Chapter 16
Trixie Lulamoon stepped into the shop. She knew such places existed, had found some friends in a few of them, but she'd heard this one had something dangerous. With no sight of the object that'd been described to her, she started digging around in the products.
Just as the merchant came out into his shopfront, Trixie spotted what she was after. It was a pendant, had a small front-on view of a pony with wings and a horn. Just looking at it, she could feel an ache in the back of her head.
The alicorn amulet wanted to be used.
"May I help you, traveler? Hrmm, something—"
Trixie was already getting a headache from the amulet, she didn't want the shopkeeper adding to that. Raising her hoof, she pointed. "That."
"Uh, ah—I'm afraid this is far too danger—"
Always hating this bit, Trixie pulled out a bag of bits she'd been given to aid in this particular task. When she thumped them on the counter, she thought back to how much it had cost her to get her caravan built anew. "That should cover it."
Looking at the pile of bits, the shopkeeper let out a surprised whinny. "Would you like that gift-wrapped?"
"Actually, yes. Do you have anything lead-lined?" With her mind associating the amulet as being her property, she now felt it trying to worm into her head again.
"Why couldn't he have had a lead-lined chest? Ugh, I'll be getting one for this wagon—and I'll make Lyra pay for it." Trixie continued grumbling as she pulled her wagon, her mind being constantly teased at by the curse of the amulet.
"I am not going to put you on, no matter what ideas you give me. I—don't—betray—friends."
The amulet had explored her head—because Trixie couldn't stop it looking into her—and had latched onto Lyra as the target of her anger. It had spent five days and five horrid nights trying to find all the little moments in their time together to make Lyra look like somepony who deserved punishment.
She was almost two days from Ponyville, and sleeping under the stars in the rain, when the amulet swapped targets. In Trixie's head a small crack opened up—that crack was the size, shape, and color of Twilight Sparkle.
By the morning of the day she would arrive in Ponyville, Trixie's seething need for revenge finally hit the point at which she could deny it no longer. "That's it! I'm not going to put up with Twilight Sparkle being in my town."
Even in the middle of the day and with her armor on, Lyra didn't like walking through the Everfree Forest. Her danger sense was going crazy as wild magic popped and fizzled all around her, somehow all in perfect balance so that she didn't just spontaneously turn into a manticore.
For a brief moment she pondered a good fire spell. "Forests love fire, right?" Instead, she just swept around with her telekinesis, using it in the same manner she used it for cutting vegetables. After all, the overhanging trees were like vegetables.
"Please cease your attack of these trees, the damage you do leaves me weak at the knees." Even as she spoke, Zecora walked to the fallen branches and gathered them up.
"My attack of—Oh, right. Sorry. Uh, I've come to pick up the amulet." When Zecora didn't immediately act, Lyra cleared her throat. "I said, I—"
"Despite having heard all that you said, why should I trust you in my stead?" With the last of the branches carefully balanced on her back, Zecora started walking to her hut. She knew that there was going to be a long conversation coming, and wanted to get comfortable.
Lyra groaned. "I get it. Sending Trixie to pick up the alicorn amulet was probably not the best idea. Our information didn't suggest that it could control a pony's mind like that. You have it in a warded box." She was careful not to make it a question. "If you give that to me, I'll take it to Princess Celestia to deal with, and I'll bring your box back."
Reaching her hut, and not saying a word further, Zecora opened the door and stepped inside.
For a moment Lyra thought she was going to have the door slammed in her face, but Zecora held it open deliberately. Once inside, her eyes drifted to the little box on a shelf. She could take it and teleport out, but that was neither the pony way nor her own way. "Do you have something to drink?"
Relaxing a little, now she realized Lyra wasn't quite as impulsive as initially assumed, Zecora picked up a machete and started hacking at a large, coconut-like fruit. "It is few the pony who asks me for a drink, my cauldron is poison or so they think."
When Zecora held out the coconut-thing, Lyra held it up to her lips and took a sip. The sweet liquid had an odd bite to it, but even though it made her tongue grow a little hot, it still quenched her thirst. She sat down on what she hoped was a seat and waited.
Silence, so far as Zecora was concerned, was comfortable. She knew that it wasn't so for most ponies, and knew that would be creating much awkwardness for Lyra. Time stretched on and Zecora started on some chores. She hung the tree branches up to dry, started her cooking stove burning, and committed to preparing them both dinner.
