Chapter 10

The forest was darker than he remembered, but then again he hadn't visited it frequently due to the various creatures that existed in it. While he wasn't concerned with the vast majority of them, given what he was, it wasn't much trouble. The only real trouble he had now was keeping up with Nightmare Moon and leaving his robe undamaged. As he trotted through the forest, moving underneath tree branches, his hood got caught on one of them, causing it to be pulled back. This revealed not only the deep ocean blue coat he had, but his long silver mane. What attracted attention the most however, was sticking from his forehead, a unicorn horn. This along with his wings signified his Alicorn status, which was something he kept hidden quite often with his hood rather than magic. When the hood was pulled back by a branch he had failed to notice, the alicorn immediately felt it with his hoof, checking for any damages before sighing.

'This is my favorite robe too.' he thought, before shaking his head, continuing his trek through the forest needlessly. It didn't take him a long time to figure out where Nightmare Moon was heading either, the only place she could be heading to in this forest. The Ancient Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters, the one that he recalled once held the Elements of Harmony. He could just as easily fly to the location, but he wanted to avoid being spotted or sensed by her, this is where the trouble rested. On foot, he was rather hopeless, tripping over tree roots and getting smacked over the head by branches, neither of this was rather pleasant, leaving a few scratches on his face as well as his body. As the castle came into view he let out a sigh, before cursing his luck with a few foul words. Once he noticed the bridge was out, he could only sigh, before finally extending his wings to flutter on over the canyon. He landed elegantly just outside the castle before pushing himself up against the wall.

"Alright soldiers, you know the plan." Nightmare Moon said as she reviewed her small battalion of shadow unicorns. As the alicorn came into view of them, his eyes went wide. Few could create soulless figures, let alone give them a more pony-like appearance.

'She's gotten stronger since I last faced her...' he thought, just peering in through the crack in the door. While there were few of them, he began to grow worried, these ones looked stronger than the one he had seen flying toward Canterlot earlier today. Was the last one simply an experiment? Was it just the form she had chosen? It left quite a bit to curiosity, but he did know one thing: he had to do something. While normally he'd stand by and just let others handle it, even he could see that Equestria was in danger. His eyes shifted across the room, he only counted ten, minus Nightmare Moon, before he zoned in on the shadow ponies for a bit of closer observation. It was here he noticed that not all were unicorns, he spotted a couple pegasi among them, while they were few it concerned him.

After a couple of moments passed, Nightmare Moon trotted away, the soldiers left standing in silence for several seconds before trotting to the door. He panicked here, shifting his position from standing in front of the door, to standing against the wall silently. As the group trotted out he readied himself, aiming his horn at the first of the pegasi. The instant it walked through the door he unleashed a blast of silvery energy, which struck the soldier, causing it to vanish in a puff of smoke. This caught the remainder of their attention in seconds, the remaining nine charged at him, the other three pegasi taking flight on top of that. The alicorn's expression changed as this occurred.

"Monkey feathers..." he cursed, as a blast of magic came his way. With little time to react, all he could do was endure the strike. Searing hot pain shot through every inch of his body as he endured the blast, however he remained silent through the pain, a smirk spreading across his face. "Is that the best you got?" he taunted, unleashing another blast, this time at the unicorn that had attacked him before he extended his wings. When he did he was met with the harsh kick of a pegasus to the left side of his face. This sent him crashing into the stone wall of the castle, cringing in even more pain as he collected himself. With his hoof, he wiped the bit of blood from his mouth before his attention shifted once again, this time on the pegasus that had kicked him, firing another blast of that exact same spell. Unfortunately for him though, the pegasus was able to simply swerve around the blast with relative ease. With this serving as a distraction though, he extended his wings, using them as a speed boost to charge at the pegasus, instead striking it with his horn. As this occurred, his horn began to glow, causing the pegasus to wail loudly before vanishing in a puff of smoke. The unicorns however wasted little time, gathering a bit of magic before attempting to blast him with it. He only smirked at the attempt as he spiraled around, bringing up a barrier before him, this deflected the blasts, sending them flying in all directions, leaving a few scorch marks where they landed. He followed up from this spell with a shockwave spell, combining it with the spell he had used before. While this weakened both spells significantly, it was still strong enough to destabilize the shadow ponies, causing them to wail loudly as they vanished.

