Celestia’s morning started off with a notification of a ship having been found on the coast containing some suspect materials. According to the report the boat contained a metal that all tests indicated might have been from the isles just a bit further off the coast of Equestria. She signed papers to have it transferred to a specialist that could verify the probably source of the metal even before she left her bedroom that morning. If this proved to be true it might be the cause of the trouble at sea. It wouldn’t be the first time a mounting incident with a more aboriginal tribe had happened due to her sometimes overzealous ponies. Hopefully they would be willing to negotiate a truce but that would have to wait.
Since her agent had indicated nothing too unusual amongst the Lunar Court she was still looking into the murder and the kidnapping. According to Luna’s soldiers there had been traces of a changeling at the scene and Celestia couldn’t help but feel that perhaps they had staged the whole thing to help promote a war between Equestria and the boars that her own ponies had likely started the groundwork for. Sometimes it felt like her work never stopped. Maybe one day she could take a vacation.
Lyra had returned home late yesterday evening after she had seen enough to know she was not going to be handed over to the authorities by Twilight. Chrysalis mused that she rather wished she had thought to join her as she had had to spend the night with Ein and Twilight discussing plans and inventions and was about ready to pull out what little hair she had. It would seem the dragon wasn’t far behind her though he seemed to fair a bit better. When she had looked at him in wonder he had simply explained that it had always been like this growing up with the unicorn/alicorn.
Chrysalis was rather thankful that she would be escaping this torture today as she was going to set out to her old hive to begin getting them ready to move to the Empire. Once there they would join the ones that she had already sent ahead to finish up a hive where they would get all the free food they could want. She would also be out from under Twilight’s eye so as to better plot how to get back at her. The plan of Twilight’s for the swarm to help bolster the defense of the empire and to help cultivate it was a good one that she would likely stick to even if she might be plotting against her. It would be comparable to a shepherd tending his flock of sheep she felt.
Ein was sore about setting out again but he needed to return and start getting his teams ready to work on the projects Twilight had proposed. The influx of money from the alicorn’s royal patronage would help bolster the hive for quite some time and he would be able to realize some of his creations much sooner than anticipated. The fact that changelings would have a controlling interest in Equestria’s major modes of travel could pay off over the years in more ways than just money too. He really hoped the Queen would keep on the up and up with the alicorn for the next little while.
The two changelings set off that day not too late in the morning in the form of two pegasi. In the queen’s opinion it had not been a moment too soon as that pink terror had popped in to visit Twilight no more than a minute after they had left. Chrysalis and Ein discussed a few of the things that were about to happen and agreed that things were looking up for them now with their current ally. For now it was best to go with the flow and see how well things worked out for them.
Deep within the mansion of House Star several members were hard at work preparing the new metal the heads of the family had brought in last night. According to the designs and information they had this would be used to design some form of necklace. The metal they were working with seemed to be rather good at holding an enchantment and as such it was going to be used to make quite a few little trinkets. Several necklaces that would then be enchanted by others with in the house seemed to be the assignment though some had been set aside to be forged into a weapon.
Luna checked over the reports of a fire at the docks that had happened overnight near the southern coast of the country. It would appear that what had caused the start of the pirate raids was a raid by ponies into their territory to take a precious metal. She pondered how they were going to placate the boars just as she received a message that there had been an issue at sea. Several of the navy’s ships had been set adrift this morning as a concentrated effort of the boar pirates to try and get onto Equestria soil had managed to break the blockade. The dead on the water ships were suffering due to a weakness that they might have lacked if the ship designs had been updated like Luna had tried to help arrange months ago.
She began to make her way toward her sister’s throne to begin help coordinate rescue efforts for an embarrassing number of their navy. The fact that this distracted from the hunt for the changeling kidnapping did not escape her notice. “It’s almost like someone planned it.” She says to herself with a smile as she made her way.
