Celestia followed the sobbing. Not happy sobs of joyful tears, nor the tears of somepony scared out of their mind, but the deep and sorrowful sobs of somepony convinced that nothing would ever be alright again. Carefully generated clouds deadened the sounds of her every step as she crept across the living areas of the royal quarters and headed slowly towards the source of the dreadful wails. Thankfully, the guards had been posted outside the royal wing for the day, and were unaware of the sorrow that had seemingly claimed Princess Luna.
Celestia edged the door of Luna's room open, glancing about the still partially unfinished room. The mare of the night was curled up tightly atop her bed, clutching one of the remaining plushies that Scootaloo had left for her. Luna's bitter sobs were interspersed with tired whispering as she looked out into the fading sunlight. Nothing was visible to Celestia, and whatever Luna's mystery concern was it had the elder diarch worried enough to sneak up upon the younger to find out.
Luna jolted from contact with Celestia only once, her fur bristling for a time as Celestia's form gently slid onto the bed with her. Deftly, Luna tugged one of Celestia's wings across her barrel with her magic, and hugged it as tightly as she could. Celestia took the pain of Luna's action without complaint, letting her hold it tight. Celestia began to hum into Luna's ears as she wrapped her legs around the the younger alicorn and returned her hug with every inch of her body. Beneath her blankets, Luna blinked back her tears and did her best to hum along with Celestia, her tone breaking up despite her best efforts.
"What's wrong, Luna? Captain Shining Armor told me how you seemed distraught and worried last night. And here you are, so alone. Whatever it is, Luna, I'm here for you this time." Celestia nudged Luna ever so slightly for the younger mare's comfort. Her brilliant white plumage ruffled as it brushed against the exposed dark blue fur of the lunar diarch; blanketing her until she felt comfortable enough to talk.
"Tell us, Tia, do you believe that the Elements would imprison us in our entirety beside the dread spirit of the Nightmare? Even if our actions were not our own?" Luna's ears gradually crept from their splayed position of sorrow to one of desperate attentiveness as she spoke. Her breath grew deep as she nuzzled into her Tia for comfort, and straightened up against the elder diarch.
Celestia's mind wandered at Luna's question. She'd never given the matter thought. She couldn't have given it thought for fear of despairing in hopelessness and helplessness before Luna's condition. The Elements wouldn't have left her conscious with that... thing. Could not have, not for a thousand years. Nor could they have left her eternally dreaming. A thousand years of dreams would have been no better for Luna's sanity than a thousand years with the Nightmare. Celestia looked up and out into the sunset's last gleaming as it sprayed great bursts of light upon the contents of the room. She watched one of the last twilight's of an era come forth as she thought and tried to develop any form of explanation as to Luna's miraculous sanity. Her sanity, and her disturbing ease with which she adjusted to the modern era.
With no real firm guess, Celestia rested her chin against Luna's downy-soft mane. Whispers of her breath drew across Luna's ears as Celestia closed her eyes and spoke. "I don't know, Luna. Some part of me thinks that maybe, most likely you slept dreamless and unchanging in stasis. Slept and waited for your hero to save you from yourself."
Celestia opened her eyes once more and started in shock. Luna wasn't in her grasp, but she still knew the mare beneath her. She knew her name, and the question she had asked so long ago. The question that had-
"Why?"
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Celestia Invictus Morningstar watched it all burn, and was glad for it. They had taken her Luna, reduced her precious, beloved Luna to a wreck in her inattentiveness.
She would have the satisfaction of taking their entire worldly existence in exchange.
Smoke billowed, rugs burned at her hooves, tile melted at her approach. Flesh sizzled, on fire yet not dying. Screams beckoned to her ears as nobles ran for the merciful death of the cliffs.
"Somepony KILL ME!"
Treacherous wretches kneeling in fear before her, begging to be spared from her divine wrath. Failing, when one slips up and calls Luna 'The Spare'. Screams of the unworthy, as the most loathsome one is reduced to a soul within a skeleton and sentenced to kill his fellows.
Sparing not even their names, blotting them from having ever existed at all. Watching in enjoyment as victims pleaded and begged as they faded from existence due to having no concept at all.
Marching upon even the homes of their children, intent on wiping out any trace of their houses, staring down at the tiny blue unicorn filly that dared stand in her way so defiantly. Her eyes so much like her precious lost Luna's her-
"Why?"
Realization, despair, horror at the depths she has sunk to. Solar fire quenching as she falls to her knees and weeps for forgiveness; the soft touch of a filly's hooves hugging about her neck. The-
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-Celestia recoiled from Luna's form, staring accusingly at her. She'd taken the form of the young mare who had become her first faithful student, her healer and her own savior. The same ghostly blue mane, the same cutie mark, that notch in the tip of her horn from when-
Celestia shook the distractions from her head and spoke, pointing a hoof at Luna as she did. "How do you know of Moonbeam? How dare you take her form!"
"Because I was her! Or at least a piece of me, the smallest tiniest bit was. Just what the Elements could free without giving the Nightmare an avenue of escape! Just a piece, a shard of me. The Elements couldn't leave the world without me, or leave me without any way of living. Just enough of me to learn, to be a pony, to heal myself." Luna's initial outburst tapered off into a soft declaration of what she knew to be true as she stood before Celestia, cloaked in the form of Moonbeam. Celestia stepped back warily as Luna stepped forward, uncertain of how to react. Luna's eyes were still puffy and red with the tears she had shed, even as they soulfully gazed back into Celestia's own stare.
"How can you tell? Any question I ask you, any proof that you could give to explain could be just as easily resolved by the Elements taking some small remnant of her soul after death and letting her live on in you." Celestia hesitantly let Luna close the distance with her, keeping still as the notched horn touched her own. She trembled as she struggled to keep from leaning forward instinctively, to keep from grabbing up the pony before her that her heart swore was Moonbeam.
"You never did discover where she- where I came from- did you?" Luna reached forward and hugged Celestia once more as she spoke, nuzzling tight against the elder alicorn.
"No. I never could find her parents. Or any clan or house that thought she was theirs. That is why she became my-"
"-Faithful Student. More importantly, even moreso than her seemingly appearing from the Elements themselves, she was not normal. Look at her, look at how large she was compared to a normal mare. She was built more like an Earth Pony stallion in their prime than a unicorn mare." Luna broke contact, stepping back and baring her whole body to demonstrate the heavy build she wore.
Celestia's eyes narrowed as she inspected the form of her first Faithful Student, and realized how right Luna's words were. "Earth Pony in stature and heart, but Unicorn in her powers. You might be right, but..." Celestia found herself cut off as Luna hushed her with an unshod hoof gently resting across her shoulder.
