Shadow of the Dragon Lords
D. G. D. Davidson
My Little Pony is © 2012 by Hasbro, Inc.
Chapter 8: Gathering Shadows
Rainbow Dash finished her tax-gathering duties earlier than she expected, and then she took out her anger by building a thunderstorm.
Although they looked simply like ponies with wings, the Pegasi were structurally different from Unicorns or Earth Ponies: they were more avian than mammal. Their bones were pneumatized and reinforced with crisscrossing struts, but extremely dense. The hairs of their coats were not actually hairs at all, but a mix of tiny feathers and down, which provided streamlining and carried insulating oil protecting them against the frigid temperatures at high altitudes. Their lungs had nine air sacs to keep a steady stream of oxygen moving into their systems, and had parabronchi rather than the mammalian alveoli. Their ribs were flexible, so their entire barrels could expand and contract as they breathed. The blood vessels in their brains would not constrict if they hyperventilated, so they could keep their minds sharp no matter how hard they breathed.
Their hooves were different from other ponies' as well. The frog of a Pegasus hoof- that is, the soft part of the hoof behind the wall- contained a sphinctered orifice opening into a spongy cavity that could accumulate or expel water or particulate. By collecting material in her hooves and carefully seeding the atmosphere while accounting for winds, atmospheric pressure, surface heating, and topographic features, a Pegasus could create or manipulate clouds. Hundreds of Pegasi working in concert could control entire weather systems.
But Rainbow, working alone high over the Everfree Forest, was creating a cumulonimbus all by herself, an exceptionally difficult task. She found an updraft of hot air on the east side of a high mountain range and carried fluffy fragments of cumulus to it. Heated by the rising air and partly blocked by the ridges, the cloud tufts merged and rose until they formed a great, seething, billowy column of white. After hours of exhausting work in strong winds, Rainbow was rewarded when the top of the cloud flattened out and stretched into the characteristic anvil shape.
She whooped. "Take that, Granny! Who's lazy now?"
Coasting to the edge of the new cumulonimbus cloud, Rainbow sharply increased her altitude, flying almost straight up along the column. She battled increasingly fierce winds as she gained height. Finally, she reached the anvil top, where the air was so thin that, even with her specialized lungs, she could barely breathe. She banked sharply and inertia slammed her; the wind billowed her cheeks and dug through her coat, striking her skin like a thousand tiny knives. She could feel herself "graying out," but, as she had practiced many times in stunt training, she kept the turn just gradual enough to avoid completely losing consciousness. When she was directly over the center of the cloud, she dove.
She straightened her legs, trying to make herself as long and narrow as possible. Her eyes streamed with tears from the force of the wind, and her body ran with water as droplets from the cloud collected in her coat. She could see nothing inside the cloud but dark gray mist, which turned blinding white whenever lightning crackled. She wasn't worried about the lightning, as she could withstand even a direct blast without serious harm. The real danger was making a blind dive through a cloud formation: if she failed in the maneuver she was attempting, she could slam straight into the deck.
The air before her formed a pressure front, but she poured on more speed, trying to force her way through. Again, she could feel herself graying out, but this time she did nothing to adjust.
The cloud formed a solid wall in front of her. With a snap, it threw her back, tossing her high into the air. She shot straight through the top of the thunderhead, pushing before herself a geyser of cloud that quickly turned to ice in the high atmosphere. She made an arch several miles long, trailing a white stream like smoke.
She blacked out.
When she returned to consciousness, she was in a tailspin. Like any well-trained Pegasus, she knew which way was north even when she was disoriented, but for a few seconds, she couldn't tell which way was up. Finally, she spotted the horizon and began adjusting, using her hooves as breaks by pushing against evaporated water in the air. She attempted to distinguish her exact yaw, roll, and pitch, and then moved hard against the yaw to recover from the spin.
She spun faster. Disoriented from her bout of unconsciousness, she had misidentified an inverted spin as an upright spin and had adjusted incorrectly. As the wind whipped her mane and carried tears from her eyes, as layers of clouds spun by, as the patchwork of farms and fields and forests rose up to meet her, she realized that she was about to crash, and that she was about to die.
