Imperial Revision

by The Sound of Loneliness

Love You As A Friend.

Twilight had to think, again. The Princess’ head was already starting to ache. Well, the fresh, chilly, winter air of the train station helped a little. Though maybe a little too much, the Princess was sure glad she decided to wear her uniform jacket for once, it helped to keep herself warm.

First, what in Tartarus was going on again? Twilight, wisely, abstained from recounting up all the things that don’t add up. The method of resolving issues as they come up would be optimal here.
Okay then, what was this deal with Gilda? The Guard did deliver the necklace as ordered, but she didn’t do anything with it! She was certainly surprised to see it, but that’s all. Well, maybe the effects took a little time to manifest, but still, what could this possibly achieve? Gilda won’t be able to sell it and buy supplies, things didn’t work like this in the Empire. Maybe the Empress wanted her to try? So many possibilities and so little clues…
Twilight decided to ask Cloudy Dawn, she might know something. Another option was to go check up on Shadow; the changeling knew the inside of Nightmare Moon’s operation well enough, the only question if Twilight would be able to make her say anything, even Huffy didn’t manage to and she seemingly tried very hard.

Twilight sighed. How did all of them end up here? Well, no point pondering it now, it’s too late now anyway. Better get back to work, maybe she could draw some more connection before Cadance arrives. Twilight picked up her pencil again.

So, starting with Rarity. Rarity is connected to: Her Majesty (obviously), Minister Cloudy Dawn, Captain Thunder (loosely), Shadow, Twilight, and the rest of their friends. Maybe there were some other unseen connections, but the important part was that Rarity didn’t seem to know the Minister of Finance and External Affairs. Did Her Majesty intentionally keep her away from the figures of power? She cannot influence them if she cannot reach them. In conclusion: Rarity is given exactly as many connections as her position of glorified errand mare required her to have. Twilight had to admit, Her Majesty’s way was elegant. Rarity would’ve probably liked it... if it wasn't meant to attach strings to her own hooves.
Twilight wrote down her conclusion and made a note to bring this up next time Her Majesty has a minute. Her Majesty should be pleased with her progress.

What of Twilight herself? The list of connections includes: Her Majesty. Huffy (even if neither of them is enjoying the acquaintance), Rarity and the rest, Cloudy Dawn, Shadow and Thorax… and this was practically all. Lacking, to say the least. Twilight noted down to ask Her Majesty if she would let Twilight accompany her to the closest cabinet meeting, introduction to the Ministers would be a good start to grow her own connections net. But until that time, perhaps it would be wise to get to know Captain Thunder. He would be the closest authority figure for her to reach. Sweet Celestia...

The sound of the train's horn reached Twilight, signaling that her fellow Princess had arrived. Twilight packed up her notes and stood up from her seat. Judging by the fact that Her Majesty did not send any Guards to welcome Cadance, this was not intended as an official visit. Well, all better, no need for nonsense formalities and protocols. The train was a completely regular one, without any royal embellishes, it was just a regular pony train. Oh, the nostalgia, Twilight could barely remember when was the last time she rode in one of these.
A door on the side opened, letting out a check-taker wearing the familiar blue-colored uniform and heavy moustache. He stepped on the platform with the practised grace and checked his clock,

“Passengers, please, prepare to board the train to Ponyville, departing in twenty minutes!” he sounded cliche in his peppy voice. Looks like the northern frost did wonders to chase any sleep left before the night shift.

“Twilly!” Twilight turned around to the source of the voice only to be immediately swallowed whole by the approaching wave of pink fur.
“Oh, it’s been so long since I saw you! You look so striking in this jacket!” Twilight felt her cheeks heating up, what would the ponies think?

“Hi, Cadance,” Twilight responded, trying to prevent her embarrassment from leaking into her sound. “Is Shining with you?”

“No, Twilly, I am alone. He had to stay and watch Flurry, you know how she is.” The reminder only served to embarrass Twilight more. She totally forgot Flurry even existed,
“How are you, Twilight? The Empress treats you well?”

“Well… kind of.” Twilight suddenly discovered how difficult this question was to answer, “I think so.”

“Are you in trouble?” Cadance started to sound worried.

