Chapter 11: Nyx

My dearest pupil.

I'm afraid I have no time for your lessons or to question what you have learned. There is something I must tell you now, as I fear for Equestria's safety.

My sister, Luna, has been kidnapped. We are uncertain who or where. A few guards captured Stalwart Defender, apparently in the process of stealing her away. However they have no proof other than their word and a dead guard. You remember Stonewall. He gave his life trying to protect my sister. As such his name will be honoured with those others who will be forever remembered, recorded in the histories.

Your brother and I have very strong doubts about this supposed story. Neither of us believe that Stalwart Defender would ever harm a hair upon Luna's head and would sooner die than see her even get a scratch upon her person. You have met him before, once I believe, and I'm certain even from that brief interlude you can assure me with utter certainty of his integrity.

I may need your help. I hate to bother you and your friends again, but this is something that must be done. My power may not be sufficient to secure her release. I'm afraid Equestria needs me here as well. Without me, I'm afraid that the entirety of Equestria will fall into the hands of insurgents, and that cannot be permitted to happen.

Once more, I am sorry that I must bother you about this. Thank you for your cooperation.

Your loving mentor.

Celestia.

"Does that sound about right to you dear nephew?"

Shining Armour nodded. By his side was Cadance, who also nodded.

"Auntie, we're going to find Luna. I promise. If there's anypony who can find her, it's Twilight and her friends. You, Shining and I all know it, and Luna knows it too. She'll be alright, I promise."

Celestia attempted a smile to her niece.

"Thank you Cadance. I lost my sister once, I won't lose her again."

---

Roughly the same time as Celestia was sending the letter to her prized pupil, a guard carrying an iron tray approached the prison cell of one Stalwart Defender. On said tray was a chunk of bread, thin soup and a bowl of water. He'd been moved to a more secure cell after a certain unicorn stallion told them that he was much too violent and dangerous to be kept in a standard cell. So now he was in a completely stone room with a thick, heavy wooden door. A small slot at the top of the door was covered by three iron bars. The guard approached the pair guarding the door.

"I've got his food here guys. Going to have to open the door."

The two guards nodded.

"Yeah, great. Careful though, apparently he's really dangerous. So be quick about it alright? Don't want another guard dead because of him."

"Got it."

One of the guards took a ring of keys from his armour and used one of them to unlock the door. It was opened and the tray carrying guard stepped into the room. The artificial light made sure nothing could hide.

It only took a moment for the guard to stop short.

"What..? Where is he?"

Defender watched the three guards enter the room, all of them shocked at his sudden vanishing act. On his face, as much as he reviled the object, rested the mask Shattered Dreams had given him the day before. The trio went up to the back wall to test for cracks, covered entrances, anything. That was when he decided it was time to leave.

Being as quiet as he could, his hooves covered by the now torn up bedsheets, Stalwart Defender slipped out of the room and started moving as quickly and as quietly as he could through the deepest parts of the Canterlot castle. It wasn't easy. There were a surprisingly large amount of guards here. And from some of the chatter he picked up, he knew why. Apparently, this was the easiest place to guard in the entire castle, having no trouble at all. Most of the time, the only reason he could sneak past the guards was because they were too lazy to get up from their seats and leave their drinks. For the first time in his life, Defender thanked Celestia for lazy guards.

Something he never thought he'd do.

---

"Twilight! Message from Celestia!"

Twilight frowned as Spike staggered his way down the stairs in a fit of tired irritation.

"A letter? This late Spike? Why would Celestia send a letter this late unless…"

She trailed off as she took the letter from Spike. Talisman had retired long before, his work having claimed most of his energy that day.

"Unless it was really important… Spike, what do you suppose Celestia would want at this time of night?"

"I dunno. Can I go back to sleep now? I'm tired."

Twilight couldn't help but giggle softly.

"Yes Spike, you can go back to bed. Sleep well now."

With a muffled thanks from the young dragon, who Twilight could practically see growing as she watched, he staggered, tripped and otherwise dragged himself back upstairs and into his bed. Twilight smiled at him as he left.

They grow up so fast.

Wrenching herself out of her little daze, thinking about Spike as she was, she picked the letter back up off the floor where it had fallen, her curiosity once again sparked. The design on the wax seal did indeed indicate that is was Celestia who had sent the message, this Twilight was sure of. Breaking the seal, she unrolled the scroll telepathically and began to read, her expression turning more and more horrified at each passing sentence until eventually she cast the sheaf of paper away from her.

