding from the hot sun, was a creature that would later be known as the 'Olgoi-Khorkhoi', a massive Tatzlwurm that lived in the water, and was trapped due to the massive mountains that surrounded it. It was able to tunnel through the sand rather easily, but not through rock..." A worm the size of a city slowly appeared on the map, towering over the sprawling city and terrifying the Lamia Queen.

"At the time my Sister and I, Luna, were in a neighboring country securing a treaty that would keep our borders safe, and while it was close, it was still some hours away even by flight. Thankfully, my Sister was a master of teleportation, and with simply the general direction and location of the city of Jormungandr, she was able to teleport herself, her personal guard, and her Knight to the city. By the time I arrived the battle was nearly over, the great worm was nearly defeated, before I arrived however it managed to land a blow on my sister..." The giant worm appeared to be battling an Alicorn of indistinct shape, while she was physically similar to Princess Celestia, this Alicorn was darkly colored. The Alicorn was dodging around the massive creature firing magic blasts into its sides and back, trying to push it away from the city, when suddenly a particularly powerful swing from the beast's tail sent the Alicorn flying in to the cities palace.

"Unfortunately the area that my Sister landed in was the Queen's personal quarters, and several of her servants and concubines saw her, and panicked, thinking she was some how the summoner of this great beast..." The scene changed to show the inside of a great palace, and standing among the rubble was the dark Alicorn, before her were many ponies and snake like beings, all cowering before her in fear.

"This caused my sister to fly into a rage, terrifying the servants and concubines even further, which fed in to her rage and loneliness even more, that was when I think the Nightmare truly sunk its claws deep into my Sisters heart... As what happened next still haunts me to this day..."

With a deep breath Celestia pointed to the worm "Without a moments hesitation my sister attacked the worm with all of her rage, grief, and loneliness... Before she had simply meant to immobilize or drive it away, but now she attacked it with the intent to kill, it was then that I arrived, I moved to help but the civilians were running towards the great beast, and I made them my priority. It was when I moved to intercept them that I found the truth, they were running from my sister's Knight's, who chased them down, murdering them with ease like scythes through a field of wheat." Celestia bowed her head, clamping her eyes shut as she continued in a strained voice.

"They gave no mercy, to adults, the elderly, no matter their age any Lamia caught by the Knight's were killed. My guard and I started to engage the Knights, and while they were not as powerful as the one you encountered, they were still adept warriors, they ignored my own guards and myself except to dodge or parry as we tried to stop them, each one slaying another Lamia even as we desperately tried to stop it." The scene had once again changed, instead of the larger worm it showed that of a street view, with Celestia firing a magical blast in to the back of several strange bipedal creatures with long wicked looking swords, the Lamia's fleeing in terror before them...

Around the table was silence as they watched the scene play out, their eyes wide at such widespread death, although the magical picture did not show any actual death, the stark horror on each Lamia's face was clear as day, others lay behind the Knights, face down and limp...

Celestia turned to Twilight, surprised "Twilight, although it was brave of you, you did not have to envision this for us..." Twilight blinked and turned towards Celestia, her eyes wide and confused.

"But... But I didn't do this, a-after the palace scene I thought you... But your magic..." Twilight's eyes widened further and her head jerked towards Rarity, finding only confusion. "W-wait if it wasn't you o-or Rarity then who was it?"

The magical construct of the city suddenly exploded outward to surround them, solidifying, color and details filling the construct as a dark laugh filled the library...

"Who indeed?"

A Dark Path

"We must move slowly and with the utmost secrecy... We underestimated our enemy before, but we shall not repeat that mistake."

Hey! I didn't underestimate them at all! I corrected, we were currently hiding ourselves underneath a large tree, the roots easily covering us. Being cautious, I had suggested we detach our limbs to make our self easier to hide, each piece moving independently of the rest, propelled by more bursts of magic. Apparently my other half had rather enjoyed our little hopping trick I came up with, and agreed with only a single growl.

My other half whispered angrily to the dark forest surrounding us. "We are using the Royal We knave. As far as we are concerned thou art but an observer, a bothersome one at that..." Quietly we peeked out and watched as our arm shot forward like a large five legged spider, using our fingers to climb into the roots of a nearby tree.

