Chapter 14
Dawn rose over Ponyville, although it was hardly visible through the thick white clouds that loomed overhead. Just after the sun had risen had the snow begun to fall, which only made things more complicated as a cart began to roll into town. Pulling the cart along was a bright orange stallion, judging by his rather large build, he was that of an earth pony, but even by earth pony standards he was rather large, which would draw attention to him. Even through the outer clothing he wore, which consisted mostly of just a simple hooded jacket, his muscles were very visible. If you looked closely, on his flank you could see a white crescent moon along with a chef's hat, or a toque as its called in some cultures. His mane was that of a very dull silvery color, one that almost seemed grey, it was fairly short and well groomed. As he entered the town, his forest green orbs shifted from right to left, as if he was looking for something, before he continued on his path. The cart he pulled to some would seem very heavy considering that on it, two large broiling pots could be seen, however it seemed he was able to pull it with little trouble, even through the snow. Just as he shifted his path however, from the sky something pitch black dived at him. At first it seemed like a blur to his eyes, which caused him to reel back in a start, forcing the cart to accidentally dislodge, and because of the imbalanced weight on the cart, it fell back, causing the pots and their contents to spill out onto the snow. Gallons of broth spilled out onto the snow followed by several pounds of very fine noodles, causing them all to go to waste.
"It took me three months to perfect that broth recipe..." he muttered under his breath as he could only watch as the noodles and broth spilled out onto the ground. After a moment, he turned up to the sky where he had assumed his pegasus assailant had flown off to. "You're going to pay for that!" he shouted as the intoxicatingly delicious aroma of the broth filled the air. Eventually his eyes were able to lock onto his assailant, but he was left astonished by what he saw, as he hadn't seen a pegasus like that before. Its coat was as dark as a starless, moonless night, even its mane was the same, aside from a bit of black mist rising from its body. From that moment he realized that it wasn't an ordinary pegasus, but something far worse. His fears came to fruition as he began to hear hoof-steps, almost like a stampede coming from behind him, this made him spiral around, locking onto a large crowd of similar appearing ponies, more of them than he could possibly hope to count. The orange pony's mind seemed to go blank as he stared down the stampede of black coated, misty-maned ponies.
"Out of the way!" a voice shouted, as he found himself being pushed out of the path of the stampede. It was one he recognized in a matter of seconds, however remained too terrified to say anything, that was, until he was in the cover of an alleyway. He slowly turned to the forest green pegasus, recognizing him even faster than he had recognized his voice. He had a bright blue mane which seemed to be an appealing opposite to the forest green coat he had. What really sold it for the orange earth pony aside from the fact that the pegasus had bright crimson eyes, which only seemed to draw attention to his eyes over the rest of his features, aside from the small scar beneath his left eye and the bright red lightning bolt cutie mark on his flank.
"Crimson, what are you doing here in Ponyville?" the earth pony asked, not even bothering to give a hello to him, as he found the pegasus to be extremely obnoxious.
"Saving your sorry flank, that's what!" he roared, only to have the earth pony's hoof being pushed into his mouth.
"Hush! We don't want to be heard."
"Don't you hush me, Adamant!" the pegasus shouted, slapping the hoof from his mouth.
"I said shut up, you idiot!" Adamant ordered, just peeking outside the alleyway between two buildings. It wasn't much to hide in, but it was sufficient for the time being to the two of them. The earth pony's harsh words did indeed prove effective this time around as Crimson seemed to go silent, at least for a few moments as he hovered just above the ground, peeking out much like the earth pony.
"What are those things, brother?" the green pegasus asked, his tone not being hushed in the least.
"Shhhh! Be quieter!" Adamant first mentioned. "And, I have no idea...and with that many...its not a surprise that the citizens of Ponyville aren't out of their houses yet."
"What should we do?" To the earth pony, this seemed like a stupid question to ask, but at the same time, Adamant didn't seem too shocked that his brother would be asking it, however all he could simply do was give a very frustrated look to the pegasus, before shaking his head slowly and turning forward again.
"First we should head to the library to figure out what they are...and how we can defeat them." Adamant finally said, looking at the seemingly endless hordes of these dark ponies galloping through the streets. What really sent a chill up the duo's spines however, causing their manes and coats to become frazzled with shock was who they saw flying above them. The orange earth pony squinted as he looked up at the figure, his vision not as good as it should really be. At first all he saw was a bit of a blurry black figure with a dark purple mane, one that looked black to others, her tail even this color as well. The coat she had was also as dark as the night along with her wings and...her horn? This is what left him confused, he only knew of four alicorns in his life, and this didn't resemble any of them, especially considering he had heard of Princess Luna's recent return to Canterlot. It wasn't until he spotted the dark purple splotch with a bright blue crescent moon in it did his eyes go wide.
