A Nightmare, a displaced soldier, and a world where neither belong. The mayhem heralds a terror unlike any Equestria has seen before.
A Nightmare, a displaced soldier, a new chance to make things right, a chance sworn upon the graves of the lost words and worlds. Twilight's violent house guest sends an ominous message to Princess Celestia in the dead of night under a horrid storm. What are his tidings, and why this way, instead of asking nicely?
AN: Tags will be shuffled and added as they become relevant, and I'll have all tags and such that are applicable once this story reaches conclusion. Also, anyone who can guide me to a nice surly looking Earth Pony Night guard image would be appreciated.
On a Stormy Knight, He came a Knock Knock Knocking
" TWILIGHT! Where did you put the tongs? I can't find them anywhere in here." The sound of a young wyrmling echoed out from the kitchen with practiced force and projection, it's sound carrying from the bottom floor of the hollowed out living tree it's owner and their companion called home.
" They Should be in the drawer with the other specialized serving utensils Spike, like they always are!" The reply carrying down, was belted out with practiced and carefully placed precision by it's unicorn speaker, so as to carry it to wyrmling below with surety.
Twilight Sparkle, Unicorn mare, Personal Student to Princess Celestia. Spike, Amethyst Dragon Wyrmling, adoptive son/brother to Twilight. These two unusual, though humble, beings find themselves shut in for the night within Ponyville's library, Rainbow Dash's speed being their saving grace, as without her warning, Twilight and Spike would've found themselves caught outside when the monsoon like storm broke earlier. Twilight looked on from her balcony window as the rain water came down in sheets practically, the occasional sudden wind, seeming to turn the world on it's side with it's force, dragging the rain sideways at a nearly sheer angle.
" This is a pretty nasty storm, We must've been lower on water than I thought this season." Twilight lit up her horn, a violet light floating just beyond the tip as she tried to peer out into the streets, but got little more than her reflection and a flash of lightning in the distance for her efforts. With a sigh she dispelled her light and moved to the stairs, eying the table on the bottom floor where Spike was setting up their dining spots with practiced ease.
Looking up from his work for a moment, Spike reached into his apron's pocket and withdrew a pair of salad tongs. " You were right Twi, they were in the drawer, I must've missed them the first time or something." Spike chuckled lightly as he moved back through the kitchen door to fetch their meal for the evening.
Twilight simply chuckled lightly and shook her head at the minor turn of events and walked over to one of the bookshelves, her eyes scanning their contents with practiced ease and precision as she sought what would be tonight's entertainment so to speak.
Her thought's concerning the pros and cons between fiction and historical where shattered as hinge rattling, thunderous knocks came from her front door, the suddenness of it causing Spike and Twilight to drop their tongs and books respectively as they stared at the door like it had suddenly sprouted a mouth and said something crass. It only took Spike a moment to shake off the surprise before warily approaching the front door, looking back at his sister to get the ok to open it. Hesitantly, Twilight nodded with a raised hoof motioning for him to go ahead.
It happened quickly, no sooner had the door swung open than a lightning bolt flew through the air into the library, connecting with the Startled unicorn across the room and tossing her bodily into the bookshelves behind her, the force of the impact sending a cascade of books down upon her as he groaned through the pain of the impact.
" Twilight! Oh no! " Spike, ever loyal, was already running over to unbury her, and with his back to the door he never saw what hit him as he was slammed into the wall with a force he'd only ever felt after being run over by the Cutie Mark Crusaders. The force of the blow dazed him, leaving his wobbling on his feet before a pair of hooves connected with him, sending him flying into a different book shelf, the collapse of books doing well to finish off his voyage to unconsciousness.
Twilight's dizziness was thick, and the weight of the books on her weren't helping any, but she was slowly coming to her senses, even as the sound of more falling books met her exposed ear. Blinking he wrenched control of her body into place and stood shakily from her literary bedding and peered carefully across the room to where Spike lay in a pile of books, his assailant advancing on him with resolute intent. A solidly built stallion of dark grey furr, and emerald eyes stalking towards her dragon friend. The finned and barbed armor of Luna's Night Guard not going unnoticed by her as she brought mana forth, channeling it into a basic blast before sending the beam of kinetic force flying towards the armored stallion. Her Shot missed.
