Chapter 16: Black magical nightmares.

"Alright, so you claim that the pair attacked you first and were, as you put it, 'insurgents'. Why on Equestria would they come for you? You're just a guard. Not even all that prodigious."

Brave Wing gritted his teeth in frustration. He'd been here all night, trying to explain to this stupid stallion precisely what had occurred here. Over to his left stood Heart Sworn, surrounded by a group of mares, presumably friends or colleagues of hers, worrying over her, despite her insistence that she was okay.

"Look, I told you. They came and attacked me to get to Heart Sworn alright? They weren't after me to begin with. Heart Sworn had picked up on something that they didn't want getting out so they came to take care of her!"

"And you, of course, put a shoe through each of their heads. That is a likely story."

"It's the truth!"

"Of course it is."

Brave Wing, about to snap and lash out at the irritatingly sceptical stallion, was silenced by the sudden, powerful voice of the captain of the guard.

"Brave Wing! What's going on?"

Instantly Brave Wing snapped to attention, facing Shining Armour. To be honest, since Stonewall died, Brave Wing had only ever seen one other guard as equal rank to Defender, and that was Shining Armour himself.

"Guardspony? What are you doing here?"

The guard that had been 'interrogating' Brave Wing made a set of hasty excuses, then quickly made an escape. Shining watched the guard leave suspiciously.

"Brave. What was he doing?"

Brave grimaced.

"Apparently? Finding the most effective way to piss me off."

Shining frowned.

Could he be another one?

---

Stalwart Defender sat moodily within a prismatic cocoon of magical energies, preventing him from moving so much as an inch. Beside him stood Talisman, horn glowing along with several of the inscriptions upon the smooth stone around his neck. Having been not only fed up with his constant bickering with Applejack and his tendency to be more inclined to violence in the current circumstance, Talisman had erected the barrier around the frustrated Pegasus to prevent him lashing out at the, seemingly, completely peaceful unicorn sitting by the bridge. However, if Tal was to be honest, he was starting to become greatly irritated by the mysterious barrier keeper. Right now, Rarity was trying to ply her charms with the unicorn to utterly no success. Off to his right, Applejack paced agitatedly. Rainbow paced, in time with her good friend, in the air, matching Applejack's movements to the step.

"Ooh! I give up! You simply won't budge!"

Rarity stalked away from the stiff, emaciated stallion at the side of the bridge, frustrated beyond belief. Pinkie Pie had left them a while back to go back to make sure that Twilight, Fluttershy and Demonheart were alright, since none of them had caught up with them and the group had felt a rather disturbing temperature drop a while back. The moon was high in the night sky by now and they were all feeling the strain. Growing impatient himself with the immovable stallion barring their path, Talisman called Rarity over to him.

"Rarity. I'm going to talk to the uh… bridge keeper. Here, keep feeding magic into this shield, keep him contained while I talk to him."

Rarity nodded and took over his vigil to contain the frustrated guard as Talisman walked up to the emaciated figure.

"Alright. I'm not going to beat around the bush, no tricks. What's your name?"

The single visible red eye fixed itself unerringly upon Talisman, scrutinising him.

"Talisman. Recently redeemed in his parent's eyes, psychologist of Ponyville. Afraid of sleeping since you were thirteen, scared of what you'd see, where you'd go. Terrified what secret you'd discover in your sleep. So terrified, in fact, that you refused to learn anything about your magical prowess."

Talisman stared at the entity.

"I.. how… How did…"

"Time. Time is all that is needed. And time I have in plenty."

Talisman stared at him before reaching forth with his mind, a talent he wasn't born with, but had learned to control some time ago, and went to read the thoughts of his conversational partner. He gasped in shock and staggered as the eye upon him intensified its gaze, glaring at him. Talisman's eye bugged out, lost in the seemingly limitless capacity of this… entity's mind.

By the Goddesses…

It was like peering into the depths of time itself, deeper than the deepest chasm in Equestria, spanning a larger area than the universe itself. He felt his consciousness start to slip away, his thoughts beginning to lose cohesion, the very essence of what made him what he was beginning to fragment, disintegrate, ceasing to exist.

Just before he was violently ejected from the entity's mind.

Talisman staggered back from the sheer magnitude of the force of being ejected from such a vast consciousness, the magical effect actually having a physical effect on him as he stumbled back, crying out in pain at his sudden, explosive headache. The others cried out in alarm and Rarity, forgetting the barrier, rushed to his side. Finding himself free, the first thing on Defender's mind was his now hurting companion. He walked over hesitantly, looking at him in confused concern.