'How could that be...?' He had heard the rumors, but didn't believe they could be true, was this really what he had read in the Equestria Today, The Hoofington Post, and The Canterlot Times? How could it be plausible that she could still be around? It was believed to him, and most of his family that Nightmare Moon and Princess Luna were one being, however this proved to not be the case with this, as he gazed on in horror. Even Crimson recognized her as he recalled the family duties he had been told by his grandfather before he passed on. Both turned to each other and simply gulped, exchanging worried looks. Why was Nightmare Moon in Ponyville? This was their first question, and their second, what were these shadow-like ponies that she was leading? As they asked these questions to themselves, Adamant recalled what he had said earlier, before simply gesturing in the direction of the library, asking his elder brother to follow.
A shriek of pain echoed in the entire building as Luna felt her legs giving out from under her. This caused her to collapse on the ground, now clutching her head in what seemed to be agony. This jarred everyone awake, Silver falling on his side as he fell out of his meditation, Twilight leaping out of her bed, and even Spike, who was usually a rather heavy sleeper leapt from the smaller bed he often slept in. Emerald was the first by the princess' side, attempting to help her back onto her hooves before she fell over with another shout in utter agony. By this time, tears were rolling down her cheeks from the unknown source of the pain. Everyone else soon gathered around her, watching silently as the green unicorn tried to bring her comfort by holding her close. The episode soon died down however, and she was finally able to regain her footing, once again leaning on her stallion for support.
"Nightmare Moon is near." were the only words that she uttered, which caused everyone's eyes to fly wide open. Even Silver was in shock as he heard this, a reaction like Luna's didn't come lightly from his personal experience, to him it wasn't a good omen, considering his superstitious nature.
"But how could she...?" Emerald began, "That didn't happen the last time you and her were in close proximity." Twilight raised her hoof here, as if she knew something.
"A week ago, I read something on this...that apparently if two sides of the same pony ever met face to face, in person, it would often cause one, or both of them pain depending on the actions of one or both of them...often it was caused by how much magic one of them used." Emerald's eyes seemed to brighten as Twilight explained this to them, but before he could speak, the door swung open which made everyone turn in its direction. At the door stood the bright orange earth pony and behind him fluttered the forest green pegasus. Both the deep blue alicorn and the darker green unicorn's jaws dropped as their eyes laid on the two.
"Adamant! Crimson!" Both of them shouted simultaneously, they turned to each other for a brief second, giving a chuckle before the other two galloped inside. Both held shocked expressions on their face from seeing their brothers, but were also extremely out of breath. On Adamant's face and body, a few bloody scratches could be seen as if he had been in a fight, the same thing applied to Crimson, who seemed to have more than his brother, the only difference was, his mane and wings were messier as he hovered in place. After the orange pony caught his breath however, he slowly looked up, his eyes locking onto whom he thought to be Nightmare Moon for a brief second, leaning on his little brother. His vision quickly adjusted though, realizing that it was instead Princess Luna, which only left him more than confused. Crimson however, didn't think all that much about it, so he dived at the Princess whom was still recovering a bit from her earlier episode.
"Get away from my brother!" he shouted, only to be blasted away by a bright green orb, which apparently came from the brother that she was leaning on. Sparks could be seen flowing out of his horn as it still held a bit of a charge from the earlier blast.
"Crimson...its Princess Luna, not Nightmare Moon." Emerald stated. "And how DARE you attack my beautiful Lunar princess." Luna could only blush at the compliment, giving him a small kiss on the cheek. This sent both Adamant and Crimson into a run of extreme confusion, as they were left scratching their heads at his words. What did he mean by his princess? Silver simply chuckled as they thought about what he had said.
Twilight cleared her throat to grab their attention. "What is the meaning of this? Why did you two just come stomping in here, the library isn't open until ten."
"But...we had to!" Adamant blurted out frantically. "Nightmare Moon is in town...and she has a massive army!" Everyone froze at this precise moment, shivers traveling up their spines rather quickly. Silver turned to his beaten brothers, looking over their wounds for a moment, before he sighed.
"This explains why Princess Luna let out that shriek not more than five minutes ago, and why you two are scratched up." His tone shifted at this point, while it had once been a bit softer, it had now become one that a leader would often have. "Twilight, do you know any shadow banishing, or light spells?" This question came as a shock to her, especially in his new tone. His voice had grown deeper and far more serious than she had previously heard, any hint of gentleness vanished. It almost terrified her to hear him speak in this tone, yet, she also found the deepness of his voice rather appealing, to the point where her cheeks flushed just a tiny bit.
