-Prologue to the Inevitable-

Snow fell gently around the three, thickly wrapped figures as they trudged through the already deep banks. They trudged slowly, the snow getting slightly more packed down as they neared the edge of a grey forest and making their movement slightly easier.

One of them turned, his figure towering over the other’s as he made a cutting gesture with his mittened hand, his other arm clutched close to a quarterstaff that criss-crossed with carved lines. A rippling sound echoing from the ice road behind them. They continued forward, following the stout figure that clutched a sawed off shotgun close to his chest. The smallest of them stood closest to the tower of a man, the both of them following several steps behind the other.

The wood was dark, snow falling in a mist around them and creating a small ring of visible ground. It was more like a fog than anything, and it slowed their progress further. Eventually the stout figure stopped, the rest of the small group catching up to him and gathering in a ring so that they could speak.

“I can’t track the path like this.” The stout one said, his voice low and grinding, like a constant ground that made the air shake. “Time for plan B.” He motioned toward the tall one, but never took his hands away from the shotgun.

The tall one nodded and mumbled something about noses, his hand moving under the thick coat and struggling to dig something out. His arm eventually ceased its frantic movement and pulled out a lanyard, more like a string, with a large straight crystal hanging from it.

He took a step back, separating himself by a few long strides. He used his staff to cut a circle into the snow around him, he would have to act fast or else the snow would slowly erode it. He kneeled, his gangly legs poking out from under the long coat as he touched a hand to the circle. He hung the crystal in front of his lips, the wide brimmed fedora that he was wearing hid his eyes and he whispered an incantation over the gemstone.

It pulsed, a bright blue light that illuminated a cheeky smile. He laughed, giving a fist pump when it responded how he had intended. The circle wavered out of existence as the snow fell on it.

The crystal leaned forward, just barely enough to be noticeable. The tall figure stood, his boots crunching into the snow as he turned and started walking. The stout man shared a glance with the smaller girl before they both fell into step behind the tall man. She picked her pace quickly, moving to walk behind the leader of the group.

They walked for a long time, the pulsing of the gem growing steadily more frequent as they went. The would occasionally share a word, she would ask the tall one a question, and he would answer. Like a student to a teacher, a relationship that held them to their own sanity.

The third of the group walked behind them, his pace set in a silent stomping motion. His head turned behind them every few steps, checking their six for followers that weren’t there. Every time he took a breath hot mist would swirl in eddies around his head. He walked carefully, like even just a misplaced foot would cause the ground around him to fall apart.

They walked on, the snow falling around them and growing thicker as they made their way deeper into the winter wood. The flashing of the gem slowly, but steadily, grew faster in pace. Its glow would light the trees in a slightly wider circle for a moment, the effect growing more strobe-like as they continued.

Their pace would progress with the pace of the glowing, until they had broken into a full sprint. They moved fast, dodging through the parthenon of trees and following the lean of the crystal. The snow increased to a practical storm of falling powder as they drove deeper into the trees, and then it stopped.

It was sudden, like emerging from under the water after a long swim. They burst through the trees and skidded to a stop in an untouched clearing. The ground was bare here, absolutely no snow touched the perfectly dry ground. No grass, no mud, no snow. Just plain, dry dirt. The tall man grabbed onto the girl’s coat, stopping her before she could step onto the slab. The other man approached in what would be called a leisurely pace.

The tall one grumbled under his breath as he turned to glare at the other man. “I’m the wizard, I’m supposed have the mysterious knowledge and power.” He grunted, turning back to the clearing as the girl backed away.

There were no clouds either, the full moon was in perfect view. The clearing was a perfect circle, and the trees leaned away from its center. The center did harbor something to avoid, however.

A slab of perfectly flat stone stood in the center, dirt had been blown over it, collectively over the centuries that it had been there. It was covered in cracks, but a closer inspection would have revealed that they were deliberate, markings that projected an unsettling power. At the very center was a small block, a slot cut into it that showed its otherwise unknown purpose. Outside the stone’s perimeter were five blocky pillars, broken at waist level.

The crystal pulsed so fast that it wasn’t even a break in light, it just glowed. The tall figure blew onto the crystal, like blowing out a candle, and the light disappeared. He turned to the stouter figure, his face set in grim determination. “This the place?” He said, but he didn’t expect any sort of answer.

The man nodded, reaching into his leather coat and drawing out a large envelope. He walked forward, handing the manilla envelope to the tall one. But when he grabbed the envelope, the stouter man grasped his hand, holding him in place.

“If you need any more, Peter’s number is in there. Just don’t drain my account, I might actually come back.” He said, ending the comment with a chuckle and shaking his hand. He released his hand and shared a smile with him, but the other man’s died quickly.