"But she was also a healer. Not just in the Unicorn manner of spells and science, but in the Earth Pony way. Did not the very ground that she walked upon heal itself, did her hooves not press every last pain from your body? She knew instinctively what was wrong with you, and would only ask you what was wrong so that you could see it for yourself, didn't she?" Luna circled Celestia, sliding up behind her and massaging away at the old pains in the solar diarch's back; pains that had been untouched for hundreds of years.
Celestia almost felt like she was melting at the deft touches against her back. She stumbled over a thick fold in the rug, wobbling over to the now moonlit balcony in her attempt to remain upright. After catching her footing atop the white marble and straightening herself out once more, she turned back to Luna and wistfully replied at last, denying the lunar diarch's insinuations. "Luna, even if what you say is true, it does not mean that you were her."
"Nay, but it is a piece of the puzzle. I know what you shall say, your counterpoint of Fluttershy. But, she replaced her pegasus talents in nearly their entirety with the talents of those who reside upon her beloved ground." Luna returned to Celestia's side and kept at her gentle work. The moonlight seemed to brighten and almost glitter in her presence, as if awaiting its long-lost master.
"You're basing your evidence on circumstantial proof, Luna. You could still be only experiencing memories."
Luna's form glowed as she returned to her natural state; her wings sprouting forth from where they had been hidden as she soaked in moonlight. Turning, she stared wistfully towards Manehatten, where her sole desire in the world was likely performing. "So we thought at first as well."
"So, what convinced you otherwise? Wait, and why are you talking in third-pony again, Luna?" Celestia raised her voice only slightly as she belatedly picked up on the quirk in Luna's speech patterns.
"Because we speak not just for ourself, but for all ten of the shards of our soul as well. With them, we are one pony in many." Luna smirked slightly as she picked up the sounds of Celestia attempting to work out the math of what her lunar counterpart had just said. Turning, she tapped Celestia on the shoulder again, looking into the solar diarch's eyes as she continued. "But, no matter. We found somepony. Barely a babe by our timescales. Somepony we knew from our last shard. Somepony with the strength of an Earth Pony, the weather magics of a Pegasus, and the magics of the Unicorns."
"That's... improbable."
"Impossible, Tia. A pony could swap another race's talents for their own, or in certain rare cases emulate one at a time like your student could. But, none could do so as casually or instinctively as she could." Luna turned back to the distant glimmer on the horizon that was Manehatten. A stray thought began to call forth her latest shard, the mare of the moon taking her change slowly so that Celestia could watch and study her spell-work.
Celestia sat back against the white marble pillars separating the room and the balcony, thinking over what Luna had said. "Alright, so if what you say is true, then who are they, Luna?"
"The daughter of Moonstone the Magician, of Moonstone Lulamoon. MY daughter." Luna looked over her shoulder, once more clad in the form of Moonstone. She glanced up to her moon, and prayed to the Enkindler that somewhere Trixie was looking up as well. "Trixie Lulamoon..." A sigh with the weight of the world behind it came from her lips. ", Morningstar. My beautiful, courageous daughter who has believed that I have been dead for eleven, maybe twelve years now."
"Tell me, Luna, why does she think you are dead?"
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The sun was shining, the skies were clear and it was her precious Trixie's big day! Sure, the pesky accident that those two 'apple salespony' unicorn brothers had created upon the Ramps had slowed them down, but their appointment with Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns was a preferred time. They only had to show up before the end of business, as their exam was a 'floater'. Trixie happily hopped alongside Moonstone, supremely confident in her abilities. Ponies made way for the cheerful duo, warily respectful of the glares Moonstone gave them.
"Now remember, Trixie. Don't act like a jerk; don't disrespect the examiners or the students, m'kay? You're totally here with an opportunity I never got. So, the better you act, the more likely you are to get the 52 flavor ice cream cone later." Moonstone's normal icy stage behavior had softened for her adorable, affectionate daughter's taste; hiding behind the facade of a bubbly go-lucky middle-class mare. The acclaimed showmare beamed happily as her daughter squealed with delight and skipped with her along the sidewalk, heading slowly but surely for the castle annex.
Well, Moonstone skipped. Trixie bounced about her in a circle and happily chanted about her upcoming 'Super-Mega-Ultra-Deluxe Cone of 52 Flavors'. The performer was glad that at least one of them was unreservedly happy, as a sense of dread had been hanging about the showmare for the past week. A sort of sense that evil lurked behind her, and that everything was about to end.
As they began to pass through a portion of the royal garden complex as a shortcut, Moonstone decided to take one last moment to make certain her daughter really was as ready as she could be. With nopony around, it was safe enough to practice. "Honey, would you like to go through your routine one more time?"
"Alright, Momma. Ready?" Trixie stretched herself out, and concentrated; white dew developing in the grass at her hooves as she prepared to be the Great and Powerful Trixie once more.
"Alright, one ana two, ana-"
"Mommaaaaa!"
"Bouncing like a Pegasus high in the sky!"
Trixie hopped up onto the cloud she had generated, bouncing up and down with the beat. With each press of her hooves it rebounded higher up, and spat out rain, hail, snow, and lightning in turn.
"Swimming like a Seapony, coming out nice and dry!"
Trixie bounced higher than ever before, and dove into her cloud as it suddenly turned liquid. The little filly deftly swam through it with an unnaturally superb stroke, and hopped out it's other side. As she did, the water literally peeled from her form and left her drier than before she had dove in.
"Strong as an Earth Pony, and happier than a tree!"
Trixie thrust a hoof into the ground, pulling out a green acorn. As she held it up, it sprouted into an oak sapling before their eyes; its roots reaching past Trixie's hoof into the ground to anchor it. As the filly pulled away from it, it swayed towards her but remained steady.
"And even as a Unicorn, you scream 'Hey, lookit me'!"
Trixie reared up on cue, her horn setting off a spell of a thousand fireworks. She cast a colored magelight over her form to highlight herself as Moonstone laughed gleefully at her daughter's antics and scooped Trixie onto her back.
"Best! Kid! Ever!"
Trixie nodded before she jumped off and ran ahead, laughing all the way as she expected her mother to follow. The gasp from behind her brought her up short, however. Hesitantly, slowly, she turned back to her mother, eyes wide with worry. Her mother's eyes flickered between their normal selves and monstrously slitted ones as Moonstone clutched her head.
"Momma!" Trixie ran up, trying to grab one of Moonstone's hooves. Trying to hold onto her as the elder mare began to glow. The little filly choked in horror as her mother's hoof turned to blue sparkling mist in her grasp, and she rushed to take hold of Moonstone's barrel. "Momma, please don't LEAVE ME!"
