Night Patrol
Chapter 34: Epilogue: The Return
Previous ChapterNight Patrol ch 34: Epilogue
By Foxgear
Celestia felt her sister's magic leave her and with it, her strength. The wear and tear on her body over these last one thousand years has finally caught up to her all at once, leaving her as weak and tired as she had been the day she sealed Luna away. She strangles a laugh, seems Starwind was right, her spell did catch up to her. All the years she spent training and practicing to fight Nightmare Moon again and she was taken out before the battle even began.
Seems she had no choice but to put all her faith in her adorkable little student. Hopefully, Twilight took her advice to heart and found some friends.
“You’re looking tired,” A voice said from the darkness of the green room she was placed in while she waits for her cue to raise the sun, a voice she hadn’t heard in a thousand years.
“I am tired, a long nap would be nice,” Celestia replies as tears fell from her eyes. “How was the moon? I can’t imagine it was a very fun place to be for a thousand years.”
Nightmare Moon steps out from the darkness, circling around the tired sun princess, a smirk spread wide across her lips, “It wasn’t all bad, constantly fighting for a thousand years really helped pass the time. You would not believe how close it was in the end. Had Luna just rested for half a day she would have overwhelmed me and you would not be at my mercy.”
“She did always have a habit of overworking herself,” Celestia chuckles despite herself. The pony in front of her could kill her with ease if she wanted to, yet she didn’t, did this mean Luna was still fighting? “I suppose, this is where you end me, dear sister?”
Silence fills between the two princesses, neither one saying anything for a solid minute.
“No,” Nightmare said suddenly. “I don’t feel like right now. Maybe later, after you spend a thousand years on your precious sun, it will give you a good view of Equestria under my rule.”
“I suppose there is sort of irony in that,” Celestia chuckles as Nightmare’s magic surrounds her. In a flash, Celestia found herself on the surface of the sun with a big wide viewing portal showing her everything Nightmare Moon saw. Her twisted sister walks onto the balcony and addressing the gathered ponies, her student, her last hope, Twilight Sparkle rising up to face the dark princess.
“It’s all up to you now Twilight, I’m sorry it’s come to this.”
Celestia sat down to watch the event to unfold, the pain of not being able to help hurt her more than any wound.
The ponies stood and gasp at her presence and that little lavender unicorn that actually knew who she was looked so cute as she tried to stand up to her, oh how fun this night would be! Nightmare was dreaming up all sorts of things she could throw at the band of six that trekked through the Everfree after her. She was tempted do summon up an army of shadow ponies to devour them down to the bone, but after seeing… her… the earth pony mare that looked exactly like her old friend, who also shares the same name, Nightmare’s urge to harm them was diminished… greatly.
“Perhaps some simple illusion spells?” Nightmare ponders as the group tangles with the manticore that she enraged with a thorn. Surprisingly the shy pegasus of the group was the one to quell the beast.
Nightmare Moon floats around in a purple mist tracking the group, spying on them, but mostly just enjoying the amusement of their antics as they blunder their way through her challenges. They seem to be having an easy time, perhaps too easy, time to raise the bar.
“A little magic here and instant rockslide!” Nightmare snicker as the ponies scatter from the falling rocks, however, the lavender pony slid off the edge of the cliff with only Applejack to keep her from falling. Again, not wanting their deaths, Nightmare flew underneath the mare and made her hoof solid and placed it under the lavender mare's dangling hooves to hold her up till Applejack lifts her up… which should be happening any second now…
“Let go and you’ll be safe,” Applejack said, much to Nightmare Moon’s and Twilight’s shock.
“That’s not true!” The lavender mare screams.
(Well… she’s technically right….) Nightmare supposed, not actually sure what her friends descendant was doing. Then she saw the two pegasi below, ready to catch the unicorn. (Hmm… the lavender one must have insulted Applejack at some point and this is a form a harmless payback, classic Applejack. I am glad her sense of humor has stayed in the bloodline. I always found it charming.)
Nightmare removes her hoof and fled, letting the two pegasi catch the lavender mare. She flew past a sea monster, accidently cutting off the purple serpent’s mustache and he began withering in agony…
“Wow… monsters are not what they used to be,” She notes, shocked at the display the monster was making over such a minor thing as facial hair. Used to be you could cut a limb off and they won’t even blink an eye. “What in Tartarus happened while I was away?”
Moving on Nightmare glides across the canyon to the castle and lands on the other side, a thick mist covering the area. Thankfully she could still get a clear view of the castle and it was… sad to say the least. Time has laid its crumbling grip upon her old home and from the looks of things, efforts to save the old structure were not attempted.