Lyra wasn't new to the silence game, but she had an ace up her armored sleeve. As the day wore on and the light outside started to fade, Lyra reviewed her spell patterns. She couldn't verify them for errors, but she could go over them and check the parts she knew were symmetric as well as other common signs her memory of them was fading.
What finally got to Zecora was that she realized she was being a poor host. "My name Zecora be, of what are you known to be?"
Suspecting that the fragile thread of conversation could be lost if she didn't give Zecora something interesting, Lyra banished her focus on spell-forms and looked up at Zecora. "That's probably a story that will last well into the night. You could have the short version if you wish it, but then we wouldn't have anything to talk about."
It was by far the most devastating weapon Lyra could have brought to bear against Zecora—a curiosity wrapped in a story. "I wish to know all you'll share, if you'll join me in simple fare?" She nodded to the pot where a serve of dried beans were already heating.
"My name, back then, was"—Lyra added a little dramatic pause, though truly she was trying to remember how to say her old name in English—"Mike Robertson. When the story begins is with my mum driving my sister and me to our new home."
As Zecora listened to the tale, she crushed up some chili with a granite plate and a flat rock. She preferred traditional food from her homeland, and went to great effort to cultivate what she could and buy what she couldn't in Ponyville. Adding tomato to the mix, she kept up her work until Lyra got to the part where she gained her cutie mark. "These marks of destiny are important I know, I take it yours showed you where to go?"
"Exactly!" Lyra was struggling not to ask about Zecora's cooking. "It ended up being my little sister who chose my name for me. The change from human to pony wasn't easy, nor was it fast, but the hardest part by far was magic."
Onion was next, and she added half of what she had to the stone and crushed it, before adding the rest to the simmering beans. The story seemed extraordinary, but then Zecora herself had lived such a life to end up in Equestria.
Lyra was struggling to keep her story's flow going, having to settle into a rhythm to keep it going and not grow too curious of what Zecora was cooking.
The plantain were cut, the ground vegetables were added to the beans, and Zecora listened to how Lyra learned the ways of ponykind. Magic, friendship, and even love had come her way. What Zecora was listening for was the changes in pitch Lyra used to tell the story.
It reminded Zecora of the way her own people shared stories, using song to reinforce the telling and keep the memories fresh. Frying the plantain slices, she finally made the connection of why Lyra's story worked so well like that. "Your special talent." At that moment, unlike her affected speech pattern, Zecora spoke without a rhyme.
"My name is Lyra Heartstrings, and it's a pleasure to meet you."
Zecora froze, shocked at herself for both her words and missing what she now realized was a vocal performance and not just a story. The sound of sizzling plantain broke her from her stunned state and reminded her she had things to do. Firstly, she felt a need to reply to Lyra's giving of her name. "Zecora is how I am known, and so far I am from home. But to hear a story so well sung, reminds me of when I was young."
Lyra sat still and waited for Zecora to finish cooking everything. The smell in the hut was making her mouth water, and when presented with a bowl half filled with the beans and topped with fried plantain, she almost fell over at how good it was up close. "This smells amazing. What is it?"
"The name of this meal, in toto, is translated roughly to Beans and Dodo." Zecora sat down beside Lyra and started eating. The heat was just how she liked it, and everything was silky and soft.
At her first mouthful, Lyra realized this might be a little hot for her normal tastes. The chili in the beans was slow to come on, but if she didn't cram another mouthful in quickly, she knew it would overwhelm her. "It's spicy!" The fire was doing amazing things to her sinuses, but Lyra plowed on.
By the time they both finished the food, Zecora had made up her mind. "It is not many unicorn I would trust, with so much power over which to lust." Standing up from the remains of her meal, Zecora walked over to where the box sat. "Do not tarry too long under its effects, or it will be your own mind that will feel its affects."
"Wait, so the box doesn't ward it?" Lyra was scooping up the last fiery spoonful of beans onto her spoon.
"It stops a unicorn falling under its… sway, but get too close and you will become its prey." Setting the box down before Lyra, Zecora studied the mare more than the wards on the box. "But in you I feel a resistance to the fate, that this amulet would have you attempt to create."
"Yeah, I've been told it's a pain to get into my head, not that Chrysalis had a problem."
Zecora's sharp eyes didn't miss the way Lyra's expression changed to one of fondness when she spoke on the subject. "And yet, I see a smile at that thought, perhaps another story could be taught?"
"You know, you could come and have dinner with us one night. We could even swap some recipes." Reaching her hoof for the box, Lyra felt as something within probed at her head. "I can feel it. You know what always helps me keep things out of my head? Comedy."