-------------------------------------------------------
"She didn't think it was a trick?"
"No! I mean, if the flickering demonic eyes and noises of pain weren't enough of a clue, the fact that I would never practice a new trick on my daughter would have informed her! We both knew how dangerous experimentation with magic could be. No, I had a panel of experts who made certain that I wouldn't hurt anypony to go before." Luna sniffled as Celestia nuzzled against her once more, and hummed to herself to keep from falling into a greater rut.
"I remember now. I passed that reform myself after somepony rather silly managed to set my mane on fire. And to stop that one band of unscrupulous ponies from sawing others in half for their show." Celestia turned her gaze out upon the ever so distant glow on the horizon that marked Manehatten. She held a wing across Luna's form as the mare of the night let go of her shard and reverted back to her native alicorn form. "You know, you could make it there tonight. Explain it in person."
"We just returned, Tia. We couldn't find the theater she was performing at, that is why we have been so sorrowful."
"I could dispatch the Solar Guard with a royal summons for her, Luna. We could get her here and, " Celestia let out a sigh, "I don't know. You know her far better than I could." Celestia let Luna lean against her. The deep, slow breaths of somepony drifting lethargically towards sleep rattled against her barrel as Luna laid her head against Celestia's neck. The cool of the late summer evening soaked into their bones as the stars came out. Wind tussled at them, blowing up out of the Narrows with a lonesome moan.
"No, Tia. She would never forgive us. Managers don't like the implications of hiring somepony who has had a run-in with the Guard of any kind, for good or ill. Too much of a risk, they say. We think it's a load of-... well, nevermind. She loves being onstage, and we could not take that from her. We shall have to be subtle." Luna stiffed as a knock sounded upon her door. She had been expecting her visitor at hoof, and a small gauntlet of cantrips and illusions cleaned up her face for the meeting at hand.
"And who would that be, Luna?"
"The captain of our guard, Tia. Somepony subtle. We need to forge his armor shortly, but plain clothes work better for what we have in mind." Luna pushed off of Celestia, moving towards her door. A decree and a poster to identify Trixie floated from her desk, joining her as she quietly trotted to her door. She focused, bottling her fears and anguish up inside of her, for the sake of her new captain. No need for him to see her in her moment of weakness; she had Tia for that. She needed to be strong, for the foundations of her new guard.
Celestia felt that she was missing a very important point as Luna picked up a slight sway to her steps, and paused at her door to straighten her mane. "Wait a second, what do you mean 'somepony subtle'?"
"Princess, why exactly do you want black for the color of your guards? I feel a need to spout lines like 'I am altering the deal, beg that I don't alter it further' or 'I AM INVINCIBLE!'. Are you sure that accepting the post didn't give me megalomania?" Eaglehoof stepped into Luna's room as the princess opened the door for him. His manefro bobbled slightly as he twisted his head to peer at Celestia; his golden eyes narrowing in confusion. His jet black uniform seemed to make the colors of his coat pop as he stepped in; and Celestia wasn't entirely certain that she liked the way that his outfit seemed to hug every one of his curves so snugly.
"Well, somehow subtle isn't the word that comes to mind, Luna." Celestia inspected the pony that she would have sworn all the way to the sun had been the captain of her guard not even thirty minutes before. She wondered where Luna had hid the funnel to pour him into his new uniform.
Luna and Eaglehoof glanced over each other with a critical eye and wondered what Celestia was going on about. They shrugged simultaneously, before Eaglehoof elbowed her lightly in the ribs. The princess of the night led him to the mirror in the corner, poking him lightly in several places as she did. "Perhaps you are right, Tia. Captain, remind us to have a tailor loosen that uniform for you. Breathing is something that is not optional for mortals."
"I don't think you're getting what Princess Celestia is poking at, your majesty."
"No, no, please continue Luna. This is good!" Celestia grinned unabashedly at the spreading blush upon Luna's face as she caught Celestia's insinuations. The lunar diarch spluttered and grumbled at Celestia's light innuendo, struggling to keep from responding in the royal speaking voice.
"Yes. well ignore Princess Celestia, Captain. She is just projecting her own desires onto an innocent observation. This shall be your first assignment as captain of our guard. Find this mare, and discretely persuade her to return to the castle. Discretely, nopony must know who you are but her. No threats, bribes are acceptable. Understand?" Luna recovered quickly from Celestia's taunt, and passed her poster and decree into Eaglehoof's pockets with care. She turned to Celestia eagerly, only to be vaguely irritated that the elder alicorn failed to show even the slightest hint of a pinkish blush.
"Oh, I'm not that easy, Luna. So... how did you convince House Hooves to sign a new treaty with you over the one that they already had with me?" Celestia's words were even and measured as she kept the illusion over her face up in embarrassment.
"Pity. We offered them a better and less restrictive treaty. One that is renewable instead of trapping them forever in one form of agreement." Luna took her tiara and chest-piece from their stands as she spoke, letting Eaglehoof do his own talking as she dressed for an evening appearance.
"Military, political, or civil service. A good portion of the family was about ready to tell you to stuff it when it came to the portion that read that 'The eldest son shall forever be the head of the guard' part. Don't worry, though. I'll be as quiet as a mouse. A mouse carrying a thunderstorm, anyway." Eaglehoof saluted Celestia as she warily backed towards the door. The princess returned his sign of respect with a dose of decorum and a measured dip of her head.
"Very well, if you'll excuse me I think I hear my dinner burning." Celestia ducked out the door with nothing more to say, leaving the newly reminted captain with his sovereign.
A minute passed as they patiently waited for Celestia to be out of earshot, before bursting into raucous laughter. "Oh, Tia. You call US a bad liar!"
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Hurricane winds roared about Luna in the depths of Canterlot. The central fires of the Lunar Forge twisted themselves into a screaming funnel of white-hot fury at the touches of Luna's magic, imparting her power upon her work. The very rock beneath her hooves shuddered with the ongoing storm, shook by the roiling inferno she had worked the magma pit below into. Blacked out goggles protected her eyes as she stared into her terrible and magnificent work as she forged.
Armor plates as perfect as the sun and moon shaped themselves under the influence of her magic as her 'lunar steel' cooled slowly. Her starry mane whipped under the power of her winds, brushing at something upon her back. Whomever it was, or whatever it was, Luna did not care. Any mortal foalish enough to enter the central chamber when it was fully lit would be incinerated nearly instantly in the heat. Nay, more likely it was something blown free of the wall by the winds.