She laughed.
Rainbow feared many things: she feared opprobrium, criticism from her peers, anonymity. She feared failing to live up to her own high standards or making mistakes in front of others. She feared missing lunch.
But she knew no fear of death.
In her attempt to recover from the spin, she hadn't noticed where she was, but as she sped toward the ground, she had a moment to recognize Fluttershy's cottage at the edge of the forest, looking like a toy house from a child's playset. Fluttershy herself stood by the chicken coop and stared up with horror on her face. Rainbow was content to make her best friend the last sight she would ever see.
Green grass and moist brown earth rushed toward her. Then she fell into a kaleidoscopic blur of colors and heard the soft rustle of thousands of wings. Something soft and cool surrounded her, her heart became peaceful, and she thought to herself that death was no bad thing after all.
She came to in a hospital bed. She tried to get up, but couldn't.
Dr. Stable, a bespectacled Earth Pony with a heart monitor for a cutie mark, was examining a set of X-rays hanging over a wall lamp. Rainbow noticed a real heart monitor beeping steadily beside her bed, and as her mind cleared, she realized she had tubes in her nostrils and casts over much of her body.
She laughed again, but weakly this time.
Dr. Stable turned from the X-rays and glared over his glasses. "Miss Dash, I would very much like to see you less often."
"Feeling's mutual, Doc."
"Might I ask what you were attempting when you decided to become intimately acquainted with Miss Fluttershy's front lawn?"
"Sonic Stormboom. Sonic Rainboom in a thundercloud."
"Mm hmm. Would you care to hear first about what you broke, or about what you ruptured?"
"Start with the small injuries and work up to the big ones, Doc. Like a professional beat-down."
"Okay, then. For starters, you scraped your nose."
"You don't have to start that small."
"You also broke six ribs, a femur, and both metacarpals, as well as the ulna of your right wing. You ruptured a posterior thoracic air sac, for which we had to operate. You're lucky you didn't break your neck. By the way, that's the second break in your right wing, Miss Dash. Let me remind you that, according to Cloudsdale's flight regulations, three strikes and you're out: you break that same wing one more time and I have to ground you permanently."
"Yeah, that ain't gonna happen."
"The break?"
"The grounding."
Dr. Stable sighed. "If you were an Earth Pony, you'd be in here for months with these kinds of injuries. But you're a Pegasus, and, I'll admit, a Pegasus in top condition. Nonetheless, you're going to be bedridden for three weeks at least."
Rainbow chuckled again. "Gives me time to read."
"Not likely, unless you've developed an ability to turn pages with something other than your forelegs, which you won't be using for a while."
Rainbow groaned. "Fine! Tell Sassaflash she's acting weather manager until I say otherwise."
"Darn it, Rainbow, I'm a doctor, not a message pony. Oh, but that reminds me- your friends are outside. I'll let you see them for a few minutes."
Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Fluttershy walked in and gathered around the bed, all looking concerned.
"Oh, Rainbow!" Fluttershy said. "I'm so glad I saw you. I had my butterflies catch you, just like they caught me when I fell out of Cloudsdale. They couldn't quite keep you from hitting the ground, though."
"That's not really 'catching,' then, Fluttershy," Rainbow said.
"Did you make a thunderhead all by yourself?" Pinkie cried. "I heard you made a thunderhead all by yourself!"
"Yeah." Rainbow looked away from her.
"That's amazingly terriferific!"
"Pinkie," said Twilight sternly. "Rainbow, you shouldn't try anything so dangerous without somepony to back you up."
"I go it alone," said Rainbow. She turned her face to the side to block out her view of her friends.
Applejack walked around the bed to get back in Rainbow's line of sight. "You ain't sore 'bout what Granny said this mornin', are ya? I'm sorry 'bout that, RD. Sometimes, arguin' with Granny's like beatin' a dead horse."
"That's disgusting," said Twilight. "And grossly inappropriate, considering the circumstances."