“I should fly up to the sun and buck you right in the face sister!” Nightmare seethes, feeling immense rage over the state of her their home. Her anger quickly fades to annoyance as the voice of those six mares drifts over the mist. The blue one with the rainbow mane flew over the canyon to retie the rope bridge. Flicking her horn Nightmare creates another illusion, but one that left her frozen as the image of Nightingale glides down to the blue pegasus and chats with her. The sight of the metal winged pegasus made her realize something.
They were dead. All of her friends were dead!
Hot tears spill down her cheeks as she glares at the castle. She could sense them, the elements. They were inside. She was going to destroy them!
Disappearing into mist Nightmare searches the entire castle, thinking Celestia might have hidden them somewhere else. She checks Celestia’s room, Starwind’s, and finally come to stop in her room. Her room, which was perfectly preserved, exactly has it had been a thousand years ago.
On the bed lay a note next to her old doll, the one Celestia had given to her as a gift so, so long ago…
Nightmare picks up the note, she had expected it to be from Celestia and it was, but it wasn’t just from her.
(Howdy Luna! Funny to be writing a letter that you’ll get in a thousand years, but Celestia says it should reach you just fine. I just wanted to say after you were… banished Ah guess the word we’re using, Ah settled down and started farming. Ah, wish you could have seen it, Rawhide and Ah picked out the perfect spot!
We even had a few little foals, their names are Apple Gin, he’s mah oldest, Apple Whiskey, is mah second child and you may find this strange, but mah third kid is named Applejack after me! Isn’t that funny? She kind of looks like me too… weird… anyway Ah just wanted to write and say Ah’m alright and that Ah’m living my dreams all thanks to you. Ah really wish Ah could have talked you one more time. Ah always figured you’d outlive me, so Ah guess, it’s a little weird for me to think Ah’ll never see you again.
Ah, guess… Ah, don’t know what to say really. You’ve done so much for me and my family, for everypony. Ah wish there was some way we could have helped you. Ah just want you to know, everything we did, all the hardship and pain, it was worth it.
Equestria is a much better place thanks to you, and Ah want you to know that.
Your friend,
Applejack
A strangled sob escapes from her throat as she fell down on the bed, weeping into the covers. It wasn’t fair… it wasn’t fair! She tried to make the world better; she did make the world better! Why… why did she have to suffer? Why did she have to be locked away? To live in a world without her friends, Applejack, Sixes, Fury… all of them!
“Why did this happen?” Nightmare screams into the sheets. Rage filled her, she would make them pay… she would make them all pay! She won’t just destroy the elements; she was going obliterate them one by one and make sure they realized just how big of a mistake they made by sealing her away!
A joyful scream from down below caught her attention, seems the lavender mare found the elements and in the same room Celestia had left them… somehow that didn’t surprise her. Celestia did have a knack for losing things, thus she likes to keep them in the same place if she could.
One teleport later, Nightmare was in the room where the elements were kept. They were encased in stone, powerless and silent. The lavender mare argues with her, but she brushes her off and stomps the elements to dust. The mare let out a growl and charged at her.
“How cute,” Nightmare scoffs easily warding off any spell the young unicorn might cast. She had the magic, but there was no killing intent her attacks, seems Celestia hasn’t taught her how to fight yet, shame. That being said, the lavender unicorn did remind her of a certain black-eyed little filly with just as much magic. Could she be of Starwind’s bloodline?
“It matters not she will be destroyed… what are all these lights?” The other five have join the lavender mare and they were all floating… and the elements were being reformed! “No, I will not allow it!”
She almost beat the elements once; she could do it again and this time, she would win! Now that Luna was out of the way… her body won’t move! What was going on?
“Like you said, it’s not who wins the most, but who wins last that counts,” Luna said appearing in the mental realm. The Princess of the Night quickly seized control from Nightmare restraining the dark alicorn with her shadow shroud. “I found it strange after you defeated me on the moon. I suddenly realized you never used this technique once during any of our battles over the centuries. It is one of our most powerful of our spells, so why not use it? Then I found the answer, you couldn’t use it, the elements purged the dark magic from you. Though you were still evil, that is just who you are, for me this is my darkness, my hatred, I realize now what must happen.”
“You fool! Do you even know what the elements will do to us this time?”
Luna bulks, “There is no us! And yes I have an idea. I won’t like it, but it’s what must be done!”
The rainbow beams drew closer and Luna now in control stood completely still; ready to take the blunt of the attack and whatever punishment came with it. The rainbow magic engulfs her, but instead of the burning agony she felt last time, she felt warmth.
“I see now… thank you…”
Luna opens her eyes and for the first time in a thousand years she had her own body again… just a little smaller than normal.