Luna squeezed at the plates of armor before her, condensing their matter into even tougher and denser forms. She could almost swear that somepony was trying to yell something into her ears or tug upon her mane as she worked, and that the weight that lightly brushed her back had moved up. She shook her head, wondering just how long she would be haunted by the echoes of her past. If she was hearing voices, she probably needed therapy.
BzzzzzZZZZZT! "HEY! Luna!"
The plates of Eaglehoof's new armor nearly fell back into the lava from which they had been claimed as Luna jolted in fright from the sudden noise in her ears. Luna looked left, then right over her shoulders and only saw a patch of orange and purple with buzzing wings uncomfortably perched against her neck. She nodded as she passed it off for a moment, having not caught on yet. Coat recognition flared in her mind and her four winds came to a crashing halt as she tried to cool the room down to a tolerable level as quickly as possible.
"SCOOTALOO! What are you doing here?!" Luna shouted in shock as she partially turned around to face the foal. Other than looking oddly... tanned, she seemed none the worse for wear after having been in a room with an ambient temperature of at least a thousand degrees.
Scootaloo took off her own pitch-black goggles, and looked at Luna with a lonely gaze as she spoke. "Well, I got my homework done, and Mom was busy with your paperwork, and Cadance was working with Shining Armor on something, and Tenderhoof just got picked to be the head of Mom's guard, and I'm just so bored!" The pleading tone of the filly's voice plucked at Luna's heartstrings; convincing her that there were things more important than armoring the captain of her guard.
After this, she'd talk to her Tia. Luna promised herself that she would make Tia see reason, to not make the same mistakes all over again no matter how well intentioned her actions were. Scootaloo would get the childhood she missed. The lunar diarch picked Scootaloo up in a field of her magic; holding her in place as she funneled the remaining heated air from the room in a whistling gust. With everything becoming chilly rapidly from the sudden cooldown; Luna set Scootaloo down upon the grooved floor and knelt to look her in the eyes. "Oh, Scootaloo. It was very brave of you to keep us company. But it was also very foalish. When we work, this room heats up to hundreds of degrees or more at times. Not only that, but there is the danger of catching a bit of molten metal in your coat, or the horrors in the dungeon passages."
Scootaloo's ears fell with her expression as Luna scolded her. She hadn't even considered that keeping Luna company might have been dangerous. "But I just wanted to help. How hot is 'hundreds of degrees' anyway, and why are the basements so dangerous if nopony has ever said anything about them?"
"It is hot enough that we are curious as to why you did not immediately turn into the Incredible Flaming Pony, Scootaloo." Luna floated her partially completed work upon a cooling rack; unsteadily dangling from its pegs and hooks. With her attention no longer divided, she could at last devote her full attention to her third favorite pony in the world. As she did, memories rushed through her mind of the various horrors she had encountered recently as she cleaned the catacombs of the remnants of Discord's rule hidden in the deep, ghastly shadows. "And more importantly, there are things, terrible things that would think nothing of gobbling up even Tia in a single bite down here."
Scootaloo gasped slightly, edging closer to Luna as she looked towards the door. "Why does nopony ever tell me this stuff?"
"Because you are a little foal, who should have dreams of joining the Wonderbolts or becoming a star. Nay, never should they be a nightmare of horrors that come from the darkest points of the world to gobble you up." Luna extended her wing protectively over Scootaloo as she spoke; laughing slightly as the filly shivered and clutched her leg in return. "Nothing shall happen, Scootaloo. We are here with you, and we cleaned out the monsters a month before. Is there anything you would like to talk about?"
Scootaloo perked up at Luna's reassurance. Pulling herself off the roughly patterned floor, she looked around the room. "Anything?" Her eyes wandered from the vaulted ceiling high above, tracing down the walls of solid rock until they caught sight of a set of iridescent shards in cases upon the wall. "What are those?"
Luna traced Scootaloo's hoof across the room, recognizing what she had pointed out. "Ah, the remaining shards of the Rainbow of Light. The ones that we could never finish reforging into the Elements of Harmony." Luna wistfully removed the shards from their wall cases as she spoke. Under the influence of her magic, they floated down and began to orbit the pair in a brightly colored constellation. Mare and foal found themselves covered in glittering arrays of multicolored light from the crystals all about them.
Scootaloo gasped in amazement, touching a shard as it passed by her. Energy raced through her form at the nudge; warm spots making themselves known on her head, wings, and hooves as she pulled away from it. She almost glowed, or at least that was how it looked from her own point of view. Every shade that adorned her body seemed more vivid and powerful than they had ever been before while under the influence of the fragment. As she slunk back against Luna, it rose up and rejoined the others in the glistening orbit of light. Scootaloo gaped at the electric feeling running through her body, and tried to form a coherent question. "You... forged the Elements? But I thought Mom found them!"
Luna shook her head at that; hoisting Scootaloo up to her back. The various shards and fragments of Light were wisked back into their cases and sealed against their deterioration for a darker day once more. "Nay. When Discord shattered the Rainbow in our struggle against him, we forged the Elements each from a single shard of the Light. In doing so, we saved the world."
"So what are you saving the rest for, Luna? I would'a figured you would make a super-awesome sword out of them or something." Scootaloo laid down atop Luna as she spoke; resting in relative quiet there, sprawled out reversed and against Luna's back.
Luna shook her head, wondering where Scootaloo had gained such a strange and amusing idea. A Sword of Light? Nonsense. The doors to her forge were thrown open before her by a show of telekinetic might as she solemnly spoke. "Nay, though we have been tempted to use them for petty purposes. We wonder, how much of the country's history do you know?"
"Only a little more than the books. Mom doesn't like to talk about the old days, and even when she does she leaves stuff out. Why, you wanna tell me?" Scootaloo turned around on Luna's back so she could lean against the lunar diarch's neck. The dark halls took time for her eyes to adjust to as they walked along; with the only source of illumination being Luna's mane. Creaking, the doors of the forge shut behind them ominously as they trotted towards the staircase.
Luna enigmatically smiled as she began to climb the spiral stairway towards the surface. It was just barely wide enough for a skilled pegasus to fly within it, and perfect for what she wanted to do. "Perhaps we will. That is, if you can hang on and talk at the same time."
Scootaloo swiftly looked all around, wondering what Luna was talking about. All too many memories of her mother about to do something completely crazy came to mind, and she worriedly tightened her grip on Luna's neck until it was nearly choking. "Why do I need to hang on?"
"Because I'm not going to tell you about history, I'm going to show it to you," Luna spoke once more, her voice sounding strange to Scootaloo's ears as she did.
The little filly looked down and realized that Luna's fur had darkened to nearly jet black; and that her mane had wove into a wavy riot of blues and greens that spilled down the diarch's neck. And she realized in a moment of horror, that Luna's horn had disappeared from view. Another shard, but this one was a crazy pegasus. "Oh no."