"You aren't mad because you kicked a table and broke up Sugarcube Corner, are you?" Pinkie asked.
"Pinkie!" Twilight said.
"I'm not mad at you," said Rainbow, "or Granny. I just wanna be alone right now." She considered making an apology to Pinkie for smashing the counter, but couldn't quite bring herself to do it.
"You're not trying to kick us out so you can read again, are you?" Twilight asked.
"I don't think I can read right now. I just seriously want to be alone."
After a moment of silence, the others walked out and Rainbow sighed. It had been easy to play it cool with the doctor, but she had been afraid she would break down in front of her friends.
This was one of the worst days she'd ever had. She was still angry at Granny Smith, as well as everypony else who'd insulted her over the course of the day. She also felt guilty for the way she'd treated Pinkie, and felt cowardly for failing to apologize when she had the chance. And she was facing three weeks in a hospital bed.
Now that she was alone, she let the tears flow. They ran from her eyes and soaked into the pillow. Rainbow Dash wept easily, though she didn't want anypony to know it.
She started when the door opened again. She tried to wipe her eyes, but she couldn't move her forelegs, which were in suspended casts.
Looking timid, Big Macintosh entered with a bouquet of flowers in his mouth. Wordlessly, he walked to her nightstand and placed the flowers in a vase.
She felt her stomach clench in irritation, and she turned her face away from him. "I'm not really a flower kind of girl, Big Mac."
"Nope," he said in agreement.
Out of the corner of her eye, she glanced at the bouquet: he'd brought red roses, orange chrysanthemums, yellow daisies, green carnations, blue tulips, indigo waxflower, and violet bupleurum- all the colors of the rainbow.
She smiled slightly in spite of herself.
"Rainbow Dash?"
When he said her name, she forgot she was trying to hide her tears. She turned her face to him. He had a kerchief draped over one of his front hooves. With it, he dried her cheeks.
"I'm not crying," she said.
"Nope."
"I got pollen in my eyes while flying and it made me tear up."
"Eyup."
"But I'm not crying."
"Nope."
Her tears ran faster, but he kept drying them. It surprised her how gentle he could be with such large hooves, and she was embarrassed and annoyed when the beeping of the bedside heart monitor sped up.
"And I hate you," she said.
"Eyup."
He bent down and kissed her lightly on the forehead. The heart monitor went crazy.
The rosy-cheeked Nurse Sweetheart burst through the door and shouted, "What is going on in here- ?"
Big Mac quickly snapped his head up.
"Oh, my bad," Sweetheart said. Sheepishly, she slipped back out the door.
After that, Big Mac and Rainbow Dash couldn't quite look each other in the face. Silently, Big Mac stood by the bed while the two of them allowed their eyes to wander anywhere in the room except toward each other. Finally, after a few uncomfortable, silent minutes, Big Mac dipped his head, nickered, and walked out the door, leaving Rainbow confused, with nothing to do but stare up at the ceiling and think about what just happened.
She sighed. "Oh, great. I do not need this."
Luna never slept, but she did dream.
Unlike her sister, she stayed awake all night. But during the day, even while she was still conscious, her mind slipped for a few hours into an altered state. She couldn't control it, but she could still function when it happened, though it greatly reduced her abilities.
Although she was Princess of the Night and therefore princess of dreams, she didn't like to dream. Her dreams usually called up old, unhappy memories of her crimes and her bitterness as Night Mare Moon. Often, she would see the faces of the children she had murdered on her granite altar. Sometimes, she saw the slavering, wild-eyed Witch-Ponies who had served her, and over whose grotesque rituals she had presided while promising endless revels in an eternal night. Once, she dreamt of the horrifying midnight when she first claimed her dark powers: she sat in the middle of a circle of foal's blood and held between her teeth a dagger with which she carved the names of the lords of hell into her own thigh while angry spirits lusting for her soul gnashed their teeth and attacked her wards, trying but failing to seize her and drag her into Tartarus before she could complete her spell.
But today, she dreamt of that night only a few years earlier when the stars aligned and released her from her ten centuries of imprisonment. Free at last, she had returned to the Earth with her powers sapped, but with just enough energy left for one terrible spell.