"It's important to be on your way post-haste, and a meal cooked thus I'd love to taste." Zecora held the door open for Lyra, expecting her to run out as quick as she could. Instead, her house guest simply disappeared with a POMF sound. Relieved of her guest, Zecora relaxed a little more. "Well, I'm glad I got rid of that."
With her armor on, Lyra could have used gravity to build momentum and hurl herself up to Canterlot. Though, with night having begun, she didn't want to risk becoming the latest unicorn to fail at flying.
So, rather than big arcs with long sections of ballistic flight, Lyra burned her magic to teleport again and again, each going to her far limit, until she was up and above Canterlot—a city full of unicorns that the item she carried would love to take over. Timing an arc just right, she landed on the ramp leading up to the castle with a minimum of momentum.
Squinting through the darkness, Lyra spotted a unicorn and an earth pony on guard. "I'm Sergeant Lyra Heartstrings of the E.U.P. Guard. I request that only earth ponies and pegasi come within ten lengths of me."
"We'd be crazy if we didn't know who you are, sergeant. I'll step back and allow Corporal Wild Dash here to escort you." Citron stepped back and gave a full ten ponylengths of room to them. "Princess Luna's court ends in a half hour."
Lyra felt some relief at seeing they did what she asked. "Okay, first thing I'm doing is giving this thing to you, corporal. I want you grounded every step you take, and let me know if you feel anything poking at your mind."
The stallion seemed familiar to Lyra. She could recognize that he was only new to bleaching his coat, though his shock of mane was already a solid blue.
"I understand, sergeant." Steeling himself against whatever Lyra was about to do, Wild grounded himself out through all four hooves. The moment she set a small wooden box on his back, he felt power start to flow through his grounding. "It's active, but not in my mind."
"Thought as much. We'll need Princess Celestia woken up if she's not already." At the startled look on Wild's face as she said it, Lyra rolled her eyes. "It's important. Trust me, she won't be upset. Has she been in bed long?"
"I've been on the gate for four hours." Each pace Wild took, he stopped grounding through that one hoof, took his step, then started again. It was slow going, and took some mental practice, but he liked to think he'd had the best trainer when it came to grounding magic. "She had that show in Ponyville earlier."
Lyra cursed. It wasn't an Australian curse, like she would have used ten years previous, but it did contain some rather vehement and varied uses of the word apple and pony, none of which had specifically to do with the Apple family. "Great, and I missed my date with Bonny. But you know what I've learned not to do, corporal?"
"What's that?"
"Dare to utter the words—what could possibly make this worse?" As soon as Lyra said it, she realized what she'd done and took a few sideways steps to put a little more distance between her and Wild. "Wait! Now I remember! Sweetie was training you!"
"Got it in one, sergeant. Uh, I'll wait here, you go in and notify the foyer guards what's going on and get them to sort things out." Wild halted off to the side of the main entry to the castle, ensuring there was plenty of room around him.
Soon enough Lyra had the throne room filled with pegasi and earth pony guards, herself, Wild, and two princesses plus one Baroness Moon Dancer. Celestia didn't look particularly happy, but she didn't seem upset, either. Luna showed more curiosity than any other emotion.
"This is the amulet that we'd been hunting for. It's the Alicorn Amulet, and it's currently sitting on the back of a stallion grounding out its magic very effectively." Lyra had positioned herself at a good distance from Wild. "Zecora, the zebra who helped Twilight free Trixie Lulamoon, put it in this warded box and told me it only seems to affect unicorns."
"And alicorns, we have to assume," Luna said, not wanting to get near the thing. "The texts I'd read on it said nothing of its mind-influencing magics."
Lyra let out a sigh. "If I'd known, I wouldn't have sent a unicorn to fetch it. Though, the merchant may not have sold it to a non-unicorn."
Celestia raised her eyebrow at Lyra. "You suspect they may be antagonistic?"
Almost saying princess, Lyra managed to halt herself at the last moment. "Celestia, I don't want to take that chance. I have another agent paying them a visit to gauge their attitude and also to root out anything else that might be unfortunate to have get sold."
"Your group is already working, then?" Moon Dancer, who had been standing beside Luna and keeping her snout closed, finally decided to ask questions, though, even she had to admit this was a little obvious.
"It is. All major cities now have somewhere for foals, adults, and even veterans to go and relax and discuss self-defense and training. Those same hubs are used to gather information, and run by Guard veterans who have been in the field. There was so much untapped potential there that—" Lyra stopped, realizing both princesses were grinning at her. "I'll give you a report later, Moon."