"Doctor? You alright?"

Talisman groaned at him, his headache not allowing for much else.

"Oh shut up you oaf… let me sleep.."

Forcing down a heated response, Defender looked dangerously at the emaciated form by the bridge.

"If you're planning to kill us, you may as well do so now."

The single visible red eye snapped to look at Defender, staring at him.

"Had I wanted you dead, I could have killed you the moment you entered my sight. I could have just as easily erased you all from existence."

It's gaze roamed around the tight circle of friends and Defender.

"All of you… were replaceable. Still are. But you…"

The eye fixed itself upon Defender once more.

"You I am not allowed to touch. My master will not allow any harm to come of you by my hoof."

Defender frowned, puzzled.

"So, you can't kill me or them? But especially not me?"

The being was silent for a long moment before speaking, it's wispy voice sending chills down Defender's spine.

"I could erase their existence, but not kill them. As I said, they are… replaceable. Even the mind leech is replaceable. You, on the other hand, are not."

Hand? What in the hell..?

"Wait, erase from existence? As in never existed?"

"Indeed. Complete and absolute annihilation, never to have existed. Parents would still live. Line would still survive, but they would never have been born, been conceived. No body, no mind, no soul."

Defender took a wary step back at this new revelation.

"And… you can do that?"

"Implicitly. Without doubt, no hesitation, no remorse, and utterly, utterly no effort."

The unmoving nature of this entity, for Defender had ceased thinking of it as a pony, and the way it spoke, like a whisper upon the wind, or the wind itself, frightened him and he took another wary step back.

"What the hell are you?"

The creature's eye looked up to the heavens, the moon almost in the centre of the night sky. Defender was dimly aware of Pinkie yawning behind him.

"I… am what I am and nothing more."

He looked back down to Defender and for a moment, just barely for a moment, Defender could have sworn he saw something else buried within that eye before it was snuffed out.

"My master frowns upon explanations, but I see that you are sceptical of my claim. I have no name, I have no definite form. I have no title, nor species nor genus. I am an agent for my master, one of the two hundred and twenty-two agents sent by our master to watch and preserve the original line."

It looked once more to the heavens and it's horn began to glow.

"I am an agent of the timeline. For a blink of an eye we had a name, for the blink of an eye we were legends, myths. Now, we are secret. Now, we are quiet."

Before the bridge, the barrier of shimmering diamond-like structure began to fade, the perfect size for one pony to fit through.

"Now, we are waiting."

He glared down at the sudden movement of all the ponies before him.

"However."

They halted in place, Defender at the portal already.

"Only he may enter. Should any others enter, my master will be very upset. Moreso than he will be already for my revelation."

The other ponies began to argue with him, the creature merely sitting silently before once again there was the glowing of a horn and the offending ponies were trapped, encased within the diamond walls of his barriers. Defender took a step towards them and froze as a familiar sound clawed its way up his spine and took a hold of his mind in its freezing cold talons, screeching into his ears.

The sound of Luna screaming.

Without a second glance at the ponies contained and completely at the mercy of the creature restraining them, Defender wheeled around and galloped desperately over the bridge and into the castle, heedless of any sounds or sights around him.

---

Whispers…. Night…. All encompassing… awe inspiring….

"Daddy! DADDY!"

Waiting…. So long… Wretched…. Bodies…

"Daddy! I'm Scared! Stop it! You're hurting her!"

Power…. Power overwhelming… My power… My… Mine….

"STOP IT RIGHT NOW!"

The shrill scream of the young filly behind him did nothing to stop the dead looking stallion from continuing his spell. Swirls of magical eddies spiralled around him and his colleagues, whispers filling the air over the potent screams of the moonlight goddess.

A thousand years I waited… A thousand years we suffered…

Frantic scrabbles at the barrier behind him. Heedless, must continue.

Our own sister betrayed us… Our sister… Dear Sweet Sister…

Luna's eyes snapped open, blazing white.

"Dear, Sweet Princess Celestia!"

The spell, and therefore the first part of the ritual, complete allowed a moment's respite from the surrounding unicorns. Luna glared down upon the stallion before her, dead looking eyes shimmering a little.

"What are you staring at you fool? Why have you summoned me?"

She looked around.

"And why am I contained with glyphs and a Starswirl's Circle? Are you trying to destroy me? That is a very bad idea."

The stallion before her shook his head almost violently and bowed.

"No! Never harm my queen. We have resurrected you from your prison within the feeble princess's mind. Our cause is completely devoted to you my queen."

He looked up, a smile flashing across his face.

"We even managed to obtain one of the vessels containing your power."

