A grey pegasus, with a black and purple streaked mane walked through the streets of Canterlot, her head held high and the grace of a noblemare. she had a pleasant smile and wore a beautiful, elegant dress, one of the most famous from Rarity's newest collection. Only the richest ponies could afford it, and it was only one of a kind. so, as expected, the noblemare drew the attention of everypony around. Her colourless eyes didn't even glance at the ponies that all turned their heads. Stallions and mares alike.
Inside the clothes and make up she wore, the pony was trembling with anticipation. This was her next job for her Lady, and she was excited. The one job they fully agreed with on the terms. Her Lady was even nice enough to supply the dress, free of charge. And it fitted oh so nicely. But the noblemare itched. The dress was too confining. Too... skirt-y. She wanted something tight and concealing. Not big and puffy with such a low neck. It was hard to place one hoof in front of the other without tripping and falling flat on her face. Not to mention she was beginning to sweat inside the cumbersome outfit. It didn't help that she had to stand outside in the sweltering heat for the next hour and a half. The noblemare came to a halt in front of the Canterlot Castle and stared up at it, pretending to look fascinated at the building, like a foreign noblemare. To add the this, she put on an alluring accent that could make even the strongest stallion fall to his knees and drool at her hooves. Five past six exactly. She had one hour, twenty-six minutes and thirty-seven seconds until her folly stepped out of that door for his daily walk in the Canterlot gardens. That is, if her information was correct. Her source could be a traitor to her Lady. Which would be bad. Their only scout in the castle to be a traitor would be very bad news.
Anyway, if the information was incorrect and he wasn't at the centre of the Garden complex by seven fourth-eight exactly, the noblemare would first sneak into the castle and eradicate her folly, and then find her information source and toss him into whatever district of hell birthed him. Gods she hated fucking traitors.
Oh, sorry? What? No, no. She didn't swear. Haha. Crazy ponies.
The noblemare, unable to stand in the scorching heat for any longer released a heavy sigh and turned and gracefully dragged her hooves, into the garden maze. Row after row of statues lined the maze, and each of them were once, or perhaps still are, living creatures, that the 'brave' and 'noble' Princesses imprisoned for stupid reasons. The pegasus stood before one of the statues. Discord. The embodiment of Chaos. He'd been imprisoned again after playing some dangerous prank on the newest Princess. He would have been a powerful asset to my Lady's plan. She thought with a sigh. And he could control the other draconequus as well. After all, he is sort of their father. Half past six. Sigh. She moved onto the next statue. A Slendermare with her tentacles lashing and her suit torn. Beside her was a Slendermane, valiantly trying to protect her. It was a shame, really, These two were the oldest of their kind and the creators none the less. The original Mare and Mane were captured only a year ago for being out in public and scaring those fuckin' racist ponies.
What? Swearing again? What are you going on about? You really are insane.
Moving along the line of statues, she saw manticores, chimeras, lizard-folk, dragons and some two-legged creatures she couldn't name- it was tall, not the less and had some flaring trench coat and some huge sword. It had a really short mane and and it seemed the least scared of any of the other statue creatures. It just stood tall, looking ready to strike with it's weird demon-skull-ribcage sword. You could even see the ichor on the blood from the demons it had killed. Another creature with a long thin katana and spiked hair was beside the first. It seemed even less scared than the first. It also had a trench coat, but it was hugged closer to it's body. Unlike the first, he had the sleeves of his coat rolled down. On the floor, burned into the stone before the statue of the two creatures, said "The Sons of The Dark Knight will never been defeated by sentient assholes like you." The noblemare chuckled at this, and moved on, leaving the 'Sons' behind. Creatures of all shapes and sizes were encased in stone.
She stopped before the statue of a normal pony. She was nearing the centre of the maze- the ambush point. But the statue had caught her attention. A tall pegasi reared before her, his wings flared and lips curled in a ferocious snarl. There was a solid glimmer of fear in his frozen eyes, and a single, terrified tear was forever gracing his stone cheek.
The noblemare frowned and stared at the statue, confused. It was new that was a fact. But why he was here, it was unknown. No inscription, no burns in the floor. The stallion was just... there.
