To Protect Celestia

[Virga]

This is an Extended Scenario that will play out mostly in, and around, the Royal Palace and Canterlot. While there is an overarcing plot, should you catch Virga in a scene you are welcome to join it as long as it doesn't broadside that scene's events. Below are scenes which have already happened.


Location: Royal Palace, Foyer.
Time: Evening, Day 1.
Cast: Firefly, Nightshade, Stronghold, Virga.

----



VIRGA

Wind clanged a pair of chimes that hung aloft, from the foyer's high ceiling. The evening was not an especially breezy one, and yet the song echoed enough to keep the Night Guard from getting too board with the place--although chimes in the palace were a strange thing that never chimed before. In the receding light of day, those chimes clanged louder, more distressed and out of tune. Banners on the walls flew, and balcony plants wildly rustled in this new, unsourced wind.

FIREFLY

Firefly is sitting as she usually does, before the throne, at the top of the steps, just looking out into the room. This wind was of note to her, as she knew most every draft this place had and that did not feel like one of them. She cups her ears and looks around a bit closer.

STRONGHOLD

Stronghold stood his post down the hall, it was silly perhaps standing so rigidly at attention when guarding the hall where the other guards ate dinner. But well...it was his job. His eyes and ears flick a little as he also takes note of the strange breeze and the movement of the chimes...but whats a guard to do about odd winds?

NIGHTSHADE

Nightshade enters the room to begin what by now has become a regular ritual: attending Night Court. She didn't really have many petitions - her own duty as Castle Overseer (or Staff Master or Chamberlain or whatever her title really was) kept her fairly occupied with /other/ ponies' problems - but she did like to observe how things worked, how politics in Canterlot functioned and, perhaps most notably, which ponies attended Night Court as opposed to Day Court. The wind chimes reach her ears soon enough, and she spares a momentary glance out the window. Hmm... "I didn't know we hired musicians for Night Court now, Lady Firefly," she comments.


VIRGA

Frigid mist pooled from the evening sky, born from a void with no apparently origin. The clamoring chimes grew louder and then stopped. The plants stilled, and the banners relaxed against their mounts. The silence that filled the room was slaughtered quickly by a thunderclap of ice that exploded forth from the balcony as if a window had forcibly blown. Amid frozen shrieks and glittering plumes, the dark shape of Virga emerged just as quick as the chaos that came forth. His wings spread high, illuminated by an iridescent grid, and his eyes briefly stared just as bright before his wings snapped back and forced all that was though the balcony. Silence again...Virga stood in the foyer with his unlit wings still spread, his armor having gained several new marks and smears of who knew what.A few bandages also adorned his neck.

FIREFLY

Firefly gets to her hooves, "Hello Overseer." her ears canted forward. "That I am aware of, we do not." beginning to walk down the steps of the throne. "This is a thing new to me..." pausing in her words as she sees the mist. "I stand corrected. I know this well." narrowing her eyes as the blast blows over her. "Such an inspiring entry as always." grinning as she walks across the room towards Virga. "Though I thought thy duties were of the daylight times?" looking him over carefully. "Though I am not complaining of the visit." grinning, flicking her wings a bit.

STRONGHOLD

Stronghold turns to regard the disturbance down in the throne room, though after a moment with no cries for back up guards the Private First Class simply returns to his post beside the door and resumes his rigid stance.

NIGHTSHADE

Nightshade stares at Virga, the scintillating display that marked his entrance fresh and fierce in her mind. On the one hoof, she was suspicious of him, for he was Celestia's dearest servant, and the Princess of the Sun did not hold so great a place of esteem in her estimation, but on the other hoof, here was a pegasus most majestic and, yet, most sinister as well. It was as if he came from another time, when pomp and grandeur held real meaning and significance, when magic was less a plaything of ponies and more a terrible force to be respected and feared, when a pony was proud of his place, whether pauper or prince, and worked diligently in his station. Or so a flash of inspiration in her suggested. But Nightshade is not about inspiration tonight, merely business, duty. "I am pleased to be the Overseer of the Palace, Squire Virga," she greets him, bowing respectfully.


VIRGA

Virga didn't speak for a moment or two, his eyes more on his surroundings than anything else until Firefly spoke. A slight of a smile formed on his muzzle, though he kept his wings raised in that particular royal manner. He never did confirm if he was royalty at one time, though the topic never arose. Merely, it was a sign of the times, whatever times those were. When he at last motioned his wings, the joined hinted at a vaulter, a shudder. He came here with an intensively controlled force that had strained his flight power to its maximum limit. "Fyrvleig (Firefly)," he said, that void of his like fine silk. "You know I'm of the night even if I serve the Sun." His hooves sounded of cracking ice, stature controlled yet also immensely strained beneath that control. His eyes shifted to Nightshade, a pony he had never seen before. "Gretan (Greetings)," he said, lowering his head in like manner. "Pardon my entry. I am typically more subtle."

FIREFLY

Firefly laughs and nods. "Yes, I jest. We are alike is the service to day or night." walking on over to him, giving him a nosing in greeting. "Virga my love, this is Nightshade. She is the Palace Overseer. SHe makes sure the other officials are doing what they are supposed to." swinging her ears forward, then grinning again, rubbing her cheek along his before stepping back. "Welcome hom Virga." looking to Nightshade. "He is not a Squire, Overseer. He is much more, to the point of lacking offisial title." then looks back to the stallion. "Though I am curious why you visit and with such speed. I can still smell the energy you used."

STRONGHOLD

Stronghold is put slightly more at ease when he hears voices coming from the throneroom, conversational tones. The guardstallion's features lose a hint of tenseness around his eyes that gave away the marginal amount of uncertainty he still felt. There had been times in the past when an enemy had overcome every guard in a given area with such speed no alarm had been sounded. The talking down the hall actually relieved him somewhat.