Celestia didn't want to give either of the unicorns a chance to get sidetracked again, so she quickly brought things forward. "Twilight told me that she and her friends managed to get things under control with the help of a zebra. I believe I'd very much like to meet them."
Clearing her throat, Luna smiled at her big sister who, she had to admit, looked almost as chagrined as Lyra and Moon had. "That should probably wait until after we get this item secure. Shell we, Sister?"
Which began their procession down into the newly explored caves of magic-reflective crystal under Canterlot. Not only had they been explored, but there were halls of chambers with locks on doors made from the very same crystal as the walls of the caves.
Wild Dash walked twenty lengths behind Celestia and Luna and twenty before Lyra. There were Royal Guards before and after each end of their group. He was brought up short when Luna pointed to a door and the whole group stopped where they stood.
"These locks are works of art," Luna said, examining the magic within the door. "Are you ready to open it, sister?"
Leaning her head forward and tilting just so, Celestia aimed her horn at a hole on one side of the door and pressed the tip in. From the corner of her vision, she saw her sister do the same.
The door didn't feed deeply, it just had to taste the magic of two specific alicorns to activate and release its grip on the walls. When both mares pulled back, the door opened and revealed an empty room beyond.
Moving back, the two princesses nodded to Wild and, step by step, he advanced on the room and walked inside. The magic of the amulet became greater. Wild shuddered as blast after blast of mind-magic grounded out through his hooves.
Walking in behind Wild, Seltzer Spray had to hold back his normally boisterous personality for the somber moment. "I'm coming up on your right side, Wild. Now I'm going to press against your side and lift it off, okay?"
"Yeah. You can feel it?"
"Sure can. It's blasting both of us now. Good thing we got trained by the best, huh?" Reaching with both hooves, Seltzer grounded himself with his back legs and leaned against Wild to take advantage of his own grounding.
"The Guard has the best, yeah." Wild felt it turn all its attention to Seltzer and leaned harder against him. "Put it down and let's make like trees."
The soft clack of wood on crystal echoed in the room. "Got it. Back away one step at a time, don't stop touching me."
"Yeah, we got this." The further he moved back from the box, the less Wild could feel it hammering at him. When they were outside the door, a gold and cobalt mix of magic telekinesis swung the huge crystal mechanism closed and—with a soft sigh from everypony present—the air of magic ceased.
"That had a lot more power to it than when I first picked up the box." Lyra walked closer to the door, her senses focusing on any and all magic—but felt nothing. "It seems sealed."
Celestia nodded. "I can't feel anything now except the door lock." What she didn't want to say was how she'd felt the compulsion even twenty ponylengths away. She was just glad the lock required both her and Luna to open it together. "Let's head back upstairs. I need my sleep—as do several of you."
Of course a yawn would pick that moment to pull its way free of Lyra. She covered her mouth with a hoof and walked along with the Royal Guard and royalty themselves back up to the castle. "If you want to visit and speak to Zecora, I had invited her for dinner tomorrow—wait, it's later today now—night."
Biting her tongue, Celestia counted to five to stop from pouncing on the idea. "While I would love to sample your cooking again, and meet a new friend, I think I'll contact her directly."
Lyra nodded and turned for the doors. "Excuse me, I need to find my bed, my wife, and possibly—" What Lyra had been about to say died in her throat. She felt off-balance and wonky, and that was before gold magic levitated her into the air.
"Lyra Heartstrings, you are in no condition for any kind of magical travel. You are staying here tonight, and I won't hear another word about it." Tired herself, Celestia could see that something had left one of her ponies more drained than even they had noticed. She carried the barely struggling Lyra out into the hall, flanked by a pair of her Guard.
"I'm fine. I just need to—to try—" Lyra shuddered.
"How tightly were you shielding your mind against that amulet?" Celestia asked.
"As h-hard as I could. Zecora had said it was still leaking out, and I didn't want to take any chances of it c-corrulpt—messing with me."
"This is a royal suite that is one of many kept for visiting royalty. The one at the far end of the hall is inhabited by the delegates from Saddle Arabia. You get this one." Carrying the now unresisting Lyra into the suite, Celestia made her way through to the bedroom. "Remove her from her armor, please."
Seltzer saluted Celestia and stepped forward. He was well-used to removing armor, though he hadn't expected to be doffing a mare's armor that night, let alone a sergeant of the Guard. He worked swiftly and with precision, but by the time he was done he could already hear soft, snoozy sounds coming from Lyra.