She entered by the window and found Celestia lying on a pillow by the fireplace in her chamber, writing a letter. Without turning around, Celestia lowered her quill and raised her head.
"Is it time?" Celestia asked, gazing into the fire.
"It is," Luna answered. "It is time for my revenge."
Luna stomped the floor and a magic circle of cold blue flame appeared in the middle of the room.
"Enter it," Luna said.
Celestia rose to her hooves and, with face serene, turned and stepped into the circle. "How is our mother?" she asked.
"I couldn't quite say. I froze in her cold bosom for a thousand years, turned to stone. That is thy favorite way of dealing with undesirables, is it not, Celestia? Turning them to stone? It surpriseth me that the whole land is not covered in statues after thou hast held the reins of this kingdom for a millennium."
Celestia didn't answer.
"Wilt thou not plead, my sister? Wilt thou not beg me to spare thee?"
"No."
"I think thou shalt." Luna stomped her hoof again, and, with a gasp, Celestia collapsed, one cheek pressed against the floor.
"You cannot win, Luna-"
"Do not call me Luna!" Luna shouted. "That name died long ago. I am Night Mare!"
"You are still my sister-"
"I am thy bane, foal. Hast thou not guessed what I have in store for thee?"
"I have."
"Then why dost thou not tremble?"
"Because I know that, in time, my beloved sister will be mine again. Your banishment is ended, and soon you will return to my friendship."
"Oh, you foal, you damn foal. Dost thou think still, after all this time, that friendship is the most powerful magic?"
"Friendship must cleanse you tonight, Luna. If it does not, this world will lose you forever. Of this I am certain."
"Thou art powerless against me."
"I am. Nonetheless, it is you, not I, who must be saved or damned, Luna. Tonight, you will be freed, or else, be warned, the devils with whom you have trucked have forged a chain in Tartarus for you."
"Silence! Thou hast not Harmony with thee, Celestia, and thou canst not resist my curse, for as thou didst turn great magic on me, I may now turn it on thee. That is cosmic law, and even thou must bow to it."
"I bow. But one greater than I is here. I have found the Mediator."
Luna sucked in her breath. "Impossible! But even if thou sayest true, it matters not unless the Chaoticist is with her, and I know that one is hidden from thy sight."
Celestia smiled and said nothing.
"Enough!" said Luna. "I wax impatient for my vengeance. My hatred for thee doth burn as hot as Tartarus itself, and now thou shalt taste of it." Luna leaned over the magic circle and whispered in Celestia's ear, "I want thee to burn."
Throwing her front hooves into the air, with her horn glowing hot, Luna chanted the most terrible spell she had ever uttered. The blue flames of the circle turned orange and burst upward toward the ceiling. The flames moved inward, and Celestia at last lost her composure and screamed.
In an instant, the fire burned out, leaving nothing but a blackened circle on the marble floor. Celestia was gone.
Luna had cast her sister into the sun.
The two Pegasus guards flanking Canterlot Castle's high gates bowed low as a contingent of finely dressed Unicorns, glittering with platinum plates and golden rings, approached. The gates opened and the Unicorns marched in with a measured canter. At their head marched Shining Armor, chief prince of the royal family, dressed in polished ceremonial platinum armor that left the shield-shaped cutie mark on his hip exposed for all to see.
When he entered the castle's front hall, a servant unlaced his helmet, pulled it over his horn, and took it from him. He tossed his dark blue mane, took a deep breath, and grinned.
Like all ponies who held the title of prince, Shining Armor was a descendant of Celestia and August Vision. The members of the royal family knew their pedigrees, but to make matters simple, they addressed each other as brother or sister while Celestia called them all nephew or niece, and they called Celestia their Great Granddam. These labels were inaccurate and illogical, but affectionate.
Prince Blueblood, immaculately groomed as always, leaned against a marble pillar in the front hall, holding a nosegay to his muzzle. When Shining Armor and his party entered, Blueblood stuck the flower in the buttonhole of his smoking jacket. "Shining, my brother. How was your little mission for Great Granddam?"
