//------------------------------// // confessions and secrets // Story: A royal Respite // by Paradise Oasis //------------------------------// Confessions and secrets "So let me get this straight...." Teddy snorted, trying to hold back his disgust. "You came here to try and forget about your problems at home and have fun, and your sister keep shoving your problems back home into your face over and over?" "That's right, boys!" Celeste snorted, downing her fifth milkshake. "I've been tryin' ta enjoy my time here, but Lunette is giving nothing but grief!" The three colts and distraught filly were sitting at the malt shop, while a fill-in filly served them milkshake after milkshake. As Celeste told them the sad events of her time in Coltonville (omitting certain details, of course), while Slipknot and the others proceeded to grow angrier and angrier. "Wow, I can't believe your sister would do something like that." Lance snorted in disbelief. "I don't know, it just really doesn't seem like Lunette at all." "Believe it, Lance!" Celeste told him shakily, getting a buzz from all the sugar in the shakes. "I know you don't want to think of your favorite filly as an angry complainer, but the truth can sometimes be hard to digest." "Sounds like a very shallow pony, to me!" Slipknot snorted, downing the chocolate milkshake he had been nursing. "To turn a vacation like yours, into such an emotional disaster for you." Celeste didn't know what to make of this young colt, who seemed very quiet and thoughtful. This is the pony who loved Starlight, who had turned her mane into a disaster out of jealousy over Ace. It was odd to think that this honest looking young colt, was after the filly who was 'competition' for a pony she wasn't even after. "Slipknot... I haven't seen you around the school at all." Celeste snorted, downing another shake. "So what's your story?" "I usually keep to myself, actually." The quiet colt was taken aback by the filly's sudden bluntness, but responded quickly. "My family moved to Coltonville a few years ago. I'm really good at looking at other pony's problems, and tying different things together to come up with a solution." "Yeah, ol' slipknot here was Starlight's advisor, when she was class president!" Teddy chuckled. "He was there to solve her every problem." "Oh, stop teasing him, Teddy!" Lance snorted. "But yeah, Slipknot here has always been here to help us out... but he's there even more for Starlight!" "Wow, you really care about her!" Celeste whinnied, coming out of her painful haze. "Don't you, Slipknot?" "I-I'd rather not talk about that, Miss Celeste." Slipknot snorted. "But perhaps I could help you with your problem with your sister, hm?" "I very much doubt it!" The white filly snorted, crossing her hooves. "Lunette and I have been at each others throats longer than you can possibly imagine! And I don't think that is going to change anytine soon!" "But Slipknot is really good at ending arguments." Lance pointed out. "He helped me make up with Teddy and Ace, after I, er- kind of betrayed them to the girls during a lemonade stand competition." "And we woulda won, too! If you hadn't given that ice tea recipe to the girls." Teddy snorted angrily. "All so they could sell enough iced tea and lemonade to buy a new tea set." "Oh, and I was suppose it was right of Ace to go and pretend he liked Bon Bon, to steal her lemonade recipe?" Lancer retorted. "He manipulated her feelings, and tried to run the girl's lemonade stand out of business!" "Wait... Ace seduced Bon Bon to get a lemonade recipe, just to open a stand and stop the other fillies from raising enough money to buy a tea set?" Celeste's eyes narrowed. What kind of arrogant creep was this boy she had been flirting with? "Guys, guys... that's all in the past now!" Slipknot pushed the two angry colts apart. "What did I tell you both about dredging up the past?" "You're right, Slipknot." Teddy replied with a sigh. "Digging that junk up isn't gonna help right now." "So, Celeste... what would you say is your biggest problem with Lunette?" Slipknot asked her. "Well, I'd have to say it's on seeing eye to eye." The white filly replied, shaking her mane. "She thinks I don't concentrate on the present enough, and should act my age. While I think she should loosen up, and have some fun!" "Sounds like the problem I had with my farm cousin, Corny." Teddy added. "He thought I should do more work, and I thought he should lighten up!" "He also almost stole Sweetheart away from you!" Lancer added with a chuckle. "Would you please SHUT UP!" Teddy snorted steam. "I have had about enough of your-" "Both of you, COOL IT!" Slipknot yelled. "Now Celeste, have you tried talking to your sister? Seeing her point of view a bit, maybe?" "Well, she seems like she's on a different wavelength than I am." Celeste looked thoughtful. "But, I guess I could give it a try..." These kind you colts, going out of their way to help her and her sister. And here she was, doing so much to interfere with these ponies’ lives! As the four ponies continued to talk, Celeste began to think about how she could help both Slipknot and Starlight out… ... As the concert let out, the small herd of fillies trotted out of the stands. Patch motioned for Lunette to follow her, then started to walk back behind the stands. "Girls, you go back and talk to Melody!" Patch told the others. "Lunette and I need to talk for a bit!" "Ok, Patch!" Starlight called back, as she and the others trotted on. You two catch up with us, as soon as you can." "All right, Patch." Lunette snorted, crossing her hooves. "What dist thou wishest to talk to meet about?" "Oh, just your relationship with your sister, Lunette..." Patch suddenly broke into a grin. "....or should I say, Princess Luna?" "WHAT?!? How didst thou know?!?" Lunette sputtered, her eyes going wide. "How dist thou guess mine true identity?" "A little Glow and Show Pony told me, during one of her regular visits!" Patch replied, pointing behind her. At that moment, a glowing Pegasus flew in and landed. "Hello, you highness!" The glowing pony bowed to her. "It's good to see you again!" "Brightglow, I might have known." Lunette snorted. "I figured thou wouldst be about, when I did meet the other glow 'n show ponies in the park a day past." "I