"TAL! WAKE UP! WE HAVE THINGS TO DO!"

After a minute or two, Talisman made his way out of the bedroom, rubbing his eyes.

"Nngh… Twilight, what is it that's so important you have to wake up half of Equestria? And after all the work I've done today?"

"Oh bother that Talisman! Luna's been kidnapped, I hardly think your work is very important right now!"

It took Talisman a minute or two to actually process what Twilight just said and, by the time it'd dawned on him the implications of exactly what his marefriend had said, Twilight was gone, out the door in search of her bed ridden friends.

"What! Luna? How… Twilight!"

---

"Two more days, great Princess. The full moon will herald your return to ultimate power my graceful monarch, and return you to the bringer of the truth! The herald of eternal night."

Luna didn't even bother to answer him, not even giving him the satisfaction of her looking at him. She heard him walking away and turned around to see him exit the room. Sitting down, she sighed sadly and tried once again to reach her magic, again unsuccessfully. Her frustration at this fact knew no bounds.

"Rrgh, Why can't I reach you!"

"They won't let you…"

Luna looked around in shock. She was unaware that there was anypony else in here.

"Who are you? Show yourself!"

"Um… That might be a little difficult."

Luna frowned in slight confusion.

"To reveal who you are, or to show yourself?"

"Showing myself… I'm afraid my location is blocked by a wall. I'm next to you though, the next cell over."

Luna practically squashed her face in her rush to press it to the door on the left side.

"Then who are you? Why did you not speak yesterday?"

The small voice came back.

"Well I… they wouldn't let me… are you really Luna? The princess? I always wanted to meet a princess."

Tears came to Luna's eyes at this little revelation.

She can't be anything more than a filly! Who else has 'always wanted' to meet a princess?

"Dear child, what is your name? Why are you here?"

There was a short silence before the answer.

"My name… My name is Nyx. I don't know why I'm here… Something about the release of truth? I don't know."

Release of truth? Could this have something to do with me?

"You're sure they said 'release of truth'? Not something else?"

"Yes miss Luna, I promise. That's what I heard."

For a long while, Luna pondered this and the filly, Nyx, in the other cell, remained silent. In the almost complete silence, Luna could now hear her breathing softly. Luna could not understand why the cultists would even consider stealing away a little filly for anything like this. It made no sense. She doubted that, even if she had centuries in which to consider it, she could ever understand it. It was something that utterly, utterly confounded her.

"Nyx, tell me. Do you know what they plan to do with me?"

There was a moment of quiet.

"No miss Luna, I don't."

Luna found herself nodding.

Of course not. I guess there's a certain logic to not telling her. All foals fear Nightmare Moon. It is not a tale used to instil peace, as many others are.

"Nyx, listen to us carefully. The ponies here aren't very nice. And what they want isn't very nice either."

"Not very nice..?"

"No dear one. Have you heard the tale of the mare in the moon?"

---

Defender cursed himself for not moving faster.

Had I moved faster, I wouldn't be in this stupid situation! Idiot!

In his defence, the amount of noise that could have been made moving faster might have alerted them earlier. Or he could have slipped on that puddle of cider he almost hit in the kitchens. Or he could have run headlong into the cook carrying that big pot of hot soup. Or something. Of course, had he bypassed the kitchen altogether instead of detouring to it because he felt like he hadn't eaten in the past twenty years he wouldn't be in this situation either. But he had. It had taken a good fifteen minutes out of his escape time. And now, because of this, he was now trying to dodge every guard and his faithful pet at the same time, all of them having been called to alert to find the missing prisoner. Thankfully, his mask was still functioning. But for how much longer he wasn't sure.

Stalwart Defender was no magician, for obvious reasons. He was a simple Pegasus really, and magic wasn't high on his agenda to learn about. But he did know a little. The most prominent fact in his mind right now was that all magical items required charge. Magic didn't last forever. The imprint of enchantment lasted until removal, but all enchantments required energy, and it had to draw it from somewhere. That's where magical charge came in. Had he a few energy cells, which were crystals infused with magical energy, he wouldn't be so worried. But he didn't, and Splintered Dreams hadn't told him exactly how long this darn thing lasted.