NIGHTSHADE

Nightshade peers at both Virga and Firefly. So, the rumours were true. "Indeed, Lord Virga, we are astonished at your gratuitous but not unwelcome visit to Night Court. Is there some kind of urgent business you have for Lady Firefly or myself?" Nightshade also notes about Virga speaks Old Equestrian. Hmm..

VIRGA

Virga's ears tinged a faint pink when Firefly addressed him as 'love'. Regardless of the fact he was a powerful, sinister and majestic creature Virga was weak to his beloved's charm. "Urgent in only that I was delayed and wished to be on time," Virga answered. "I am approximately twenty seconds ahead, via Sonique Frostboom." He made another step before his front right leg nearly gave out, though he caught himself quickly enough. "The Wedding Battle scattered rogue Changelings to the farthest borders of Equestria. My assignment has been removing them."

FIREFLY

Firefly listens and nods. She makes no effort to move of catch him when he falters even slightly...such was her confidence in him. "I would have likes to have seen that. I have never seen a rainboom either....got HIT with one, yes..but I was not in my right mind and did not see it." laughing a bit. "Changelings. We shall need to devise a method to know one another without relying on just sight." then pauses. "I have soemthing I must attend to, but I look forward to hearing of your mission." lifting off. "I will return upon the morrow, when no duties claim my time." smiling. "Tis good to see you again." then inverts and vanishes up the royal stairs.

STRONGHOLD

Stronghold stifles a small yawn, this post seemingly just as it was every night. Completely uneventful. But then, from behind him, in the messhall kitchen there was the sound of a iron skillet falling to the floor. It caused the guard to jump slightly and turn. Glancing down the hallway to make sure he was the only pony who heard it he entered to investigate. Nopony was suppose to be in here, hopefully he could correct the situation before his superiors found out. It was probably just a member of the kitchen staff who had hidden to take a nap and woke up after hours. "Hello? Anypony in here? soufflé? Tea Time? Chocolate Heart is that you?"

NIGHTSHADE

Nightshade watches as Firefly takes her leave. "Take care, my lady," she manages to say before Firefly departs. Now, she is alone (mostly) with Virga, whom she begins to size up carefully. His power is unlike anything she has seen before in a pegasus, very arcane, traditional, ancient. "My Lord Virga," she greets him again, "certainly you must have some concern about your own state given the strenuous work you persist in doing." She blinks as she hears the sound of the skillet but pays it no mind for now.

VIRGA

The clattering of the skillet turned one of Virga's ears, though it wasn't enough for him to investigate. Even royal chefs had accidents. Now that they were less involved with other ponies, the amount of stress on his body became even more apparent, like something meant to bear great weight cracked under the weight it bore. The aura, while strong and arcane, had been pushed to such a limit it felt in pieces. "Always, Nightshade," he answered, those eyes directly on her, softened and not so powerful. "I flew back with urgency because of my condition as well. The last encounter involved a dozen, larger Changelings."

STRONGHOLD

Stronghold stands in the center of the mess hall, his head held high as he investigated. The room was far darker then it was during the day when it was in use. Stronghold moved back and forth between shifts at his commander's discretion. And the empty, dimly lit Mess Hall and beyond it the completely darkened kitchen, seemed much less friendly and welcoming. Something about it seemed almost...creepy. The normally staunch earth pony guard felt a little shiver run up his spine, he was no coward, none of the guard were. But he distinctly had the feeling of being watched, and it wasn't too great a stretch of the imagination to fancy that he saw eyes looking back at him from the yawning black maw of the kitchen. If he really let his mind go he could swear he saw faces peering at him out of the gloom...

NIGHTSHADE

Nightshade is unaware of Stronghold's building troubles, so she continues her conversation with Virga. "You have servitors and vassals, do you not? Just as I have ponies in my service - and I am in yours and the Princesses - do you not have children of the Day to call upon to do this task?"

VIRGA

Virga's ears shifted, flattening as he felt something nearby, but he couldn't place it. Perhaps it was just the residual feeling. "I have the option for servitors and vassals," he said. "But I do not take them. I fly solo, as i've done since the old days, for Princess Celestia. I am of her private guard, but no officiated title. Much of the work I do is off the record, only meant for her eyes and ears unless it becomes an Equestrian problem."


NIGHTSHADE

Nightshade narrows her eyes a little. Virga, she believes, is taking on a burden too great for one pony to shoulder. She is struck by his vigilance, his persistence, but beneath that she suspects something akin to selfishness. "Equestria is a large kingdom, my Lord," she says. "Surely you don't mean to tackle these problem all alone?"

VIRGA

Not all the time," Virga answered. He favored his left legs, and hind right. The forward right had been damaged somehow, pulled or strained during his tour. Her narrowing of eyes didn't provoke a negative response from him--rather, it didn't get one at all except for straightforward, honest answers "There are operations in which I do have members of the Royal Guard with me, but the majority are solo. In those that I team with Guards, I am the Captain. If I ever fly with Firefly, we are equals. When with the Princess, then her right hoof. Where Changelings are concerned, they caused much trouble for the Guard." He hobbled forward, folding his whines tightly against his back. "One of the reasons why Shining Armor raised the shielding around Canterlot was due to an off-record investigation I conducted. I went MIA."

NIGHTSHADE

"I have read of this," says Nightshade, who recently made use of her new security clearance to full effect. "Nevertheless, my concern remains: apart from loyalty and diligence you do not seem to possess the power or the endurance to run many solo missions. Unless...there is something about you I do not know, something that has been hidden even from me." She looks upon him more closely, her purple eyes seeming to brighten with inquisitive ferocity, her posture straightening as she unconsciously asserts herself.


VIRGA

Virga's eyes brightened at this. An Overseer with intelligence; didn't see that one coming. "I am still in the process of healing," he answered, "Unless you believe there is something more as to why I'm not more prominent among the news in Canterlot, or regularly about like Firefly." The Pegasi was a fogged mirror, something was there but it didn't reveal itself to a looker. "Unless you're referring to the residual traces of another unicorn's magic that is certainly arcane."


