Morning was Sunshine’s favourite time of day. Many ponies wouldn’t even bother and lay in bed at this time, but not her. She never missed the sunrise, the beautiful shimmering disk as it emerged from the horizon, all the shades of yellow and orange shimmer seamlessly as it rose. She sighed in contentment, lost in the display; she almost did not notice the hoof steps behind her. She smiled, she knew who it was, nothing took her by surprise anymore, not since she was a filly, and that was a long time ago. Though she may not look like it, she has more years on her than the princesses have had birthdays, that is to say, she is really, really old. Yet, she doesn’t look a day older than Twilight, Ponyville’s librarian, Element of Magic and Equestria’s newest princess, a gift from a friend, days gone by.
“You never get tired of it do you ‘Miss Sunshine’?” a deep, buzzing voice whispered “Even after all these years,”
“Never,” she replied “What about you? Honour Bound, is our longevity worth it to you?”
Honour bound, is well, a changeling. He is a creature resembling a pony, but has holes through his forelegs and hooves, a long crooked horn, fangs, insect like wings and a dark coloured exoskeleton in place of fur. He looked like any other changeling, minus his ‘cutie mark’ a silhouette of a changeling’s face with red eyes and a sword through it. Changelings feed on love and other emotional energies, but can consume pony food for only a fraction of the sustenance that emotion gives, but Honour Bound has found a way to constantly feed himself, without a host, nullifying his need to steal love from ponies.
He chuckled tiredly, considering his answer.
“You know me sister, always looking for something new and exciting to do,” he replied “And speaking of new and exciting, how’s your third afternoon foal sitting?”
“Not so different from the previous times, I think all the stress is going to wear me out,”
“You? Stressed?” he scoffed “Since when do you get stressed?”
“There’s a first time for everything, now, I believe there is someone at the door,”
“And you know this, how?”
“Call it intuition, come on let’s see who it is, Come along Mr Bound”
Honour bound, sighed in defeat and trotted after her “Someday, you are going to stop calling me that,”
*=_/)|*|(\_=*
A short trot later they arrived in the foyer where a weary looking Chest Nut, still in her blue pyjamas.
“A good morning to you Mistress Sunshine and to you Master Bound” she greeted, giving a short bow to each as she addressed them. “You have guests”
“Who do we have the pleasure of meeting this early in the morning?” smiled Verity
“Messrs Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Doctor John Doo-Smith, Ditzy Doo-Smith, and Princess Twilight Sparkle among … others await you in the meeting room,”
“Excellent, we’ll meet them right away,”
“Not looking like that you’re not,”
Honour Bound snickered a bit before handing his sister a mirror. Her normally straight mane was all frazzled and strands stoop up at odd angles. Sunshine sighed and focused on her hair while channelling magic through the gold circlet on her head (she never takes it off, except for a bath) “Just like a unicorn would do with their horn” she thought. After a moment’s concentration, a violet aura, a lighter shade than the gem it originated from cascaded over her mane. The magic smoothed it out until it was at its most impeccable state, which was, its normal state to be honest.
“You’re getting better” Chest Nut commented with a grin
“Why thank you, now may we see the guests now?”
“But of course, right this way,”
As she took a step a hoof from Honour bond blocked her.
“Why so serious? We know our way around here my dear, age has not affected our minds,” he went to lead before silently adding “Yet,” with a sly grin. The two mares rolled their eyes and made their way to the guest room.
*=_/)|*|(\_=*
“Ladies first,” smiled Honour Bound. He transformed into his daily disguise as they walked towards the guest room. He is now charcoal grey unicorn with short, wavy jet black hair. His ‘cutie mark’ persisted despite the disguise.
“Quite the gentle colt aren’t you brother?” Sunshine smiled
“I try,”
Inside they found the assembly of mares (and stallion) seated at the long table at the centre of the guest room. The room was well kept and lit with sunset orange crystals and the table was polished to a mirror-like shine. What set it apart from other meeting rooms was the array of strange artefacts that Honour Bound, Sunshine and Astral Star have been collecting. What did not surprise them in the slightest was that all the guests had taken it upon themselves to wander about and chatter noisily. The Doo-Smith Family, consisting of John (Doctor), Ditzy (or Derpy), Dinky and Sparkler were seated at the table eating from a platter of muffins provided by Chest Nut, having apparently missed breakfast. John was going on about some wild space adventure with equally outrageous expressions and lots of arm waving taking place. This earned the laughs of the rest of the family, and an eavesdropping Chest Nut whose normally passive face smiled with genuine amusement.
Pinkie Pie and Applejack somehow got into an argument over which was better, cupcakes or apple pie. The fit farm pony looking very angry at the pink ball of fun while said ball of fun just laughed off her opponents arguments and put forward her own. This earned a smile from Honour Bound who was all too familiar with disputes like this. Rainbow Dash, surprisingly sat still on a couch towards the back of the room, her eyes entranced by what was the latest Daring Do book, featuring the not-so-fictional character of the same name and herself. Twilight and Rarity were admiring the artefacts stored in glass cases all along the walls of the room. Twilight had her eye on a small, bronze telescope, the label says that this telescope was used by Royalty to observe the position of the sun, moon and stars as they made their way across the sky.
