Iris (mlp fanfic)

Chapter 1

A/N: I'm sorry I took forever to update this. My mind can't stay on one story for long. Not to mention how I tend to procrastinate. I put a friend's OC in this part. And maybe a reference or two to his fanfic. Possibly.

Celestia look out over the castle garden from her balcony. It was beautiful night. Of course it was. Luna always made the night beautiful. Even in a thousand years of bringing up both the moon and the sun, Celestia could never get the night to be as beautiful as Luna's.

Speaking of Luna, where was she?

Just as she was about to go back inside, Celestia saw a figure move through the garden. Looking closer towards the figure, she saw moonlight reflect off of green, insect-like wings.

"Changeling." Celestia muttered.

Using her wings, she swooped down into some of the gardens bushes and began to quietly chase after the Changeling from the shadows. Just as she was closing in on the intruder, a sickle flew out and lodged itself in the Changelings throat. As Celestia stepped out of the shadows, an armored stallion stepped out and pulled the sickle out of the Changelings throat.

"Steeltrix." Celestia greeted.

The Warrior pony looked at the princess, just now noticing her presence.

"Ah, Princess Celestia. Good Evening." He said as he cleaned the blood off his sickle.

Celestia nodded in acknowledgement and looked towards the Changeling's corpse and the large amount of blood that suurounded it. "You're not planning the Gardeners cleaning that up, are you?"

Steeltrix grinned as he said, "Nah. I'll burn it later and clean-up its blood. But this has been the fourth one to try something here or at Ponyville."

"Princess Cadence has told me they've been spotted by the Crystal Empire as well. And there are reports of something else. Something...." Celestia trailed off, not sure if she should finish her sentence.

"Something's bothering you, isn't it?" Steeltrix stated bluntly, "Just say it."

"Oh, it's nothing." Celestia said, flashing him a smile. "Just.... Remembering the past, that's all."

"Yeah, " Steeltrix said sarcastically, "Sure it is."

Before he could press for more information, a monstrous sound erupted from further within the garden. It sounded like a combination of a growl, screech, and howl. It was followed by the sound of guards shouts, extremely heavy footsteps approaching. Steeltrix kept his sickle drawn ready and Celestia silently cursed for not bringing her halberd.

Celestia watched as a enormous beast emerged. It was covered in rotten, pink skin that hung loosely on its body and it had black, twisted claws. It's eyes were a solid white. It's mouth was full of yellow, 3-foot long fangs and dripped green goop.

The monster began to approach them and Steeltrix boldly ran at the beast with the sickle, but it simply backhanded him out of the way. Celestia kept a firm scowl on her face as the creature came at her.

Suddenly, the creature lurched back on it's hind legs. Celestia looked and saw Luna attacking the beast.

"Sister!" She shouted as she tossed Celestia her halberd.

As soon as she grasped it, Celestia flew up and stabbed one of the monsters milky eyes and she swooped back as the beast bellowed in pain. But their weapons alone wouldn't be able to defeat the creature.

"Fire!" Luna shouted to guards gather below. "We need fire! Candles, torches, lanterns! Anything will do!!"

Celestia didn't need to look to know that the guards won't have any of that. The night was clear and the full moon and bright stars provided enough light.

"Luna lookout!" She shouted as she pushed both of them out of the way of the beast's swinging claws.

"Thank you, sister."

"Your welcome." Celestia responded. "But we must not have anymore close calls."

The guards began to hoot arrows at the monster, trying to help in any way they can. But the beast began to turn towards the guards.

"Oh no you don't!" Celstia shouted as she slashed its face with her halberd. "Luna! We must keep its attention on us!" Luna dodged the beast's claws. She tried to cut it's hand with her spear,but it barely had any effect on the creature's skin. "We may not be able to hold it off for long!" Luna shouted at her sister, "but I will still try!"

It went on for what felt like hours. Celestia and Luna would keep the monster's attention while the guards kept trying to shoot it with arrows. Celestia know that they couldn't accomplish anything by this. The guards probably kept going in hopes that they would tire out the beast, but Celestia knew they would grow tired long before their foe. She could already feel exhaustion taking it's toll on her body ."Sister!" Luna called, "Look out!"

Celestia felt something collide with the back of her head. Her world went spinning and she began to fall. She was losing consciousness faster than she was losing altitude. "CELESTIA!!!"

"Celestia!" The small alicorn's ears perked up. She peeked out of her little hiding spot, though she already knew who that voice belonged to. No one could forget her voice. "Celestia! Where are you?" Celestia smiled at the sight of the older girl. "Melody!" she shouted as she began to wiggle out of her hiding spot, "Over here!"

The older girl looked over to see the young princess wiggling out from under a dresser. She sighed. "There you are," she said as she began to make her way over, "The legs on that dresser should really be shortened." After wiggling her way out of underneath the dresser, Celestia ran to hug the older girl. Melody sighed and returned the hug. "Why were you hiding this time?"

Celestia's smile faded into a frown. "W-well.." she started, "I-I heard the guards talking. They were saying that with all these monster attacks, even the castle won't be safe anymore! And-"

"You can't possibly believe all that stuff and fluff!" Melody interrupted. Celestia looked up at her and sniffled, tears leaking from the corners of her eyes. "We can take a few little monster attacks. We're tough!" Melody wiped away a few stray tears from Celestria's face. "You're safe here."

Celestia sniffled again. "pr-promise?" she asked, her voice sounding small and weak.

"I promise," Melody told her, "you're safe."