NIGHTSHADE

Nightshade's expression melds into one of subtle astonishment. "I was not, but thank you, my Lord, for revealing this vital state information so freely," she said, mildly sardonic. She had not thought of actively analysing Virga, given how much it would give her away, and certainly she was not nearly powerful enough to do it passively. "I do believe there is something more to you, Lord Virga. Your manner of speech and the potency of your pegasi abilities seem to be a heritage of another era... you don't fancy yourself a student of the old ways, do you?"


VIRGA

An even smarter Overseer, certainly and most definitely did not see that coming. The palace had chosen one very well, unlike the several thrones he'd seen. "State information, hardly," he said. "That unicorn did not live in Equestria." He made a subtle motion to one of the servants, a rare thing for him, and a pillow on which to sit was brought forth. The dark Pegasi sat and silently thanked the servant in addition to requesting tea, mildly sweetened. "One might be inclined to believe that, based solely on those exact words."


NIGHTSHADE

Nightshade relaxes her piercing gaze a bit, satisfied (barely) by Virga's answers. A foreigner, and so highly regarded already? No matter; it some ways she was a foreigner herself. "I see...most interesting. I am a student of the old ways myself, and have long found the present schools of magickal thought to be...lacking in rigor." She walked around the large carpet that marked the centre of the throne room, making a ponderous circuit to bring herself closer to Virga. "You know that the power at your command is not merely for utility but for the discovery of mystery, of truth, and that is all to the better, my Lord."


VIRGA

Virga quietly sipped on his tea as Nightshade circled him, at ease despite his physical stress. Tea made things better, especially Thinking Pony's Tea (tm). "This is something with which I am well acquainted," he said. His eye regarded her then. It was enough that he even paused in the sipping of his tea. "To call me Lord feels abnormal when I spent most of my life chased by them."


End of Part I, Scene I.

[Virga]

Part II, Scene I

Location: Royal Palace, Foyer.
Time: Evening, Day 1.
Cast: Firefly, Nightshade, Stronghold, Virga.

-----


FIREFLY

Firefly returns from the far east hall, sipping on some tea of her own. What she thought was a dispute among chef ponies with knives turned out to be a bit more, but it looked like the Captain of the Guard has it under control now. Back to Court and the two she had left tot ake cae of the kitchen issue. She walks back up the steps to the throne, turns, and sits on the carpet just in front of it while they talk.

NIGHTSHADE

"An unfornature experience," Nightshade notes, her own personal (or, at least, family) history tinged by quite the opposite worry, by the rabble overthrowing their rightful rulers. "Yet certainly you can appreciate your position now because of it. I have only attained my position through a rather rare convergence of circumstances." Speaking of which, she turns to face Firefly and bows to her as she arrives. "New business, my Lady?"


VIRGA

Virga didn't appear to direct his attention immediately anywhere as Nightshade talked, being so focused into his tea. When Firefly returned, he briefly looked in her direction with a gentle smile, the same he always used for her. "Rather, mine is of circumstances than experience."

FIREFLY

Firefly smiles to Virge gently, then sets her tea down and shakes her head to Nightshade. "Nothing within your jurisdiction or abilities I am afraid, Overseer." letting out a slight sigh of annoyance. "What was thought to be a staff argument among the chefs turned out to be much more." angling an ear back. "A pony I helped destroy seems to have decided to quit being dead. He has returned and taken over a local filly's mind as he once did me...Scope and his crew, mostly Stronghold and Diamond dancer, are handling it. They have driven the clown and his new lackey out of the palace for now. My orders are not to engage them. Lucky for Stronghold I took some of the palace's medical unicorns with me to check it out, fearing knife wounds." wrinkling her nose. "He got his face beat in with a frying pan. Messed up fairly bad, but the medics are on it." She thinks about this for a second. "Though you may wish to dispatch some of the unicorn repair crew to the kitchens to get it back into shape by morning."

NIGHTSHADE

Nightshade nods to Virga. "Ah, of course, how could I forget?" She peers at Firefly for her comment. Her...abilities? Firefly knows nothing of her true abilities, but she decides not to talk about that just yet. She takes a cup of tea from the tray with her magic and has a sip. Ah, this is even better than the tea in Cafe Tobiano! "A fine brew you have here, L- Virga," she complements him. "Where did you get it?"

VIRGA

"A fine brew you have here, L- Virga," she complements him. "Where did you get it?"
Virga peered up to Nightshade. "Black Bastion tea, made by the old pony, Rumbastion," he said. "A favorite of the Palace and Canterlot, also Manehattan." He sipped again and sat still as one of the servant medics approached him to analyze his leg. "It's the closest to the tea I used to drink at home."

FIREFLY

Firefly only offers Nightshade a slight grin at that look. She had created the position of Overseer and chosen Nightshade to fill it for a reason, but that was for another night as well. Situations changed things as easily as time, and right now, things were not as they once were. She remains silent, lifting her cup to finish her own tea before it got to cold.


NIGHTSHADE

Nightshade takes a moment to retrace the steps of their conversation. "It is said that pegasus magic was once much more than merely clouds and rain. I have heard much about you, Lord Virga, about how the lightning obeys your command, how the wind whispers its secrets to you as you exert your mastery over the particles of the air itself. Tell me...how did you learn all of this?"

VIRGA

Now that was a question for the centuries, wasn't it? The pegasi turned his attention fully to Nightshade now. Intelligent Overseer and and educated, well-reading pony? Most definitely, certainly, absolutely did not see that coming his way. He glanced to Firefly and then back. "I suppose it is time another aside from the Princesses and Firefly knew," he said as he refilled his cup. "I come from a place so far gone that our Princesses were unheard of, and alicorns plied the skies in greater numbers, and the Three were yet united."

