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Luna teleported into a hallway of the Palace Infirmary in my Equestria dreamscape. She found the infirmary in a state of pandemonium. Infirmary staff and members of the Royal Guards were galloping around yelling orders.

The princess had been finishing her interview with Viper and Creeper

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in Prophecy's dream fabric when the alarm wards had gone off in Luna's quarters. Based on her discussions with Viper and Creeper the Princess of the Moon knew what had to have happened. She hadn't even take the time to don her official court regalia.

The infirmary's emergency wards had been triggered to isolate it from the outside world. However Luna and Celestia possessed the ability to circumvent these measures. Spotting her arrival a master sergeant galloped up to her and bowed.

"Your Highness! I regret to inform you that a member of the Royal Guard has been murdered while guarding the patient Prophecy.

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Unfortunately we do not know who the assailant is or their whereabouts at this time."

Luna started trotting towards Prophecy's room. The sergeant followed. "Sergeant! Is the patient safe?"

"Yes your Highness! It was Nurse Splint who discovered the private's body. Private Meadows to be specific. Upon discovering the private's body the nurse activated the Emergency Surgery Room Teleportation Ward. That evacuated the patient and her from the room and alerted the infirmary staff. Fortunately, or unfortunately, the patient was sedated at the time. So she unable to give us any details concerning the attack."

Guard ponies and infirmary staff moved out of the way and bowed as the alicorn trotted by them. For her part Luna ignored them as she made a beeline for the room. "Do we know how the private was killed or how long ago?!" Barked the princess.

The sergeant shook his head. "No your Highness! To be honest it was only because we were able to find parts of her broken, destroyed uniform that we were able to determine it was her at all. As to what exactly killed her well.."

The sergeant's voice tapered off as they approached the scene of the crime. Guard officers, guard ponies, and senior members of the medical staff were standing in the hallway talking with other as Luna arrived. Luna's personal physician Rolling Hills was frantically jotting down notes on a clipboard. She spied the princess approached and trotted up to her."

"Your Highness! This is horrible! In all my years I've, I've never seen anything like this!"

"Where's the body?" Asked the princess.

Rolling Hills swallowed. "The, the body is in here. Be warned your Highness it's a horrible sight."

The body was lying on the floor. Somepony had thrown a blanket over the body. Luna noted that the infirmary staff had also hastily erected an improvised damn to keep the vast amount of bodily fluids from spilling across the floor. The glow lights had been turned up in the room. The Prussian Blue alicorn steeled herself, stepped forward. Then with her horn she levitated up the blood soaked blanket.

Over the centuries Luna had stood upon many fields of battle. She'd seen thousands perish, many by her own deeds. She'd seen ponies who'd fallen to numerous beasts, monsters, and in some cases to ponies with foul minds. Still the sight of this torn, broken, mutilated body within the boundaries of the Royal Palace caused the princess to take a step back.

Rolling Hills was intently looking at the clipboard she was levitating. With a trembling voice she spoke. "Y,y,your High, Highness the exact cause of death is difficult to det, determine. The body has been so badly destroyed it could've been one of several possible things."

The doctor looked away and stared at a far wall. "As, as you can see most the private's internal organs were pulled out her throat. If ,if I had to, to hazard a guess. I'd say that was the most likely cause of death. Although as you can see her limbs are so twisted, dislocated, and broken. It, it's possible that caused one or more arteries to rupture and she succumbed to internal hemorrhaging."

Luna laid the blanket back across the body. Then she extended her right wing and gently pulled Rolling Hills to her side. The clipboard clattered to floor and mare began to sob. The alicorn glanced at the door and determined that nopony could see the doctor. For several seconds she stood there silently. Then she lowered her head and nuzzled her. "Doctor." The alicorn whispered. "I know this terrible, but I need to stay here until the Night Watch Captain can arrive and take over. Now. I need to leave and attempt to capture the foul being that did this!"

Rolling Hills stopped sobbing. After several seconds the unicorn lifted her head. The mare's eyes were red and moist but professionalism had returned to them. "Yes of course your Highness. Be safe."

Several minutes later the princess stepped past the very tense unicorn sentries posted outside Prophecy's room. She looked down at the head unicorn mage stationed there. "Make sure no pony enters this room while I'm in there. Understood?"

The stallion nodded his head. "Yes your Highness."

Luna stepped into Prophecy's room. The unicorn mare was sleeping fitfully in the bed that was sitting in the middle of the room. Slowly the alicorn started circling the bed. As she did her horn began glowing as the princess began scanning, searching, and looking for her hidden foe. As she did she remember the words that Viper had said to her recently.

"The foe you seek is wily and dangerous even to you Princess Luna." Viper looked her in the eyes. "But Lurker
link is a creature of primal, animalistic needs now. One thing that will work to your advantage is the fact that your prey must stay close to their connection with this realm. Lurker cannot wander too far away our charge. That will reduce the scope of your hunt."

As Luna searched the room another being watched her. From the shadows under the bed Lurker watched the princess. They felt the alicorn's spells pass over them. Still they had remained hidden. Lurker knew this was powerful, and potentially dangerous, being, but Lurker could sense such great potential. Here was an individual that they could share so much with this one.

Lurker watched until the moment was right. One of Lurker's special talents was the ability to create a pocket plane around their prey.This allowed Lurker to slow time down around their target, and allowed Lurker to spread out how long they were able to share with their victim.

Luna had been reared up and was examining a wall when Lurker struck. The alicorn froze in place and her great rippling, flowing mane suddenly went still. Anypony outside of the room wouldn't have noticed anything. Sliding from beneath the bed Lurker rose up behind the princess and reached out for her.

Suddenly Luna's mane convulsed and out of it face formed. The face of a pony. It stared at Lurker for a moment. Then in the being's mind they heard a voice of a filly."

"What r ya doing?" The face looked at Lurker. "Do ya think I'm a gonna let a twisted freak like ya lay a hoof on her?"

Lurker tried to retreat but suddenly found themselves frozen in place. Luna's horn was now glowing with a strange, shifting spectrum of colors. The face of hair appeared to squint at Lurker.

"Yer nothing but a wild beast, and I can't have a worthless piece of shit like ya messing with my plans. So yer time in this world is over. I can't kill ya but I can still send ya back ta the cesspit where ya came from."

Lurker's mind was screaming but still they remained helpless and motionless. The face got closer. "Now yer a complete heap of trash, but I don't want ya go away completely empty hoof. Heh, heh. So here's something fer ya ta remember me when yer crawling around in that shit hole of a place ya call home."

From within the mane there emerged an object. A red bow seemed to materialize out of the strands of hair. It floated over and tied itself on to one of Lurker's tentacles. Luna's horn started glowing and changing color faster and faster. The face appeared to smile.

"Bye, bye!" It said. In that instant Lurker felt its pocket plane shatter.

Luna spun around. In front of her was a twisted monstrosity reaching for her; instinctively she lashed out and fired bolt from her horn. Maybe it was adrenaline, fear, or sense of anger from the death of the private, but her blast struck the being front of her greater than expected violence. Lurker was thrown against far wall.

"Foul being! No more will you prey upon the subjects of this kingdom!" She roared. Normally it was a spell she reserved for use in the Dream Realm but her indignation at this beast seemed to be giving strength to her spell. Behind Lurker a swirling portal of midnight black formed on the wall. Reaching out with her levitation she grabbed Lurker hurtled him into the tear and back to the Lower Dark Realms.

"Begone!" She roared and then slammed the portal closed.

To be continued.

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Posted previously at: 2020-04-30T15:28:07 | Posted previously by: dontebell