The moment the last piece was removed, Celestia carried Lyra to the bed and set her down under the covers. "Bring her armor." She could see signs of scuffing and marks on it. "Have somepony buff it up and return it with an arming dummy."
Waking in a strange bed, alone, confused Lyra at first. She poked her head up and looked around the dark room a moment before she remembered that she had magic and could create light. The room looked like someone with far better taste and budget than Lyra had had gone to town. Everything spoke of opulence except one object that stuck out.
Beside the bed was an arming dummy with her armor on it. Her old, battered armor that was now polished to a mirror shine. "And now I have to scuff it up some more before everypony laughs at the sergeant in polished armor."
Climbing from bed, Lyra decided a shower and a song would be the best way to wake up properly without the need to gather her thoughts. With the shower done (in a bathroom almost as big as her house in Ponyville), Lyra walked into the bedroom again and started to don her armor.
All the straps had been oiled, the plates polished—she was shocked to see each link of the mail cleaned and polished. "Royal Guard, I bet." What she wouldn't admit was how good it felt to be wearing her comfortable armor all polished up.
Leaving her bedroom, Lyra was shocked all over again. The living room of the suite was bigger than her house and it made her feel tiny. She pondered teleporting to the door just so she could leave quicker, but shrugged her shoulders as she walked over and opened it.
"Sergeant!"
Lyra was normally far more prepared for a Guardpony saluting her, but right at that moment she was a little surprised. She sketched off a salute in return. "Which way's the kitchen from here?"
"Ma'am, I can escort you there if you wish? Princess Celestia ordered me to guard your quarters and to assist you in any way."
"Did you polish this?" Lyra turned left as directed and let the corporal (her eyes weren't so bleary as to misread his insignia) walk beside her.
"Yeah. I hope I didn't miss a spot. Sergeant Shift said I keep missing spots on my armor, but it's usually like one bristle of hair in the brush or a single link of my chain mail." Letting out a sigh, the corporal hung his head a little.
"Regretting the Royal Guard?" Racking her brain to remember the soldier's name, Lyra finally brought it back. "Rhodolite, isn't it?" By the way his head jerked up and his smile shone, Lyra knew she'd guessed right.
"Yes, ma'am. I know I wasn't the sharpest horn in the pack, but I took everything you taught me to heart. I don't regret being a Royal Guard, I guess I just wasn't aware how defensive the post was." Rhodolite turned the corner and sought out the hall that led to the kitchen. "I heard how you personally escorted a dangerous artifact that even the princesses didn't want to touch."
Lyra sighed. She was forced to face the reality of her actions. "Yeah. Took a lot out of me. A good friend got themselves in a lot of trouble with it."
"Are there many things like that out there?"
"I doubt it, but that's something I'm working on. Now, at least, there's one less." Lyra had never entered the kitchen through these particular doors before, but once they were open the smells of cooking wrapped around her like a warm blanket. "That smells amazing."
But though it smelled good, there was something wrong in the kitchen and Lyra could see part of it right away—two cooktops were switched off and the chefs from them had doubled up on the remaining ones.
"Hey, uh, Gretchen?" Lyra looked around, only to find the griffon in question looking all puffed up. "What's the matter?"
Hearing a voice she recognized, Gretchen walked over to Lyra and Rhodolite still unable to get her feathers under control. "We have two sets of burners not working and another one that might fail by the end of the day. We've had somepony come and look at them, but tomorrow afternoon is the earliest they can get the parts." Just describing her problem made Gretchen's stress increase.
Edging her way over to the line of chefs, Lyra got close to one of the abandoned cookers. "What is it or isn't it doing?" Her spells weren't exactly the right ones for this, but she poked at all the various parts of the stove with her telekinesis, hoping that doing so might reveal what wasn't working.
"The gas lines are blocked. The castle still works on old style gas stoves, and we've been getting more and more blockages in the last few years. The last one happened because of all that work in the you-know-where." Gretchen honestly was just done with any hope of working as a normal kitchen and was already prepared to march back to her room, sit on her roost, and ignore everypony for a week.
"You just need heat, right?" Rhodolite asked. "Couldn't a heat spell work?"
Shaking her head, Lyra said, "No, that would need to target the pans and pots themselves. It wouldn't work how they need it to work."
"Well, how much control do you need of the heat? Could you deal with us making a fire spell on each location so that you had two at low heat, two at—at moderate heat, and the last two ripping hot?" Lyra and Gretchen both looked at Rhodolite like he'd just said something both crazy and amazing. "Well?"