FIREFLY

Firefly grins and gets up to walk down to Virga. "What is this about you controlling my lightning?" grinning almost teasingly, then looking to Nightshade. "You are quite correct Overseer, in that neither Virga nor myself are of this land...though I can only speak of time in reguards to myself. All I know of Virga's time...is it is ancient and not of this one...or of my own." sitting beside the stallion, watching the medics work. "Lightning and Water, are we, as I once heard."

NIGHTSHADE

Nightshade gazes upon the both of them, starting to get a real estimation of the kind of power that she is facing. Lightning and Water...and Sun and Moon. The very elements of the world were in firm cooperation here, at the centre of the world. She felt giddy, almost dizzy, by the sudden significance. "Of old my mother was Lady of the Three Vales. She sat in the Cortes of Eskellia, as did her father, and his father, and his father before him, all the way back to Paralaje d'Astra, who stood by the Lightning Lord before the gates of the Fortress of Storms in the Great War." She looked at then now with a high head, not merely as a subject of the Dual Monarchy, but also as a peer, one blessed by noble heritage. When she spoke again it was in a language the court was not accustomed to hearing. <<Until the winds meet again, so shall we journey, strive, and remember>> she said in Eskellian. <</I/ remember>>.


VIRGA

All that remained of the elements were Fire and Ice, but technically Firefly and Virga had both of those covered. Lightning was hot like fire, and Virga's ice was frozen water. The names Nightshade spoke of he'd never heard before, but in regards to his own familial history he'd never said a thing to anyone. "As for where I learned, my master was alicorn. Unfortunately, the world at that time was not an organized segmentation, but a disorganized cesspool."

FIREFLY

Firefly says "In my lands, there were no alicorns." flicking an ear. "The power of magic was part of the land itself, controlled in effect through six wands granted to six princesses...but they were princesses of Unicorn, Peagasi and Earth pony. Names unknown in this land of Equestria." grinning a bit. "I came here from across the great sea after having flown to my wing's limit over the waters, exploring, now that the demon and dragon threats of my home were finally over."

NIGHTSHADE

Nightshade had too take another moment to gather her thoughts, so taken had she been by fancy from being in the presence of such eminent heritage in the two pegasi before her. An ancient time, when the Three were yet united, when alicorns plied the skies... A land without magic, but rather a land /of/ magic. Her mind stretched to the ends of the world; she felt one with the history of the universe, if but for a moment. "Another time, an ancient time," she says aloud, looking at Virga with hidden wonder burning in her eyes. "A nobler time, when ponies knew well the pattern of the cosmos, unlike today. I know something of this time from studying their methods, their ways. Tell me, Lord Virga, did they scribe the arcane sigils? Did they hear the secrets whispered by the elements? Did they whisper to you, Lady Firefly?" She looks again to the Squire of Luna, wondering...


VIRGA

Virga could spend several weeks and months on this subject, but there was so much he could say about it that just answering the basic questions would take many hours. However, one thing was certain that he could answer in short form. "There were ponies with such abilities, but not every pony who wielded magic could achieve it. Many in my specific region were Blanks, even as adults. Marks were feared. Equestria would have never come into being under such legislation and stigma." He then sipped his nice, hot tea and took a moment to breathe for what he had to say next was among the more depressing aspects of his life. "You spend a life aiding others, there...and once they see you have a mark, fear you. That is the catalyst for why Lords chased me. I became rogue, unpredictable like dragons which I used to slay. I flew solo whereas once I was Wonderbolt. I'm sure you're familiar with their history too."

FIREFLY

Firefly has to think about that. "I would say...in a way, yes." tilting her head. "The lightning has always drawn me....when I was a filly...I would chase it through the storms...even then knowing no fear. It summoned, teased me, come catch me....then one day...." looking at her own dual lightning bolt cutie mark, smiling. "One day, or rather, one night...I *-caught-* it." turning her head to listen to Virga. "I too fought dragons, and demon fliers too, whatever the Overlord threw at us. Often solo as well. I was among the best of the elite of the combat fliers." sighing. "My skills were seen as...outdated...once the Overlord was slain. With no dragons to fight, of what use is an elite aerial fighter? It was sit behind a desk and teach stunt flying to colts and fillies or explore the world...and...well, here I am."

NIGHTSHADE

"You have both undone me," Nightshade relates, her ears drooping very slightly but visibly. It was not very often that she would meet ponies whose knowledge of the mystical surpassed her own. "All I know is through study, through practice, but you have lived the magic in your lives." How old were they? Firefly couldn't be that much older than her brother Solar, and Virga was, at least, not as old as a younger sibling of one of her parents. "Yes, I know of the Wonderbolts, how they were once dragon-slayers. Even today's Wonderbolts train in those tactics, and I suspect you might have had something to do with that." For the first time that day, something resembling a faint smile appears on her face. "And you, Lady Firefly...the fact that I know so little about your homeland astonishes me. Did your rulers govern sun and sky collectively, then, if there were no alicorns?"


VIRGA

"I've had no contact with the modern Wonderbolts," Virga said. "Deliberately, as I don't wish to draw that sort of attention to myself. My time in the spotlight passed long ago, which is further why you don't hear about what I do most of the time, Nightshade." He smiled kindly at this notion. Virga was simply a pony that could do great things and yet didn't wish to be famous about it. But, with the way events had gone thus far, that was likely to change very soon even if he didn't want it to. "As for my control of lightning...that is merely part of blizzards and common Pegasi cloud manipulation. I simply amplify its potency. The rule I learned while a pupil was to make oneself practical, but also theatric. Control the stage, you could say."