Instead, the Stallion now stood low the floor several feet back, having leapt and rolled out of the way of the blast and was now facing Twilight, His serpentine eyes betraying nothing more that nearly tangible levels of resolution. He Stood only partially, pawing at the ground, the only sign of his intent. Twilight reciprocated, channeling enough mana into her horn to illuminate the area around her with a violet glow. In the moment of the stalemate, Twilight noted several peculiarities about her attacker. The cracked and chipped plating, the unshorn fetlocks hanging out of his boots. The number of ragged looking ribbons hanging off the back of his armor, even the absolutely threadbare saddlebags on his back. Further details escaped her attention as the aggressor stood suddenly in a swift motion, widening his stance as every window in the library burst their locks, the gales force winds outside making their way inside, books and parchment taking flight in the strong currents, Twilight's view obstructed by the sudden distraction. She couldn't hope to keep track of her assailant in this flurry, and released a pulse of magic to clear the air around her... in time to see a pair of hooves connect with her face.
He watched as the Element of Magic fell to the floor like a sack of potatoes, the winds within the building dying down as he calmly and methodically stalked through the library, shutting windows and drawing curtains as he went, occasionally staring out into the streets with an unreadable expression. He shut the door, barring it firmly against those that would be prone to barging in. His securing of the building complete, he set about clearing off the table. a simple enough task, using a foreleg to simply swipe it's contents over and off the edge with a clatter and the breaking of glass.
His work was far from complete, but he was thankful he came prepared for the next few steps. Dropping his saddlebags to the floor he pulled out a trio of scrolls and set them on the table, a small wooden box that was iron shod and padlocked shut, and a small pull string bag. Eyeing the bag first, he nodded once and took it over to Twilight Sparkle, carefully hoofing the bag open he pulled out a small mound of powder before carefully blowing it into her face, making sure to get some up her snout and across her eyes before nodding to himself, crossing off another task on his mental check list as he turned back an moved towards the sleeping Spike.
A half hour later, and Spike was waking to a series of light smacks across the face from a rather rough hoof. " ugh... Twi, stop slappin' me, I'm up I'm up eesh." He stretched and let out a short yawn before the hoof came across his face again, the shock of it snapping him to full alert as he whipped his head back to face his waker, and met harsh green slits instead of the soft lavender of his motherly companion. " GYAH!" He tried to back up, but found himself pressed to the back of the chair already, a thin rope tying him in place, keeping him from wiggling away as the Stallion infront of him grabbed his face with his hooves.
"I'm only going to say this once Spike, listen carefully. I'm going to untie you, and you are going to send those scrolls on the table to the princesses of this land. You are NOT going to ask questions, you aren't going to stall for time. Do any of those things other than send the letters, and I will start cutting off pieces of Ms. Sparkle. It's quite simple. Do as I say, and nothing else happens. Try anything other than I have said, and off comes her ear, then her other ear, and so on and so forth until I have to beat the dragon fire out of you. Do I make myself clear?"
Spike could only stare in horror, transfixed and terrified of the Stallions calm and casual way of speaking as he made his demands and threats, tears welling up in his eyes at the mention of him cutting parts off of Twilight. Without much of a second though Spike nodded quickly, eager to secure his best friend's safety as quickly as he could. Even with those noble thoughts of saving Twilight in mind, he couldn't help but flinch as the stallion reached under a plate by his shoulder and pulled out a rather large looking knife in his mouth before using it to cut Spike's ropes and moving over to sit next to Twilight's unconscious form, the blade lowered and pressed against the base of one of her ears, a clear indicator that he intended to make good on his threat.
It was with speed to shame Rainbow Dash, that spike clambered up onto the table, crawling over tot eh scrolls and inhaling deeply before spewing flames across teh scrolls. The emerald flames actually searing the wood beneath as the mystical ashes flew out with such force that they bore a hole through a window before Spike could reach it to open it. Blinking once at the display of delivery speed and force, he turned uneasily back to the stallion and Twilight, and let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding as he saw the knife laying on the floor, Twilight unharmed. The Stallion in question was already moving calmly up the stairs to the upper floors
" Why did you do this!?" Spike screamed at the Stallion, the fact that it was him yelling at him was lost on the confused and distraught child.