I roll my eyes mentally and sigh dramatically. Oh suuuure, take my advice when you need it and pretend you had the idea to begin with. I guess I'll just relax... And sing~

"No! No singing! Thou shalt stay quiet!" My other side growled, carefully guiding our torso along the ground behind our arm, hiding it underneath a tree nearby, wiggling its way along like a massive earthworm. "If thou insist on singing it shall only give our position away!"

I'm not in control here, so I can't give our position away, dummy. I muttered, starting to hum softly as my other half finally guided our helmet forward, ahead of the other portions of our body to scout ahead.

"No, thou are not, but if thee continue to make noises I shall inevitably scream in rage and attack the nearest living creature." My other half looked about cautiously, his eyes having disappeared and taken mine with them, but I could still feel him looking around, my metaphorical eyes following his wherever they went.

Can we at least have the eyes back? I asked in what was most definitely not a whine, I missed having something of my own to control...

"No! We just said we shall not take those Moon Damned Companions for granted once more. No doubt they have scouts scouring this forest top to bottom as we speak, hence why we must remain vigilant, silent and inconspicuous as possible!" My other half whispered angrily, once again moving our arm forward the two feet to the next tree.

Well you're only doing one of those at best... I muttered sullenly, mentally sitting back to watch.

_____________________________________________________

"Er... Captain..."

"... What, Maps."

"Ah, well... Snafu fainted..."

"Well wake him up!" Sub-Sonic, a Captain of one of the most elite military branches of Equestria, was not happy. She was currently staring off into the distant forest, gritting her teeth in an effort to not screech at the top of her lungs. "At least I'm not alone in my embarrassment." She muttered quietly, grinding her teeth together.

Why was she so angry and embarrassed you might ask? Well, she just sent the one object she was sent to get, flying Celestia knows where into a sun forsaken forest. This object, a large metal helmet clearly not made with ponies in mind, had started off as a harmless, if incredibly loud and annoying, chunk of what might be blackened steel, but had suddenly turned into an extremely fast, potentially deadly, opponent. That helmet had to weigh at least 20 pounds, judging by its weight on her spear, and had it come crashing down like a Hearth's Warming firework onto say, her head, she would would have been out like Private Snafu back there.

Speaking of Snafu... With a grunt Sub turned away from the forest and moved towards the rest of her squad, all clustered around Brown Snafu in a loose circle, Maps was quietly poking Snafus cheek with a wing, frowning. "Isn't he supposed to be the Medic?"

"He's in training Maps... You can't really blame him can you?" Lucky said with a shrug, having plopped herself down next to the young Private. "Besides, we all got a little scared at least once during our first mission right?" Lucky said with a chuckle, lightly poking Snafu's other cheek with a hoof, remembering the time she had screamed like a little filly during her first encounter with a live Manticore.

Sub sighed and pulled Brown Snafu's helmet off, his mane turning an emerald green and his coat turning mud brown as the enchantments faded. "Alright... Maps, you signal for reinforcements, the only Ponies anywhere nearby is Alfalfa squad, and they're going to take at least two hours just to get here at a full gallop. I want them at a canter, but no faster, even Earth Ponies get tired after carrying full War Gear for too long, even if those Earth Ponies are Centurions." Sub said with a frown, staring off into the forest again.

With a quick salute Maps took to the sky, the wind from his take off ruffling Snafu's exposed mane. A few seconds later a bright green flare shot into the sky, slowly pulsing, followed closely by two yellow flares. Maps dropped down in front of Sub a second later, saluting. "Contact made, no casualties, no longer engaging, and finally, regroup at pace: canter, message sent Captain!"

"Yes, thank you Maps, I'm sure we all appreciate a refresher on the basic use of a flare." Sub said dryly, rolling her eyes before turning towards Snafu. "Alright everypony, get ready to move, we're going into that castle, it was clearly the tin can's destination, so that's where we wait for it." Assembling just behind where Snafu lay, Sub's squad stood at attention, waiting eagerly for what they knew was next.

Nodding, Sub-Sonic took a deep breath and put on her meanest 'drill sergeant' face, reaching down she grabbed Snafu's canteen, quickly dumping half of its contents over his face.

With a yelp Snafu shot up, shaking his head as the magically chilled water washed over him. "EEP! DON'T BURN ME!" Snafu thrashed around for a moment, forcing everypony around him to step back. He stopped as Sub dumped the other half over his head. "W-wha?" He sat for a moment, before looking up from the ground and noticing his Captain glaring down at him, her blue eyes burning in her helmet, freezing him in place.