FIREFLY

Firefly smiles and nods. "Now that I think about it...no. The sun and moon were beyond their control, as if another force was acting upon them...perhaps the three tribes of this land did so, as legend tells and we were just unknowing of it. The magics of my land were all held in balance. Four Earth ponies, one Unicorn and one pegasus. Princess Primrose, keeper of the Wind. Princess Royal Blue, Keeper of the Snow. Princess Serena, with the magic to duplicate anything. Princess Sparkle, Keeper of Plants. Princess Starburst, Keeper of Colors, and Princess Tiffany. Keeper of the Clouds." smiling. "Tiffany was more or less the leader, though that was argued greatly." snickering a bit. "Of them...three saw my skill and granted me a boon to help fight dragons. "two feathers each were gifted me by Tiffany, Primrose and Royal Blue. They greatly enhance my natural storm pegasus abilities." sitting down. "And now Luna has imbibed me with some boons of her own, a Link to the Archaic Pegasi magic, and some bits of her own Alicorn magic both reside within me as part of me now."


End of Part II, Scene I.

[Virga]

Scene II, Part I

Location: Royal Palace Foyer
Time: Midday, Day 2.
Cast: Nightshade, Virga.

----


VIRGA

"Yes, that's right," said a white servant pony named Peddiga. Her voice came from the balcony near the Royal Forum. "We call it a train most of the time, but some call it a locomotive, even if that refers only to the front car..." This servant pony sat in front of of a sitting Virga like a teacher who taught dunces, but her voice and tone was anything but mean. "Why do ponies not walk?" asked the dark pegasus. "It is like asking pegasi to not fly." Peggida blinked. "Never thought of it that way..."

NIGHTSHADE

"The trains are obviously faster for the flightless," Nightshade interjects, having stayed at the edge of this conversation for some time. "And less tiresome for the pegasi. It is much easier, I am told, for a pegasus to take the train than fly for a few days across the realm to Manehattan."

VIRGA

This concept still didn't quite make sense to Virga. Sure, there was a faster way of traveling, but it was such an odd thing. "The last time a pony suggested overland travel that alleviated the walking and flying staring was with a coach and team of runner ponies. It was laughed out of the guild as utterly absurd."

NIGHTSHADE

Now it is Nightshade's turn to be pedagogical, and unlike Peddiga she has no qualms about seeming pedantic or self-assured. "The idea caught on very fast once it was put into practical use. Celestia herself subsidized the first coach companies, just as she subsidized the present train industry. Now I have word of ponies who are developing flying machines, and not simply balloons, either." She lifts her head up in confidence in the future.

VIRGA

"If it works, then it is good for ponies," Virga said. "Though, it would take the enjoyment out of it for me. This coffee business also confuses me. So do sweet-bakeries. And fashion stores. "

NIGHTSHADE

"It seems that many things do," Nightshade observes dryly. "I can understand your position, however; there are certain modern developments that I am not partial towards. The state of magical education in this realm, for example." She peers at Virga curiously. "Interesting. I had thought that you would have had something like sweet bakeries in your time. What did ponies eat for sweets, then? /Were/ there any sweets?"

VIRGA

"We had sweetened breads, lightly-sweetened pastries, but nothing that is like what is now available," Virga said as he shifted his wings. "Such things were for the well-to-do nobles most of the time because sugar was expensive." Peddiga grew shifty-eyed. "No Crumpycrump Puffmuffins?" Virga looked at her as if she had just spoken either a foreign language or a suggestive remark. "I...what? What is that?"

NIGHTSHADE

"A sweet treat," Nightshade explains, "rather cloying for my tastes. I much prefer mango tarts or raspberry scones, simple things. You had those back then, at least?"

VIRGA

"Raspberry scones were popular among the commoner population," Virga said. "I preferred...raspberry myself."

NIGHTSHADE

"I am impartial towards berries," Nightshade continues. "But enough about food, Virga. I am curious: how is the business of the Sun Princess?"

VIRGA

"The business of Celestia is fine as it usually is," Virga said. "But, I've not had to perform anything for a while now. After the Changelings, I've been given more reprieve time."

NIGHTSHADE

"That is all well and good," says Nightshade. "And what, pray tell, have you been doing with this time?"

VIRGA

Virga had to take a moment to think about that question. What had he been doing? He'd been lost. Sure, he had Firefly, and he had Celestia, but overly, he was factually lost. "Still adjusting to this time."

NIGHTSHADE

Nightshade peers at Virga, but this time with some concern. He's not going to end up being like Marble in his free time, is he? "Surely you had something to do during the old times," she says.

VIRGA

"The old times," Virga said, eyeing Peddiga, who had such a fondness for Virga she literally almost squeed upon hearing him say those three words. His attention returned to Nightshade as he lightly patted Peddiga atop the head with a wing. "To be honest, it was..run, fly, fight, eat, fight, drink, fight, drink and drink and drink and drink and fight, and run and fly, and fight...you can tell what my life was like, can't you?"


NIGHTSHADE

Nightshade certainly can, enough to judge it as brutish, martial, uncultured. Yet Virga himself seemed very cultured, very poised. He had retained his dignity despite or perhaps even because of his hard life as a servant of the crown centuries ago. "You will find that our times have become rather peaceable," she said, "the last crisis with the Changelings notwithstanding. Certainly, if you wish, I can help you develop an interest in more...dignified pursuits."

VIRGA

"Dignified pursuits?" he said, staring at Nightshade then in a curious manner. "What sort of pursuits are considered dignified these days? I could give you a list of what the old days considered dignified, but Peddiga would blush herself to death if I did."

NIGHTSHADE

Nightshade decides to ignore that last comment. "Art, literature, the thoughtful consideration of higher things. Lately, some ponies have found leisure in the study of science, but for many generations some have chosen to focus on the greatest of sciences: magic. I consider myself a keen student of many of these subjects, but magic is the closest to my heart."


