(Dyrrdalr-Doorvalley)

What was with things just disappearing?! It was as if every thing Shade wanted to see disappeared before she could lay her eyes on it!

A whole Gryphon ship vanished in the Cold Bay, and Shade's fiance literally disappeared during her return trip back to The City while in transit over the very same bay! Maybe the bay was cursed? Spacers did seem to hate the water in a strange twisted way. They called it "Hel's Bussom," and detested its currents and sea life.

Then again, it wouldn't be the first time Princess Skissa disappeared on a random quest to find a sea dragon, or a long lost island. The fact that she had found success in both endeavors made them no less silly. As much as Shade loved her, even she was perplexed by Skissa's behavior at times, and Shade was no less worried when her antics left everyone else clueless.
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Twilight held the poor human close as she poured several cups of tea. She felt remarkably calm in the situation, Twilight that is. She and Celestia had been exploring the human's abilities and been astounded at every turn. The human had walked through walls, levitated its sword, (though Twilight discovered a strange crystal formation in the metal that might explain it.) and seemed to possess the innate ability to lighten up the otherwise stoic guards. It had even began talking in a strange foreign tongue.

This was why Twilight was alone with the human. Celestia and her agreed that one alicorn would be enough, and Twilight was left with the job while Celestia went for a translation spell.

Right now the human was smiling as she explored the portrait hall's rather... unique pieces. Mainly those painted by Ricardo The Mad. They were very modern. They were so modern you couldn't even tell what he had painted was a pony, but at the same time the paintings all gave of the vibe of being your dry typical portrait. The magic of perspective was one lost to time, but...

Twilight froze with a sudden realization. The human had walked through walls as if they weren't there. As if, she hadn't even noticed! Twilight brought up her few vague notes on perspective magic and studied them with an almost manic intensity.

EUREKA! The humans could use perspective magic, they didn't have regular magic that would give them too many sensory inputs. They were blind enough to see! If this magic was real, then humans would be an excellent fit. Blind enough to see...

Twilight pulled out her "Being a Princess" notes and wrote that down. That was an excellent, if vague, answer. Ponies would love that, hopefully.

Twilight looked back to the human. How would she test that? How could she test that? Perception magic had supposedly died out three thousand years ago, back in the time of the Oligarchy of Pony Tribes. It wasn't the only class of magic that had been lost back then, and to Twilight's knowledge only Starswirl had rediscovered any of those magicks.

Twilight paused to look back to the human, and then she froze. The human appeared to be changing the painting with its bear hands. It looked like it was literally pulling the colors into a new shape, but for some reason Twilight felt that it wasn't actually doing this. Every examination she made of it came with an subconscious adjective. It looked, it felt, it seemed, it wasn't actually doing it.

So what was it doing?
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Shade settled down at a table brimming with brains. Not literal brains, that would be gross. At this table were the geniuses and Con-men who maintained the Veil's "Notice Me Not" spell. The ones who kept Vinland's homeland safe and hidden. The biggest nerds in the world, and they looked with grim faces too Shade.

She was used to grim faces, the death of Princess Skissa Aurorian's parents brought that kind of face, the death of Queen Tostygg brought out those kind of faces, the Gibbous StarPirate raid that destroyed the second colony created those kinds of faces, but these were Shade's friends making those faces, and that scared Shade.

It was Bjork who spoke first, he had always been the bravest of the bunch. His muscled shoulders twisted in fear as his soft brown eyebrows rose and his mouth opened to speak.

"Your Highness, we've found Lady Skissa." He was using titles. That was a grave sign.

"Where?!" Shade asked immediately, both anxious and worried.

"Her signature was located minutes ago by the perspectrograph tower. We weren't sure if we should believe it at first, but..." He was too scared to say.

"WHERE?!" Shade insisted, feeling dread lap at her own soul.

"Canterlot, your Highness." The one on the left answered. She was a new veil keeper, and Shade didn't remember her name. She was a unicorn, one of three of her kind in Vinland. How strange...

Then it registered, she had said Canterlot. Alarms went off in Shade's mind, red alarms, the kind of alarms that made hard asses crap their pants and iron balled generals wet themselves.

"Are y-you sure?" Shade asked with a slight stutter. She never stuttered.

The unicorn nodded, her soft gray mane bouncing with her head. Shade almost fainted.

"I must go inform the Allthing. Prepare for contigency Gamma Orionos." The unicorn and her cohorts visibly paled, but all bowed to the order. Despite that plans dangers, no soldier disobeyed the Princess of War.

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