Celestia sighed as she looked through the trunk that Bearers of Harmony and her sister found. She was a bit surprised that her nephew had managed to not only hollow out a piece of the castle, set up his trap that her sister was caught in –she was happy that she got a picture of it-, but also managed to hid this trunk for what looked like since he was a little colt.
The left side was filled with every childhood memento that he ever had. She smiled as she lifted several silly but fancy like outfits Rarity had made him, pristinely folded and crisply put away by Gallop apparently. She placed them onto his mattress, his bed still in two pieces. She was told that he did have adult magazines hidden there, but sadly Lulu destroyed them before she could learn what he was in to. Simply to know what to tease him with; she had done the same to Twilight about her fascination with large wings.
Smiling, she looked at the simple little books, one that had a ton of recipes that he had learned with Pinkie Pie, with his colthood hoofwriting sloppily on the page with an properly written attachment to it that was far more legible. Another one was filled with endless information about animal treatment, with accurate enough diagrams that a colt could manage. Again, he had simply added attachments with legible copies so he could read it later. She saw a number of laminated feathers and a twig, two things she thought were lost for the ages. His first time moulting, to which Rainbow Dash was privileged enough to witness and deal with when he was visiting her, had proudly collected the feathers for later. The twig, Twilight said with a certain voice before she went to sleep, was the first thing he ever moved with his horn. He also tripped into a mud hole as he proudly walked around with floating stick, but she remembered that day so well, cleaning that squirming colt clean with towel herself. She looked at the tiny hat, the same one that he wore when he got sick at Sweet Apple Acres that one day, the same one he always wore when he was there when he was little. There other bits of his childhood scattered on the left side of the chest, a few dog-eared Daring Do books that she remembered reading to him before he went to sleep, and she felt, for the first time in a long time, old. She smiled at the photo album, filled with pictures and dates written on the back of each one, of a smiling and laughing seaweed coloured colt, aging as she turned the pages, surrounded by family and friends.
Looking to the right side, she bit her lip and rubbed her forehead, head still pounding. Luna had not come home yet, and she was sure to yell at her for hiding such information from her. She already had got yelled at by Twilight and her friends, save Fluttershy who simply said it wasn’t right, for her hiding Gallop’s problems and she was not eager to hear from somepony that could go into Royal Canterlot Voice while she hungover. She would look at his journal latter, interested in the other, more serious books. They were law books, history books, nobleponies genealogy and history books, foreign customs books, books on everything that a pony that wanted to know more the proper ways of ruling and dealing with other ponies in the way that they expected would need. She never thought he would be one to actually bother with knowing all this, as he always balked at her lessons on this topic and just did as he pleased at the Day Courts. Under each book was least one note book, some books had much more than one, with notes filled to the brim on each page!
He had been trying to learn this, and judging by what she saw by the many scratched out lines, struggling to comprehend all of it. The possibility that her nephew had hid a learning disability from her, the one pony that he trusted enough to tell her about his talent problems, was heart wrenching. How had she, they, missed this all the times they had been teaching him? She winced from the stab of guilt, knowing that Lulu had to be feeling even worse from all this.
She lifted the books out, looking at the magnifying glass he had in there, wondering why he would have that. Probably fell over the left side, having some story attached to it. She looked at the bottom of the trunk, seeing a false bottom. Sensing a trap attached to it, she broke it off and lifted the bottom off.
She smiled, seeing that her nephew had left several poison joke coated pies for anyone that got there with enough spells to paralyze even her. Placing the pies to the side, looking at the mares around her, worried that one, maybe Pinkie Pie or Dash would eat them if they awoke. She quickly teleported them into the royal furnace, to destroy them before anypony ate them by mistake. She looked down, she saw that he layered down a protective sheet over his possibly greatest treasure.
She hesitated. This was Galloping Wave’s most personal belongings. This chest held the only things he remotely cared about. This was a grave breach of his privacy and despite this being crucial for finding him, he would be angered to know they found this and gone through it. She knew she would be furious with anypony had gone through her journals during the thousand years that Luna had be gone for. Those were private, painful times for her eyes only. Still, she needed to know.
She lifted the blanket and gasped. She had to block her mouth with her hoof or she would be crying loudly and she didn’t want to wake the six mares around her yet.
It was drawings. Little colt drawings of his family, his mom, dad and himself. Drawings of other family members, his aunts, his uncles. All his friends. But she was always there, in some form, in every single picture. Her little sister, was in every picture he had saved.
“Tia?” Blinking, she looked to she her sister, walking into the room. She had been crying too, all night it seems. She was wavering on her hooves, raising and lowering both the moon and the sun had taken a lot more power then Luna thought, and she had been awake for quite some time now. Of course she would be exhausted but she still was going with the energy only a worried mother could have.
Celestia waved her sister over, tears running down her face. She couldn’t speak still, so she simply showed her the pictures. Luna bit back a sob, looking through each picture, cracking with age. She would need to get this lamented too, Celestia thought to herself, simply too great a treasure to leave unprotected. Placing them back into the chest, she faced her sister. Nuzzling with all the love and sadness in her heart, Celestia wrapped a wing around her lunar sister, diarchy of Equestria. She provide the comfort that she was missing from Snowcap, who was already on his way back from his mission in Zebrac. She held her little sister, as they both cried, holding each other on the bed as the day slowly began.
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“We are doing all that we can, your highnesses.” Spitefire said drinking the tea, withholding a wince. She hated tea and she hated the fact she couldn’t spice it up with booze!