Not to mention he just wanted to get the damnable object off of his face.

It felt like small hooks were pulling at his skin, making it shift and move wherever the mask touched, and sometimes his vision flashed, and in the darkness the eyesockets seemed to glow with their own light, a sickly green colour, lighting his way. Nopony else seemed to see it however, which was just as well, since if they could he would have been discovered by now. As useful as it was, he hated the accursed thing. If he hadn't needed it for his escape, he would have destroyed the mask as soon as he could.

But, as fate would have it, he did need it and he couldn't destroy it. And so weaving in and around the guards milling around the place looking for him very quickly became a very popular past time for Stalwart Defender. It was all going well, until in his attempt to miss one guard he plowed into somepony else.

Somepony without armour on.

---

"Ow!"

Cadance stumbled into Shining Armour, earning an concerned look from the guard captain.

"Cadance! Are you alright? What happened?"

Stretching her wing out, which had been mysteriously assaulted by an unknown force, Cadance frowned.

"I don't know. It felt like something hit me. It was… warm? Static, like that feeling you get when you're touched by somepony who's been rubbing their hooves on the carpet."

Shining Armour frowned.

"Can't have been a guard then. They're all wearing armour, the touch would have been cold…"

At that moment he saw a familiar face.

"Brave Wing! Brave Wing! I need to see you, now!"

---

Stalwart Defender's ears pricked up at the sound of the Guard Captain, he recognized the voice, calling his recruit.

Brave Wing is alive?

He spun around, standing in a lull of activity as the guards patrolling this room left, resuming their search through the rest of the corridors. His head ran a mental check of the three figures before him and he gulped as he realized precisely who he'd bumped into.

Shining Armour, Guard Captain of the entirety of Canterlot.

Brave Wing, Lieutenant of The Midnight Guardians corp. Learning under… Stonewall…

Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, Princess of the Realm Wife to… Oh shit.

His mind was torn between listening in on their conversation and leaving the castle, forgetting for the moment that he was invisible to the naked eye. His hesitation, it seemed, lasted too long and the trio began to walk away.

In a split second, probably really bad decision, Stalwart Defender followed them.

---

"Celestia wishes to see me? Whatever for sir?"

Shining Armour found the casual way the lieutenant was speaking to him refreshing, as opposed to the uptight, not so casual way his own soldiers spoke to him, bar Stonewall when he was alive. There was no changing the old dog. But despite his friendly demeanour, Shining could detect an undertone of despair to the young soldier, despair and sorrow. A closer examination of him revealed the physical traits of a pony that hadn't slept in several days and was feeling the strain.

"Aunt Celestia didn't tell us why, just that she wanted to see you."

Shining started in slight shock as Cadance spoke, having almost completely forgotten about the initial question. The trio were now walking down a very heavily gilded hallway.

"Ah, yes. Sorry Lieutenant. I'm afraid her Majesty didn't tell us why. Simply that we needed to find you and bring you to her as quickly as we could. Thankfully, you're not that difficult to find. Your armour is quite… well, it stands out from the customary gold."

Brave Wing couldn't help but puff his chest out with pride.

"Midnight Guardian corp sir. None better."

Cadance stifled a giggle.

"Naturally. You do guard Luna."

Again, Brave wing nodded, slightly more proud, before all of his pride left and he deflated.

"Yeah… looks like we didn't do a very good job huh? I mean… jeez. Stonewall d.. gone and Defender imprisoned… Guess I failed huh?"

Shining grimaced, not really wanting to answer that question.

"…. Depends Lieutenant. You did everything you could, and that doesn't make it a failure."

The trio had now reached an ornate golden door with a depiction of the sun engraved on it.

The entrance to Princess Celestia's quarters.

"Well, Ladies first my dear."

Cadance smiled and knocked gently. The door, as usual, swung open on its own accord. The two stallions followed the youngest princess into the study and stood before Celestia. Brave Wing almost forgot to bow.

Guess I've become too accustomed to Luna's influences huh?

"Your Majesty. You wished to see me?"

Celestia was staring out at the city when he spoke, not having moved even as she'd opened the door and heard them come in. Her horn glowed and the doors slammed shut behind them, earning a flinch in surprise from all ponies present bar herself.