"Sad, isn't it?" An all too familiar voice said in her ear. Fighting the instinct to stab the pony in the face was overwhelming, but she bit her tongue and turned around, smiling pleasantly.
"Prince Blueblood," She said softly, greeting the obnoxious stallion with an inner wince. Shit. She hadn't gotten to the ambush point yet. Nononono. This was wrong!
"Since you know who I am, who are you, my Lady?" The Prince bowed his head to her. The top of her lip curled upwards in a sort of smirk.
"My name is... Astral Feather." The grey pegasus said, and smiled. "Who is it?" Referring to the statue.
"A beautiful name..." Blueblood seemed almost mystified by Astral's beauteous appearance, so she kicked him in the leg, then pretended nothing happened. He shook his head, and blinked multiple times. "..North Wind. A pegasus of notable power." He said finally, looking at Astral.
"Hm..." Astral looked at the Prince and tilted her head. "Excuse me, may I ask you another question?"
"What is it, my lady?"
The Prince had never been so stupefied in his whole life. "Is your blood really blue?"
"I've never seen it."
"Oh." Astral fell quiet and looked at the stallion, colourless eyes full of distaste. Pause. "Do you want to see it?"
Pause. "I would rather not."
Another pause. "Too fucking bad." Astral hissed and pounced on her prey, the expensive dress finally becoming useful and burying the stallion in skirts. She ripped the dress off and left him tangled in the outfit. Under the dress she wore nothing but a holster with pouches and knives strapped to it. As Blueblood wrestled free of the dress, she was there, Astral Waltz with a single knife held at the Prince's throat. "Say one motherfucking word and I slit your throat, you hear?" She pushed him into North Wind's statue, and Blueblood groaned in fear, and a very distinct and gross smell wafted from him. "How unsanitary. Were you never taught to piss in a toilet?" He whimpered, his white fur stained yellow. "Now, if you yell for your guards I will kill you on the spot and they'll never find me. Normally, I wouldn't let you see me face.." Astral Waltz grinned and pushed the knife into his neck, just a little, to reveal his deep red blood. "But I'll make an exception. You won't be seeing my much longer anyway.." Her grin turned maniacal and her eyes shone with pure joy. The knife moved from is neck and down onto his stomach. "A little cut here... a few lines here..." She sliced her prey's stomach slowly' carefully, leaving a line of music notes. She sighed. "Your blood is as red as mine, I'm afraid."
"I knew I should never have gotten out of bed this morning..." The Prince uttered oh so quietly. Astral's grey ears twitched and she pounced, faster than anypony could see and his neck was sliced, cleanly, but his dull red blood still flowed, constantly, from his neck. Onto the statue. Onto the cold, stone ground. Flowing, gushing, spreading. And Astral watched gleefully, dancing around the blood and body, her body twisting with each dying heartbeat, spinning at each gush of blood as his heart tried to fix the wound, leaping at each, single, gargling breath as the blood bubbled from his throat, she weaved as the scarlet pool got wider as his life slowly ebbed from his useless, dirty, worthless, obnoxious fucking soul and body, she laughed in time with the beating of her hooves on the stone floor, and the wind howled him his swan song.
Crack
Astral stopped her blood dance, and stood, very, very still. Spider-webbing across North Wind were cracks as thin as a fishing lines. But even those hairpin cracks were enough. The blood seeped through the gaps, making them crimson and oozing, seeping into, and out of the thin lines. Then the whole thing shattered, and the red life-liquid flooded from the statue. Dust and rock clouded the air, and Astral made no move. She stood as still as the statue itself, blood from Blueblood's body and the explosion soaking into her coat and inter her hooves, and leaving her ragged mane sticky with crimson.
The dust finally cleared, the swan song singing wind clearing it away. And reared on his hind legs was a misty blue stallion with bright cyan eyes. His mane was dull and blond, his lips still pulled into the scowl, and a stone tear on his cheek. He was covered in Blueblood's flaming blood, he slowly dropped onto all fours and his expression relaxed. The tear dropped to the floor, shattering immediately, and he turned is cyan gaze onto Astral, a frown replacing the scowl.