"We've seen neither hide nor hair of whoever is murdering the Unicorns on the frontier," Shining Armor answered. "But you'll be happy to know Las Pegasus and Hoofington are still in good order, and the ponies there are taking matters well, considering."
Blueblood chuckled. "I've lost many a bit in Las Pegasus, so I can't say I'm too fond of it. Ah, but on second thought, the mares there-"
Shining Armor cleared his throat. Leaving his escort to the servants, he walked with Blueblood toward the princesses' audience chamber, his traveler's horseshoes clicking on the smooth floor. "How have you occupied yourself in my absence, Blueblood?"
Blueblood raised an eyebrow and examined one of his own carefully pedicured and unshod front hooves. "Indulging in dissipation, as usual."
"I shouldn't have asked. Does it not bother you that you keep Great Granddam pacing the floor at night?"
"She's immortal. She can afford a little loss of sleep on my account. Besides, I'll have to wait until spring to really make her pace." He laughed. "There's a new lady at court, a certain Upper Crust. But it's fall now, so I have to hold my horses. She's quite the mare, though. I'd put her under lights if I could."
"I know Upper Crust," Shining Armor said with an even tone that couldn't completely disguise his disgust. "She's married."
"That's never stopped me before." Blueblood sighed. "Ah, what is a louche young stallion supposed to do for three seasons out of the year? I've nothing to fill my nights now but rowdy friends and sarsaparilla."
"Whenever I return to Canterlot," said Shining Armor, "I immediately look forward to my next trip out, and I think I at last understand why."
Blueblood shook his head. "It's because you won't stick around for long that your special somepony ran out on you, brother."
"She was never my special somepony, Blueblood. I don't think she knew I existed."
"That's only what you deserve. You're such a strange stallion: you read all those dusty books about chivalry, noble conduct in war, the old court, and all that rot, and you run around pretending to be a knight errant, but when it comes to mares, you're always pining after those mousy, intellectual types."
In spite of himself, a grin spread across Shining Armor's face. "I met a librarian in Hoofington who was quite pretty. She wore horn-rimmed glasses and had a pencil in her mane."
"You're hopeless. Did you even manage to ask her name?"
"I didn't get that far."
"That's what I thought."
"I wrote a poem for her, though," Shining Armor said. He magicked a folded slip of paper out of his armor suit and opened it. "It goes like this-"
"Please, Shining. You could use your poems to torture prisoners, if we had any. Don't torture me."
"Fine. I wasn't going to read it to you anyway. I just brought it out to remind myself of her violet mane and silver coat."
"I'm sure. Why don't you come out with me and the boys tonight? You can drink away your memories of this librarian you never actually met."
"No, thank you."
Blueblood shrugged. "I shall drink for you then. I always do. When I'm deep in my cups, I make sure to have an extra sarsaparilla for my poor, dear Shining Armor, who wastes his life away in abstinence."
"I can enjoy a glass of sarsaparilla as well as the next pony, Blueblood. But I drink in moderation, something of which you've never heard."
"That's not the kind of abstinence I was talking about."
"You're impossible."
They waited at the doors of the audience chamber until a herald announced their presence, and then servants opened the doors and bowed. When the princes entered, Celestia stepped down from her throne and walked across the chamber to nuzzle Shining Armor.
"Shining! So wonderful to see you again. You are too often away."
"Hello, Great Granddam. It is good to see you again, as well. How are things at court?"
"The dragons' ambassador has arrived, Luna is finally adjusting, the sheep are unhappy"- Celestia smiled mischievously- "and Twilight Sparkle is still single."
Shining Armor tried to keep his composure, but blushed anyway.
Celestia spread a wing over him and walked with him back toward the high dais where her throne stood. Two servants stepped out from an inconspicuous doorway behind a tapestry, silently set up a small oaken throne at the foot of Celestia's golden one, and then slipped out of sight.
"Please stay for some time, Shining," Celestia said. "I like to keep all my nephews about me if I can."