"Your chillers and ovens use charged crystals, right?" Lyra asked Gretchen. When Gretchen nodded back, Lyra added, "Is there one you don't mind me taking apart for a few days?"
One blast chiller in pieces later, and working with Rhodolite to work a flame spell into each burner of the two failed cooktops, Lyra finally bound the dormant spells to the dials and then to the crystal. "Right. We don't have limited power—"
"I can't believe you turned a gas dial into a magic control. I never saw that kind of enchantment before!" Rhodolite studied the softly fading glow on each dial one more time and shook his head.
"It's not going to last a month, but it will get you out of trouble. The spells aren't as efficient as a proper artisan would make them, and there's some loss in the controls, but this should do." Reaching her hoof up, Lyra turned a dial from off to low.
Gretchen stared at the small yellow-blue jet of flame. "Is it likely to explode in the next two days?"
"No. Don't touch the regulator on the crystal and it will never have enough energy to explode." Lyra dialed the "gas" up to full and the flame grew a lot more blue with only slight yellow tips. "It might not flow the same heat at the same settings, so have your people get used to it."
"Goulash! Over here. Try this station. You're still on protein." Gretchen's shout earned her a yes chef from the line and the pegasus in question approached her. "Fry, poach, and char me a fish. Watch the gas marks, they're not the same as they were."
A master when it came to protein, Goulash quickly selected three different fish for his test and set about testing the mettle of the magic-powered stove. A deep pan filled with water was set on maximum heat, while he got a second one on medium-low for the grilled option. Finally, he turned a third burner on low and set a small wire rack over it.
Lyra had been preparing Scootaloo various fish meals at least once a day for a few years now, and it had given both her and Sweetie confidence with it, but Goulash was a master. The water was turned down and two portions of fish were added, he brushed oil over the skin of a second serving and set it into the now sizzling pan, and the third was a whole fish he set over the third burner.
Adjusting the settings on the pan and wire rack, Goulash employed every bit of his talent at ensuring all three pieces of fish would be perfect. He inserted a skewer through the charred fish and turned it over expertly. Grabbing up a plate from behind him, he lifted out the poaching fish and set them down on the plate, then turned the pan-fried fish. Finally done, he scooped out the fried fish and set it beside the poached ones, grabbed the skewered fish from the stove, and turned all three burners off. "There. The high setting is a little hotter than they were, but otherwise it seems fine."
"Any problems with it and you want to speak to this guy." Giving Rhodolite a thump on his back, Lyra noticed Gretchen's feathers had flattened and her rear wiggled a little. That was all the warning she got that a big griffon was going to tackle-hug her.
Pouncing, Gretchen hugged Lyra and Rhodolite tight. "You've saved my tail feathers. Is there anything I can do for you?" She was almost crying at how relieved she felt.
"Cheese toasty," Lyra managed to say. "Double the cheese."
Laughing, Gretchen gave the pair another hug before turning to the newly powered cooktop. "Bread sliced thick, cheese, butter"—she rattled off ingredients various underlings raced around to fetch them—"and a hot pan."
Able to make a pretty good cheese toasty herself, Lyra didn't doubt for a moment that Gretchen could make better. She might lack a cutie mark in cooking, but Gretchen had years of experience and passion. Before she knew it, Lyra and Rhodolite both had toasted sandwiches wrapped with paper floating in their magic. "Thanks, Gretchen!"
The walk to the throne room was uneventful, mostly because both of them had breakfast to eat. When they checked at the doorway to the throne room, there were no petitioners within. Lyra led the way to see Celestia and Luna talking while seated at a table together.
Both sisters turned their heads to spot the new additions to the room, and both smiled to see Lyra. "Please," Celestia said, "join us."
A new chair appeared with a pink glow and Lyra approached and sat down. "Sorry I was late, there was a problem to fix in the kitchen."
Celestia opened her mouth, prepared to ask what Lyra meant, then sighed. There was no end to what the mare would come up with. She was interrupted in her contemplation by a screech at the entryway.
"Lyra!" Joyce ignored all propriety and spread her wings to fly into the middle of the room. "Sweetie came to visit. She said you didn't come home last night."
It was the second overwhelming hug Lyra had gotten that morning, but she would no more evade her mother's leathery-winged hug than she would stop breathing. "Sorry, Mum, I had a thing going on. I didn't get a chance to get word to Sweetie before doing it, and then I apparently passed out here."
"Then let me go find her and reassure her that—"
"Lyra!" Sweetie stomped her way into the throne room, leaving a bevy of worried Royal Guard in her wake. She expected to feel anger if she found Lyra unharmed, but the truth was all of her worry and fury melted and she charged the table as if it were a bugbear.