“You don’t have to do this, you know.” The tall one said, shaking his head and avoiding the other’s eyes. “We can make the Council listen. We could make a safe place for you, for all of ...” He made a gesture at the stout man. “you.” He finished, dropping his arms to his side and shaking his head.

“Like I said before, my answers don’t lie here.” He said, a sagely smile sneaking onto his face. “This is only evidenced by the actions of your peers and mine. Hell, who knows? I could end up on an island of beautiful women and good beer.” He added lightheartedly, his laugh dying in his throat. He looked out to the slab of stone. “When it starts, get back into the trees.” He said, almost as an afterthought.

He hadn’t even fully turned to the girl, she had already wrapped her arms around his thick frame. He responded in kind, putting his arms gently around her. She looked up at him, her darkly dyed hair peeking from under her hood. She looked at him, not his eyes but his face. She reached a gloved hand into the collar of her coat, pulling on a chain that she unthreaded from around her own neck. Hanging from it, was an intricately carved copper shield that glimmered in the moonlight.

“Harry helped me charge it.” She mumbled, fumbling with the chain in her gloves. “But I made it.” She added quickly, putting it around his neck gently. “It’ll protect you from ... well, from everything I could think of.” Her voice broke, reminding him of how young she still was. She gently let it rest in the muffled hollow of his chest. She quickly swiped at a tear that rolled down her cheek, not letting it linger for very long.

He looked down at it, lifting a finger to push at it for a moment, he didn’t wear gloves. He looked back at her and pushed a lock of her hair out of her face, he leaned down and gently kissed her forehead. “I’ll miss you.” She said quietly, breaking away to join her mentor near the trees.

He watched her go, turning back to the clearing and opening and closing his hands to work up the blood flow in them. He just stood like that for a long time, his neck twitching as he kept examining the circle. He steeled himself, a visible wave of tension rolling up his body as he reached up to his neck with a shaky hand.

He pushed his fingers under the collar of his coat, dropping the shotgun to the floor. He reached under the soft fabric of his shirt, taking hold of a rough leather thong there. He pulled on it, revealing the heavy pouch that hung from his neck. He grasped the pouch, the bladder of a polar bear, one he had killed. He fumbled with the stiff cord that tied it closed, his cold fingers having trouble working it.

But when he finally did get it to open, the clearing filled with light. It was like a golden sun had appeared in his hands, and as the stiffened pouch fell away from the light, it danced. Like fire, the light never went unmoving, constantly shifting in intensity and shape as it left the gem that was its source. He dropped it into the palm of his hand, the teardrop shape fitting perfectly in his calloused hand.

He held it out, watching as the light danced over the clearing. The shadows that it cast made it look like fire had spread behind the trees. He pulled his arm back, shaking the shadows and making the entire clearing seem to shift with his arm. He threw it, the entire clearing shaking as it flew over the stone slab.

And then it stopped.

Just over that center block, sinking to a waist high position and hanging by some unseen force. The light intensified, for only a second, like a camera flash. And when the light left, leaving delicate little streams of its golden luminessence, there were five more beings in that clearing.

The two guests, hiding behind the trees unnoticed, could only stare. They weren’t people, not in a normal sense. Sight, smell and hearing didn’t apply to them.

These were spirits, Faeries, Guardians of the Gate.

At the head, directly across from the now perfectly still man, and standing behind a pillar, was a tall deer buck. He stood proudly, his crown of bones stretching far over his head as he looked across the slab with intensity that made the air waver around him. Around the buck, each placed behind their own glowing pillar, were horses.

Two tall and proud mares stood to his sides, but they were not simply animals in shape. They each bore a horn and wings, holding them like war medals to be proudly displayed. They stared down at the center, seemingly captivated by the crystal there. Past them were two more mares, they stared like the buck did, with heated intensity at the man.

Unlike the two before, they were separate in their own decorations. One wearing a long horn, the other with huge proud wings folded to her sides. The air around the beings shimmered, like light itself was fearful of revealing them. They stood at five points around the slab.

Five points of a star, five parts to a whole.

The man stood entirely still, the only sign that he hadn’t been turned to a statue was the small clouds that drifted away from his face as he breathed. He slowly leaned, a leg stopping his fall and carrying him forward. When his foot hovered over the dirt covered slab, the encroaching dust flowed away from it.

The dirt flowed off of the slab as his foot fell, flowing to return to the earth. And when his foot made contact, like a gunshot in the dark the beings looked up at him. And they started to sing.

Their voices flowed like water, in perfect symphony as the man continued to walk. Their voices were beautiful, but underneath that, a sense of warning fell with each word. He reached the center stone in only a moment, the gem casting flowing light over him as he stared down at it.

He raised his left hand up, the hand that takes, as if he were to strike it down on the gem and knock it from the air. And the being grew silent for a moment, watching him.