"Brave Wing… You served Luna as her Bodyguard under the tutelage of Stonewall and Stalwart Defender, correct?"

Brave Wing swallowed.

"Y..Yes ma'am, I did. And, being that my other Midnight Guardians are incapable of doing so, I am willing to take full responsibility for the failure of my fellows."

Celestia was silent for a long while before she turned around. Her eyes were sad, and her body spoke volumes of bone crushingly strong sorrow. Her shoulders were slumped and she had deep shadows beneath her eyes.

"My dear Lieutenant. This is not about Stonewall's death. He did not fail, he fought till his death to defend my sister."

Out of nowhere spoke a rather familiar voice, making Celestia, Shining Armour and Brave Wing start in shock and spin around, Cadance following suit, not finding the voice familiar.

"We only fail in our duty if we do not bring her back in time to save her. Until then, we are still Midnight Guardians."

They watched in stunned astonishment as Stalwart Defender lifted his mask, letting it rest atop his head, not making contact with his face and thus not allowing him to be rendered invisible.

"And nothing on Equestria will stop us."

---

Celestia stared at the disgraced and formerly imprisoned guard in utter shock. The entire garrison was picking the castle apart with a fine tooth comb and a pair of tweasers and here he was, large as life and not even budging under the four stares he was being assaulted with wearing…

Are those..?

"Defender."

"Yes Lady Celestia?"

She paused and pursed her lips before continuing.

"Are those my bed sheets from solitary confinement?"

He looked up at her confidently and with confidence and an absolutely straight face replied:

"Yes. Yes they are."

Her brow furrowed.

"I don't suppose those bed sheets did anything to harm you?"

"No. They did not. They were, however, very itchy."

"Did they insult you in any way?"

He hesitated for a moment.

"Well no."

"Are my Bed sheets not to your liking?"

He squirmed.

"Must we discuss this now?"

"I simply wanted to know why on Equestria you would utterly destroy my lovely floral sheets that I made sure were as unthreatening and warmly friendly as possible for potentially dangerous ponies."

It was at this point Stalwart Defender remembered the floral nature of said sheets and instantly felt self conscious. Large colourful flowers covered his hooves in pretty shades of pink, baby blue and deep rose red. It was almost pretty. He flushed.

"They were very itchy Majesty, and I needed to move silently. I'll replace them, I promise."

"You had better. And they'd better match those ones Stalwart Defender, or be it on your own head I will make a new set of sheets out of your coat."

Shining Armour, Brave Wing and Cadance, reduced to mere onlookers, watched the discussion in stunned silence. The safety of Equestria was at stake and these two were having an argument concerning floral bed sheets?

---

"So… Nightmare Moon isn't a nice pony? Like these bad ponies that kidnapped you miss Luna?"

Luna smiled at the innocence of the young voice from the cell next door.

"No dear girl. Nightmare Moon is much meaner. She's very nasty and wants to rule all of Equestria without anypony else. Not only that she wants to plunge Equestria into eternal night."

"But, Miss Luna, why would anypony want night all the time? What about the day? Everypony needs the day to live."

"Yes child, we do. But Nightmare Moon doesn't believe that. She thinks that all she needs to run this country is her magic which, I suppose, certainly could be done. But it would take a lot of power. Power she has."

There was silence from the little filly for a while.

"So… How did they plan to get her out of you Miss Luna?"

"I don't know dear one. I really don't know. But, the stallion who kept speaking to me hinted at something happening in two days. Or so. What's really been bother me is why you are here."

"I… I don't know why I'm here. Buy I've been here most my life."

Luna started in surprise.

"Most your life! My Dear, you're saying you grew up here?"

"Grew up..? Um, no? I… I don't know Miss Luna."

"How is it that you mean child? You don't know?"

"I was… I was found and brought here. I only remember the day I woke up. A nice stallion picked me up and brought me here. Said I'd usher in a new age…. Or something like that."

A small sniffle came from the direction of the cell next door, a heartbreaking sound.

"But… just recently they put me in here, refused to let me out. Then they gave me a weird drink that made me feel strange and I couldn't think very well. My wings wouldn't work and I couldn't stand up."

"They gave me something similar Dear one. My magic is useless. I don't know how they've done it, but I can't fly and my magic is useless. Otherwise we'd be out by now."

"Miss Luna? I'm scared."

"I know dear one, I know."