“...No, not with Her Majesty at least. Cadance, I really can’t tell you right now, not here.”

“I see. Let’s get to the palace, then.” Twilight was glad to agree. The palace, suddenly, started to feel a lot safer place to be in than here.

Cadance was delicate enough to refrain from asking anything more dangerous, instead entertaining Twilight with questions about the palace life and newest Canterlot events. Luckily, Twilight had quite a list to share since the last time she saw her old foal sitter,
“They finally reopened the Royal Gallery, only took them four years.”

“Oh, who’s featured?” Cadance asked with a note of excitement.

“I… don’t know. I didn’t have the time to check it out, it was a busy few months.” Twilight shivered, remembering the potion, “You should ask Rarity, she wanted to go there since before I moved to the palace.”

“Is that...” Cadance stopped in her tracks. Twilight traced her look to a cafe on the side of the street. There, under a streetlight, was sitting -or rather sleeping- the very mare in question.

“Talk about the pony...” Twilight commented.

“Is this normal?”

“Not exactly, but ‘normality’ becomes increasingly relative these years.” Cadance gave Twilight a startled look, “What?” Cadance elected to keep silent.
Twilight pushed the sleeping unicorn.on the shoulder,
“Drunk,” Twilight concluded after sniffing the strong smell coming from the sleeper.

“Rarity is drunk?” Cadance asked in disbelief. “Does she drink now?”

“Not usually and only wine,” Twilight responded, surprising herself with how unstirred she was considering the situation. The time spent with Her Majesty did shock her enough times to do good, it seems.
“I haven’t seen her for the last few days, though,” Twilight continued in the same detached tone.

“This isn’t wine,” Cadance waved the scent away from her snout with her hoof, trying to take the conversation back on the track.

“Smells like whiskey or even rum. It looks like she wanted to get drunk as fast as possible. I see no bottles, though the staff probably cleared the table already.”

“I’ll ask them, try to get her to wake up.”

Twilight cast a dreary look down at the mare in question. Shaking her, even if that would work, is unlikely to produce an acceptable outcome. Sobering spell it is.
The incantation was relatively simple, eliminating the necessity for Twilight to fetch her spellbook.

“Ah?” Rarity responded to Twilight’s insistent pokes. “I am sorry-” Rarity yawned “-I must have taken a little nap ...Twilight?”

“Rise and shine,” Twilight dully answered.

“Oh, dear...”

“Care to explain how you ended up like this?”

“Like what, darling? Can’t a lady have a nap?”

“Drunk as a skunk,” Twilight stabbed.

“Drunk? ...Oh… yes… I remember having a couple… I think.” Rarity proceeded to nervously check if her mane was in order, which it wasn’t.

Twilight sighed,
“Rarity, what in Tartarus is going on with you?”

“I… can’t say, you know how things are.” Twilight rolled her eyes and facehoofed herself, all the while groaning.

“Do you want me to go ask Her Majesty or…?”

“I… made a mistake, Twilight.”

“I figured, you made a lot of those in recent time. Look, Rarity,-” Twilight proceeded to sit down at the chair in front of the unicorn “-get to the point already, we both know that I am going to find out everything anyway. Now you have an option to make it sound less ugly. So, how the hay did you get to the conclusion that attempting an assassination against the Empress, again, is a good idea? If it was anyone else but you, they would be six feet under by now and to Tartarus with the law.”

“I think I need a drink again,” Rarity covered her eyes.

“What got you there? You clearly didn’t like it.”

“You know what that brew does now, don’t you?”

“Uh-huh, it’s a potion of vampirism.” Rarity gave her pleading look, “You mean… you were afraid of Luna?” Twilight sighed again, “Do I need to remind you who our Empress is? Rarity, she is a literal Nightmare! Did you really think a single vampony could do anything to her? Do you remember what happened when the actual changeling army tried to stop her? And even then, she has her sister, who would’ve simply burned the vampony to ashes with the sun.”

“But Twilight, it’s not a vampony in question, it’s Luna! Could Her Majesty really hurt her?”

“Well, she doesn’t need to… wait,” the realization hit Twilight. “How did you know about the potion? I only pieced it together moments before it was administered and Her Majesty didn’t know until I told her. Who told you?”