"Good day." He stated, brushing dust and stone fragments away from his hooves. Astral bowed her head in greeting, much like Blueblood did to her. The mist blue pegasus stepped towards the mare and picked up her now ruined dress from the floor. "I believe this is yours, mistress." Astral didn't say anything, she just stared with her disturbed, haunted colourless eyes, and grinned. North Wind put the dress down and waved a hoof in front of the pony's face and whistled softly. Still no reaction. He sighed and turned away, before taking to the skies and flying off, not looking back. North was happy that he was release from his stone prison, as messy as it was, but that mare that was covered in the blood of Prince Blueblood was a sight he did not expect. He flew with the wind, but slowly began to fall. He knew he was flying in an up draft. Yet he was falling. Progressively faster as well. He couldn't even muster a scream as he spiralled out of control, whatever it was that was making him fall was strong, to pull him out of an up draft like that.
He looked down. The mare covered with blood was standing on the ground directly bellow him was laughing. Cackling. No.. closer to howling. As the mare howled with her laughter, North angled his dive. He felt cold. Very. very cold. Like his feathers and coat had turned to ice. He crash landed a few feet in front of his howling companion, and rose to his hooves. He then saw the icy glitter of frost on his legs. Turning his blue head, he saw the primary feathers of his wings. Completely encased in ice, he felt like he was trapped in his prison all over again.
And yet the grey pegasus that stood before him laughed and laughed and laughed.
North Wind stood bewildered, half frozen in ice, and cod as hell and some mad pony rancorously roared with a cacophony of laughter. It was a wonder that nopony had come to investigate yet.
"Where do you think you're goin', fucker?" She said, her colourless eyes bright and cheerful, but her voice was coarse and angry.
"Astral Waltz!" The stallion's eyes lit up and he grinned. "It's been far too long." Astral looked at him and walked towards him, leaving bloody hoof-prints in her wake.
"North Wind, you little shit. It's been forty-six days exactly. You vanished just after my initiation, and you can be so friendly now? Thanks." Even though her voice was still aggressive, and her eyes still bright, you could still notice a slight affection in her words. "You have missed me kill so many ponies." She laughed.
"Right.. well, do you mind un-thawing me? It brings up bad memories."
"Oh, shit, right. I forgot. You're having a pretty shitty battle with that darkness in that head of yours. Can't have you losing control yet..." Astral said, and whistled. A blue aura surrounded his wing and the ice melted. "Thanks Glacia." Astral called and smiled at her once petrified friend.
"Also.." She said suddenly, after a minute of silence. "Did you know Prince Snobby-shitpant Blueblood here does not in fact, have blue blood?"
~~~
"I have a very grave announcement." The tall, white alicorn with a flowing, ever changing mane said, her voice laden with grief. Surrounding her were her guards, nobles, and her family and in-laws. Princess Luna looked troubled but not sad. The rest of the crowd were unsure of what to expect from their sun Princess. "Much has happened this past month or so. Appleloosa and Saddle Arabia has become buried under snow and not even I can melt it. I am also sure some of you have heard of the murders of Filthy Rich and Fancy Pants. Both have died in unusual circumstances. One at home, asleep, his throat slit and music notes across his chest, the other..." Celestia paused, tears filling her eyes as she feared for her subjects. "Was found hanging the ceiling, the very same music notes drawn on the floor in his blood, and his innards spilling out of himself. He had been choked by his own---" She cut off, unable to finish.
"His own tongue, cut off and stuffed down his throat." A purple coated mare said, from the crowd, her eyes shining. "It's was clear then, that he was hung by his hind legs, his insides pulled out, possibly by magic as his stomach wasn't even cut. And then with the blood from his organs, the notes must have been drawn." The mare finished and smiled innocently as she gazed at the Princesses.
"Yes... Thank you... Silver Mirror." Luna said, tilting her head at the strange pony of many shades of purple. The crowd started talking, getting louder and louder, and they began to argue. Punches were wildly thrown, screams became louder than words, and the Princesses were using the Royal speech, trying to break all the fights up, but all attempts were in vain. They were all too scared.
Then the doors of the large throne room slammed open. Every pony in the room froze as a messenger pony stood, out of breath, at the door.
"Princesses! Nobles!" The messenger cried. "Prince Blueblood is dead, and North Wind is gone!"
And that was when true chaos broke loose in the throne room.