always visit my friend Patch here, when I'm in the Republic." The glowing Pegasus replied. "I saved her life once, when she was flying a hot air ballon!" "I kind of suspected their was something off about you, but when I brought you up to Brightglow here, she all but confirmed it!" Patch told her excitedly. "Oh, this is so amazing! Being friends with an actual alicorn princess!" "Patch, Listen..." Lunette told her nervously. "Thou canst not tell anyone about mine secret! If my sister and I were to be discovered here in disguise, the political ramifications would be most disastrous!" "Don't worry about it, 'Lunette'!" Patch replied with smile. "Your secret is safe with me!" "At least that's one thing I do not have to worry about!" A relieved Lunette sighed. "Be tellest me, how dost thou two think you can helpest me with mine sister?" "Well, from what I've seen of you two's disagreements, you want her to stop living in the past, and take her life more seriously, correct?" Patch inquired. "Yes, that is correct." Lunette replied simply. "Mine sister is feeling the loss of one she cared about deeply, and the pain of watching generation after generation of her students and friends pass doth weigh heavily on her heart and mind." "I can understand that." Brightglow agreed sadly. "Watching generation after generation of your friends and loved ones pass away can be very depressing. Believe me, the other glow and shows and I know that pain firsthand." "And to make things worse, my sister often wonders what happens to those ponies she cared so much for." Lunette continued. "Celestia often contemplates if they have passed on to some kind of afterlife, or if her dear ponies have perished utterly." "Oh, trust me... there really is an afterlife." Patch shivered. "I've actually met the ghost of a pony from the pre-classical period once, and it was a very scary experience." "Wait, thou hast actually met the shade of a deceased pony?" Lunette's eyes went wide again. If it were any other pony besides Patch had told her this, she wouldn't have believed it! "In all of my sister and I's three millennia of life, we were never able to confirm the posthumous survival of a pony's essence after death. And it's a humble filly from the republic who-" "Look, I don't mean to seem so pushy, your highness..." Patch replied impatiently. "But we should really concentrate on the problem with your sister!" "Thou art correct, good Patch!" Lunette replied, shaking her mane. "So what dost thou suggest I do about fair Celestia?" "You should try to talk to her, tell her how you feel." Patch advised. "But also try to understand her grief about the loss of her dearest pupil." "You know about Twilight Sparkle?" Brightglow asked in surprise. "But I thought the Republic discouraged it's youth from studying about Equestria?" "I heard what Luna said to her sister at the concert. And yes, I know about Twilight Sparkle." Patch nodded. "There's a fairy tale book about the harmony bearers in the children's section at the Coltonville library." "How ironic Twilight Sparkle would find it... a pony who was obsessed with facts, to discover she had been reduced to a mere fairy tale!" Lunette laughed ruefully. "What I don't understand, is why you and your sister haven't used your magic more since you got here? Seeing as how powerful you two are supposed to be!" Patch asked her. "We cannot use our Powers in the Republic, fair Patch." Lunette explained. "See, in the Pre-classical period, the lands of the Republic were the home of ponykind before they came to Equestria." "I know that, Your Highness. The ruins of the unicorn royal palace stands near coltonville, and the tomb of Starswirl the Bearded is a popular tourist attraction near the capital." Patch replied. "But what does that have to do with anything?" "The hostility between the three tribes, did deplete the magic of this region." Lunette replied. "The Windigoes did absorb the last of that energy when they froze these lands, leaving it magic barren." "Making it the perfect place for the earth pony settlers to return to, after the Windigoes ice age had thawed." Brightglow finished. "The inability to use much magic here, coupled with the tecnological weapons the earth ponies developed, serve as the perfect protection against Equestria's magic!" "I get it now! No wonder we're all taught to hate Pegasi and unicorns!" Patch looked thoughtful. "Lunette, you know how I overheard you and your sister arguing during the loud music of the concert?" "Yes, what of it?" Lunette asked nervously. "Well, I just realized... there might be a chance some other pony might have heard you, too..." ... "Patch... a tratior to the Republic... I just can't believe it...!" Having overheard Part of Lunette's exclamation over the concert's music, Clover had excused herself from the others, and hid to listen in on the two other fillies’ conversation. Not only was she shocked to see a glowing Pegasus of all things appear, but she also learned that Lunette and her sister were actually the Alicron Princesses themselves! They were here spying on the Republic, no doubt, gathering intelligence on Coltonville for some sinister purpose! Clover had been raised not to trust the two magic-using pony species. Had they not enslaved and oppressed earth ponies in the Pre-classical era, after all? It was their heretical magic that allowed them to dominate their ordinary brethren, and cost Ponykind their original homeland. And now, when the earth ponies had spent generations making that homeland livable once more, the fliers and horn heads had jealously returned to retake the Republic for themselves! "Ohhhhh, what should I do? What should I do?" Clover thought to herself nervously. She didn't want to have Patch to get hurt in the crossfire. "They're probably using their magic to control her mind!" She thought to herself. It was at that moment, that Clover decided she would wait and spy on the two sisters for awhile longer, and see what she could learn about their plans. When the time was right, she would expose the two princesses, and let the Republic authorities take the sisters into custody. "I'd better get going, I've got to get things ready, if I'm going to do my patriotic duty!" Clover galloped away, already forming plans in her mind.