Not daring to ask any questions, Celestia sipped her tea and looked to her sister. "Fine morning we're having."
Luna managed to hold back her first giggle, but she was watching the reunion and the following few got free. "We should have sent word."
"I believe we were all off-balance last night. Lyra just took it harder." More movement drew Celestia's attention to the side door and she smiled to see breakfast coming out. "Could you bring more tea, please?"
"Ahem." Clearing her throat, Luna waited until she had all three mares' attention. "It was our fault. Lyra was on a special mission for us, and performing that mission left her far more drained than she realized. We ensured she had sleeping quarters here for the evening."
"Getting a princess to apologize for you doesn't get you off the hook." Sweetie's eyes were locked on Lyra. "What was it you were doing?"
"Delivering the alicorn amulet to Canterlot. I didn't want to risk anypony else falling under its influence—oh, and we will be having a guest for dinner tonight." When Lyra's explanation evoked shock and then a glare from Sweetie, she rolled her eyes. "She cooked the most amazing meal for me yesterday, I figured we could swap recipes."
"The amulet was particularly potent against unicorns, and we are sure it would be even more so against alicorns." Celestia could see that Sweetie still wasn't happy, but the initial anger had faded. "Well, captain, do you have anything to report?"
"We've had sightings of changelings in a half ring around the badlands, they're hungry and are pushing out again despite the thrashing Cadance and Shining gave them. The griffons are doing a good job with the bugbears, and I have a group in Trottingham feeding arms, armor, and supplies to their forces. The yaks are still a little concerning, and I don't think they're half as peaceful as we'd hoped." The list wasn't long, but Sweetie was nothing if not comprehensive about it. Each item was a battle she faced, judged, and deployed resources for. "I have notified Cadance and Shining that they might want to build their own armed forces just in case. There is talk of a bell with massive magical power in the old Arimaspi caves."
"Grogar's Bell. It should be safe for now, but it would be a good plan to get that safely in the vault too." The report pleased Celestia. In one swift move Sweetie Drops had filled in a gap in Equestria's defense. "Good work."
It shouldn't have been as much of a relief for Sweetie to hear those two words, but it was. She had assumed she would see great and sweeping changes come from her efforts, where in reality everything she was doing was specifically not to see changes. Equestria rolled on as safe as ever and nopony noticed the new building each town sported. She nodded her head, accepting the praise with as little pomp as she could.
"What does the bell do?" Lyra asked.
Luna noticed Celestia had started sipping her tea and relished the opportunity to contribute. "It steals magic from creatures and can then grant that magic to a target. Legend has it that even Discord can be drained in this manner, though I doubt he'd stick around if he knew you had it."
"That's terrifying, but you said it was safe?" Lyra asked.
"As safe as could be made at the time." Luna tried to resist the urge to slide the whole stack of pancakes closer, then revised her thoughts and only took the top half. "Please, have breakfast with us."
"Well," Sweetie said, "since the world isn't likely to come to an end in the next hour, I think we will."
"Okay, so we map any and all old sites. I don't care how mundane or non-threatening, if it is a ruin or cave from ancient times, I want somepony experienced and educated on what to look for delving it and turning over every single stone. If you so much as think there might be something magical there, contact your nearest martial training hall." Sweetie Drops looked across the table at the mare opposite her. It hadn't been easy to even find out she existed, let alone get a message to her.
"So," Daring Do—in her disguise as A.K. Yearling—said, "you want me to do this alone?"
"No. I want you selecting ponies, training them if you have to, and sending them. If there's one thing I learned recently, that's to delegate. You have the smarts, impart those onto others and get them to work."
"How? Unless you failed to get this, I don't exactly have an alternate identity that can claim such knowledge and not reveal a lot more about my situation than I'm comfortable with." Daring had a dislike for sitting unless her wings were busy typing. She stood up and stretched a little.
Sweetie focused on not ogling the pegasus and focused on the solution she'd already planned for. "Congratulations, sergeant, you're the newest sergeant in the E.U.P. Guard Research and Acquisitions wing. There will be exactly three ponies who know who you are, one is myself, another is my wife, and the third is the Guard armorer. She'll take care of making you look like an earth pony."
Daring stared at Sweetie for a few moments, then finally twitched her wings under her coat. "Hello? Already using an earth pony disguise."
"Would you rather pegasus, or do you have a horn handy we can stick on—you know, round out the three tribes?"