"Only one? Are you truly so incompetent as to only be capable of obtaining one?"

He winced at her blatant insult.

"I… I apologise majesty. He was guarded by Celestia herself, and none of us have any chance of defeating her or her guards."

"And yet you were capable of stealing away my vessel."

He winced again.

"I… when you put it like that Majesty…"

"Enough! I have slumbered long enough. Now it's time for breakfast!"

The horn upon the night queen's head elongated and began to glow ominously as the temperature in the surrounding area suddenly and inexplicably dropped by ten or so degrees. Swirls of dark magic began their rounds, surrounding her. Eyes widening in absolute horror, The lead stallion scrambled out of the way of the deadly spell just before she brought the full power of her magic to bear.

On the small, defenceless unicorn filly by the name of Nyx.

---

"LUNA!"

Defender felt the temperature drop instantly, the characteristic sensitivity to the weather noticeable in all pegasi kicking in. His eyes lit up in triumph just as his heart leapt to his throat and his stomach tightened in panic.

Beneath! She's beneath me.

He spun around, looking around him desperately until he found what he was looking for. A staircase to his right led down to a lower level and he recklessly plunged down it, calling frantically as he went.

"LUNA! LUUNAA!"

He busted through a flimsy door into an underground antechamber and stopped dead. The room was circular and was, quite literally, a room of doors. Everywhere he looked was a door. The walls were covered with simply doorways, and they all looked the damn same!

Rrgh! Luna, I'm coming for you, even if I have to tear this whole fucking place apart!

He swivelled his head slowly, narrowing his eyes.

No, focus Defender. There has to be a clue..

His eyes found the eleven o'clock door and he smiled.

Bingo

The door was new. Whilst the door itself had been weathered down, the evidence showed itself within the shining hinges bars on the door. He rushed over to it swiftly and went to force it open with his shoulder whilst running and…

Fell right through it.

Surprised, but not enough to stop him, Defender plowed forward. Obviously whoever had left here earlier, or came last, had forgotten to lock the door on their way.

Worked for Defender.

---

Splintered Dreams watched the desperate stallion rush into the castle, completely invisible. Upon his face rested a mask with the symbol of leaves etched into it.

The mask he'd give Defender.

Unknown to defender, Splintered Dreams had swiped the item off of him during his mad sprint through the Everfree Forest just before stopping him.

"Good luck Defender. You're going to need it."

---

Having no real knowledge of the castle, it was pure blind luck that Defender stumbled upon, or rather ran into, the ritual room. Busting through the door as he had been doing the past few times, he automatically zeroed in on the closest stallion, a thin, gangly unicorn with an unusually long, tapered horn. The satisfying 'crunch' of Defender's shoulder meeting his target's chest and buckling it was not enough to sate Defender's current appetite for destruction and he whirled to find another target before stopping dead, staring in absolute horror at the scene before him.

Standing in the centre of a large, intricate set of runes was somepony Defender had never thought to meet. Nightmare Moon wasn't her regular size, but her horn, mane, tail and eyes were just as they'd been described to him by his mother. The fluted horn was easily the length of his forehoof, the eyes of pitiless green with cat slits and the mane and tail that of shadows and the night sky. She never turned from her prey. Dangling in her grasp, black magic swirling giddily around her, was a young filly barely old enough to have gone through her first molt had she been a Pegasus.

And she was dying.

Her body was shrivelling in on itself, the soul being sucked out of her slowly, torturously. Her mouth was open in a silent scream of absolute agony and her eyes were tightly shut, squeezed shut in pain. Her hooves clutched at her chest in a vain attempt to release herself from the mad clutches of the alicorn before her.

It only took a split second for Defender to intervene.

He leaped explosively right over one stallion knocked down a second to plant himself between Nightmare Moon and the young filly. Almost instantly, Nightmare noticed him and smiled maliciously.

"Ah, another pony come to play! Tell me, My little pony" She snarled sarcastically, eyes downturning with hate, "Are you afraid of the dark?"

And she turned the full force of her soul siphon spell upon the hapless guard, who cried out in shock at the sudden, excruciating pain. He'd been on the receiving end of many things, from blades to hooves, but never in his life had he felt such intense, mind shatteringly, bone breakingly intense agony.

No.

The image of Luna's smile flashed through his mind and his eyes opened in a determined glare. Defying the pain, the power, the odds.

He took a step forward.

Nightmare Moon was curious at this stallion's seemingly impossible battle, and why he was even trying to win it.

"Give up. Your soul shall be added to my own life force, making me stronger than ever before!"