VIRGA

"With the way my mind is, Nightshade, I'd be more likely to weaponize literature," Virga said. "But the science of magic is still an interest of mine, though I'm not certain how good it would do me being a pegasi. Unless there's a new branch of pegasi magic that I'm unaware."


NIGHTSHADE

"Every kind of pony has their own kind of magic, as you are well aware of. You are, after all, the only truly skilled Storm Pegasus in the Realm." Nightshade regards Virga with respect this time. "These and many other things have been, sadly, forgotten by many."

VIRGA

"Well, Firefly might disagree with that..." Virga said. "Unless you are meaning authentic from the old days, then yes. Sometimes, it is lonely. What has been centuries feels like a few months by now. Knowing that everyone in the world you could have met is now gone is rather disorienting."


NIGHTSHADE

Nightshade has to stop and reflect on that for a moment, feeling an emptiness in her stomach when she considers how alone Virga must feel sometimes. Sure, it was better in this time, more prosperous, but even she could not fathom what it would be like to be thrust out of her own time, never to see her loved ones again, her mother, her siblings, her father. She shook her head a little, not wanting to dwell on the possibility. "I can only hope that we provide suitable companionship instead," she says.

VIRGA

Virga thought about it here and there, but always when alone and never among others. Despite being a pony who could be famous for what he was, he shied away from it many times and preferred simply to be Celestia's guard with unusual traits. "Equestria has," he said. "Yet there still feels something missing."

NIGHTSHADE

Nightshade nods. "I hope you find that, whatever it is," she says. She has a feeling that she can provide little help on this regard. "You were a Wonderbolt once, were you not?"


VIRGA

Peddiga swooned at the mention of Wonderbolts, particularly the idea of Virga having been one.

NIGHTSHADE

Nightshade regards Peddiga with a raised eyebrow before continuing. "What was that like? What dangers did you have to contest with?"

VIRGA

"Many," Virga said. "Faulty equipment; there were no interchangeable parts then. Medicine was not as advanced for Pegasi in my region, frequent beast attacks and wars. Improper use of magic. Weather patterns were different...creatures like Wendigos were more common. Most of all, war." He stiffened up on that specific topic; war was not something he discussed very much despite being of the brutish class. "I come from North, where the sea ices part of the year. The province I lived in was Equephel (no records exist on this province), a plentiful land always being fought over until the imperials granted us status. Then things went bad. Some self-inflated unicorn ascended to the throne, Equephel's leaders became corrupt and I became a fugitive. Word was that King didn't care much for pegasi like me, uncontrolled by the system and not official military."

NIGHTSHADE

Nightshade nods in acknowledgement, having read much of Equestria's ancient history in her studies. "Equephel...I may have read about an 'Equephel' in my readings. The throne..." She looks at Virga closely, realization dawning on her face. "You're...you're from the outskirts of the Crystal Empire, aren't you?"

VIRGA

Virga stared back into Nightshade's face, pondering what she was pondering. "Amazing that anyone knows of that place," he said, sitting back. "I was born not too long after Equephel became one of its outer lying provinces. When Princess Celestia had me read extremely ancient pony speech she seems mystified by this." He ruffled his wings just a little, getting a stretch here, there. "Before she did that, her curiosity was general. After, she asked me to be her guard. A night pony guarding the Sun. I'm the only night pony guarding the Sun."

NIGHTSHADE

Nightshade gains a fierce, curious gaze as she looks at Virga. "A night pony...in what way are you a 'night pony'"?

VIRGA

"My talent, dear Nightshade," Virga said, eyeing her just as much. "I create moon rings. And being as such, my color blends with the night. One could argue that I am also neither a day pony or night pony, between Sun and Moon. If I had an element, a true element, it would not be Ice. It would be Moonlight, a combination of the Sun's light reflecting from the Moon into my ice. With out both, I'm neither."

NIGHTSHADE

"Moon rings," repeats Nightshade, the word familiar. "Ah, yes...I have heard of these moon rings you can make from others; a rare and magnificent ability, indeed." She steps towards him, holding her head high. "I have also acquired familiarity with such abilities through my own studies. The ancient magic of a thousand years ago is very fresh to me, and to see you now, speaking about your proficiency...it is fascinating, but also, a challenge to me, to see if I have lived up to the ideals of the past."

VIRGA

"The past," Virga said, loping off to nowhere in particular, "many think of glorious ages, wise ponies and such. They did exist, but at the same time the past was just as mundane as the present. The ancient magic is outstanding today, but was commonplace back then. You'd have to do something extremely outrageous back then for something astonishing as today's ancient magic. Though I will say the further back you go, the more dangerous and potent it is, typically."

End of Scene II, Part I

[Virga]

Scene II, Part II


NIGHTSHADE

"I am well aware of the dangers of the Old Magic," says Nightshade, a bit miffed that Virga doubts her (or so she thinks). "But I am no mere dabbler. I have been studying the old ways since I was a filly. They are...so much fuller, so much more meaningful, than the meretricious, bland 'magic' of modern times. I can understand why the scholars of old chose this route, but I feel that something important has been lost in the process." She steps away, looking out the window and the vast verdant fields far below. "I have spent my whole life trying to recover that which is important, that which is valuable. Tell me..." She cocks her head aside just a little so that Virga enters the edge of her vision. "Do you know about Shadow Walking?"

VIRGA

Virga half-wondered why Nightshade was not Celestia's student compared to Twilight. She took this subject with such sincerity it was palatable. "I can't say I'm familiar with Shadow Walking," Virga said. "It sounds like a practice meant for Unicorns or bewitched Earths."

NIGHTSHADE

"It is understandable that you don't know," says Nightshade, using her magic to subtlely pull the curtains so that the shadows in the room lengthen. "In the old times, there were those who thrived in the shade, who walked in the boundaries between light and dark. These were known as Shadowwalkers, and they could be any of the three races. Unicorns manipulated the shadow like a baker works with dough, walking in and out of shadow and light. Pegasi could turn entire regions into dark, sunless places, the clouds exuding pure blackness. Even earth ponies...earth ponies could grow plants that could survive in the dark. Miss Nettleglum, I suspect, is doing just that for Princess Luna. It is a proud tradition, and I..." She looks at Virga ominously. "I am an heir to that tradition."