Luna flapped her wings once, rising from the ground in a grand billow of dust. She smiled happily as an old and familiar thrill came upon her. She knew this, and she was about to enjoy herself. "What's the matter, Scootaloo? Afraid that being majestic and awesome doesn't run in the family?"
"No, afraid that crazy does!" Scootaloo's shout of surprise trailed off as Luna craned her neck and launched.
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Tenderhoof polished his new Captain's stripes in the convenient mirror, enjoying the bliss he received from their golden shine. To hear that Eaglehoof had asked for and had been granted a transfer was strange, and worrying for a moment when he had first heard. Of course, then he had realized that Eaglehoof hated politics. Between that, and the chance to be known as the first Lunar Stallion, oh well. Tenderhoof was just fine with that.
Tenderhoof turned to his new subordinates, getting ready to address them as part of the change in command. Before he could even think of something to say or open his mouth, a yell of surprise stopped him in his tracks. Coming from down the hall, he turned his head to trace it to the source.
Black hooves picked themselves up with less than a second to spare in order to avoid hitting his head. As he hit the deck, he could swear that a small voice managed to shout out a soft "Sorry!" as whoever that had been had blown by. Wind rushed through the hall in the pegasus' wake, kicking up light papers and other debris as the speedster banked around the corner and disappeared beyond.
"What. The Hay. Was That?"
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Celestia had ordered donuts for a late night paperwork binge. Again. The lonely courier had been taking her similar snacks every night for the past two weeks as the princess continued her work on filing paperwork for the mysterious new 'Princess Luna'. The plate he balanced upon his head was loaded with the solar diarch's favorite fattening goodie varieties; a special order kept in the palace refrigerator made by Pony Joe's.
But that was all fine. He smiled, knowing he was going to get yet another chance to peep at her magnificent body again. Those luscious curves, that ample flank that bubbled all the way out, that sensual scream of excitement....
What?
Wind nearly bowled him over in the passing of a black and orange blur. Two hooves nabbed the pieces off the top of his pile as he wobbled and struggled to keep it all together. As he set the plate upon the ground for it's own sake, the blur shot out of an open window into the night skies beyond, and disappeared into the darkness. Forlornly, he looked at his delivery, wondering who would have the audacity to steal donuts from Princess Celestia herself.
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Scootaloo clamped herself to Luna, hoping that she could hang on against the windstream from their speed. Her muffled squee of excitement as they buzzed the city rattled against the donut she had bitten down on in her mouth. With the tugging of gravity against the pair's forms, they looped out over the city wall and dove into the air above the plains far below. Spray from the great Canterlot Waterfalls soaked them both as they hugged against the edge of the city's platform; the dampness slicking their manes back as they flew.
Luna felt the little filly's gaze through her movements, and followed it to look at the mighty structures that supported the city. "Hard to believe that the only reason we built Canterlot is because 'Tia wanted an architectural challenge to distract herself with!"
Scootaloo blinked, needing to rub the stinging spray from her eyes as the pair banked and dove into the support superstructure of the city. A few second's chewing cleared her meal from her mouth so that she could speak; the filly leaning in even closer so that Luna could hear her. "Wait, Mom built Canterlot like this because she was bored? I thought we had just mined the mountain out from under it!" She looked about with a sense of wonder as she realized that she likely knew far less than she could even suspect about the world and what had gone on so long ago.
Luna slowed down so that she could hold a better conversation with her passenger. With graceful and elegant strokes of her wings, she slid with practiced and expert ease through the columns and supports, speaking to Scootaloo all the while. "No, the mines are recent as far as I know! She built it to distract her mind from the war that tore down the old world!"
"What war?!"
"The war!" Luna tucked in her wings for a burst of speed as she arced beneath the city, diving into The Narrows through a tiny gap. She could feel Scootaloo clutching her tighter in reflex as they began whistling down the notch canyon behind Canterlot. The broken mirror-surfaced walls of the rip in the earth cast nauseating and horrific reflections back upon them as they passed; what little of them remained amidst where landslides had partially collapsed the cliffs. Luna spoke up as she faintly recalled the dark days of the decades before the founding of Equestria. "The war that burned this terrible scar into the world; that wiped out most of ponykind from existence and left us all in primitive misery!"
Scootaloo worked her mouth in silence as they at last alighted atop an outcropping of rocks a few miles down the course of the canyon. Her voice was shrill in surprise and horror at the implications as she squeaked out her response. "A SPELL made this place?"
"Nay. No spell, but a terrible weapon of technology and knowledge. Only twelve hundred years ago, now. I- well, my full self was only forty years old when it was carved. A monstrous chariot of the skies was attempting to kill me, one of the enemies of all civilization." Luna knelt to allow Scootaloo off, reflecting in melancholy upon those dark and terrible days as she did. She had taken them better than her Tia, or Starswirl had. At first, anyway; but only because she could remember fragments of them at best.
Beside her, Scootaloo looked at the mirrored surfaces of perfectly cut stone, and how the canyons stretched into the distance; and eventually... to the sea. It was incomprehensible how something could have kept chasing Luna for so long; terrifying in some ways to her. "But all the history books say this place has been like this since... I dunno, before Canterlot was made! What happened, how did everypony forget?"
"Besides Discord targeting the scholars, the keepers of knowledge and anypony who might pass on the old tales to their youngers? Or the Wendingos targeting them for their bitterness at the world, or the Demons of Air and Darkness making deals with them that would destroy more than they restored?" Luna's cynical and slow list of the ways that knowledge had passed from the world disturbed Scootaloo as the lunar diarch laid down near the edge of the cliff.
Luna looked back to her innocent companion; uncertain of how to explain further as she laid against the smooth and glass-like rock and pulled Scootaloo against her with a wing. Her colors slowly faded back to her deep shades of blue and purple as she released her shard and prepared her spells. "But, in the end, we think that the only reason that Tia did not correct the records is because she feels... guilty. Neither she, nor Starswirl ever gave us the whole truth on the matter, but we have reasons to believe she was the key point of failure. We think that she was the one who was to warn everypony of the Dark Reaper's coming, and failed."
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Their home burned. Tirek's chariot hovered over the ancient city, raining death upon the inhabitants within. Hateful power tainted with dark magic burned away everything before it, cutting into one of the great sky-towers as it swept a swath across the urban landscape. Metal groaned and gave way with a shriek that could be heard for miles as the massive complex collapsed upon itself, and the tens of thousands of ponies below. The city that had been their home for as long as Luna could remember, and all of her friends were burning, being slaughtered by Tirek in there. And she couldn't help them.
