//------------------------------// // El Capitulo Quince // Story: Meet me in Maretonia // by Paradise Oasis //------------------------------// As the five ponies silently trotted their way into the capital, Fiesta and the others noticed that perpetration for some kind of celebration was clearly underway. Banners and pinatas were going up on every street corner, and the food vendors were out on the street, setting up their stalls for some kind of giant festival. "This is mucho extrano, I don't remember any holidays or celebrations happening today." The prince turned towards Moonlight. "Mi querida, are there any special events scheduled for the capital?" "Not that I'm aware of, mi príncipe." Moonlight replied in confusion. "Perhaps it is something your padre arraigned while we were away?" "Uh oh... Everypony, I think I know what this is all about!" Watercolor muttered, pulling a flyer off the wall that was written in Equestrian. "This flyer says the duke is going to make a big announcement tonight... about handing over power to the Maretonian republic!" "What?! this is outrageous!" The prince grabbed the flyer from her hooves. "They mean a puppet republic, under the power of the conquistadors! We have to get to Coltapec castle at once, and stop these fiends!" Sunny Salsa then coordinated a strategy, one which the other ponies carried out without hesitation. The two Pegasus flew ahead to the castle, sneaking past the guards, and opening the gates. The earth ponies in the group quickly snuck in through the gate, and the whole team met up again to make their next move. "Okay Sunny, we're inside." Moonlight noted. "So what do we do now?" "We're going to need to split up." The prince replied. "Fiesta, you and Fresco need to go, and try to stall Bifido up in the throne room." "No hay problema." Fiesta agreed, as Fresco nodded, as well. "Well keep that asqueroso creep busy, don't you worry." "Moonlight, you and Watercolor head to the east wing, and try to find my mother." Sunny continued. "She should be recovering there, in a magical healing hibernation trance. But the griffins may have isolated her in her room. You need to go, and make sure she is woken up." "You got it." Watercolor agreed, as she and Moonlight turned towards the castle's east wing. "We'll wake the duchess up, and cook those griffons gooses!" "And what are you going to do, mi principe?" Moonlight asked him. "Are you going to the dungeons to look for the duke?" "Si, I'm not going to let Bifido keep mi padre a prisoner." The prince replied. "We're gonna bring these conquistadors down, hard." .... "Hey Moonlight, is this the right way to go?" The confused Watercolor asked, as the two Pegasus flew around the twisting and turning passageways of the West Wing. "All of these rooms and corridors look the same to me." "Don't worry, Colors! I'm certain this is the right way. "The other flying pony replied. "Or maybe this way... or this way... or this way? Oh dear...." The two friends wandered through all the twisting and turning passageways, checking room after room in a desperate bid to find the missing alicorn. But the whole place seemed to be empty, as if all of the servants and castle employees had been intentionally pulled out of this area. "Good gravy, I can't believe this place is so blasted big." Watercolor commented in disbelief. "What does the royal family need with all of these rooms and passages, anyway?" "In generations past, the royal household was far bigger than it is now." Moonlight replied. "This was where extended family members and all of their servants lived. Now, most of this area is just used for storage." "Wow, that must have been one big family. Shame this place is all empty now." Watercolor then looked ahead, her eyes suddenly going wide. "Uh oh... ummm, Moonlight? I don't think this place is so empty anymore!" The other Pegasus turned around, and saw several griffin conquistadors now swarming through the hallways, all slowly making their way towards the pair, all with a murderous glare in their eyes. "Hold it right there, senoritas." One of the winged monsters warned them. "You've both made it this far, but neither of you will ever find the duchess." "Ummm, Watercolors?" Moonlight replied, her face going pale. "Now might be a good time to RUN!" The two Pegasus took off, flying back down the way they came, with over a dozen griffins in hot pursuit. Faster and faster the two ponies flew, dodging around corners and through narrow passageways, as the conquistadors stayed hot on their trail. Sometimes one of the bird-monsters would catch up with the two, taking a swipe with their claws, and searing hair off the edge of the two mares' tails. "Yeowch! Those claws hurt!" Watercolor cried out, kicking with her back hooves to knock a few of her pursuers back. "Moonlight, we better find the duchess soon, or we're going to end up bird seed!" Nodding her head, Moonlight looked around in desperation, and just then happened to spot a closed door with the royal family's coat of arms on it. "Hurry, Watercolor! This way!" The Pegasus called out, throwing open the door, and both mares zipped through the door, slamming it in the griffin's faces. "Whew! That takes care of those bozos!" Moonlight gasped, trying to catch her breath. "Don't worry, the door has a magical security seal on it, and only ponies can open it. That's why those bozos didn't break in here and get the queen." The two looked across the room, and noticed the sleeping duchess lying in a large bed. Two pony handmaidens looked up at the two intruders, only to smile when they saw one of their fellow handmares. "Oh, Moonlight! Gracias