Verity allowed herself a smug grin as she watched the new princess scrutinize this piece of observational technology.
“If they only knew,” she thought to herself.
Rarity was looking at in what she thought was a stunning set of jewellery. The set in question was an identical replica to what Celestia herself wears today, but scaled down so that the pony of average size could put it on. Sunshine took a glance on the circlet she was wearing then smiled a knowing smile. The smile only grew wider when she noticed a limp lock of pink mane drifting from behind the couch and Rainbow sat.
“Must be Fluttershy,” she mused, there was a lot of ponies in this one room after all.
Her gaze then wandered to who Chest Nut referred to as “others”. A midnight blue Pegasus sat on a couch at the back of the room across from a tall white unicorn. The Pegasus looked a lot like Verity’s brother Astral, if he was a mare, and a Pegasus, the only other difference being her cutie mark which was just a crescent moon, missing the three stars that Astral’s had in addition. The Unicorn was also a mare, and very tall, she greatly resembled Fleur de Lis, from Canterlot but her cutie mark was a simplified sun, identical to that of Sunshine’s own. She already had a good idea as to who these two mystery mares may be and looked at her brother Honour Bound for confirmation. He looked back, smiled and winked, he had the same idea.
“Ahem,” Sunshine cleared her throat politely to get every ponies attention. They only continued their shenanigans.
“Can I have your attention please?!?!”
Instantly, every pony in the room stopped what they were doing and looked over to Chest Nut. Her call for attention was a bit forceful, but still contained that sense of neutrality and respect she always maintained.
“Mistress Sunshine would like to have a word with you all,” she continued, she glance over to Sunshine who gave a polite nod in thanks.
“Thank you Chest Nut,” she said “Now then, welcome all of you, to my family house, to what do I owe the pleasure of all of your company?”
Twilight was the first to speak up. “Thank you for meeting with us so early Miss Sunshine,”
“Please Twilight, just Sunshine will do, and I’m up this early anyway,”
“Well then, the princesses have been a bit suspicious of your activity, and that of the stallion next to you” she said cautiously. Twi glanced to Honour Bound, but he maintained a straight face.
“I don’t see the reason why you should feel this way,” Sunshine frowned
“I’m sorry, but it’s the princesses who…”
“Excuse me Princess,” Honour Bound interceded “But I don’t believe she was talking to you,”
His gaze shifted over to the two mystery mares at the back of the room. He could smell the nervousness coming out of them, it smelt like sweat, and felt like fear, but not quite fear, he knew how that smelled.
“Isn’t that right? Princess? Luna? Celestia?” He hissed every syllable causing all present company to grit their teeth at the sound. Even Pinkie Pie, whose light hearted banter ceased as he said it.
All ponies slowly looked to the two mares at the back of the room. The Pegasus suddenly took interest in her own hooves while the unicorn kept her gaze even, but Honour Bound could see it in her eyes that he spoke truly. The awkward silence that followed was soon broken by none other than the Doctor.
“I always knew it was you two!” He said, laughing all over his chair
“You tend to say that a lot, don’t you Doctor?” admonished Derpy
“Well, yes but that’s cause I’m always right!”
He was met by a glare from all his present family.
“Alright fine,” he conceded “Mostly right,”
“That’s better,”
Celestia dropped her head in defeat and relinquished her disguise, earning gasps from the main six. Shortly afterwards, Luna did the same. Celestia is a tall, slim white alicorn with a more complex image of the sun for a cutie mark. She was wearing golden horse shoes, a necklace and a crown. Her mane and tail was long, and glossy. Made up of pastel greens and pinks, it drifted lazily in the non-existent breeze. Her sister Luna was very similar, yet very different. She too, is an alicorn but her build was a bit stockier than other mares her size, which was above average, but considerably shorter than her sisters. She was wearing silver-blue horse shoes, a crown, and a black necklace with a crescent moon adorning it, reflecting her cutie mark. The two sisters stood before their audience with regal splendour, but it was now no mystery as to how they were feeling.
“Embarrassed,” Honour Bound thought “served on a bed of forced collectedness and drizzled with disbelief, delicious,”
“That is indeed who we are,” Luna said calmly, but her voice cracked as she said it “But I must know, how did you find us out so easily?”
“Sorry Princess, it’s a trade secret,”
“Well I…” Doctor started
“...ve seen them in those forms before, I know, now let the princess speak,” finished Derpy
Doctor just grumbled and gestured for the regal sisters to continue.
“I’m afraid that the question that my sister and I is trying to ask you is: What are you? Both of you,” Celestia asked. Her tone was one akin to the tone used by mothers disciplining a child. The question took Sunshine and Honour aback so much they literally took two steps backward.
“I… don’t know what you mean your highness` we are just normal pony folk,”
“Now we both know that is a lie,” said Celestia “So how about you come clean, and I won’t have you escorted out in chains,”
The hosting pair considered their options carefully, they haven’t use any of their upper-end magic in years, and did not like hurting any pony, especially their present company. It was then that they heard the door knock.
*KNOCK*
*KNOCK*
*KNOCK*
“It’s open!” Sunshine called.