"I never knew you could perform combination spells." a voice said from behind him. His eyes went wide the moment he heard it, before he slowly turned around. "But then again, few know what you know."

"What is your plan, Nightmare Moon?" he asked, stomping his hoof on the ground.

"Why should I tell you?" she asked, "Even if I did though, you still couldn't stop me alone...your power couldn't last time we met." he lowered his head as she said this, it had been true too, he was sure the spell he had used last time would've ended her, but it appears as though he was wrong. "I must admit though...the spell you used really did take its toll...I had to reform my body after it..."

"How did you survive it though?" he questioned. "That spell should've...!"

"In truth, it actually did finish me off, or at least, it finished my body off." she said, matter-of-factly.

"Then how...?!" once again she cut him off with a cackle.

"You foal...I'm not complete." she explained, slowly approaching the alicorn. "My body need not exist for me to live on in my present state...no matter how many times you destroy it, I will return, stronger than before." As she approached him, he found himself rather entranced by her movements, she seemed to sway very lightly as she drew closer, almost as if she was trying to seduce him. It was proving to work too, as a bit of drool began to move down from his mouth. His silvery-golden eyes began to grow pale as he gazed into hers, his head now swaying slightly with her body's movements. "I have something for you too..."

"And that is?" he asked, as she brought her hoof up to his cheek.

"Join me...and I'll crown you my king." she cooed, the tone of her voice becoming more seductive by the second. As he listened to it, he began to fall under what seemed like a spell, not just her seductive appearance, but her voice as well. Before he could give her a response though, the wind began to pick up, leaves began to swirl around the two of them, and to the male alicorn he could hear whispers on the wind. These whispers brought him back to his senses immediately, the color returning to his eyes in a matter of seconds.

"I'd rather die than be your king." he replied rudely. Nightmare Moon took this offensively as she tried to strike him with her hoof, but by then it was too late, in what seemed like less than a second he had vanished in a shower of sparkles, tapping her shoulder in a teasing manner. "Catch me if you can." he remarked, before he vanished again. The dark princess let out a scream in anger and frustration before stomping back inside her castle. The alicorn, by this time had already taken back to the skies, this time flying in the direction of Ponyville with a serious look on his face.

'Thank you...mother...'

At first, the day had started off rather calmly with a book before the fireplace and some hot cocoa. That was until she received the letter that threw her into a bit of a tizzy. It began at about one o'clock in the afternoon, just as she was about halfway though with the book when she heard the familiar sound of her number one assistance's belch. The young dragon brought her the raveled up letter as quickly as he could, making it seem like it was important. First she thought that it was a new assignment from Princess Celestia, the content of the letter though was what brought concern to her.

"Twilight Sparkle, my faithful student, I apologize for the very short notice, however, my sister and her personal bodyguard are on their way. They wish that you keep this visit as secretive as possible as to avoid trouble, meet them at the train station, they will explain the rest." As she read the letter, her eyes went wide. Why would Princess Luna visit her? Who was this bodyguard that was mentioned in the letter? Why were they coming by train and not taking the royal carriage? She had to make a double take on the letter, re-reading it for maximum clarity. It only proved to answer one of her questions, but this answer only raised more. Why did they want to keep it a secret?

"Spike!" Twilight shouted, becoming a bit more frantic. Perhaps Luna wanted to perform a surprise inspection of the library, maybe even the town! She gulped at the prospect as the purple dragon stood at the ready. "Princess Luna is on her way...and we have to be ready for anything, get my checklist and clipboard!"