a Dios que eres tú!" One of the royal handmares sighed in relief. "We locked the doors when we saw those griffin creeps outside, and when you made it inside-" "No te preocupes por eso, don't worry about it." Moonlight waved a hoof dismissively. "Now, we need to get the duchess awake. It kingdom's in very serious in trouble right now!" "She's fully recovered from the stab wound, but she hasn't woken up yet." The other handmaiden shook her head. "The only way to awaken her is to touch the duchess, and to do so would cause the pony who laid a hoof on her when she's in the healing trance, to have a vision of a possible future..." "Well then, we're going to have to..." Moonlight looked up in horror. "Watercolor no! DON'T!" It was at that moment, that Watercolor the Pegasus touched the slumbering duchess with a wing, and suddenly, she was enveloped in a white hot light. And as the Duchess's eyes fluttered open, Watercolor suddenly collapsed to the floor, lost in her own vision... It was so hot in Maretonia today.... As the bright yellow sun shone down on the capital, Watercolor stood out on the Patio outside of her hacienda, holding a brush in her hoof, as she stood in front of her easel, working busily. "Hmmmm, I think I could make the blues a little brighter." She tought aloud, as she dipped the brush into the color palette she was holding in her wing. "And that dark shade of green for the grass? What WAS I thinking?" She gently touched the brush into her paint again, making gentle strokes on the canvas, before dipping the brush in water again to clean it off. A little red here, a little blue there, and soon a beautiful painting of the Royal Princess, standing together in a field of roses, took shape on the canvas before her. "Celestia and Luna are always the best choices for a painting subject." The mare said to herself with a smile. "Their contrasting colors and day-night dichotomy balances out any scene they are in together." "Mommy, mommy, come look!" A little Pegasus filly who looked like a younger Watercolor cried out. "I made my own sculpture out of the wet dirt!" Ohhh, Pastel! I thought I told you not to play in the mud!" Watercolor sighed in frustration, trotting over to her daughter, and wiping her face of with a cloth. "Ohhh, honestly! Your brother Acrylic was never like this when we was your age. Ugh, what am I going to do with you?" Watercolor cleaned her daughter's face off with a cloth, then sent her into the house to rejoin her studies with her tutor. It was just then Pepperdance came trotting up, obliviously back home after his day's duty's were done. "Well, glad to see your home early." The Pegasus artist smiled, as the stallion gave her a warm hug. "I trust everything is going well at court?" "About as well as usual, mi amore. Politics are never an easy thing." Thew Jaguar knight shook his head. "The eagle knights are so eager to go to war with Equestria, and Duke Sunny Salsa and Duchess Moonlight are the only thing holding them back. I'm afraid if attitudes do not change, Maretonia may soon be fighting your homeland." "Why, that would be just horrible!" A horrified watercolor replied, shaking her head. "The thought of you, having to be on the battlefield with ponies of my own nation....!" "Don't worry, my dear Watercolor. I do not believe it will come to that." Pepperdance shook his head, taking his jaguar armor off with his hooves. "Anyway, I heard you had a fun day, too." "Oh yes, I've been working on that painting of the royal sisters that Condesa Aleteo-tímido commissioned me for, when our daughter decided to try her own hoof at sculpting.... with dirty mud." Watercolor laughed. "I sent her back to her institutriz, who told me she was taking her to the Maretonian royal art museum today." "Well, if those two are gone, that means we're alone for awhile..." He put his arms around her, gently caressing her cheek with his hoof. "And it has been so long since I have felt the warmth of your wings around me." "Oh, Pepperdance, stop!" She teased him playfully, gently stroking the hairs of his battle-scarred, but still delicately soft, coat. "I need to get this painting done, in time for Princess Luna's visit to the capital." "No, I think it's time I didn't some art of my own, mi amore." He replied, moving in closer to her. "And you, mi Pegaso diosa, are going to be my canvas..." The two ponies kissed, drinking in each other deeply. Mare and stallion stumbled backward, knocking over the small stand where watercolor had left her brushes and paint palette, before they both fell to the ground together in one another's embrace. Watercolor and Pepperdance pressed against each other in their passion, as the paint from the fallen pallet spilled everywhere, the colorful fluids mixing together, and spreading all over the ground around them... "Watercolor, please wake up!" Moonlight desperately pleaded, her face a hot shade of pink from embarrassment. "I don't know what the hay you are dreaming about, but you are doing something really horrible on the floor, right in front of the duchess!" Watercolor was lying on the floor, rolling around and making noises to herself while in the vision-induced trance, as the other horrified mares watched. "Madre de Yegua..... Lady Watercolor, I am eternally grateful for you and Moonlight waking me up like you did, but I would appreciate you ceasing this unseemly display immediately." The duchess commented, as the embarrassed Watercolor finally woke up, and realized what she had been doing. "Good grief, I guess when they said Equestrian mares were wild and had loose morals, they really weren't kidding."