The Stallion, halting mid stride in the middle of the stares, turned to look down upon the wyrmling, a million different thoughts and memories playing behind those eyes for the briefest of moments. " Because we are out of Time Spike. I can't wait anymore." The Stallion turned and finished his assent, moving to the balcony window to watch the storm play out as he awaited the inevitably quick reply to his missives. He could only wonder just how that would play out.
Dear Ruler of Equestria,
I have Twilight Sparkle. Your world is weak. Prepare for War.
He sat motionless at the window, staring out into the rain beyond. His occasional ear twitch betraying the fact that he was still conscious and tense as a ribbon spring wound tight. He knew he had, at best, only ten minutes or less before the leader of Equestria appeared and tried to throttle him for his threat and insult, or just reduce him to a fine dust and be done with it.
" Not a bad way to die I suppose... Could easily have been worse." Spoke the Stallion , his depth of thought betraying his silence without his notice, even as an ear swiveled to the feint padding of spike's feet approaching behind him. Keen ear and plenty of practice at reading body language made it too easy to tell he wasn't trying to sneak up on him, but was just scared of approaching him. " Yes Spike? What do you want?" He didn't even turn to face the wyrmling.
Spike, to his credit, didn't leap or dive for cover, though the sudden question from the rather frightening stallion startled him enough to make him rethink what he was about to ask. He fidgeted, scraping a small claw across the wall as he wiped away the tears that still came intermittently to his eyes. " Uhm... Mister, I... Twilight won't wake up, did... did you hurt her that badly? I know you said don't ask questions, but I did what you asked, and she's not getting up! I... please, tell me she's okay?"
He could tell the young dragon wanted to ask him more questions, a habit he knew he had picked up from Twilight. Smirking inwardly at the similarities he turned to face the young wyrm. " No, I didn't hurt her other than throwing her into the bookshelf, she's fine. I simply used some magic sleeping powder to keep her knocked out. We both know how she gets when she panics, and honestly that would be bad for everypony involved right now." He watched as relief, followed nearly immediately by suspicion, flashed across the wyrmling's face before he nodded and turned to pad back down the stairs.
It wasn't hard to tell Spike was suspicious of him for reasons beyond the obvious, or that he wanted to do so much more than make sure Twilight was okay. He recognized the desire to punish. The burning gaze of revenge. All things he was far more familiar with than any pony should be, and it pained him to see it in Spike's eyes, though he would never admit it.
The Stallion shook himself, admonishing himself for losing focus as he shifted his worn armor to a more comfortable position, he would need it ready to move like it had many times before soon, the local rulers were likely to lead a militant response, most likely underestimate him while at the same time over reacting to the threat to Twilight Sparkle he noted offhoofedly. Well, that didn't matter, he'd had colder welcomes, and he's still alive.
He smirked as he felt the teleporting arrivals a split second before they appeared, pleased that he had managed to gauge their reaction time accurately, but outwardly scowling at who he saw below.
--__==__--
11 Minutes earlier: Canterlot Castle
The solid oaken doors to her personal chambers had shut not but a few seconds ago, the guards outside settling in for a long relaxing shift as she readied herself for bed finally, having set the sun hours ago, and enjoyed the cool winds cast off from the storm over Ponyville as they breezed as far out as Canterlot. She had just begun to remove her regalia when the all too familiar sparkle of an incoming letter blazed into the radius of her magical senses, the alert allowing her to catch all three scrolls as they rematerialized, the ends of a couple slightly charred. A detail that puzzled her as she unraveled the first one.
She, being Princess Celestia, Solar Diarch of Equestria, Lady of the Radiant Day Star. A font of wisdom and magic to those who would gain her favor, and a bane to all who held her ire. Currently, her eyes were wide as somepony new had just garnered her undivided 'ire'. Rereading the letter several times over to make sure she hadn't misinterpreted anything, she took a steadying breath and moved back to her doors, pulling them open with the pull of her magic. her Guards turned in unison to greet her with a salute.