Over the course of the next few hours, the duo spent their time organizing the entire library. First they started with the bookshelves, Twilight was sure to make every single shelf neat and tidy, at the same time, Spike was sure to keep the checklist as they went through. They were lucky it was a quiet day in the library too, otherwise they would never get done with the list. After fixing the shelves, dusting began, this proved to be the most tedious part of the whole day, by the time they had finished, the clock read four-fifteen. This made her nervous as she reached the next point on the checklist, making up the guest bed for them. She figured right off the bat that Luna would be the one sleeping in the bed, while her bodyguard would go elsewhere, this only took a good fifteen minutes to ensure the bed was perfect, before she moved on.

As time continued to tick onward, Spike eventually went off to bed while Twilight found herself still cleaning up and ensuring everything was perfect for the princess. She had become so focused though, that on several occasions it had disturbed the dragon, who awoke with a yawn each time. After about Eight though, he finally snapped, walking downstairs.

"Twilight, shouldn't you be getting ready to meet them at the train station?" he yawned, this snapped her to her senses immediately, before getting on her winter wear and dashing out to the station. Twilight found herself reaching the station just as the train was pulling in. She fought hard to catch her breath for a moment as she awaited the two to walk off the train.

Crowds of ponies, all in a chatter as they tried to organize themselves from the chaos of the train. There were too many to count as they disembarked, her violet eyes tried their hardest to make out the princess amongst the crowd to no avail, her nerves growing to their limit as she continued to search. It was several minutes before the crowds finally thinned down, some ponies climbing onto the train as things calmed down.

"Where could they be?" she asked herself as she tapped her hoof impatiently. At the end of the crowds she saw two hooded figures just making their way off of the train, as they disembarked a smile moved across her face. It quickly died however when she saw Princess Luna leaning against another cloaked figure she figured to be her bodyguard. While both of them had their hoods up, she could recognize the princess' tail anywhere, even though she had only met her once before a couple months back.

"We're off the train now Luna." he whispered as he began to guide her.

"Princess!" came a shout from Twilight as she dashed up to them. She grew concerned as she took notice of Luna's rather weak demeanor, as well as the fact that her bodyguard was holding up most of her weight instead of letting her walk by herself.

"Twilight Sparkle, I assume?" the bodyguard asked, finally lowering his hood to reveal he was a unicorn to Twilight. She nodded first, before her gaze shifted back to the princess.

"What happened to her?" she questioned, as Emerald began to walk her off the platform.

"The train didn't really agree with her." he replied, giving a gesture for her to help walk the princess. She complied relatively quickly, the two now holding her up. "Thankfully its just a bit of motion sickness, she'll be fine in a few hours...although she'll probably need a bit of food and rest considering she did throw up on the train."

"She did?!" To say the least, Twilight was rather astonished to hear this, in her time as Celestia's apprentice, she had never seen her mentor sick, and considering they were goddesses, she didn't even think they could get sick.

"Yes, she did, unfortunately...thankfully it only happened once though...after that, I was able to help her relax, and make her feel comfortable the rest of the trip." he explained, "But it just goes to show, even gods and goddesses aren't perfect." This seemed relatively good logic to Twilight, a bit of wisdom she'd for sure have to write down once they had gotten to her place.

"Its...good to see you again, Twilight Sparkle." Luna finally said, her voice rather raspy though. She soon turned to Emerald with a smile on her face. "I think I can handle the rest of the way myself." With this, she leaned in to plant a soft kiss on his cheek, which only proved to make him blush a tiny bit, as if saying not in front of anyone. Twilight seemed to grow rather curious from this action, taking a few steps ahead now as the princess had indicated she could walk on her own. She did this intentionally as so she could lead the two through the silent, snow covered streets of Ponyville faster. The princess continued to lean on the unicorn a tiny bit, remaining close to him. It continued to baffle her as she watched it unfold. She could clearly tell he cared about the princess, but how deep did it run? Wasn't he her bodyguard? If so, why did she just give him a kiss on the cheek? Why were they even in Ponyville and why did they want to see her?

"What brings you both to Ponyville on such short notice?" she questioned, guiding the two through the town, her home just coming into view.

"Didn't Celestia tell you in her letter?" Emerald asked in return, both him and Luna seeming to be a bit annoyed with this factor. Twilight too seemed a bit annoyed with the lack of his formality, but she brushed it aside relatively quickly.