And when his arm fell, connecting like a hammerstrike, their singing intensified. And he flinched, like he had been struck by their words. The air around him wavered, like heat rising off of his thick frame. He shook under the pressure of the creatures verbal attack, watching carefully as the gem responded to his touch.

Light flowed, tangible and liquid like slow moving water. It dripped down from his palm, where the gem was firmly pressed. The beings reacted again as they watched it, their voices rising again. He waited carefully, holding back the attack as he suffered under the torrent of a waterfall of power.

He slowly lifted an arm, the movement making the beings around him renew their efforts. Their voices rose in intensity that instantly froze his attempt to move, his arms shaking as he stubbornly rode out the horrid force that they pressed on him.

The light flowed like it was filling an invisible container, taking its shape as it fell steadily from the gem. It spread to create the handle of a sword, dripping down to fill the blade. The man flinched again, his right arm twirling to make his hand face the sky.

It was like a whirlwind, a funnel of distortion, simply broke free of whatever was affecting him and flew out. It connected with a sickening crack to the buck’s chest, pushing him far back onto his rear legs. And his arm darted up, the pressure on him released for an instant as he redirected the attack on him.

His hand grasped onto the sword grip, the chanting and singing of the beings around him suddenly rising, as if they were panicking. The force on him actually cracked the great slab under him, splitting it down the middle in a violent explosion of power. But like a train at full speed, the man wouldn’t stop now, he couldn’t. He lifted up, even as the buck recovered and rejoined the chant. The sword began to slide free, completely formed of tangible light as he pulled it up into the air.

And with the sound of ripping paper and a bright flash of pure white light, he was gone, and the clearing was empty.

The two guests could only stare on in wonderment as the snow slowly picked up again, gently hiding any evidence that anything had ever happened here in this forest.

---

It could always be said that Princess Luna’s schedule almost appeared backwards to a normal pony’s. After sunset, or moonrise, she would go to the banquet hall and have her breakfast. Occasionally she would wake up early and eat dinner with her sister before the day turned to night, but otherwise that was what she did.

She liked it like that.

Routines were her nectar, they comforted her, made her feel normal. And while she knew she was not, she enjoyed that fleeting feeling. But she was always reminded of how different she was when she held her night court.

Firstly, it was rare to even have a pony come to her, it was rather late for such a thing however. However, as the winter crawled toward its solstice, her court would be earlier and she would be rewarded with more guests.

Sometimes it was nice to try and give her advice where it would apply, but many times she simply found herself lost. The problems of some of her subjects simply did not make sense to her.

This one doesn’t know how to ask a stallion she likes to a date?

Not only is this a trivial manner that the Princess should not have to work with, it was also ridiculous to her. And while she realised that the old ways didn’t apply any more, society had moved past it ... for the most part. In her days, she would have simply commanded the stallion to please her, as would have been his place even if she weren’t royalty.

Luna always advised that those problems be resolved by speaking with those they trusted near them, and as kindly as she could, suggested that more pressing issues be brought up the next time.

The next one wants approval for a new watering hole. Luna wasn’t daft, she did know what he meant. A simple matter, and one she was happy to resolve with city planners. She found a suitable place for the building, near plenty of ponies but far from as many foal concentrated areas as reasonable.

It went on like that for several hours, but she always ended the court before midnight. This was usually fine however, seeing as rarely is there enough ponies up at that hour looking to reach audience with her. She would end the court, and retire to lunch.

After she had satisfied her need for nourishment, she always visited the library. There were hundreds, if not thousands, of new tomes added to the library during her absence. Many had trivial titles and subjects.

This one was about stamp collecting. That one was about ancient history, been there, done that. The magic section had expanded, that was definite. It seemed that many advances in magical applications in medicine had been made, that was always interesting to look at.

She always browsed, she always found something of moderate interest to distract herself with, and she always read on the balcony that faced out to the gardens.

Luna loved looking over the royal gardens in the moonlight, especially on nights like this. It was a winter night, colder than ice and still like time had stopped. The full moon was what she loved most on these nights, its silver glow creating a fairyland of beauty in the dew covered gardens.

She loved those nights, almost wishing they could last longer, but remembering that the next was only a fleeting wait away. After all, what was a month to an immortal?

But something felt off about this night, she felt it the moment she exited onto the balcony. It was warmer that it should have been, that was the first thing. And she had been sure that the weather team had done their work properly, it was scheduled to be a particularly nippy night.

So why was it so warm?

And there were clouds too, large splotches of black highlighted by the silver light of the moon behind them. They blocked out the stars, like somepony had been trying to close the curtains on something they wished not to see. Why had the weather ponies allowed clouds to intrude on the normally open sky?

This was bad, a very bad omen if she had ever seen one. A break to the routine, and strangely ... she welcomed it.

It was far too often that, even though she was comfortable in it, the nights flowed together into months. And those were only interrupted by the occasional dream emergency, or a holiday or celebration that her sister insisted that she participate in.