" Fetch me Captain Break and tell him to select three ponies who are well suited to subduing hostile individuals in close quarters and report to my chamber. I have a task that needs doing, and be swift about it." She gave them no chance to object by shutting her doors just as swiftly as she had opened them. She knew she could trust them to make good time with her commands.
The following minutes she spent waiting felt to her as if hours dragged by, a sensation she hadn't experienced in decades. She shook her head as the realization hit her that she was nervous. Last time she had felt nervous, Discord was running wild right outside her castle, and even then, it wasn't the same kind of nervous. What was worse was that there was little she could do to lessen the growing anxiety she felt.
It wasn't as if she could just start throwing on millennia old armor or pulling out ancient artifacts of divine craft. Simply fetching such items would be either pointless, some form of overkill, violate at least three different treaties with foreign nations, or cause a series of natural disasters just by the unsealing process alone. All for what? Some egotistical upstart who happened to get the upper hoof over a mortal unicorn? Granted it was one of the most powerful and skilled ones the land has, as well as one of the Element bearers. Oh, right, she's also her adopted daughter of sorts as well as her personal student. Well that counts for something, maybe.
Her brief notion of breaking out a particular pole axe was dismissed by a set of swift blows to her doors, the sound of metal on wood making it clear that her guards had arrived. A deft application of magic and the doors swung open, granting admission to the four armored ponies. All shining gold hued armor and magically dyed coats presenting her a moment of hesitation before the softer hints queued her into who the Captain had selected.
" Your Highness." Point Break, a solid pegasus stallion of rigid musculature saluted his princess, the three behind him doing likewise. " I've brought the best I could lay hooves on in a practical amount of time, I apologize for not being able to get the best we have for you on such short notice."
A slight twitch from the other pegasus behind the captain is all that betrays his irritation, even as the open scowl from the unicorn mare next to him does a more obvious job of presenting their mutual irritation at their captain. The third, a rather imposing Stallion that stood head and shoulders over his smaller guardsponies, simply held that expectedly stoic and rigid look of neutrality.
Celestia, despite her worries, couldn't help but give a small smile as she recognized two of them, but that moment of minor mirth was short lived before she hardened her expression and turned to address them properly.
" I just received a letter claiming that it's sender has captured my student. Furthermore, in the same letter, the offender has called my ponies, you, my guards, weak, and declared war on us. I think the letter that of a mad pony were it not for the fact that it was sent by dragon fire, as my Student does her reports. I am going to teleport the three of you and myself to her residence. When we arrive, I want any and all occupants of the building subdued and bound quickly, and without bloodshed. I want this to be swift, and precise. Expect to be met with anything, so blatant a provocation is clearly baiting such a reaction from us, but we cannot risk ignoring it in the hopes that it's just some mad pony."
Captain Break blinked curiously and looked at his princess. " Ma'am? You said three, do you plan to leave one of us behind?"
Celestia turned to the Captain, her gaze hard, but still bearing that familiar warmth. " Yes Captain, You are to remain here and prepare a number of holding cells in the prison, as well as alert my sister and her division of guards. Even if this is a false alarm, she and her keepers would be put out if we do not keep them informed, would they not?"
Point Break grimaced lightly at the news that he was staying behind, and flat out scowled at having been ordered to involve the Night Guard. " ugh, You bring up a valid point Princess, I'll see to it that it gets done." He turned to the guards he had brought. " You three, despite our time of peace, the princess has practiced military experience, and I expect you to obey her orders just as you would any other ranking officer, without kow towing or hoof kissing, do I make myself clear?"
For their part, the three in question nodded once in their salute, keeping their position throughout both Celestia's address and their Captain's.
Point Break snorted once in recognition of their compliance before turning back to the princess with another salute. " In that case, I leave them under your command Princess, I wish you luck, and hope this turns out to be a false alert. You three, form up. Flash bang Teleport insertion method."