Her home had already collapsed, a pile of rubble stretching across blocks and blocks of development. Her school had been burned to ash, her friend's homes jagged bits and pieces amongst the towers of steel and glass that were slowly shattering under the steady assault.
Luna buried her head into her brother's side, using Starswirl to protect herself from the horrible images. From the bluff they all watched upon, the screams of the dead and dying couldn't reach them. No, only the sickening rumble of the sky-towers falling, the crackling and explosions of the power stations shorting out, and the rushing roar of the dam in the mountain valley beyond failing could be heard from so far away. A little bit of Luna was glad that the wind was at least blowing the other way. Just the sounds were making her queasy; the smell would make her lose her lunch all over her brother.
Starswirl stroked her back as he stoically watched on, his armored hoof rubbing circles between her wings. Even though he flinched at every building collapse, he kept watch on the city as a tribute to everypony he had to leave behind. He whispered into Luna's ears as he leaned his head down against her in a brotherly nuzzle. "It'll be okay Luna. I promise you. One day this will all be over, and the sun will be shining; and we will all live quietly without fear again."
Luna looked up past Starswirl's combat-armored form so she could plaintively look into his eyes. Her voice cracked with sadness as she continued to embrace him. "Will I ever see my friends again?"
Starswirl shook his head, heart-breakingly denying her. "No, Luna... I don't think so. Just like I'll never see my soldiers again, or... I see your point. But things will get better. I promise." Starswirl scooped Luna up in his forelegs and hugged her to himself; feeling her grabbing him by his equipment harnesses and hugging him back. He looked over her shoulder at Celestia, waiting for her to say something.
She just kept staring off into the distance at the destruction; her pink mane fluttering in the ghastly winds as she forlornly held her vigil. She was still clad in her work attire, having teleported home as soon as she had seen that she was far too late to stop Tirek. The ripped suit still fluttered in places from where she had been caught near blasts, blood dripping from her cuts and soot staining her face.
She was the only reason they were still alive. She had abandoned her post for her family. She'd taken Luna from her bed with only a few things from the room. Starswirl had been grabbed out from under his squadron's collective noses shortly afterwards. Celestia blinked the great and terrible tears from her eyes, trying to commit her home's fate to memory. Trying to convince herself that there was nothing she could have done.
Tirek himself broke away from the city; his massive sky-chariot leaving in a crackle of angry lightning and a howl that chilled the soul. The other four Dark Reapers he had brought with him remained and continued to destroy the great capitol city. Nothing could stand before them, any force that had been mustered was easily swept aside by the great arcs of red energy projected from their monstrously huge sky chariots.
Starswirl picked Luna up, setting her on his back between the weapons mounted upon his shoulders. With a tap of his hoof against the rocky outcropping, he activated the controls of the small family sky-chariot so that they could depart. His voice echoed against the barren rock and into Celestia's ears in an attempt to reason with her. "We need to go. The general should have the annihilation bomb ready to activate by now. If we're this close, we'll die with the city."
Celestia gave Starswirl and his sister a sad, tired look. The soldier instincts within Starswirl flinched at the resignation she wore, suspecting that she was about to do something insane. Celestia's words confirmed his suspicions as she began walking towards the cliff's edge. "Go. Save yourself and Luna. I'm not worth it, and I don't deserve salvation, Starswirl."
Luna nearly lept from Starswirl's back to tackle her; stopped only by the same telekinetic grip that held Celestia in place as well. She screamed and kicked and tried to get to her Tia, tried to stop her. "Don't you leave me!"
"She's right. Our old world is dying. We need you. She needs you. I know someplace on the western continents where we can hide for now." Starswirl held Luna up in his grip; weaponizing her tearful expression as he pleaded with Celestia. He held himself together as best he could; keeping calm and rational with his training. A heavy rumble emerged from the city as several more sky-towers fell, and he stepped closer to try and connect. "Luna needs somepony. I don't think she could bear to be without you forever.
Celestia nodded, knowing what he meant. Reluctant steps slowly led her back to the sky chariot; turning her away from her home that she had so utterly failed. The heavy rumble hadn't ceased, growing stronger with each passing moment as the ground quaked with it's noise. The trio dove for their vessel as the bluff began to crumble and collapse under the assault; the chariot hovering upon it's enchantments as the ground fell out from under it.
Five pillars of fire launched themselves from amongst the ruins, ascending upwards into the darkening smoke-filled skies. Silver shapes stood at the tips of each of the spears of fire, a sight that would be mesmerizing were it not for the peril that the family found themselves in. Starswirl wriggled and flailed his hooves in midair as he clung to the side of the chariot. As the ground had fallen out from under his hooves, he had thrown Luna into the enclosed vehicle with a squak of protest and leapt for safety himself. Celestia landed in the driver's seat with an awkward flare of her wings; ramming into the side of the passenger spaces as she did. Starswirl began to slip as the chariot jostled back and forth from the movements; his strength waning even as he called for help.
Teeth nabbed the grip on the back of his armor vest, hauling him bodily into the vehicle. As it wobbled, his hind hooves found purchase against the metal sides and he crawled over Celestia in a dash to take over the controls, Luna cheering all the way as he did. The armored doors slammed shut as he slapped a button and activated all the enchantments; throwing the vehicle into a steep turn to escape the coming fire.
Celestia grumbled as she strapped herself into a passenger seat, rubbing a hoof against her head where Starswirl had planted a hoof in his scramble. "You're welcome, by the way. And you're right about-"
"Not now! They activated the Exodus Protocol! He's about to fire, we've got to-" Starswirl, and the memory faded in a burst of light brighter than the sun.
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"We do not remember how long we were out for. We had remained unbuckled when the blast hit, and..." Luna trailed off as she watched the fading orb of memories dissipate. Beyond it, the darkening moonlit skies faintly twinkled, as if calling to her and begging her to give her love to them once more. Scootaloo buzzed her wings, letting Luna know that she was still waiting for further knowledge. "-Oh! Well, we were just a foal then, even younger than you are. Even the memories that were not bashed from our head with that concussion are faint at best. We suffered so much in that era."
Scootaloo sighed as she let her expectations drop. An idle hoof kicked a rock off the crumbling edge of the canyon; her attention diverted slightly towards listening to it clatter against the walls on it's fall into the deep abyss. She couldn't see or hear it hit bottom, though. The canyon was supposedly a mile or two deep in places, and the drainage river for Canterlot filled the rift's floor. Scootaloo didn't know what to think; the first surviving record in Equestrian history was the unification of the three tribes only a hundred years before Luna fell. Questions bubbled up in the little pegasus, roiling in her mind and filling her with a need to know. "So, Luna. Um, what race did Starswirl really belong to? I mean, there's you, and Mom. And, you're both alicorns, so wasn't he all wingy-hornish-awesome?"
