//------------------------------// // And on... // Story: White on Black // by TheSexyMenhir //------------------------------// And on... Six ponies, one dragon, and two near goddesses stood on the train platform in the midst of Canterlot. There were many tears, a lot of promises to return soon, and the usual hush hush that people make when they leave each other (interestingly enough, the amount of drama is inverse to the likelihood of a safe return, a stallion leaving for war can expect a “return with your shield or on it” at best, but a stallion leaving for vegas for a weekend will inevitably be showered with farewells and tears). In the end only three persons remained, Spike, Celestia, and Chrysalis. Nobody that saw them would have guessed that there were family ties between them, not only because of their specie but also because there was little displayed warmth between them. This was the part Spike hated. The pretending, and lying. Intellectually he understood the need to keep their relations hidden, and it hadn’t taken the recent events to convince him of that, but his heart wasn’t as easily satisfied. “Mo...Celestia,” he said bowing before the princess. Celestia looked uncomfortable at this display of politeness from the young drake which she had raised ever since Twilight had hatched his egg. Chrysalis gaze wandered between the two. To her changeling senses it was painfully obvious what was going on. Rolling her eyes she strode up to the little dragon, picked him up with her magic and walked back towards Celestia. Before either of them could protest she had drawn Celestia into a hug the small dragon squished between his mothers. “I hope you come to visit us again soon, son,” was the only thing she bothered to say as the white diarch hugged her son. … A now clearly more happy little dragon waved at his parents from the open train door as it departed. Only after they had left his vision, he noticed that his backpack felt strangely uneven. With some awe he looked at the green glowing vial that lay on top of his belongings. A small sign read, “Should you ever reconsider- mom” --- An exhausted looking Draconequus hurried over the searing hot sands of the Saddle Arabian desert. Hastily he looked over his shoulder, jumping out of the way of yet another volley of arrows. On the top of a dune, the enraged goddess of the moon appeared, clad in the white robes of the desert nomads, wielding a scimitar in her magic. Grass was sprouting where she placed her hooves. “DISCORD COME BACK HERE SO I CAN KILL YOU!!!” she screamed. “No thank you,” Discord replied and resumed running. --- It was a fine day in the Crystal Empire. The blizzards raged and dropped the temperatures to a point where magic turned to ice, but inside the shield that surrounded the city it was a pleasant twentyfive degrees warm. Shining armor dropped out of his bed and onto his hooves. With some effort he donned his morning gown and pink fuzzy slippers, and walked towards the dining room, where he was greeted by the smell of freshly made coffee and toast. It was good to be king. As the hoofmaidens served him breakfast he took the newspaper from the silver tray his butler handed him. As soon as he had unfolded it, he wrapped it back up and handed it back to his buttler. Giving the maids orders not to disturb him and his wife he trotted back into the bedroom. For some reason he had the sudden urge to keep Cadence in bed as long as possible. Slightly confused the butler unrolled the newspaper and read the headlines, “Chrysalis to be announced princess of Equestria.” --- With some effort Vertex pushed away the shelf. She had been more than surprised when she had stumbled across the hidden passage in the library of the Blueblood manor, after all she had been pretty sure that she already knew about all the escape paths (it hadn’t been easy getting close to Blueblood). With some hesitation the disguised changeling ventured deeper into stone lined passage. One thing she noticed immediately was the near complete lack of dust and cobwebs. This wasn’t some long forgotten escape path, somebody regularly came through here. Up ahead she could see a small chamber, in it’s middle a single pedestal. A book with a metal envelope rested here in the near darkness, on it’s cover only three words were engraved, “Blueblood Family lineage.” Once again checking her surrounding to see if somepony had followed her, she stepped closer to the book, igniting her horn to open it and to shine some light on it at the same time. Her eyes grew wide as she read the first few paragraphs. “Erhem!” Vertex shot around the book snapping shut behind her. In the darkness of the corridor she could make out the silhouette of prince Bluelood’s butler. Bitsworth spoke with a somber voice, “You shouldn’t have done that...” Vertex horn stopped glowing.