“Well... I ran a little research, Twilight,” Rarity answered curling her mane nervously. “I wrote to a few friends with a background in ancient civilizations and, it so happened, one of them heard about this concoction. I went to the archive to doublecheck and… I may have panicked a little after that.” Rarity offered a guilty smile.

“Who did you write to? The changelings themselves have no idea what this potion was supposed to do and I asked a lot of them, believe me, I did.”

“Why, to Miss Yearling, of course.”

“What?!” Twilight’s brows suddenly reached the sky, “Isn’t her speciality ancient tombs and artifacts? She doesn’t even work with changeling-related materials!”

“Well… she did know.”

“Rarity, you are an idiot.” Twilight proceeded to facehoof herself again, “You are a complete and total idiot! I can’t believe you bought that!”

“But… darling, she was right, wasn’t she?”

“Rarity, damn you, this isn’t about if the clue was right or not, it’s about what you did with it! You did exactly what someone else wanted you to! Rarity, I can’t believe, what a complete tool you are!”

“You’ve lost me, darling.” Twilight produced another groan.

“Okay… let’s start from the beginning. You send a letter, someone else intercepts it, reads it and writes you back what you want to see. You then proceed to make exactly what that, other, person wanted you to. In result, you take all the blame, while they reap the benefits.”

“No one even knew about what I intended to do, I didn’t even tell those brutes! I swear!” Twilight had to stop her hoof from hitting her face again for the risk of it forming a bruise.

“Okay, Rarity, even more basic and a more simple situation.” Twilight opened up her bags and took out a few pencils. “Here’s you.” Twilight put down a pencil on the table, “Here’s Her Majesty and here’s her sister.” Twilight put two more pencils down together, “Here’s me.” Twilight put down the final pencil,
“Okay, now watch.” A pink aura grabbed the black painted pencil, “Her Majesty hears that Cadance wrote me a letter and sends a rumor that she knows you’ll hear,” Twilight, then, picked up Rarity’s pencil, “You go to the offices and pick it up for me. Then, Her Majesty comes to you and reads it, both to ensure this is the letter she thinks it is and to give you the idea that it is important. Then, she throws it into the fire; note that she doesn’t destroy it with her magic, because she doesn’t want to. She knows that you are going to take it from the fire, she wanted you to read it.
“Now, let’s review the situation: Point one, Her Majesty is certain that this is the letter safe for you to handle. Point two: she made sure you understand the importance of it. Point three: you are… supposed to be informed on its contents. Point four: you are going to deliver it to me. And now, point five: Her Majesty’s sister has no reasons to suspect anything, she saw the letter burning herself.
"And it all started with you hearing about the letter. Do you see now just how much she can make you do by simply letting you know about something? You never even had an idea that you were being manipulated!”

“Twilight, what was that letter even about?” Twilight let out the most passionate groan yet.

“What I am saying is that we need to find out who benefited from your actions. Okay,” Twilight packed her pencils back in the bag and stood up, “let’s go see why Cadance is taking so long.”

“Princess Cadance is here?!” Rarity widened her eyes, “Oh, sweet stars above, my mane is a total disgrace!”

“Now you are starting to act like yourself again.” Twilight smiled and made a few steps toward the cafe door, “Let’s see if Cadance is going to finish questioning the waiters anytime soon.”

“Waiters? Oh, Twilight, they won’t tell her anything, I just ordered them a bottle… or a few. They won’t know anything about palace affairs. Her Majesty always minds the spread of rumors.”

“Rumors...” Twilight echoed. “Well, she definitely found something to concern herself with.”

“Actually, Darling, before we go, can I, please, ask if you could have a word with Her Majesty?” Rarity went on to display her fairest smile, only slightly worsened by her somewhat unkempt visage.

“I think she already knows, Rarity. But you still caused the death of one of her Guards and you did, technically, lead an enemy into the palace. I think it would be a while before Her Majesty trusts you again. Now, let’s grab Cadance and fix you up a bit. Sweet Celestia, I never thought I would ever say it to you, of all ponies.”

Rarity decided to hold her tongue, for once.