"This is going on your record Snafu, that is unless you don't GET YOUR FLANK UP AND STAND AT ATTENTION LIKE THE REST OF YOUR SQUAD!" Sub roared, throwing the canteen at him. He managed to duck in time, only to spring back up, his armored hoof flying up to almost give him a black eye.

Growling quietly Sub circled the poor Private, she wasn't that angry at him, but lessons had to be learned, and the best way to make them learn was to scare them more than what had made them run, or faint in this case. With another roar Sub waved her group towards the decrepit castle. "FORWARD MARCH! DO YOU UNDERSTAND THE TROUBLE YOU'RE IN PRIVATE!? I SHOULD HAVE YOU SENT TO AN OUTPOST IN STALLIONGRAD FOR THIS!" Honestly, Stalliongrad wasn't that bad, most higher ups just pretended it was Tartarus on Equus, but honestly the only downside was that it was as cold as Celestia's love life... Not that anypony would ever say that outloud of course.

Snafu, trembling slightly, marched mechanically forward, leaving his helmet behind as he headed towards the castle, eyes forward and head held high. Sighing softly and shaking her head Sub grabbed his helmet and canteen, her and the rest of the squad quietly following behind at a sedated pace.

_________________________________________________________________

The outside of the castle looked... Unsafe was the least offensive word Sub could think to describe the old ruin, frowning as she and the rest of her squad readied their spears outside the threshold. "Move carefully, that rust bucket may not be the only danger in here..." Moving forward slowly with spear in hoof the squad of Pegasus ponies carefully surveyed the entrance of the castle, fanning out slowly and methodically checking each tile of the old castle for traps. Satisfied with their immediate surroundings Sub called for a stop, calling the group back towards her, spears still pointed in the direction of potential enemies.

"Alright Fillies, heres the plan, Thunder, Storm, I want you staying at the door, watch for reinforcements and that bucket, if you see it do not engage, come and get the rest of us, the rest of you are coming with me, this castle clearly has something that thing wanted, and we're going to find it first. Maps, I want a sketch of this place as we go, got it?" With a quick salute Maps' dug into his saddlebags for a moment and tugged out a large sketchbook, before perfectly replicating a floor plan of the room they were currently in on the bottom center of the page.

Storm and Thunder saluted, quickly taking positions on either side of the door so they could peer outside, but anypony or anything coming towards the door would have to have very good eyesight to even get a glimpse of the two stallions hiding in the shadows just outside of the moons reach.

Turning towards the interior of the castle, waving the remaining three ponies to her side, Snafu shakily stood to her left, Stroke to her right, and Maps just behind her, ready to record each step in his large sketchbook.

Sub took her first steps forward into the dim castle, her eyes better than most at seeing in the dark. As they went further in, Maps sketched quietly behind them while the other three checked for traps along the walls and floor. Finally they reached the end of the room, where two large, and in disrepair, thrones stood, to the left sat an archway collapsed in by stone, while the right looked fairly clear, although covered in shadows.

Walking through the clear entrance Sub stepped forward into the even darker hallway, her pupils expanding slowly, allowing her to see farther ahead than anypony, albeit in shades of grey. Looking to her squad she frowned and paused, reaching back she grabbed a flare from inside Map's saddlebags and lit it, although she would be sacrificing her night vision, it cast just enough light to give the rest of her squad light to see their immediate surroundings, but beyond that everything was bathed in dim shadows that flickered with the light...

"U-uhm... M-maybe we shoulda stayed near the front M-ma'am?" Snafu muttered, his spear held in a very tight grip, causing it to shake slightly as he glanced nervously around.

"Near the front huh? Good ideal Private, here" With a smirk Sub-Sonic turned and held out flare for the now wide eyed Private, before pushing him forward in her place. "Alright Private, time for you to earn your pay!" Although Sub didn't expect the poor Private to actually accept, he grasped the flare in a shaky wing before gulping softly and moving forward. Raising an eyebrow Captain Sub nodded and allowed herself a small, semi proud smile, this was definitely going on his record.

Sub refocused on their surroundings, spying a few crumbled stone pillars and the occasional collapsed doorway, but certainly nothing a magic helmet might be interested in. She was pulled from her examinations when she heard a small 'Eep!' and turned back towards the front. Snafu was standing, trembling with his spear pointed forward, the flare laying on the floor in front of him, pointing at something in the darkness.