Taking a moment to absorb the sarcasm that'd been deployed against her, Daring let out a bark of laughter. "Look, I get it, for the good of Equestria and all that—"
"What about mane and tail dye? We can easily use a helmet and some heavy-looking armor to hide your body shape, but if we gave you a more stand-out hair color I'm sure nopony would make the connection."
They were interrupted by a knock at the door. When Sweetie called out that they were busy, Lyra teleported inside the door. "Hey, just letting you know that Sharp Horn is ready to work her magic."
"This had better be your wife, or that number just went to four."
"Lyra Heartstrings, wife and significantly lower-ranked partner of Captain Sweetie Drops. At your service!" Snapping off a salute, Lyra wore a friendly grin. "I can teleport us right there if you'd like?"
About to shoot back with her own sarcasm, Daring halted in her tracks when she realized Lyra was actually being both genuine and useful. "Yes please. I don't often—" She hadn't expected Lyra to teleport so soon. Or so accurately. They were both standing in the significantly hotter forge. "… get to use teleportation magic. Sorry, what was your name again?"
"Lyra!" Sharp Horn levitated the modified heavy armor she'd been working on. "I don't know why I'm ruining this armor, but I've taken all the weight out of it in all the places that can't be seen. Is this the pony I'm fitting it to?"
"The one and only. We also need to make her look as little like herself as possible. What do you think would be the easiest way to do that?"
Rubbing her chin, Sharp looked down from her larger-than-average height to examine Daring. "Mane and tail dye. Black is the easiest, and would mask that contour perfectly."
Daring looked between the two, then settled on Sharp. "You're not even going to ask who I am or why you're hiding my identity?"
"Even if Captain Sweetie Drops didn't already cover all this, if Lyra Heartstrings asked me to do it, I'd do it. Whoever you are, and why I'm disguising you as an E.U.P. Guard sergeant don't matter in the slightest when I have rank and one of the princesses' right-hoof-mares overseeing this. So, no. I don't want to know who you are and I don't want to know why you need to look like an earth pony sergeant." Sharp cleared her throat and took a moment to recover from having to vehemently defend her position. "Now, if you could take your current disguise off and I'll fit this armor to you."
It didn't take the pair long. Adjusting the armor was Sharp's domain, while arranging something to dye Daring's mane and tail black was Lyra's, and in less than an hour they'd both succeeded.
"Welcome to the Research and Acquisitions arm of the E.U.P. Guard, sergeant. The downside is that you might have to shout a lot. The upside is that you get to shout a lot." Lyra beamed at the result of their work. "I'm kidding, obviously. I'll do any shouting that's required, all we want you to do is train our new recruits. And, by new recruits, I mean veterans who already know the right end of a spear from the wrong."
It made Daring Do actually laugh. "You know my normal job, right?"
"Yeah, I do. That's why we got you in to help. We needed the best." Lyra didn't mind stroking Daring's ego to help her get comfortable. "So, let's work on your training methods."
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Did we skip a chapter somehow? I feel like I missed a time-skip.
10935127 I am not going to show every little thing from the show—I'd die before finishing this if I did, and most of it won't be different.
This is a jump forward—into the meat of S3—but I don't want to change the core storyline of S3 because that would kinda break Twilight's ascension.
10935136
Why would that be a bad thing? That would be hilarious. At present, if we want to talk about "creating new magic" I'd say Lyra's ahead of the game.
Not that I'm advocating for alicorn Lyra specifically, but I am always ready for narrative havoc to butterfly out of some innocuous change.
10935143 Heh, Lyra sticks to using existing spells in uncommon ways. Her teaching the E.U.P. Guard cadets has probably been quite the turn around in unicorn proficiency.
Equestria needs the best of the best so it turned to DD.
a grate chapter for a awesome story.
'What finally got to Zecora was that she realized she was being a poor host. "My name Zecora be, of what are you known to be?"'
Just finished reading.
I think there is a noticeable drop in quality in this chapter vs previous ones.
This is a rather interesting chapter. Has the return of the Crystal Empire happened yet? I would guess not but this chapter does not make that very clear. It's interesting that theytry to deal with dangerous magical artifacts early on and try to prevent them from falling into the wrong hooves.
Trying to 3001 the Amulet would lead to rather excessive unplesantness being unleashed?
Research and Aquisition Guards makes them the RAG Tagged arm of the militery?
Lyra, you got a little Daring right over there.... 😎
Funny enough, Lyra's presence has ultimately reformed a lot of the general pansy nature of equestrian armed forces. Of course, the increased competency comes with a cost...