Twilight shook off her attraction to his voice after a second, as well as her blushing to give a response. "Yes, I do, however I haven't had an opportunity to practice these spells yet."
"Well, you're about to get some first-hand experience in using them...do not screw up." he said, taking full charge of the entire situation. "Its still early in Ponyville, so I'm certain we can handle everything...Crimson, your task is to ensure that the civilians are safe, I need you to fly over town and ensure everyone stays in their homes, I will cast a telepathy spell that will allow you to send the message to them." Next he turned to Adamant, Crimson only nodding as he got up to his feet from the earlier blast. "Next, Adamant, you will be with Twilight, and your duty is to ensure that she stays safe while you attempt to thin down the hordes, from my own experience, I can assume they're still of the same spell that she has been using...so a few physical hits will defeat them." Truth be told, the three brothers hadn't ever seen their brother like this in their lives. Where had he learned how to act like this? Why didn't he show it until now? Did he have a secret that he was keeping from them? Even Emerald seemed perplexed by his actions, however he recalled what Celestia had said, which is when it hit him. In his time with the Princess of the Sun, he had picked up a few leadership skills, which only made him smile.
Luna stomped her hoof as he gave out the orders, leaning off the green unicorn for a moment to speak up. "I'll handle Nightmare Moon-" she was cut off by Silver in a second, placing his hoof on her mouth as if telling her to be quiet. The princess felt insulted immediately, even Twilight didn't like this gesture toward the princess, that was, until he spoke to her.
"You and Emerald are to remain here until your strength has recovered, then you will join the battle." he pointed out. "In your present state, even though the weakness isn't that bad, she would wipe the floor with you, and we cannot risk that...instead I wish to request that, with Spike's help, that you send a letter to your sister, requesting aide in this matter...it isn't something we can handle on our own for very long..."
Adamant took over from here, as if knowing what his elder brother was about to say. "And even if we were able to handle it ourselves, we'd still have a lot to clean up." Silver could only gesture a small nod in his brother's direction, before turning back to Luna with a serious look on his face.
"If you get that letter out as quickly as you possibly can...Then I can assure you she'd use...one of the royal teleportation spells to get the reinforcements here."
"But, who will-" the Lunar princess was cut short again by the male alicorn, whom, by this point was beginning to work her nerves a tiny bit with how many times he had interrupted her.
"I will." His response came as a shock to everyone once again. "I will handle Nightmare Moon, aside from Luna, Celestia...or mom...I'm probably the only other pony who can handle her, even for a short while."
"But she's a goddess! How can you expect to stand up to her?!" Luna argued, "She'll destroy you!"
Silver's eyes slowly closed, as he inhaled. "I have little chance of beating her...but the best I can hope to accomplish with this is...weakening her...or exhausting her." the male alicorn shifted his gaze for a moment, noticing that the room still had one too many ponies in it, which only made his eye twitch a tiny bit. "GET GOING!" was the last thing they heard before they scrambled. As he was trotting out the door, he turned back. "Emerald...Luna...if we make it out of this...may fortune smile on your relationship."
The second Silver set foot outside the library, he was met with a dreadful sight, one that made him feel sick to his stomach. The army was massive, at least a good five hundred, and they were all heading to their present location, it would be enough to make anypony scream in sheer terror, yet, he didn't flinch. Leading the horde of shadow ponies they could all see Nightmare Moon, flying just above them in her full glory, giving out orders.
The alicorn turned to Twilight and his two brothers. "If things get bad, Twilight, I want you to get back to the library...I won't have you risking your life for our task."
"What? But, I thought-" she tried to say, only to be cut off by the alicorn.
"For two reasons...One, this is our family's duty, our loyalties lie to the crown, and to the royal family...we are willing to put down our lives for the sake of all of the ponies in Equestria and the world." This sounded like a pathetic excuse for Twilight, while a noble one, it still seemed pathetic to her. "And two...because, if Celestia found out I let her favorite student die, she'd throw me into the sun, especially after I broke her heart earlier this year."
"Wait, you mean-" Twilight stuttered for a moment. "You and Celestia...you-How come she didn't say anything?!"
"Didn't need to, merely a day after our first...date..." he cleared his throat. "Rumors were already floating around about how she was seeing some attractive stallion...and with our family, 'every word of it is true'." he remarked, giving a soft chuckle to the unicorn, who could only blush as she listened to it. "Now, you all know your tasks...tread carefully, and stay safe." Everypony nodded, as they all galloped or flew off in their separate directions.