Frowning Sub moved forward and pointed her spear slightly to the right of where Snafu was pointed, glaring into the darkness, carefully both Maps and Stroke moved up, all four of them peering closely into the darkness, waiting for whatever was to come...

"What did you see Private...?" Sub asked after a moment, the light from the flare sputtering and flickering as it lay on the floor.

"... W-wall...!" Snafu manages to get out, his voice squeaking and body shaking as he stares out into the darkness, his eyes fixed on something only he can see...

Captain Sub blinks and frowns, picking up the flare and holding it out, at first she can't make anything out, but as she gets closer she sees the stones of a wall emerge from the darkness, its not until the wall is illuminated entirely does she see what made the Private so terrified.

Standing just in front of the wall is a strange set of armor, rusted with age and holding a large sword point down, but the helmet... The helmet was a near identical replica of the one they were chasing, but this armor didn't look blackened, nor did it glow or speak, it appeared lifeless... Carefully Sub readied her spear and took aim, with a quick flap she shoved her spear forward, she was almost surprised when the armor didn't react at all, and instead simple clattered to the ground in a rusty mess before her, her spear having gone right through the chest piece.

Sighing Sub carefully pulls the spear from the broken armor and stands up straight, frowning. "Alright, back in line Private, if a wall is going to... Scare... You?" Blinking she stopped, the flare lay upon the ground, sputtering and flickering weakly before plunging the room into darkness once more. Waiting a moment Sub let her eyes adjust, before looking around. The first thing she noticed was that she now sat in a dead end, the way she had came was walled off, and to her right was another wall, however, to her left...

Readying her spear once more Sub-Sonic peered into the darkness, seeing several huddled shapes, some tall and angular, while others were small and bulky scattered in indistinct lumps around the room, past fifty hooves or so she couldn't see a thing, but if what she could see was anything to go by, it was cluttered...

Sub stared into the darkness ahead and paused, before taking a deep, slow, breath, and standing up straight, hefting her spear she slowly advanced into the dim hallway...

Author's Notes:

Merry Christmas!
All Criticism is Welcome!

A Worrisome Situation

__________ Unknown Time, Unknown Place __________

Deep underground, so deep that the very planet's inner fire could be felt, a monster of pure obsidian raged. It screamed and roared its hate loud enough to make the walls of its cage tremble, slamming into the walls with a fury that rivaled the heat from the molten earth flowing beneath and around it...

High above, watching with an eager smile and a fire in her eye, the Queen of the Sun stood. Watching nearby, her sister stood in unnatural shadows, seemingly untouched by the light cast from the rivers of super heated earth below. After a moment the Sun Queen turned towards her sister, her flaming mane flickering about in excitement. "When shall it be ready, Dear Sister?" She said with a grin, even her fiery aura unable to penetrate her sister's cloak of shadows.

"It shall not be." The Queen of the Moon said simply, her dark blue eyes unwavering as her sisters mane crackled and grew, a deep frowning replacing the Sun Queens wicked grin.

"What do you mean 'It shall not be'!?" The Sun Queen growled, stomping a hoof and making the earthen platform tremble beneath them. "You PROMISED a weapon of destruction! Of UNSTOPPABLE POWER! Is yon creature not such agreed upon weapon!?" She roared, her mane whipping into a fiery frenzy, sparks and flames shooting from underneath the Sun Queen's hooves.

The Queen of the Moon shook her head slowly, undisturbed by her Sister's outrage. "Yon creature is barely held together fury, only existing due to Our constant magical influence. Even with Our influence it rages uncontrollably, should yonder creature set upon the surface, t'would only set itself upon Our own troops and subjects." With a sigh the Moon Queen lit her horn, finally parting the shadows around her, and all at once the creatures roars died, looking below the two Queens saw the monster, but it was only an obsidian carving, no longer with the fire of life in its body.

"We have spoken time and time again of what it shall take to control such a creature..." The Moon Queen said quietly, looking back to her Sister. Instantly the Queen of the Sun's mane cooled, and she jerked her head back around to her Sister.

With a low hiss she stepped forward "No. Thou shalt not sacrifice one of OUR SUBJECTS for one of thine experiments, We agreed upon a creature that would protect them, and destroy Our enemies. Not subject them to a life of Slavery... Not again, and especially not by Us..." With that the Sun Queen turned and teleported out of the now quiet chamber, leaving the Moon Queen to herself.