A gust of wind buffeted the duo from behind as a third party swooped in to hover above them. "Unicorn. Just plain, ordinary unicorn, no matter how long he lived." They turned to see Celestia's tired form looking down upon them as she gently descended to the ground. Hooves choreographically touched down with practiced precision simultaneously; the golden boots upon her hooves swallowing up any sound in their cloud linings. Celestia leaned against Luna, sliding her head against the younger diarch in a casual hug of greeting.
She pulled away after a few moments, looking at the still unpreened feathers in Luna's wings. "Though, as for your own recent performance, oh I don't know. I was thinking about giving you an A+ for your technical performance, style, and audacity; but a C- in stealth. You were caught by Tenderhoof when you ran him over. And, you stole my donuts. Nopony steals my donuts." Celestia growled playfully, giving a mock scowl of disapproval to her companions.
Luna and Scootaloo looked at each other sheepishly; both chuckling nervously at the suggestion. Scootaloo stepped around Luna, speaking up as she knew just how terrible the lunar diarch and former element of honesty was. "We don't know anything about that, Mom."
Celestia perked an eyebrow upwards, stepping closer and bowing down to look Scootaloo in the eyes. "Funny. I seem to remember an awfully distinctive pair of ponies with donuts in their mouths. Why, they were even passing my study's window at well over two hundred in the middle of what is supposed to be the Safety Low-Speed Castle Airspace. Black pegasi aren't exactly rare, but one with an orange filly clinging to her with the same stickiness that a certain pair of foals likes to cling to ceilings with? Subtle was not what I would describe it as."
Luna facehoofed, to Scootaloo's exasperation. The lunar diarch stepped around Scootaloo to address Celestia directly. "Alright, Tia. You caught us. But, it should have been you taking time with her instead of letting us lead her astray."
Celestia pondered what Luna had said, wondering how she could have possibly spent more time with Scootaloo under her current constraints. Wearily, she spoke on the matter; certain that she could have done no more. "I don't see how I could. I've done everything in my power to lighten my workload already, I just have so much paperwork to fill out for you, Luna."
It was always hard to just be plain old Celestia to her family. The solar diarch found herself struggling ever more each day since Luna had returned. All she wanted was to give them a normal life. She didn't want them to know of all the kind lies she had told in order to repair Luna's public image, or of how she had fought to keep Scootaloo separate from her own public web of contacts. She just wanted the two to be able to bond, and live, and not worry about the insanity that she forced herself through to keep society running without dragging them into it.
Luna smiled much like a shark might, the corners of her lips curling devilishly upwards in forewarning of her intentions. "Very well. We shall make it simple for you. As your paperwork concerns us, we shall claim it in our name, FOR THE GLORY OF EQUESTRIA! Onwards, we say, to quill and pen!" Luna smirked for Scootaloo's sake and to keep up her facade of a healing princess; giving Celestia just enough time to realize she had been outmanuvered. Luna glowed with a pale lunar light, and vanished in a beam of light that arced towards the castle.
Scootaloo gasped and shivered at the thought of somepony who liked paperwork. "She- but I.... She likes that stuff?"
"No, I don't think so. That was probably her trying to distract us. She has a hard time dealing with the pity of others, or trusting them. So she puts on a brave face and deals with it alone. That's what she did before." Celestia groomed her daughter with magic as she spoke. The soot gathered into a dingy black ball above them as it was swept from Scootaloo, dispersing in a great puff of smoke as Celestia wistfully plotted.
"Dunno. You sure it was her pain she was dealing with? You're looking all lonely and grumpy." Scootaloo wondered what was eating her mother up; considering whether or not she should ask some more about the old days while the elder diarch was dealing with Luna's issues.
Just learning a teeny bit about how they had come to Equestria; finding out what life had been like before Discord and Tirek and the Demons her Mom had said she had fought. For all that her Mom needed to be analyzed and studied upside the head, Scootaloo still had something she had to do for Luna. "You know, since Luna feels that nopony loves her, wouldn't it help out if she started doing magic shows once a week? Think of all the fans that would be cheering her on!"
Celestia frowned as she picked Scootaloo up with her magic for a flight back to the castle. "So, why do you say that?"
" 'Cause I already know about the whole 'soul-shard' mumbo-jumbo you two are keeping to yourselves. And, since she was Honesty and Loyalty, well, you know." Scootaloo gestured with her hooves and wings, trying to get the point across to her mother.
"No, no I don't."
Scootaloo grumbled and tried to put it into words for her mother, resignedly squeezing out her idea. "Since she IS Moonstone, or at least a part of her, she will be honest with herself. And, think of how loyal her fans are! They're all completely nuts!" Scootaloo waved her forehooves in the air to emphasize her last sentence. Every theater in town had been blockaded ever since Luna had shown her shard's face with ponies lining up from all over begging for Moonstone to show up.
Celestia hummed in thought, flaring her wings for takeoff as she did. Tenatively, she decided it was worth a shot as she spoke. "I'll see about it, Scootaloo. Very insightful." The whumpt of Celestia's wingbeat filled the air as she took to the skies; leisurely gaining altitude for the journey home.
"Yeah, I've got my times. Say Mom, Luna mentioned 'Demons of Air and Darkness'. She said they had something to do with making this place, what's up with that?" Scootaloo buried herself into her mother's mane as she spoke; only her head free of the flowing solar hair. Given the way Celestia nearly dropped out the skies at the mention of their existence, it had been a good idea.
Powerful wingstrokes hauled them back to altitude as Celestia glared over her shoulder at her innocently smiling daughter. She stiffened her wings as they caught a thermal, preparing for the long glide back to Canterlot airspace. Irritating questions posed themselves in Celestia's mind, demanding answers. "What did Luna tell you about them?"
"Not much. Only that they made this canyon trying to kill her, and that they came after you beat up Tirek and did, well whatever it is you do to bad ponies that try to kill everypony. And I know the history books have only a footnote on them as part of their coverage on Discord, so you must have messed up again." Scootaloo poked and prodded her mother verbally, hoping to get something out of her. Clouds tickled them both as they ascended upon a thermal into the night skies as the awkward silence stretched on.
Celestia hopped upon a cloud high above the castle so that they could talk privately. "I don't know where you got this silly idea that I hide my mistakes-"
"Luna. Discord. The Dark Reapers and whatever you were doing when they invaded that Luna says makes you feel that you were responsible. Nothing big like blaming Cadance for stealing the cookies from Twilight's cookie jar or something."