"We'll see, Great Granddam. I'm afraid I get restless if I remain in one place for long."
The high doors burst open with a flash of light and several panicked servants, forgetting their manners, ran in, ducking their heads low. Behind them in the doorway, her dark mane waving about her face, stood Luna. She was breathing heavily. Her coat was matted with sweat, and mud covered her silver bell boots and splattered her legs. Her regal black saddle still sat on her back.
Releasing Shining Armor, Celestia turned and walked toward her. "You look ill, sister."
"We just came out of a bad dream, Celestia. Thou knowest that we cannot control them. But it is of no consequence." She trotted into the chamber, walked past Celestia and the princes, and ascended the dais to her silver throne, into which she lowered herself heavily.
"Luna, you've met Shining Armor-"
"We have, briefly," Luna answered. "But we must discuss something, Celestia."
"Shouldn't you be in Ponyville with Ambassador Severin?"
"We shall be there again shortly. Thou art not the only one who can teleport."
"What is it you wish to discuss?"
"War," Luna said.
Shining Armor pricked up his ears. Blueblood, an amused smile spreading over his face, leaned on a pillar and nibbled at the petals of his nosegay.
Celestia slowly walked up the stairs of the dais and took her own throne. "What war?"
"The one we are going to begin with Draconium," Luna said.
"To what end?"
"To free their slaves, Celestia. Art thou aware of the conditions in which the dragons keep them?"
"Luna, Equestria has not fought a war since-"
"We were there. Do not lecture us about it. Our memory is not failing."
"Do not use your royal 'we' with me, Luna."
"Do not lecture me, Celestia."
"I am your elder sister, you've been away for a while, and-"
Luna pounded a hoof against her seat's silver hoofrest. "The dragons have held these slaves for as long as any of us can remember, but their condition is more abject than ever. It shames us that we have not acted before, but we must act now."
Celestia took a deep breath. "Severin. He's been manipulating you. He's crafty, but-"
"Severin hath suggested no war, Celestia. I have."
"What prompted this?"
"I know what it is to be trapped."
Celestia closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "So do I, if you recall. And the prison into which you cast me, though my term there was brief, was much harsher than the one into which I cast you."
Blueblood stood straight, walked to Shining Armor, and muttered, "Time for us to bow out and let them talk, brother."
"Stay," Luna boomed. "Ye are of the royal blood, are ye not? Ye shall lead the Equestrian Order when it goeth to war."
"There is no Equestrian Order," Celestia said quietly.
"What?"
"There is no Equestrian Order," Celestia said. "There is only the honor guard. The Pegasi are no longer warriors, and the Unicorns learn no combat spells. You have much to catch up on."
"Then by what means doth Equestria guard her borders?"
"By means of me."
Luna leapt to her hooves and for good measure kicked her silver throne down the marble steps. It tumbled into the fountain at the base of the dais, and water gushed across the floor. "Fie! I should have known! So this is how the Princess of the Day leadeth her people! Peace at all costs!"
"These humans are not ponies," Celestia said. "If they were, I would rush to their rescue and end their enslavement. But they do not seem to chafe under their servitude. They are not like us-"
"Like us?" Luna shouted as she descended the stairs. "Thou and I are not ponies, Celestia! We are descended from the sun and the moon, and the whole of this world is in our care!" She stood in the midst of the audience chamber, fuming. "Perhaps we really have become Houyhnhnm," she muttered. "Peaceful and well ordered, but without compassion."
"This display is unbecoming to a princess," Celestia said quietly. "I will send somepony else to meet Severin in Ponyville. You are dismissed."
Luna tossed her head. "Do not forget that I am coregent, Celestia. Thou art not the boss of me."
Shining Armor cleared his throat. "Great Grand Aunt," he said, "am I to understand that you wish to lead an army against the dragons to free creatures suffering great indignities under their claws?"
"We so wish," she answered.
Shining Armor knelt before her and touched his horn to her hooves. "You shall have my horn, Your Highness. I am at your service."
"Shining!" Celestia cried.
"Art thou knighted?" Luna asked.