The trio of guards nodded before breaking salute and moving to stand in front of the princess. The Unicorn placed herself right in front of her, facing away. A short sword of thick design hovering in the air along with a partnered shield, little more than a slightly curved disk of metal with a handle bolted on the inside to hook it's carry harness to.
In front of the unicorn, the Pegasus stallion stood, his back turned as well to the princess as he pulled the out the pole axe he kept tucked under one of his wings, maneuvering the long weapon with forelimbs, snout and wings until he was standing on his hind legs, clutching the pole axe in his forelegs as a third balance, with his wings stretched out. His feathers shimmering as the light filtered through their nearly transparent form.
The final member of the team, the heavy Earth Pony stallion simply moved to stand in front of the Pegasus, completing a rather simple straight line other than their body stances. This final member turned his head to face the princess. " Yer majesty, this here's a one'uva kind entry skill our team has thanks to Wing Flare's condition. When Ah rear up, that there's the signal fer ya to close yer eyes and teleport us. Ah apologize if'n Ah'm speakin' out of turn, but this 'ere should give us the edge we need t' work all quick an' clean, like ya want."
The Princess, simply pleased they were already in formation and not delaying their departure with pointless questions, nodded once to the earth stallion. " Nonsense, if this will help you achieve success in our excursion, it would be rather silly to deny you three this. On your queue good sir."
The earth pony nodded once to his solar diarch, and then nodded to the unicorn squad mate before turning to face forward. In a few moments the room's torches and candles were drowned out by a bright light from the mare's horn, even as her armaments floated more closely to her. Without a word the lead stallion reared up, heavy weighted boots waving in the air, and they were gone.
Point Break stared at where his Princess and soldiers had been for a solid half minute before calming himself with a deep breath, leaving to perform the tasks his princess had demanded of him. " This had better be another false alarm."
--__==__--
Ponyville Library, Now
Being victim to magical ambushes countless times tends to ingrain in one the ability to notice the telltale signs of such a thing, namely how to notice a teleport before it's fully finished doing it's job. The displacement as the air of the target location is pressed away, often times causing a pressure on the ears before the bubble of fresh air and occupants materialized. It's a subtle but telling cue for those familiar with it. Should one happen to be a pegasus, well, their feathers would sense out such a shift in air and it's pressure.
Fetcher Ghoul was such an experienced stallion, and the sharp rise in pressure clued him in even before the telltale flash and pop of the spell concluded in the main foyer. Which was then immediately followed by a nearly concussive crack of thunderous sound as every shadow and dark crevice of the library was lit up, even the cubby like room upstairs where Fetcher sat. Blinking away the blinding light, he let out a sigh as he heard hooves on the wooden floors already moving downstairs. Knowing he had scant few seconds, Fetcher gave a small sigh and moved to act.
Wing Flare, the Pegasus of the trio of guards, alights on the landing, wings held out and refracting the light from below into Fetcher's cubby room, finding it empty. Tucking his pole axe under one wing, he moved into the room carefully to make sure of vacancy before confirming it clear with a call below before flitting across the central room to another room on the third floor. Below Celestia was nuzzling the unconscious form of her student, an evident frown crossing her face as spike told her everything he could.
" It was just... Sudden! She opens the door and it was over in just a few moments, I wasn't even aware of it until he woke me up! Looked like one of Luna's guards but... He smelt wrong Princess." Spike huddled close to Celestia's form as he told her what little he had.
" Kitchen's clear Princess!" The unicorn burst from said room, shield and sword levitating in front of her as she rushes past her ruler to the aisles of shelves, shining a light down each row. The next floor up, Iron Shod is wrenching open doors, or bucking down the locked ones. Doors can be replaced after all.The timed calls of all clear ringing out into the main room with clarity.
Celestia felt relief as spike told her of the stallion's claims of using a sleep inducing powder and bid him to wait with Twilight as she turned to look about the building herself for the first time since her arrival. After a several more minutes of calls across the library, the Trio of guards reconvened in the main foyer with her highness.