VIRGA

Virga watched the shadows, having seen similar forms of it but the name differed and the uses varied. "For me to replicate what you speak, I'd have to create a dust storm," he said. "There have been ponies who did things with light and shadow, but I don't recall a specific tradition." He leaned closer to the shadows, ears up as he watched them with a keen interest. "Nettleglum I've only met once or twice. I'm afraid I have practically no relation to any of the Princess' direct servants except Firefly." The pegasi resonated a tone that exhibited a subliminal sadness about that. Even among Celestia's personal guard--all two of them, he and Scope never did associate much. It was underlaid by something Nightshade might detect if she were keen enough. Nopony seemed to really know about him, or call on him, or socialize with him outside of his direct service. "You have a very nice tradition. Even among ponies I used to know, it was very uncommon to see anyone capable of manipulating light or dark."

NIGHTSHADE

Nightshade can see Virga's sadness, painfully obvious as it is through his face. She knows the feeling. "My own intense study has also brought much solitude, but also, at times, loneliness, so...I can understand." She walks towards Virga, but as she does so the shadows part, leaving behind a trail of unnatural light on the floor. "Yet in the process I have come to know a magic greater than what many have witnessed or experienced, a herald of a harsher, but more authentic, past. Tell me..." She is right close to him now, the restless shadows bulking around the spots of light by her feet, impatient. "...Would you like to see?"


VIRGA

Virga blinked; he let himself express too much there. Letting others see that he was rather detached from the rest of the palace and equestrian society, even the guards he worked with was something he hoped to avoid. Ever since a certain, discordian critter and he had 'discussions' about fear, he felt it even more. His eyes shifted to the unnatural light, the shadows. As she closed in on him, there was a hint that something about her reminded him of something dreadful. "If it isn't too much," he said. "That is too much on you to show me, yes."

NIGHTSHADE

Nightshade does something almost unheard of. She smiles. "I shall," she says, so low as to be almost a whisper, a dream. She takes a deep breath, a noticeable quivering in her flesh as she invokes the magic, her horn glowing with black light. The shadows at her feet suddenly break through the artificial barrier of light and tug at her legs, start to climb onto her body, wrapping around them tightly, feeding on her, consuming her. No...she is consuming /them/. She inhales deeply, the darkness diving into a mouth which hangs open, hungrily swallowing the pure, inky black. It accelerates, faster and faster, the colour and form of her body being sloughed off like dead skin, fur and flesh dissolving away as if bathed in acid, shadow eating her from the inside. She gasps silently, sound being taken away from her at last as her body spasms and stretches. It is unclear if she's in pain or ecstacy...or both. Her eyes give way to a piercing, sinister purple glow that flashes brightly for an instant before, like a nightmare, her whole body slips away from view, leaving only thoughts of monsters in the agonized mind. Except she hasn't left. She lingers, like a memory, at the very edge of visibility, but she is there, watching Virga, seeing him, hearing him, his heartbeat, his breath, his pulses of life. She yearns for it, to take it away, to satisfy for desire for life, but she holds back, she controls herself. The shadows are her life now, if only for a moment. They coalesce around her, swirling about excitedly. They missed her. "It...starts like this," she says, her voice otherworldly and distant, for she is, in fact, somewhere else. She walks between light and dark. )

VIRGA

Of all the magic he'd seen in modern Equestria, nothing yet came close to Nightshade at this moment. She was one, an incontrovertible example of extreme discipline in magic that again made Virga wonder why she was not Celestia's pupil. Her essence and merging with darkness was not too different from weaving moon rings and ice, and contained the subtleties that played on the mind. Exposure was not recent; Virga was immune to the implications of fear and dread he wielded during but not to another's. One might expect him to react out of fear, it was there. Fear was a natural part of survival. A lure, though, snared Virga towards the menacing power she commanded. He was a pony of the night, but her shadows overpowered. The Pegasi's wings slowly opened as if to catch ethereal winds. "I could just...float away...perfect dark...."

NIGHTSHADE

"You can," Nightshade says, her voice terrible and dark, with a grating quality. "You can float away, and let the shadows consume your dreams. Maybe you'll be lucky, and you won't be around to realize it." She moves to the side, her shadowy self sidling with serpentine fluidity, as if the air itself carries her. "Your fear is hidden away, locked, concealed. That is...good. But I can taste your longing, your desire. A part of me wants to consume it, so you will never desire again. That is how wraiths come into being, haunted by their own meaningless existence. But I cannot survive on it. Only True Shadow can feed me." Her words are punctual, brief, and strained, as if the very act of speaking was a burden. She, too, wants to float away, to meld into the shadows indefinitely. That is the curse, the temptation of Shadowwalkers.


VIRGA

His wings spread their full span, lulled into freely emitting a light, icy mist. The exposure was needed. Unlike Firefly, he received no 'training' from Celestia like she did Luna. They hadn't even flown together to simply fly together. A private guard was to have a relation with the guarded like no other could, but from Virga spilled forth many things he never freely admitted or alluded to in public. He was content with his service, but at the same time very bothered. Firefly had such an intimate relation with Luna they were inseparable, but between Virga and his responsibility, Celestia, there seemed to be no such a substantial bond. If there was, Virga couldn't feel it and Celestia never spoke of it. She cared for him, he cared for her, but there was a 'distance', the same distance that existed for every other pony in the Palace and Equestria and it had little to do with him being displaced. If one was cruel hearted enough, they may even consider Celestia's motion to make Virga her private guard a parasitic motive. True or not, it resonated from the cracking shell of Virga,and Nightshade could see it all. The Pegasi's wings lowered to the floor; in the time of Equephel he achieved many great things as a Wonderbolt; he was as beloved as the modern team, then came the switch in the monarchy at the far, distant center of the imperial forces. Overnight, he became one of the most wanted, shunned from every place. His wife, his son--Virga was a father once?--Friends. It was a wonder that Virga didn't descend into pure anger and hatred and became the next historically infamous warmonger. It wasn't intentional of Nightshade, he didn't count it against her, but she might have seen too much. "S…s…look away…do not see…" Virga said. It had been so long since exposure to great magics that he had lost his immunity to them; a fleeting image of being trapped for one thousand years without the ability to eat, smell, taste, touch or hear a single thing.