"I am, Great Grand Aunt," said Shining Armor, "but you should know that knighthood now is an honorary thing, and no indicator of skill or accomplishment in battle."
"We must start somewhere," Luna answered. "Henceforth, thou art captain of the Division of Knights in the re-established Equestrian Order."
"And I shall serve until death take me or my princess release me. I may not be a warrior, but at my knighting, I took the warrior's oath, and I am a pony who believes in oaths."
Luna turned again to Celestia. "Where is my armor, Celestia?"
Celestia leaned back in her throne and set her chin on one hoof. She waved dismissively at Luna. "In the armory. I kept it preserved for you, though I now regret it."
Luna smiled and turned back to Shining Armor. "Order a servant to bathe us, and then to escort us to the armory and clothe us. From this day forth, we shall not remove our armor until the humans are free."
"If you permit me, Your Highness, I shall accompany you and clothe you myself," Shining Armor answered.
"We permit it, and are honored. Come." Luna swept from the audience chamber, Shining Armor in tow.
After they had left, Blueblood turned to Celestia and said languidly, "Well, that was exciting. Seems Shining Armor has finally found somepony to play his games of gallantry with him."
"Luna is still young," Celestia answered, "and therefore passionate. She will leave this idea behind after a few days."
As evening arrived and the sun dipped below the horizon, many farmhooves and other blue-collar workers, all of them Earth Ponies, gathered at a seedy little sarsaparilla tavern called the Prancing Pony, where they indulged in their nightly hobby of carousing.
Inside the tavern, Luna's royal guards, Shivers and D'Artagnan, lounged on stools at the bar, wearing their ceremonial armor in a loose and slovenly fashion with half the buckles open. It was plain from the many wary and dirty glares they received that the Earth Ponies didn't much like their company, nor their black wings, their slitted yellow eyes, or their tufted, bat-like ears. Ignoring the stares, Shivers and D'Artagnan drank pints of sarsaparilla and occasionally stuck their tongues on a salt lick they were sharing between them.
Dressed in frills and petticoats, Candy Mane, a light orange pony with a striped pink mane, moved through the crowds of rowdy Earth Ponies, passing out drinks and salt. Candy had never discovered her special talent or earned her cutie mark, and like most such ponies, had ended up in a dead-end job. As a barmare, she had an excuse to wear a long skirt and keep her blank flank covered.
After he had downed five pints, D'Artagnan, now thoroughly root beer-blurred, nudged Shivers, nodded in Candy's direction, and said, "There's a right fine filly. What do you think of her, eh?"
Candy gave him a disdainful glance and then gave him a new tankard of drink. "Keep your hooves to yourselves, boys," she said. "Look but don't touch. I ain't in season for another six months anyways."
D'Artagnan chuckled and wrapped one of his big black wings over her back and withers. "C'mon, sugar. You can still give a stallion a kiss."
"Your breath smells like salt."
"Don't let that bother you."
He leaned toward her, but she pressed him back with a hoof against his mouth. "Listen, slick, you better get this ugly thing off me unless you wanna lose it."
"Leave the girl alone," Shivers said. "We came here to drink."
D'Artagnan slid from his stool and unfolded his second wing. "I demand a little more respect from a Ponyvillain." He tapped a hoof against his breast. "I'm a Canterlot pony. I'm of the royal guard, and I don't take no lip from no Earth Pony."
Candy laughed in his face. "Royal guard? Is that how you try to impress the fillies? You're nothing but a dirty, sodden, sarsaparilla-guzzling freak."
D'Artagnon backhoofed her across the muzzle.
Shivers slid from his stool. "Hey, stow it, mate! We don't want no trouble!"
Rough-looking Earth Pony stallions rose from their seats at a nearby table. "No trouble?" one of them said. "I'm afraid you got trouble, you Pegasus son of a nag."
D'Artagnan grinned at Shivers. "Time to break the place, mate."
Shivers tilted his head and popped his neck. "Why is it when I drink with you, we always end up kicking haunch?"