The Moon Queen stared at the place her Sister had disappeared from, whispering "Then I shall have no choice but to look for another place to find a Soul... One outside of this plane..."

_______________________________________

Are you suuuuure they're searching for us? I asked, having exhausted my only means of entertaining myself almost an hour ago.

My other half, guiding our gauntlet forward stealthily, ignored me. It had been roughly an hour and a half by the time the castle came into view, the tip of the last still standing tower rising above the forest ominously. For a moment my other half perched us atop a tree, allowing us to see more of the castle, including the giant hole blasted by that rainbow weapon, staring off into the distance, almost like he was... Reminiscing!? Could this be!? Could he be displaying a hint of emotion other than rage, blind devotion, and cold fury!?

After a moment of baited mental breath, I started to question my other half, only for him to speak. "...Excellent. The rest of Our body is now located at the top of yon tower, formerly Our Queen's bedchambers." Guess not. Really? That's why you stopped? You're not even mildly upset that the castle we spent forever protecting now has a giant hole in it? I asked, exasperated.

"Nay. We watched as it fell apart, no doubt thy memory is so flawed that thee do not remember its collapse, only its former glory... But We do." My other half remarked in a matter of fact way, as if discussing nothing more than a new stump we had passed upon our walk. "Thou most likely doth not remember the four centuries We served Our Queen in it either."

Four centuries...? I asked quietly, staring at the castle that felt familiar to me, but other than the time we had spent guarding it, I couldn't say why it actually felt familiar... Only that it felt good to be around its old stones, I had thought that it was due to the Queen's order that I felt that way, but when I looked at it I felt sad that it was a crumbling wreck.

My other half shook us from my stupor as we once again started moving, once more dropping below the practically seamless canopy, not even rays of moonlight penetrating its leaves in most places.

__________________________________________

Sub-Sonic, Captain of the Companion Guard, Leader of Her Majesty's Wings, Her Unflinching Talons, Her Highness's Strong Left Hoof, and a dozen other names, was... Scared wasn't the right word, she was trained to never feel fear... She was... Concerned... With her surroundings.

Everywhere about her was gloom, indistinct shapes glowered from within the tunnel, shadows within shadows seemed to move every so slightly when she looked away, and an all encompassing feeling of wrongness filled her stomach... With her spear held out levelly, she scanned her surroundings, after nothing leaped out at her she started forward, but paused.

She had taken a single slow, measured step, and her hoof now rested on something very un-stone like, it was metallic, and made a soft noise as it bumped against her hoof guard. Frowning she squinted into the darkness, even her enhanced vision barely helping, the only source of light seemingly coming from the end of the tunnel, and as such it gave her eyes very little to work with. Glancing around again she slowly reached down, gripping the object in her free hoof, she lifted it up into what little light was provided from the end of the tunnel.

Her breath froze in her lungs, and she stared, her spear going slack in her wing's grip, the metal tip striking loudly against stone. Sub-Sonic continued staring, her mind simultaneously running a million hooves a second yet not moving, and it wasn't until her lungs started to scream for air that she acted, jerking back, her wings flared, propelling her away from the object and into the air. She remembered to grab her spear before she took off, and flew upwards, her eyes searching about frantically, her spear rigidly pointing at any and all shadows that were too dark for her to see in to.

Still not seeing any assailants, she calmed only marginally, her wings beating near silently as she spun in place, searching for any way out. After several minutes of searching, she realized no new path had opened, neither had her squad bucked down the wall to get to her, in fact nothing had changed. The only difference was that she was now flying, and the object she had picked up now sat in what little light there was, staring up at her...

___________________________

It was quiet... Toooo quiet... So quiet one would might have been able to hear half a suit of armor making its way through the forest and towards an old decrepit castle... Yet, none did, or at least no one attempted to stop us. I was amusing myself by counting the stars, when I could see them through the foliage, when suddenly I could see the sky in its entirety...

Aaah much better, now, what number was I up to...? Ah well I suppose I'll have to star-

"We've arrived, fool, quit thy blathering and pay attention." If I had a mouth I would frown, but instead I simply redirected my attention on the clearing in front of us.