NIGHTSHADE

Nightshade couldn't just /see/ it all, but /feel/ it too. She has materialized right next to Virga, tendrils of shadow emanating from her dark, ghost-like form and wrapping around the pegasus, pulsing with unnatural life. "I could feed on your Memory, that is my true sustenance," she says, her voice wafting into Virga's brain like the half-heard whispers of dreams. "I desire it, I can feel the emptiness of not knowing your Past, but I won't, unless you let me." Yet she can still see glimpses of it, tempting and tasty morsels of sorrow, fury, frustration, and, most rare, triumph. "Your life is marked by hardness and misery, by loss and regret, not from action but omission. Yet...no, that is enough." She withdraws immediately, her shadow shrinking, her form coalescing as she gathers up all the stray darkness. She walks - floats - away from Virga, and as she does so she sloughs off the darkness, she relinquishes the shadows. Nightshade gasps softly as form and matter return to her, true gravity and weight coming to affect her as fur and flesh return, slowly erupting in waves of colour and mass from her back. She feels the aching burden of solidity press down, rooting her, trapping her in the world of the real and the profane, her solid hooves clattering to the ground as she stretches her muscles. Yet, she knows that it is not entrapment, but a return, a restoration. This world is real, /this/ world is the foundation, the base, where ponies live and breathe and love. The shadow is wondrous, tempestuous, tempting. But the shadow serves the light. "So here we are again," she says, taking a deep breath as air - sweet, succulent air - fills her hungry lungs. "I hope that I had not...intruded to deeply."

VIRGA

There was something else there, just before she severed the ties between them. It was a fragment left over from the 'good old days'. Virga young, incredibly young. There was a reason the Bloom Doll couldn't strike fear into Virga by mentioning comparisons--Virga seeking his Princess like a foal seeks a mother. By some manner, through the pegasi's broken exterior, she was able to glimpse the earlier portions of Virga's life. Father: unknown. Mother: Died in winter after his birth. An old alicorn had raised him, taught him everything. As Nightshade returned to the substantial world and its realms, Virga's legs trembled. "You went far," he said quietly, his wings lax on the floor. "But it was necessary. This exchange, there's reason it isn't done in magic academies today. It's too personal. That is how we learned in those days."

NIGHTSHADE

There was something else there, just before she severed the ties between them. It was a fragment left over from the 'good old days'. Virga young, incredibly young. There was a reason the Bloom Doll couldn't strike fear into Virga by mentioning comparisons--Virga seeking his Princess like a foal seeks a mother. By some manner, through the pegasi's broken exterior, she glimpsed the earlier portions of Virga's life. Father: unknown. Mother: Died in winter after his birth. An old alicorn had raised him, taught him everything. As Nightshade returned to the substantial world and its realms, Virga's legs trembled. "You went far," he said quietly, his wings lax on the floor. "But it was necessary. This exchange, there's reason it isn't done in magic academies today. It's too personal. That is how we learned in those days."


VIRGA

He breathed, though it wasn't labored. He didn't make eye contact with her so much as she made eye contact with him. "In that experiencing them might aid you in what you seek in study," Virga said. "What seems to be not but a short time ago between Equephel and now, no longer feels that way. I am the same age I was when it happened, but now I feel old. I should feel old."

NIGHTSHADE

Truth be told, Nightshade is only really concerned with esoteric secrets, magical techniques, the schools of thought that dominated the past. She was not initially interested in Virga's life story, but she does not regret having come to know it. History demands context. "I cannot imagine what it must be like, to be displaced a 1000 years. Yet I know what it is like, to be consumed by the past, by Memory. At least, on that, I can sympathize." She sighs inwardly, having once known Memory far too intimately for her tastes. "Yet the present is where we live, and what we must work with."


VIRGA

"The best way I can describe the displacement is oversleeping," Virga said. "Though I was aware the entire time when frozen, no pony or animals interacted with me. Weather shifted, day and night came. If you've ever overslept an entire day, multiple the feeling." He finally flexed his wings and willingly faced her. "There are many things I do not miss about those days, but those that I do miss are the cultural and social aspects between myself and fliers. I was raised for combat flight, but also being an every day pony."

NIGHTSHADE

Nightshade can also understand Virga's search for traditional culture. "I see..." She is not quite willing to share her own family history just yet, however, being much more circumspect about the matter than Virga. In time, perhaps. "There is much we can discuss about this matter, but my time, sadly, is short. My business about the Palace beckons." She starts to walk towards the exit solemnly. "When are you free again?"

VIRGA

"I am free for several days," he answered. "After recent events, I'm granted a recovery."

NIGHTSHADE

Nightshade nods. "I see. In that case...I will see you soon." She bows respectfully, as is her custom, and departs the room, laden with the burden of memory. She has learned much that she didn't expect, and, perhaps, didn't want to learn, but she feels wiser from it. Such is the way for those who seek true knowledge and understanding.

VIRGA

"Of course," Virga said as he folded his wings sharply against his back. Peddiga returned with tea, and squeaked at the pegasi. "Thank you, Peddiga. You always make the nicest tea." And the two went about their way.



End Scene II, Part II