Soarin and her had arrived in Canterlot earlier this morning, to tell the Princesses the latest updates, which was very little. They knew they could rule out changlings as this not their preferred style of infiltration and any of the neighbouring realms as this would be near impossible. So it had to be somepony that was close enough to do this without getting caught or being able to blend in. That meant one simple thing; have all village and town guard stations detain any suspicious individuals travelling in groups of three or by themselves and hope they get lucky. No matter what, despite this group had been doing this for a very long time, they were still ponies and they could still slip up.
She had told both of them that; with Princess Luna looking hopefully but exhausted and Princess Celestia looking regal, but a bit green and cringing at all the loud sounds. They had accepted the information, with some of the Element still here. Princess Twilight, Fluttershy and Applejack had gone off to the royal records to see if they could uncover something. Dash and Soarin were flying around, practicing and talking about yesterday when they were caught snuggling. Pinkie Pie, the mare to her right, had already promised and given her some photos of it and Rarity was idly drawing some dresses, possibly wedding dresses… Oh how those two pegasi would balk and cringe at that!
“We see and truly appreciate this.” Princess Luna said, nodding her head and drinking her tea. “As much as I hate simply hoping for the best and waiting for chance to smile on us, this is what we must do to find our son.” Her hoof pressed down on the table again, cracking it more. Every time Prince Galloping Waves was talked about, Princess Luna had pushed downwards hard on the table. Spitefire had long moved past her fear of the Princess of the Night, seeing her as the alicorn in front of her and not Nightmare Moon but she was scared featherless of facing her angry now. “Sister,” Princess Luna smiled, turning to her sister. She knew that smile all too well, the I-know-you-drank-too-much-last-night-and-now-you-will-suffer smile. She given it out many times and received a few times herself by her own mom. “I do believe a nice walk outside would help clear our minds, don’t you agree?”
Celestia’s face flicked for a moment, to one of contempt, loathing and reluctance. So she was hungover! Spitfire thought to herself, hiding her grin behind the tea cup. Huh. Tea was good for something after all. “I am not so sure Luna.” She said calmly, placing her cup down. “I do believe that it would serve to stay in one place that in case any information arrive.” She placed a hoof onto a small journal, which she had quickly learned was Prince Galloping Waves’s. “Also, I believe that you wished to go through this further?”
Princess Luna gulped, taking a deep breath to steady herself. “Yes, We-I would like to finish-” She bit her lip, waving her hoof in an obvious motion to say what she couldn’t say. “However, I do believe that I can do that outside in the day I raised. And for any information about Ga-Gallop-” She spat out, shuddering visibly. “We are not that hard to find. Besides, it is nearly lunch.” She rose, taking the book with her, placing it in her pack, as she loudly left the room, forcing every pony to leave the study and into a bright sunny hallway.
Spitfire understood why Luna and Celestia were acting as they were, barely acknowledging Prince Galloping Waves. She knew that there was literally nothing to be done and if they dwelled on him too much, they would either get sick with worry or do something very stupid and very dangerous. Like taking their anger out on other ponies and considering that they rose the sun and moon and had untold powers under their wings, it was for the best that they distracted themselves before they hurt somepony or themselves.
Still, it was pretty funny to see the solar princess glare upwards at her sun and not being able to block it with her wing. She dealt with drunk recruits, who she had forced to train outdoors with loud singing. They knew that if they blocked the sunlight or tried to block their ears, they would be caught and in a lot of trouble. The same principle was present, and Princess Luna was milking it for all it’s worth, talking loudly to Pinkie Pie, who didn’t need any motivation to be her loudly bubbly self. Smiling, seeing this would be her only chance in life to do this, she fell back to the Princess’s side. Princess Celestia looked at her, with disgust at seeing her grin.
“Say Princess Celestia,” She fluffed herself up, priding herself she was about to get a very annoying song stuck in the Princess’s head when it happened.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARG
Gasping loudly, Spitfire nearly tripped on her hooves. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna had both stopped in their tracks, clutching their heads in pain.
“What by Faust’s holy flank was that-” Princess Luna panted out, only to be cut off.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARG
Spitfire fell to the floor, heaving her stomach onto the floor beside her head, eyes watering from the pain. It felt like somepony had jammed a large burning spike through her head! Looking to the side, she saw that both Princesses, and the two Elements, had done the same. Pinkie Pie was curled up in a tight ball, crying out in pain, with Rarity close to passing out by the looks of it, her mane and coat covered in her own vomit. The Princesses were barely standing, legs ready to give out. She saw, with some horror, that they were both bleeding from the snouts and ears.
AAAAAAAAAAARG
Letting out a cry of intense pain, Spitfire passed out.
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Blinking, Princess Luna looked around her. She was barely, just barely, still conscious after that barrage of …things! She saw that Rarity and Pinkie Pie had barely managed to hold on, both in tremendous pain. Spitfire was out, laying next to her own retch. Wiping her face clear of the vomit, dimly aware of the blood that still flowed down her nose and ears, she moved towards Tia. She walked drunkenly towards her sister, with her legs nearly giving out and wings feeling like bricks.
“T-t-Tia.” She spat out, leaning against the wall, panting from the effort of walking a few steps. “Wh-what w-w-was-” She couldn’t finish her sentence, emptying her stomach again, passing out.
The older alicorn, who’s blood gave her a disturbing image that would easily give anypony nightmare for a long time, tried to reach out to roll her sister onto her side but fell short. “Lu-lu-lu-” She panted, head pounding like a thousand ponies galloping into battle. She knew what it was, knew exactly what caused this. But for the first time in ages, both the ancient alicorns had passed out.
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