"Princess Celestia only informed me that you were on your way...she didn't give a reason." came her response, to his dismay.

"I'll explain once we get inside...and Luna can get some rest." The door slowly opened as they reached it, surrounded by Twilight's aura. The princess entered first on Emerald's request, followed by Twilight and finally himself.

The stallion's first order of business was to guide the princess up the stairs very carefully, sure to keep her steady as she climbed, guiding her into the bed. She flopped down informally, exhausted from the trip and still rather weak from getting sick. He first removed her cloak, gently setting it over the bed post, before pulling the covers over the princess.

"Rest and get well." he whispered, before he placed a soft kiss on her forehead. Leaving her be for the time being.

"So, why are you here?" Twilight asked him as his hooves clicked down the stairs. He closed his eyes very slowly, showing his very calm demeanor to her. "And who are you?"

"My name is Emerald Crescent...and my family was hired generations ago to act as guardians of the royal family...Luna and I are here seeking help with an issue we have." Twilight slowly approached him as he took a seat. She could swear she had heard his name before, taking a closer look at the stallion, inspecting him very carefully. It took her a few minutes before it finally hit her, where she had heard his name before. This thought excited her instantly, letting out a bit of a squeal in delight. Emerald was unfazed by this, as he had seen it countless times before.

"So YOU'RE Emerald Crescent!" she nearly shouted, growing a bit more excited. "Your books are simply wonderful! I've read every single one of them!" His cheeks seemed to flush as this was said right in his face, causing him to lean back a tiny bit.

"I'm flattered...but...that's irrelevant now..." he replied calmly.

"Could you please sign my copies?" He could only sigh in response to this, the redness of his cheeks only growing a bit brighter.

"...I will later..." He began to grow nervous, die hard fans were always a bit of trouble for him, hindering his missions just a tiny bit. He hoped deep down that this was all she wanted, rather than asking him to do something ludicrous or outrageous like the other fans had made him do. Twilight giggled upon his response, ecstatic at the prospect of getting her books signed by the actual author. "But as for why we're here." This snapped the mare back to reality rather quickly, jumping out of her daze.

"In as much detail as you can spare, if you will." she noted, only receiving a nod from him.

"Do you want the full story, the one I told Celestia?" he asked. "Or would you like the short version?"

"Full story please...I want to see how you tell stories with your voice." This remark only made him blush again, causing him to shake his head.

"This story begins ages ago...around the time when Celestia and Luna's parents were still in Canterlot..." he began. "Back then, everything was peaceful, soon though, Starswirl the Bearded, the court wizard, and most trusted advisor informed them of a dream he had...one that took place in the distant future." As the story began, Twilight felt a shiver up her spine, excited by the tone of his voice as he told the story. "Which, would be considered about this time and this year...he foresaw Nightmare Moon rising to power, not only slaughtering many, but even the King and Queen." Horror overtook her when she heard this, her eyes going wide in fear.

"T-the king and queen? Slaughtered?" she asked. "I-I thought they were stronger than Nightmare Moon! And I thought Nightmare Moon was gone!"

"She's not...unfortunately." he pointed out.

"But the...!"

"The Elements of Harmony are powerful indeed, however, they only proved to purify Luna...and separate her from her darkness, they lacked the power to completely vanquish her..." To say the least, her jaw dropped in utter horror, yet, she quickly recovered, more questions popping up.

"Where does your family come in?" she asked.

"I was just getting to that part...In fear of the vision...the king and queen hired one of my ancestors, on my mother's side...they hired us for a particular reason too, because of the magic select members such as myself can use." He paused for a moment, giving her time to let this sink in before he resumed. "The magic is that of the land...we hold the power to control plant life, its a very rare and ancient magic passed down through the family...I'm the only one of my brothers that can use it though." The mare went silent as she listened in, horror and dread in her eyes. She gazed downward at the floor as the room went silent.

"B-but, what can I do?" she questioned, breaking the silence.

"Help us find a way to defeat her, once and for all."