D'Artagnan reared and brought his front hooves down hard on an Earth Pony's skull. Then he spun and kicked another Earth Pony into a table. Candy screamed and the room erupted into mayhem. Soon, everypony was fighting everypony else.
In the midst of the chaos, Baritone, an unsuccessful tuba player who made most of his bits, and built a lot of muscle, bucking apples as a part-time field hoof at Sweet Apple Acres, found himself with his back to the orange-maned Mr. Breezy, who had lost his Tam o' Shanter in the combat.
"Is that ye, Baritone me boy?" Mr. Breezy called over the din.
Baritone kicked somepony who was swinging a table leg at him and called back, "Sure is, Mr. Breezy."
"Aye, let's find 'em Pegasus laddies an' give 'em a sound drubbin'! We'll teach 'em Canterlot Pegasi t' tussle with farm ponies, now!"
"I'm all in, Mr. Breezy!" Baritone called back. Flank to flank, they kicked, shoved, and bit their way through the fighting Earth Ponies until they came upon D'Artagnan and Shivers in the middle of the room. The two Pegasi were acquitting themselves well, having beat several Earth Ponies into the floor. D'Artagnan wrapped a fetlock over the neck of a helpless stallion named Caramel and thumped him in the face. Spinning on his front legs, Shivers gave anypony who drew too close a powerful double-kick with his rear hooves.
"Ye take th' ugly one!" Mr. Breezy shouted.
"Which one's the ugly one?" Baritone shouted back.
Nostrils flaring and ears laid back, Mr. Breezy leapt into the fray and laid about with his four hooves. He flattened a few unfortunate Earth Ponies, but also cuffed Shivers in the throat. When Shivers went down, Mr. Breezy spun and gave a solid double rear kick to D'Artagnan's right flank, knocking him sideways.
"That'll teach ye t' disrespect Ponyville lassies!" he cried.
Baritone, not to be outdone, picked up a half-full tankard of sarsaparilla from a nearby table, downed it for luck and courage, and then leapt in, landing on D'Artagnan's back. With a whoop, he wrapped one front leg around D'Artagnan's neck and used the other to kick him repeatedly in the ribs.
Desperate to get Baritone off his back, D'Artagnan spread his wings and flapped hard. He rose a few inches from the ground.
While kicking the fallen Shivers in the barrel, Mr. Breezy shouted, "C'mon, Baritone me laddie, make 'im whinny!"
D'Artagnan shot straight into the ceiling, smashing Baritone's back against one of the broad pine rafters. Bleary with pain, Baritone grabbed D'Artagnan's right wing in his teeth and ripped.
D'Artagnan screamed and fell to the floor. A white burst of light hurled Baritone back several feet, where he fell into a butt of sarsaparilla and broke it open, spilling its sticky contents across the floor. When Baritone recovered, he discovered, to his surprise, that he was holding two small, dried bat wings, tied together by a string, in his mouth.
He quickly spat the detestable thing to the floor and shouted, "They're Earth Ponies! Luna's changed them with her black magic!"
Indeed, D'Artagnan now stood in the midst of the wrecked tavern, not only without his wings, but without his bat-like ears or eyes. Since Baritone had torn away his talisman, he looked like nothing but an ordinary Earth Pony.
The bright magical flash had so startled everypony that the fighting had paused. All eyes now stared at D'Artagnan, and all mouths gaped at the sight of him transformed. D'Artagnan ducked his head and ran out the door. Nopony stopped him.
With a whoop, Mr. Breezy tore away Shivers's wings as well. Shivers, too, transformed with a flash into an Earth Pony, and his great wings shrank into a grisly talisman like the one Baritone had ripped from D'Artagnan. The farmhooves, with much derisive laughter, knocked Shivers about and then tossed him with a crash through the front window.
"An' if ye come back, now, we'll horsewhip ye!" Mr. Breezy yelled.
After ridding themselves of the palace guards, the ponies cheered, laughed, gave each other high hooves, and then returned to kicking each other and bashing each other with furniture. Nopony in the Prancing Pony wanted to waste a good bar fight.
Next: Spike's War