Once again we had returned to the castle, but this time we stayed inside the treeline, looking for any assailants that might be watching or waiting for us. After a few minutes we started to move once more, circling around to the side of the castle with the hole blasted out. "We shall enter, retrieve the rest of Our body, then We shall show these foolish Solar Ponies why We art to be feared! My other half said quietly, our one gauntlet clenched into a fist as we stared up at the giant hole.

Erm... Pardon me... I said with a mental frown. How exactly are we t-

"I said quiet Fool! How are We to climb if thou blather on!"

At that we started to move towards the wall, dragging our self through the dirt as we had done so all throughout the night. Well if you want to, b-

"Enough! I shall hear no more of thy pointless words!" With that I sunk in to a silent pout, if I had both arms I would have crossed them, if I had a tongue I would have given him a raspberry! Here I was simply trying to help, and the cad wouldn't even acknowledge the issue!

___________________________

Sub-Sonic's heart had returned to a relatively normal level, and wasn't currently trying to escape her rib cage. Yet still she was on edge, with her senses were on overdrive, her ears flicked back and forth wildly while her nose tried to pick out anything other than the dry, stale air that permeated the area.

Taking several slow, deep breaths Sub-Sonic slowly returned to the floor, her back pressed to the wall to ensure nopony would attempt to assail her from the rear, she scanned her area once more, pointedly avoiding looking at the object on the floor. Yet still she saw nothing, her eyes could pick nothing new out from the gloom, nor could her ears hear anything besides her own breathing, and the staccato beat of her heart.

After what feels like hours of vigilance and nothing to show for it, Sub-Sonic finally lowered her spear and slumped forward, her adrenaline running its course and leaving her feeling tired and weary. Grabbing her canteen, and with an eye still on her surroundings, starts to drink, the magically cooled water slides down her throat like an elixir of life. Taking a deep breath and replacing the canteen along her barrel Sub-Sonic takes a cautious step forward, hesitantly looking down at the object she had picked up earlier.

Sitting in front of her was a helmet, old and with rust chewing at the edges, it was fully enclosed for the most part, having only a narrow set of slits for the eyes, and a long beak like mask for a ponies muzzle. It was clearly made with a pony in mind, even having the vestiges of set of rusted neck mail that had fallen to pieces. Yet it was still vaguely familiar, she was sure she had seen it in old history books, but could not recall the name, pattern, or even the era in which it had served. Now here it sat, it was hard to tell what color it was, but judging from the shade of grey, it was either deep blue or black, not that it mattered, for it was what was inside that bothered her most...

Grinning at her from what remained of the muzzle guard was a skull, what had once been a face now had a large hole, right above the upper teeth, extending through the eyes, and out the back. The metal was blackened and melted where, what was most likely had been a spell, had entered, and the bone hand simply been burned away, leaving an almost neat hole straight through it. The bones were clean, no doubt having been here for quite some time, and had been picked clean by something.

Three things stood out to Sub-Sonic when she gazed upon this helmet and skull, one was a question personal to her, one was a question she was worried to know the answer to, and one that chilled her to the core... And right now, only the latter concerned her... What were the rest of the odd shapes and objects that hid just inside the shadows ahead...?

Author's Notes:

IM NOT DEAD WOO

No but seriously I do apologize, I was just being incredibly lazy. It wasn't until I realized it had been nearly 2 years since this thing had gotten a new chapter that I really started working on it. I had been working on it off and on, but never to a super serious extent.

That said there is probably a lot of spelling and grammar errors, which I will attempt to correct the day after this chapter is released, but for now I just want to get a new chapter out.

(Bonus) A Christmas Past

Author's Notes:

This chapter does not advance the story at all and is entirely skippable, however its on Christmas and it does give some background to certain characters, as well as flesh out the world's history a little, hope you enjoy!

Just to clarify: This story's universe does not follow the actual canon, and neither does this story follow human history to the T.

Snow covered the ground in a thick powder, and a chilly wind blew only lightly through the forest, much of its powerful gale stopped by the ancient trees surrounding the large glade. This weather was perfect for foals (and the occasional adult) to romp and tumble outside, as long as they wore thick scarves and boots to protect from the heavy snow already coating the ground. As a result one could spy several great battles between massive snow forts and brave snowball wielding warriors clashing in furious battle, giggling and shrieking as they retreated or charged against one another.