" Nothing I could find your highness." The Pegasus gave his curt answer, balancing on his hind legs, weapon ready in his forelegs
" The Coward's clearly realized his fool mistake and fled the scene Princess, would show him a cowards end were he still here." The Unicorn kept her back to Celestia as she spoke, shield and sword held aloft in her magic, just in case.
The Earth pony simply shook his head before taking up the third point of the triangular position around the princess.
Celestia narrowed her eyes as her guards turned up nothing. Had this been but only two years ago, she would've chalked it up to them being incompetent and improperly trained in this time of peace. The near suicidal overhaul they went through after the changeling invasion however dispelled such shoddy training leaving the royalty with guards who's skills she knew were not lacking.
Meaning whom ever this stallion was, they were better. She knew he was still here, and Spike had confirmed it. All that remained was to draw the offender out.
Turning to address the open air seemingly, Celestia spoke out into the seemingly vacant library. " You attack my student, and send post by dragon fire to personally threaten and insult my ponies and my guard. I know you're still here! As your princess I command you to show yourself!"
Several tense moments passed in silence save for the thunder of the storm and the roar of wind and rain outside before an ashen voice akin to grinding stones came from the upper balcony overlooking the foyer.
" Do not delude yourself into thinking you are My Princess, Celestia." The guards below spun to face the target, the Pegasus raising his wings to soar at him, only to be halted by the princess's outstretched wing. " Good, you're as perceptive as I'd hoped. Unlike your guard. I'm hoping these aren't the best. Those stallions of yours walked right by me thrice."
" I'll not stand idle as you continue to speak ill of my guard, and so blatantly disrespect your ruler. Surrender yourself now, and I'll keep the charges to assault, and home invasion." There was a sharpness like cut glass to Celestia's words, a change not lost on his escort.
" HAH! At least you remember your edge, I'd feared it lost already. The box There. When we get back to the castle, Open it with your sister. I think you'll both understand easily enough." He shook his muzzle to point at he iron shod box he'd arrived with that sat still on the table down stairs.
" You say when 'we' get back, You're surrendering? that easily?" The ponies below, royalty included couldn't help but narrow their eyes and furrow their brows at this turn of events, such a turn after all he'd done was just so utterly unexpected.
" Yes 'We', I've little time for these games." He was already moving down the stairs, old armor rustling on dusty padding as he descended and moved to stand before the princess, staring up at her with an untellable ire in his gaze, the guards ignored or forgotten.
Celestia looked down at him with mixed feelings before nodding once, the guards ponies surrounding the stallion in a heart beat. " Take him to an isolated cell, strictest measures of containment, Only the guard captains and royalty are allowed access, I'll be along shortly."
The guards managed to get nods of confirmation out before the air shimmered and popped, the four ponies sent across space-time to their destination, leaving Celestia with a frightened child and an unconscious student. " Do not worry Spike, I'll make sure he does not get away. Please, go collect some simple things of yours and Twilight's, I'll leave a note for her friends and then we'll go to the castle."
Spike, for his part, took little convincing and was halfway up the stairs before Celestia could turn to regard the box the dark stallion motioned too. Collecting it in her magical grasp, she couldn't help but wince as an utterly depressing sensation hit her, though she couldn't place why. A cursory inspection showed it to be simply iron and pine in make, and whatever was in it rattled loudly, the contents apparently being loose.
" Okay princess!" Spike's voice shook her from a deep thought she hadn't noticed herself falling into, and she looked down to a trio of bags by her and the tip of Spike's tail darting into the bathroom. Smiling at his swift efforts, she plucked one of the loose pages from the floor, and gathering the spilled ink, winding it with tugs of magic to move it onto the paper in script, informing the reader that she had taken spike and Twilight to Canterlot after something had come up. Her note came to completion as Spike arrived back at her side, a fourth smaller bag in his claws holding simple things like toothbrushes
" Ready princess... The powder stuff's not going to be a problem is it?"
" No spike, I recognize it as a fairly common mix. Once we get her cleaned up, it should ware off in a few simple hours." Celestia's smile and warm tone had returned as she pinned her note to the table, gathering her protege up in his magic at the same time as the bags. Another smile and she and Spike were away.