“Bonnie!”
Lyra rushed forward to meet Bon Bon, who returned the charge with a squeal of delight. The two ponies crashed into each other, Bon-Bon wrapping Lyra in a hug so tight Lyra could swear she felt her ribs creak. Of course, only her lack of earth pony strength kept her own hug from being equally tight.
“Oh Lyra you’re home you’re home thank Luna you made it back you’re home!” babbled Bon Bon in Lyra’s ear.
“I missed you too, Bonnie,” murmured Lyra.
Meanwhile, Carrot Top and Prince Fredrick had shared a somewhat less thorough embrace, and Spear Fisher let out a sigh of relief at getting his trouble-prone charges safely back to more-or-less friendly territory.
“Carrots, I wanted to come for you, I swear,” said Fredrick hurriedly after he and Carrot Top let go of each other again, “but the fae emissary said that only the Night Guards were allowed to help and…”
“Wait, what?” asked Carrot Tops. “What fae emissary?”
“A messenger from ze Fae arrived while you vere facing ze third trial,” explained Spear Fisher. “It told us zat if ze six of us, and only ze six of us, headed for ze location vere ve found you as fast as ve could, ve vould find a hunger of ghuls, and maybe also find you fighting ze ghuls. But if any more zan ze six of us vent, ze Vinter Lord vould consider it to be too much aid, and vould certainly pit you against zome other foe. Ze most Prince Fredrick could do was put zat rune on ze platform to make it weightless, zo Quicksilver and Black Canary could transport ze rest of us to zat valley, and zo ve could get you out. ”
“Well,” replied Lyra after a moment’s pause, “I’m just glad they decided the Night Guards were allowed to help. That was scary. Which reminds me, we’ll need to do something about that… whatever-the-Sun-that-thing-is that all those ghuls turned into.”
“Agreed,” replied Spear Fisher, “but zat’s not your business. Nor mine. Ze cervid runecasters can vork great magic if zey have ze time and ze numbers, and zey vill have both when dealing vith zis thing. Zey vill be able to hit zat monster hard enough to put even it down. Ve, under ze ozer hoof, vill enjoy vat remains of ze festival. You have done enough for one day.”
“Agreed,” said Bon Bon determinedly. “We’ve already lost too much of this vacation to those Fae. I refuse to lose any more of it.”
“Aye-aye, Your Bonbonness!” said Lyra with a giggle.
Bon Bon rolled her eyes and kissed Lyra on the cheek. Behind them the sun flared brighter before slipping over the horizon.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Queen Celestia opened her eyes, returning her mind to her physical body with a sigh. It was rather ironic. For a millennium, the Sun had been her prison, but now it was in many ways more of a refuge. During those few moments when her mind was merged with the Sun to raise or lower it, she could almost forget her sister’s folly, the countless threats surrounding her little ponies, and all the other sources of stress that haunted her.
Right now, she most especially wished she had had the luxury of forgetting the injuries inflicted on her Voice and his apprentice in the Trial of Winter. Kindle and Smoke had done heroic deeds in her name this just-past day, confronting a powerful Summerfae noble who had entered the mortal world to try his sport against an elk champion. Kindle had drawn the attention of the Fae princeling with a stirring challenge, and then Smoke’s magic had wrapped the elk in invisibility, enabling him to slip the notice of the Summerfae hunters.
But things had not fared so well for Celestia’s own champions. Kindle’s armor had protected him from the worst of the summerhounds’ teeth and claws, and Celestia’s blessing had warded him against the fire and light magic of the Summer noble, but he had still picked up many cuts and bruises.
Likewise, though Smoke had hidden herself behind veils of illusion, one of the summerhounds had still found her, and its jaws had badly mangled one of her legs. Celestia had done what she could to treat the wounds, but that was all too little. And she had been able to do nothing to protect her little ponies, for she had been left ignorant of what trials they faced. It was not until after he had persuaded the Summer noble to seek better sport elsewhere that Kindle had broken the talisman she had given him in case of emergencies, for he had been warned that to call for her aid in the fight would have forfeited the trial.
It was all most infuriating. Kindle might be more than a bit mad, but he was also one of only two (or maybe four) ponies who still saw Celestia as she truly was. The ponies of Equestria and its surrounding countries despised Celestia, most of those who did revere here revered her as Corona rather than Celestia, and even her niece and her last remaining sister didn’t always see her as she was. Only Kindle and Zecora could be counted on to see ponykind’s protector.
This did not go at all as I’d intended. The power to call the Wild Hunt to my aid is nothing to be sneezed at, but it’s far less than I hoped to get. Not to mention that Luna came out of this with those black lotus blooms, and I’m sure she’ll put those to good use. Or good for her, not so good for me.
And I certainly didn’t intend for Kindle to get hurt, or for him to bargain with the Fae on his own. And what in Iridia’s shining heart am I supposed to do with these death mists? This is why I need to be in charge. The mortals do such stupid things if you leave them to their own devices.
Don’t think I can try this again, either. Only Court that owes me anything now is Winter, and with his trial a draw, he won’t let me cash in my favors for this fight. And I don’t think I can risk bargaining with the Fae either. To end up owing them the kind of debt I’d need to get anything useful is way more risk than I care to take just at present.
At least Luna can’t get anything more out of this mess either.
“Your Majessty?” One of the salamanders poked its head into the room. “A pair of Sspringfae have arrived, and they ssay they have a messsage to deliver to you. Or rather, one has a messsage for you and one has a messsage for your Voice.” Kindle perked up his ears at that.
“Send them in,” said Celestia. The salamander slithered off. “What under my Sun could this be about?” Celestia added to nopony in particular.
“What path has brought these fae to thee/Wait but a moment, and we shall see,” pointed out Zecora.
A moment later the pair of Springfae entered the Queen’s audience chamber. One wore the form of an earth pony mare, with blue coat and a mane striped in light and dark blues. A pair of plum-colored saddlebags were slung over its back. The second was, for no reason Celestia cared to guess at, wearing the shape of one of the long-extinct hominians. Oddly enough, though, its hide was not the dark brown of the real hominians, but the same candy-pink as its fluffy mane. The fae appeared to be clad in an oddly shaped dress.
“Greetings, Children of Spring,” said Celestia, inclining her head politely towards the fae. “What brings you to my home in exile?”
“We come not of our own will,” replied the one who resembled an earth pony, “but bound and bargained. We are here to deliver a message unto you and your herald from one who prefers to remain anonymous.”
“Deliver it, then,” said Celestia with a sigh. Whatever this message was, she wasn’t going to like it. That she could be sure of, for why would anypony incur a fae bargain merely to deliver a message unless they were too afraid to handle that message themselves? But if these Springfae had accepted a bargain, trying to sway them from their course would be an exercise in futility. More to the point, one of the fundamental rules of dealing with the Fae was that you could never hold a Fae accountable for what it did under bargain. Until the message was delivered, the Fae messengers were legally, and even in many ways physically, extensions of whoever had given them the message.
“As you wish,” said the fae who had taken hominian form. And in perfect synchrony, the Springfae hit Celestia and Kindle in the face with a banana cream pie apiece, before vanishing into clouds of pink and blue smoke.