With a grunt, he took another step. He felt his strength ebbing from him.

"N..No. I know you're in there… Luna."

Another step and Nightmare snarled, enraged.

"Luna is no more! I am Nightmare Moon!"

"You're.. a fake!"

Another step and he was standing defiantly at the dark princess's forefront, glaring rebelliously at her.

"And you'll let Luna go!"

The soul Siphon spell was cut off in an explosive display, Defender barely being able to remain where he was and resist being blown off his hooves, the other ponies in the room less lucky. He heard one hit the wall with a sickening splat, another scrabbling at the ground, and the last swearing. He tried to ignore it all and glared at his current nemesis, who glared right back.

"Let. Her. Go."

A short laugh barked out at his demand. A bark of laughter that was cut off as Defender punched the offending creature, Socked her straight to the cheekbone. She whirled on him.

"HOW DARE YOU! Y-"

She cut off and started, then convulsed , falling to the ground and screaming. Defender, unsure of what he did, looked around to see the lead unicorn, or so he guessed, screaming bloody murder at the only remaining conscious unicorn in the room, who had slid over something that Defender guessed must have been important. Some glyph or something if he had to guess.

Regardless, he dropped down to Luna's side and held her head in a firm grip.

"Come on Luna, I'm here, don't you ditch me now. I told you I'd protect you, and I meant every word of it."

He felt tears in his eyes as he held the now still princess, who's horn had shrunk down to regular size and eyes were closed.

"I promised, and you told me never to leave your side. So don't you dare leave mine Celestia dammit, you're too important to just up and leave!"

A pair of eyes fluttered open and the form lying before him gasped in a breath. A stab of fear ran through Defender as he held his breath.

"Princess?"

She looked up at him, as though startled, her gaze softening the moment they found him over her. Those beautiful, blue orbs were just as he remembered. Beautiful, deep, dark, like her night sky.

"Defender…"

"I'm here princess."

They smiled at each other gently before Defender cried out in agony once more, his body giving out and flipping completely over his princess as she recoiled in fear. Behind him stood an enraged unicorn, hair the colour of dead flesh, dark green, almost black pelt and angry eyes. Held in the grip of his telekinesis was a long baton. Where he'd gotten such a weapon was unclear, but he seemed to know how to use it.

"You IMBECILE! You ruined EVERYTHING!"

Luna cowered away from the sheer animosity of the stallion as he brought the baton down on Defender again, eliciting another sharp cry of pain.

"Now I'll have to start from scratch!"

Another frenzied strike.

"Can your simple mind even comprehend what this would have accomplished!"

Enraged, the stallion swung the baton in a fast, powerful sweep, just as Defender leapt up and opened his wing s for flight. The result?

There was a god almighty crack as the baton connected with Defender's already twice broken wing and he screamed in agony, the momentum of the shot throwing him to the ground, his head striking stone and he was knocked unconscious. Luna saw red.

No! He's pushed him around enough!

"ENOUGH!"

The full force of Luna's voice, known only as 'the Royal Canterlot Voice' was not something to be taken lightly. The stones themselves trembled as she spoke and the unicorn shied away from it fearfully. He looked over at Luna and began to shake. She advanced upon the hapless unicorn, her horn starting to glow ominously.

"You have deceived us, drugged us, USED us, and now thou attempt to kill thine princess's bodyguard! Such crimes are unspeakable! Thou shalt pay dearly for thy transgressions!"

Luna had never agreed with capital punishment. She saw it as crude, cruel and overall bad for the image of the Royal house. But never before had she thought it so comfortingly fitting than right at this moment. To his merit, the stallion spoke against her.

"You'll never understand! And nothing you do will stop me! You will all rue the day you crossed horns with Screaming Solace!"

Her snarl deepened.

"We think otherwise."

The stallion gasped suddenly in pain and clutched at his chest with both forehooves, then looked up at Luna in disbelief.

"But… you're… princess?"

Luna shook her head.

"Tonight. We are an executioner."

His chest burst in a foul mixture of blood, bone and shredded organs as he collapsed backwards from the force of the matter suddenly erupting through the skin of his chest.

He was dead before he hit the floor.

Luna rushed over to Defender, heedless of the mess she'd just made.

"Defender? Defender! Oh, I have to get you home… you need medical attention."

With a great heave, magic having retreated to the back of her mind, Luna lifted Defender up onto her back and started carrying the stallion up and out of the ruins of the ancient castle that once housed the very elements used to stop the entity who had nearly stayed free that night, coming back only to scoop up the barely breathing filly Nyx in her magic before departing again, her only thought to get home.