Spike cleaned up from the breakfast with the changelings and Pinkie’s visit to the library to invite them to a birthday party for that one pegasus whose name he could never remember. She had that odd green and pink hair coloring however in spite of her odd appearance she never did anything to actually stand out. He supposed it might make sense if you had a natural coloration that was that unusual you would learn to not draw attention to yourself.
As he finished up his job he turned to Twilight to ask her about the plan so far. “How long will it take for the magnetic rail travel to start?”
“About five years at the soonest and that will probably only be between places like Canterlot and Manehatten. It’ll take longer to get it throughout the country once they see how much faster and efficient it is. We’ll probably have working full sized airships based on Ein’s design first though the military will probably get first crack at those.” Twilight answered absently as she began to read over a book about binding spells.
“Well you can at least do something about that one. Get you an airship made based on his designs with your new royal authority if you catch my drift. You know we are going to have to have a better way to get around the country than rail eventually after all.”
“True. I’ll see what I can arrange. It might be fun to get to play up the whole overbearing noble/royal for once while I’m in Canterlot trying to get it commissioned by one of the shipyards.” She smiles at the thought. “Still I wouldn’t want to push it much and actually cause too much of a panic attack. By the way, did they find out who sent that kill squad?”
“According to the information that was sent in last night it would seem it was Blueblood’s dad again. Really need to do something about him as not only has he been an annoyance but he is beginning to get sloppy. Then again I suppose most targets don’t have necromancers on their payroll that can get the dead to talk.”
“Ugh, I swear once I get this mess straightened out he’ll be next on my list. For now I suppose we have to head to Canterlot to offer our services. Its about to come to a head with those pirates I believe. After all they have surely decided to heed the advice of their prince at this point and began to attack the weak rudders of the Equestrian Navy. If we move quickly we can negotiate a peace between us and them by the end of the week which will be just in time for the party.”
“Already booked us tickets to Canterlot and have sent word to Mesmer to play attendant during the whole thing.”
The alicorn nodded her head before returning to her book.
“Speak of the devil.” Spike coughed up a scroll requesting Twilight head for Canterlot today in order to help deal with an incident. The two set out to do their duty to their country.
Grey Earl, first cousin to Admiral Oblige, received a letter that day informing him of the death of his cousin. It would seem he had been murdered during a home invasion by some ruffians who might have been terrorists or revolutionaries or something as the letter wasn’t exactly clear on whom it was. By tradition it would fall on him to set out to Canterlot to take over the house and start the laborious process of overseeing how things would be broken down. As Oblige’s closest relative he would handle devising up his holdings throughout the family while also overtaking the role in the noble courts. A shame on some levels he couldn’t also take over being admiral but that wasn’t a hereditary position and he really knew nothing about ships beyond that they floated on water anyway. Of course if you were to ask him that meant he knew about as much as his departed cousin.
He packed up and begin to set off for Canterlot by coach as he was not about to share public transport with the common ponies. It would not be wise to consort with them given all those germs they had. It would be unsanitary enough going this way but it couldn’t be helped.
As Twilight arrived in Canterlot to discuss things with the princesses and made arrangements to visit with the king of the boar tribe to work out the problems he had with Equestria Mesmer set out to Twilight’s suite of rooms in the castle to await her arrival. At the Hive Ein set about working on making a computer with the information Twilight had provided that would help make them viable. Some of the older changelings in his lab he rounded up and began to prepare them for the task of setting up a small business to operate in Equestria that would be overseen by Twilight. The business would be how Equestria would be introduced to the joint creations of the two and would probably be a permanent assignment so he recommended they think on it before accepting the assignment.
Night set in as dreams of revenge floated in Chrysalis’s head conflicting with dreams of a greater changeling nation that might have come to be integrated into Equestria should she hold back. She tossed and turned throughout the night trying to decide which the better path to follow was.
Fuss Budget died that night from such a frightful nightmare. It would seem all those years of worrying had made her heart a bit weak and whatever she had dreamed was just too awful for it to take. Even with Luna’s return she could not get to every nightmare before they caused harm it would seem. If purple eyes watching her final moments from the shadows had been her final glimpse of life no one would ever know.