Yet the palace that lay in its center, surrounded by a tall metal fence, was untouched, its patios and gardens were not only clear of snow, but filled with a warm wind that moved gently through the trees, rustling the leaves and making the out of season, but ripe, fruit sway gently. The statues of famous ponies long since forgotten by all but the oldest were clean and untouched by the cold winter outside the garden, and the ponies that strolled slowly through its grounds wore tuxedos or dresses, ill suited for anywhere else. Covering all of this splendor was a series of large opaque hemispheres stemming from large crystals on roof tops and lampposts, each humming and pulsing gently, protecting the palace and its inhabitants.

Two of the palaces inhabitants stood in a more secluded portion of the gardens, the large square hemmed in by tall hedges on all sides, one sat upon a throne made of obsidian, and the other stood in front of her at a distance, large blackboards filled with all manner of diagrams and schematics written upon them, arranged in a half circle around him.

"As you can see the crystal regulators remain relatively stable in subdued weather, however my current issue is keeping them from cracking under more strenuous circumstances, such as extreme weather, the greatest downside seems to be how they're situated, working almost as grounding rods, but due to their current nature placing them inside somewhere prevents the shield from forming properly." The gray furred unicorn turns away from his black boards and pushes his glasses up, pointing to a demonstration crystal nearby, which created a very small dome around its own pedestal. "It seems the larger the crystal the stronger the enchantment, but the more likely they are to attract high voltage discharges from even the smallest of storms, equal to the increase in the enchantments power. Reducing the size of the crystal reduces this chance but, as stated before, also reduces the power of the enchantment."

The stallion turns again and points to the black board opposite "My goal is to not only increase the current output of the regulators, which would increase the radii of the shield, but also strengthen their integrity, allowing for prolonged use. The increase in strength will also boost its resistance to high voltage which would allow it to be used not only as a weather regulator inside the dome, but replace existing ground rods." The stallion finishes with a smile and a bow, his long black mane falling into his eyes briefly before he stands back up.

For a moment only the soft sound of birds chirping and rustling leaves filled the air as the pony opposite digests this information, her slitted pupils flicking over the complex math and magical theory, but quietly the pony opposite begins to clap, her armored hooves chiming together like a ringing bell, making the stallion stand taller and his eyes shine with pride. "Excellent work my student. The wonders you work with crystals, in spite of being given such little time, truly amaze me, now all may enjoy my art."

The pony in the throne stood, and while she towered over the smaller stallion she did not mean to intimidate, nor was he intimated, for both had grown comfortable, as much as Empress and Student could be, with one another's company. The stallion bowed lowly once more, his cheeks ever so slightly red from the glowing praise. "Thank you Empress Moon! It was truly an honor to have you take such an interest into my little pet project! I assure you with just a little more tweaking I can increase the output of my current crystals... However..." The stallion pauses and looks away for a moment, before taking a breathe and standing tall once more, brushing his mane from his eyes again. "I shall need to fund an expedition into the Frozen Wastes, by all accounts, rumors, and previous expedition's recollection stronger crystals can be found there. I have already created a ledger containing all expenses required for an expedition of the size I will need, and without stronger crystals-"

"You shall have it." The stallion stops mid sentence, his eyes locking onto his Empress'es. Hope bubbling up into his chest as he carefully considers his next few words.

"... Including the increase in pony power and the addition of Thunder Warriors...?" He asks carefully, not very surprised that his Empress had known about his next project, despite having to hide it from his 'colleagues' that constantly tried to claim credit for his work.

With a soft chuckle the Empress moved to stand nearby, looking over his work once again and placing an armored hoof against her chin, the armor covering her body making nary a sound as she moved. "Correct, I have reviewed and accepted all stipulations laid out in your ledger as well as the majority of your manifesto. However..." With this she turned and regarded the young stallion with a light glare, an edge in her voice. "The latter forty-three pages of your manifesto is worrisome, and some might even consider it almost... Traitorous... Should a certain monarch obtain it. I chose you as my pupil because of your great intelligence, and only of slightly lesser note, lack of political connections due to your low birth. I had hoped you would not join those fools in the 'Court'" She spoke the word like it was venom from a bite wound, frowning deeply "in their political intrigue and increasingly belligerent attitude towards your brethren..."