"-Ah. I see. Well, no. They just got swallowed up, historically speaking, and became associated with a phenomenon of Discord's rule. They really had nothing to do with him, but I gave up on correcting my little ponies a long time ago." Celestia refrained from Luna's fancy illustrated illusions of the past as she spoke, instead quietly laying out history as she let Scootaloo slide off of her onto the cloud. "They were beings of literal shadow. They flew about, supposedly granting the wishes of 'worthy ponies'. In reality, they believed that chaos and fighting and hurting others brought about growth."
She settled Scootaloo into her lap before her; and sighed as she remembered the dark years. She whispered, leaning down over Scootaloo's shoulder to keep her voice as low as possible. "They would say that you owed them 'favors'; and they would collect them in ways that further separated everypony from each other. And their chariots... Imagine a spider of darkest darkness, screaming at you from inside your own head and you might begin to imagine what they were."
Scootaloo quaked at the thought, shivering in her mother's lap. She hated spiders, and now she knew why her Mom did. At least she didn't really need to sleep that night, since it was the start of a weekend. "Mom. I think I know why I didn't need to know."
"They're gone, Scootaloo. They vanished under the power of the Elements, and they will not be coming back. I promise. Now, how about a board game at home?" Celestia grinned as her daughter perked back up at the thought of beating the jewelry off of the solar diarch in yet another board game.
The old nightmares and horrors were gone. Even with all that went on in the modern world; and the short time she had with her daughter, she was at rest. She had so much to share with Scootaloo. And there would be no more shadows, no more reaping of souls, and especially no more of that bastard Discord. She was sure of it.
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Blueblood held up the sample of orange yarn to the light once more, pondering whom it's matching pony might be. House Blueblood had served as Celestia's moral guardians for centuries, and it was his obligation to ensure that she remained unheart-broken. The family's newest edition of their guide and reference primer on the royal court was laid open before him on his coffee table. Hopefully somewhere within it's many pages and pages of dossiers was the identity of Celestia's courtier, whom the royal diarch had clearly become deeply smitten with.
Within his secret study, his family's products of their many years of research and dedication mocked him, daring him to live up to the rest of them. Bookshelf after bookshelf of contingencies and plans in case of any eventuality in dealing with the solar diarch filled the cramped space, each begging him to crack them open and inspect the plots within. None of them would be any good if he could not identify whom it was that he was actually dealing with.
Blueblood groaned as he inspected the sheer thickness of his current book. It had everypony from the highest noble to the lowliest family members of the castle servants in it, organized by name and title. The sheer volume of entries made him wish for his aunt's strongest drink as he sniffed his shot glass of grape juice in frustration; wondering why he had swore off alcohol.
A snarky little corner of his mind laughed at him, reminding him that he had sworn it off upon his aunt's name and upon the honor of the Order of Celestial Compasses. So, he sipped his grape juice in the dark silence of his sparsely furnished lair and prayed that Celestia would strike the headache from between his eyes. Preferably without taking his head with it, he mentally added as an afterthought.
The gentle fire in the fireplace was his only illumination, its flickering light adding to his irritation as he flipped to the next profile in his book. 'Sunbeam'. Or at least, that was the pseudo-name that Celestia's secretary went by, since no pony by that name could be proven to be alive. So, yet another name found itself added to the list of suspects linked to the thread; possibly linked to Celestia's recent erratic behavior. With matches including complimentary colored and near-matching coats, his list was mercifully short. Sixty names out of the 3000 or so closely enough linked to Celestia to be on the order's senses wasn't a bad narrowing down.
Blueblood wondered if he would have to intervene should he locate the stallion (or mare) involved with his beloved aunt. It was the order's mandate to keep Celestia's heart from being broken by a mortal, and to keep her from falling astray. If the relationship was benign and truthful, he supposed he could let it slide. His page turned, a young orange foal's face staring up at him from the-
The Doom-Bells at his door ominously thundered in the night; heralding a new visitor. A muffled curse died in Blueblood's throat as he slammed the guide shut upon his list. Rising to his hooves, he dashed across the pine-paneled floor past the shelves that filled his secret study towards the front door.
Skidding across tile towards the more traditionally opulent front hall was nearly the end of him as he crashed into the pillars in the foyer at high speed. As Blueblood's heart raced neck and neck with his thoughts, he did his best to slip on the face of a drunken dullard and slicked his mane back. Doom-Bells rang as his doorbell was abused once more and three sharp raps of a hoof on wood cracked in the relative silence of the hall.
"Coming, just a moment!" Blueblood clamped down on the spasms of his heavy breaths, regulating them down into a beat approaching that of a stallion having just come away from a rather vigorous night in bed. The three raps echoed in the hall once more, and Blueblood at last opened the door.
The stranger before him stood in an all-black suit, with a slick mane and tail slimily completing the look of a lawyer. Or worse. Strangely, Blueblood uneasily realized that he couldn't make out the colors of the disturbing figure's fur coat; or any further details beyond the vague outlines of his suit and face. With a voice like the tendrils of a demon of Tartarus, the stranger spoke and riveted Blueblood's attention with his words. "Oh, I must apologize for interrupting, Prince Blueblood. My associates have rather unusual business habits. They insisted that I drop by at this rather late hour, and ask a few questions for a survey they're performing. That is, of course, if you're interested."
Blueblood's hackles began to rise at something in the stallion's nature. Maybe it was the way he seemed to soak up the miniscule ambient light of the stars; or the seemingly soulless eyes of a predator upon the stranger's face; or perhaps something else altogether telling him that he needed to run far, far away. Blueblood swallowed back the slight bile in his throat, and asked what was foremost in his mind. "So, who are you?"
The strange stallion grew agitated as Blueblood's gaze bored into him, and beyond into the blackness behind him. "My associates would prefer that I not answer that question at this time. Instead, what do you want, Blueblood? Out of everything on this little rock, what do you desire most of all?" The stranger returned the favor of a question, seemingly eager to hear every little thing that Blueblood had to say. Eager to divine the prince's every secret and inner thought, or so it seemed.
Blueblood realized something was terrifyingly wrong about the situation. Whispers harshly slithered around him in the night. Dark shapes at the edges of his vision moved, inspecting him. Old family tales struck home as he looked at the figure before him with his magic, and beheld the writhing black miasma. Blueblood yelped in utter terror, slamming the door behind him as he readied a teleport spell to run as far away from the dread figure as he could.
"Smart stallion. Never had that reaction before." The mysterious stallion cocked his head, listening to the insectile noises of his associates as they made their decisions. "I like it. Shall we see the griffon ambassador afterwards? I thought so."