So, Luna waited. She sat stoically on her cushioned seat, the balcony letting her watch everything as far as the horizon. Whatever these signs meant, it would reveal itself to her when it would. And she would wait until noon if she had to.

But she didn’t.

It was like the sky itself flew apart when it happened, a line of pure white that streaked down from the stars. She stood to examine the falling meteorite. But it moved too slow to be a shooting star, those were fleeting, passing in the time it takes to blink an eye. This, whatever it was, flew slowly and with purpose.

It was a fiery white ball, simply gliding down. A long white tail, like one would see on a passing comet, followed in its wake, tracing the path that it carved from the sky. And it was coming straight for her.

She knew it when the tail disappeared, and the ball of fire seemed to not move for the longest time. It gradually grew larger, and as it grew it gained speed in its growth. For every moment that it went unchanged in its path, it grew faster. Like an exponentially expanding bubble of pure white. It wasn’t until its brilliance illuminated the noble city before her that she finally made her decision.

She wanted it.

Luna had to have it, at that moment nothing else mattered. She needed to know what it was that could seek her out in such an audacious manner, even if there wasn’t much left of it.

She actually felt the power flowing into her horn before she had decided on a plan of action. But she let it build, the huge well of power in her only more intense during her moon’s full brightness, only more effective during her half of the year. She felt her body moving without her, her mind simply using her eyes to watch the captivating glow as it continued on its unwavering path.

She stood on her hind legs, raising her forehooves up, like a lumber-pony ready to strike down. She knew what needed to be done then. She would rip the bright ball of fire out of the sky, so that she could capture it with the ground’s embrace.

She used the movement of her body to give the raw force more control, cracking the marble platform under her ebony gilded hooves as she struck downwards. She could practically feel when the fireball’s course changed, suddenly arcing down toward the gardens.

For a moment she felt bad, even if no one ever visited that half of it, it was too far behind the castle, too close the mountainside. But that moment passed, and she felt almost relieved. The less that was visible of the landing site the easier it would be to cover this up.

And then it impacted, and she was almost disappointed. No brilliant explosion of light, or even that loud of a sound. In fact it was completely silent, even as the gardens flew apart around it in a huge cloud of vegetation, dust, and sod. The light died as soon as it impacted, dropping the night back into silver dimness.

Luna stared for a moment, almost not believing what she had witnessed. A silent meteor strike.

But as awe inspiring as it had been, she had to address this as soon as possible.

“Guards!” She bellowed, but refrained from the Voice. “Wake our sister, and bring her to the north wing of the gardens! Make haste!” Luna commanded, watching as the darkly armored stallions ran off to find the Princess of the Sun.

Luna jumped from the balcony, extending her wide wings to glide gracefully down to the stone platform that connected this area of the gardens to the actual castle. She landed with only the sound of a short clip of her hooves against tile, a hasty landing by her standards. Even here, the garden hadn’t been spared of the spray of sod and mud.

There were puddles and splatters everywhere, the small decorative statues looked like they would be the worst off. The platform would need a new polish, some parts may even need to be completely disassembled to be cleaned properly.

It didn’t take long for her sister to join her on the, literally, soiled platform. Behind her, a large company of guards had followed her. They shared a glance before actually speaking, an unspoken reassurance.

“What happened?” Celestia said, her gentle and maternal voice flowing seamlessly in the cool, night air.

“A meteorite, we think. But something was verily off.” Luna said, nodding out to the destroyed gardens. “It was too slow, too bright. This night, it was too warm, clouds that should not have been.” She said, starting forward with the group, her sister keeping pace.

“An intentional collision then?” Celestia replied, carefully stepping around an uprooted hedge. “An attack? Or a crash?” She finished, turning to her younger sibling to try and determine her intentions.

“We plan to uncover the reason for this event as soon as possible.” Luna said, an unmoving determination etching her words. “This is our kingdom as well. And this happening during our night is only further reason to discern the purpose of this interruption.” She said, walking around a long tear in the sod, they were getting closer to the impact zone.

The rest of the walk was silent, neither sister willing to break the quiet as the edge of the crater. It was long, like the impact had been at a more horizontal angle than Luna could remember. They followed the huge canyon of soil that had been churned away by whatever had fallen there.

It was at least the thickness of a pony at first, gradually expanding to the full size of the steaming crater. The wisps of white, stringy mist flowed out from the absolute center. But when the sisters looked upon the object that had embedded itself within the soft soil of the gardens, it was the sister of the sun that reacted first.

“Lock it up.” She said darkly, her voice barely above a whisper.

“What?” Luna asked, her sister’s sudden response startling her. She had never, ever, heard her sister bring that tone to her words.

“I want that, put in the dungeon, now.” The Princess of the Sun commanded, motioning to the guards who dove quickly down to the crater to retrieve what their princess demanded.