The stallion flinched slightly at the 'low birth' comment, and hung his head in shame, in truth he had meant to remove that portion entirely before submitting the final manifesto, but his increased status had gone to his head, as it occasionally did, and now he was going to suffer for it... The only thing now was for damage control. "I-I understand Empress Nightmare, I shall cleanse it of any and all inclinations, I apologize profoundly for even thinking of inc-"

"Sister! There you are!" The stallion jerked up at the regal voice, whipping his head around as a small contingent of guards and noble ponies strode arrogantly in. Each Noble was covered in a garish amount of jewelry that clanked like a small kitchen as they trotted haughtily into the clearing, their dresses and occasional tux covered in obscene amounts of lace and in patterns only a pony disconnected from reality could love... At the head of the flashy procession trotted a white Alicorn that put all others 'displays' to shame. "Luna dear, why aren't you wearing the clothing I had laid on your bed? You agreed to play nice as long as we had this holiday, but all you have done is hidden away with mud bloods..." The mare pointedly ignored acknowledging the stallions existence, the jewelry linked around her neck tinkling softly as she moved to stand beside her sister. "Come! You promised we would enjoy Hearths Warming as family, me... you..." With a jewel encrusted wing hiding her face she giggled, saying in a stage whisper "And maybe a few stallions hmm?~" This caused the rabble of noble mares nearby to titter and giggle, fanning themselves dramatically, while the noble stallions stood taller, trying to make themselves as 'presentable' as possible.

Unamused Nightmare stepped away from her sister, her face a cold mask. "Dearest Daybreak We agreed upon celebrating Christmas the way it twas supposed to be celebrated, not celebrating Hearth's Warming with an overabundance of cake and narcissism." Empress Moon glanced pointedly at the gaggle of Nobles nearby, before returning her glare to her sister.

With a mock hurt look upon her face the other alicorn sighs dramatically "How many times must I tell you Little Lulu? It is 'Celestia' now remember? But fine. If you won't play nice, neither will I~ How about we bump up my little light show on the schedule for tonight. I know it will hardly compare to... Whatever it is you do with the stars, but I'm sure it shall still be spectacular~" With a malevolent grin Celestia gives an unseen signal and looks into the distance. Turning Nightmare is greeted with the sight of a group of pegasi rising from the forest, corralling a large multi colored cloud that crackles with magic lightening.

Nightmare frowned and watched, her eyes widening as it moved closer and closer to the castle, far closer than it was supposed to be. "Sister! What are you doing!? If those get any close to the crystals they'll-!"

With a tremendous crack the lightening shoots forth from the magical cloud and slams into the nearest crystal, shattering it in an instant and making the force field stemming from it shatter and dissipate. The lightening chaining from one crystal to the next, arching across the gardens and palace with blinding speed, eyes wide Nightmare turns towards her Student, his mouth hung open in horror as he watches his work shatter into shards of worthless rock, frozen in place.

Flaring her wings Nightmare shoots towards him, slamming him into the ground just as the display crystal nearby is hit, shielding him with her body she feels the razor sharp shards slam into her armored flanks and wings, thanking the makers that she didn't wear that ridiculous outfit instead of her armor.

Slowly climbing to her hooves Nightmare looks around before latching onto her sister, who looks about ready to burst with laughter behind a golden shield held up by several of the guards. "O-oh Poor Lulu! Now you're covered in mud! Snrk! B-before you come back in, be a Good Filly and wash u-up won't you?" With that she turns and exits the clearing, only able to contain her laughter until she and the other Nobles exit. Nightmare frowns and looks down, ignoring the raucous laughter from behind the hedge bushes, sighing softly she realizes she is indeed covered in mud, how she got it she wasn't entirely certain, but looking to her student she realize he isn't just splattered, but dripping in it.

Using her magic she carefully lifts him up and wipes herself clean, before wiping him clean as well, glancing behind him to the large mud puddle that certainly hadn't been there earlier. Throughout this the stallion stays quite, not saying a word as his Empress sets him back down, his head hung down in shame.

For a moment all is quite, snow starting to slowly coat the ground around them, before finally Nightmare speaks "You shall have your expedition, Sombra... Including the entirety of your manifesto. Do you understand?" She glares at him pointedly, his confusion and sadness plain on his face.

"E-empress...? But that would create a new na-" Nightmare cuts him off with a burst of magic, glancing around before standing tall, turning and walking towards the exit.

"Yes, my Student. I shall make sure of it..."