“Seems the darkness formed quite a while ago,” She mutters as she struggles to get up, her legs weak and flimsy. Dammit, she was a teenager again, this better be temporary!
“Princess Luna…”
That voice, Celestia! Luna looks up at the glorious sight of her big sister, walking towards her and giving some speech about something, but Luna could feel her real thoughts and feelings and what Celestia was actually saying was, “Come and hug me already!” And she did. She ran right up to her sister and nuzzled against her warmth. After a thousand years on the cold moon, she could fall asleep right now and not even care.
Unfortunately, she couldn’t do that, seems there was a parade for her return. Warily she waves to the townsfolk she had only been terrorizing a few hours ago, they didn’t seem to realize she was Nightmare Moon, cause who would? She looked completely different.
The entire town celebrates her return all day and night, despite not knowing why. However, the pinkie earth pony who inherited the element of laughter told her you didn’t need a reason to party. An idea Luna could agree with, but it was clear that the town ponies were tired, having spent the last two days partying.
Thankfully the party ended, or rather she snuck away back to the old castle and fell upon her bed with a relieved sigh and slept.
In the morning Luna awoke refreshed. Happily, she trots out into the hallway, expecting the sweet smell of baked goods and the chatter of her patrollers as they prepared for the day. However, there was none of that, only the smell of must and mold and the sound of silence.
“It’s gotten pretty bad hasn’t it?”
“You let it get this way,” Luna replies looking accusingly at Celestia. The elder Alicorn could only sigh and nod, having been expecting Luna to say something like that. She wasn’t wrong; she did let the castle go to ruins instead of fixing it.
“It was too painful, the memories that is, I had not the heart to face them,” Celestia said sorrowfully, if Luna was angry with her she didn’t show it. Celestia wanted to go and hug her sister, but something told her now was the not time.
“What happened to them?” Luna asked suddenly, catching Celestia off guard.
“What happened to whom?”
Luna gave her a flat look. Sighing Celestia nudged for Luna to follow her and she lead her outside to the memorial wall. Here would probably be the best spot to explain things.
“Ten years after your banishment to the moon, there was a division between the member of the night patrol. Some retired and wondered away into the world, others joined me to help train the new royal guard, and there were the ones that disappeared entirely. Sixes was the leader of that faction, he and many others simply left and were never seen again. All I know is that they were trying to find a way to see you again. Applejack might have known what their plan was, but she wouldn’t tell me even till her last breath, she said it was what Sixes wanted. I’m sorry I couldn’t watch over them better.”
Silently Luna touched the face of the memorial wall with her hoof, looking through all the names that had been added after her banishment. A lot of the dragon ponies were not listed, Crusader, being the only one she could remember clearly off the top of her head, some of them must have been newborns after she was banished, amazingly some of them lived to be over four hundred years old.
Slowly Luna steps back from the wall, a small smile gracing her lips as she bit back tears, “You did your best. I just hope they found happiness, where ever they ended up.”
The two sisters stood there for several more minutes before finally taking their leave, neither of them suspecting what or rather who were resting beneath their hooves.
Deep beneath the earth rests the Soldiers of the Night, who have waited a thousand years for their princess’s return and they would continue to wait till she needed them once again. Whenever that maybe they didn’t know, but that didn’t change the fact that they would be ready, waiting in stone till the time came.
Meanwhile inside the marble room that housed the vault where the slumbering patrollers slept a pony suddenly appeared in the room as if she had always been there. Slowly she glides across the floor, her boots hooves clicking against the white stone, her black ethereal hair dancing silently in the air as she came to a stop before the marble door.
With nothing but a flick of her horn the door fell away to dust, allowing her entry to the vault, once she stepped inside the door reformed as if nothing ever happened.
The pony shook her head and removed her helm, freeing more of her hair and revealing her piercing black eyes. She spots the statue of Sixes, standing tall and proud, without a clue just how difficult he made her life with his little turning himself to stone stunt.
The tawny color mare sighs and smiles as she lights a light with her horn, revealing the infinity mark on her flank and the wings folded at her side.
“You just had to go and throw everything out of whack didn’t you Sixes? Well, I hope it was worth it because things are gonna be get chaotic thanks to you. Despite the extra work you're creating for me, I feel inclined to help get out of this prison you made for yourself, just not right now. Sorry, but it’s gonna be a little while longer before Luna can wake you up, but everything is about timing and trust me I know all about proper timing, I am the Princess of it, after all.”
Dusk smiles as she dawns her helm, “Don’t worry, it won’t be too much longer.”
And with those parting words, Dusk blinks out of existence, as if she had never been there. Leaving the Soldiers of the Night waiting for the day they could rejoin their princess’s side once again.
The End
Coming soon… Night Patrol 2: Awakening