Chapter 22
Luna’s aura dissipated from her horn as the full moon locked into place overhead against the starry background of the Canterlot night sky. An uneasy look plastered on her face, the alicorn couldn’t help but feel that something had gone horribly wrong. This was the night that her ancient chalice was to activate once more after centuries of being lost, and she had heard no information about its location from the Crystal Empire since she sent Captain Arbiter to investigate. Midnight Blaze’s dream link was still severed, a black void in her magical powers that disturbed her to no end.
A sudden shock of terror and pain ran up from the nerves in her legs to the primal section of her brain, and the princess broke out into a sweat instantly, feeling short of breath. Thoughts that she might be blamed for anything wrought by the chalice’s power filled her mind and invaded her personal peace, making her gasp loudly for air like a fish without water.
“Sister!” cried a voice behind her.
She attempted to turn to address Celestia, who stood behind her on the balcony overlooking Canterlot as well. But her legs refused to obey her central nervous system’s orders, the muscles were locked into place in a bizarre cramp.
“LUNA!!” wailed Celestia, sensing the danger and activating her magic quickly.
A field of white and yellow energy surrounded the other princess in swirls of sparks and energy, Celestia felt a dark curse within her sister attempting to corrode her mind. Working quickly, the counterspell’s force tried to destroy the evil one attempting to rob the Princess of the Night of her very sanity. The castle tower behind them was illuminated brightly, and a high-pitched wailing sound echoed against the stone of the building as Princess Luna’s invader was vanquished… for now. Celestia released her protective magic, and her sibling dropped to the ground, her hair ceasing its magical movement.
Multiple guards arrived on the scene, having heard the yelling and loud casting from downstairs. It took just one look seeing Luna collapsed on the ground and out cold to know that something had horribly gone wrong.
“MEDIC TO THE EAST TOWER!” bellowed the leader of the response party down into the depths of the castle.
“This is rather… comfortable...”
Luna jolted awake suddenly, shouting in surprise. The castle medical staff nearly jumped out of their skins from the sudden burst of activity from their patient, but Celestia remained calm. She was laying on top of a large, soft cot in the castle’s infirmary, a well-furnished medical facility made from visually pleasing walls of white stone and rows of rarely-used pieces of medical machinery. This is where the guards were usually treated for injuries or the castle staff could get medicine if they got sick, although thankfully the worst the doctors usually saw was an occasional fall injury down the many, many staircases in the castle’s interiors.
Still groggy and feeling like she had been personally ripped apart by whatever intruder had dared to attack her mental health, Luna’s vision tried to focus on the white blob in front of her. When her retinas finally manged to get their bearings, a clear image of her sister finally formed, and Luna sighed a breath of relief.
“Luna! Oh, you’re awake,” she said, clearly relieved, “you had a sudden panic attack from sort of… outside power. I couldn’t tell what it was, but it’s gone, you don’t have to worry.”
“Celestia,” Luna said softly, “I don’t know what that was, but… I’m sorry. I was thinking about the chalice, and how much evil might come of it, and then suddenly I felt a… presence.”
“I know,” Celestia said, her mind seemed to be going at a fast pace, “Something took advantage of your fears and worries tonight. Perhaps this is why you were so reluctant to raise the moon this evening.”
“Indeed. The chalice’s powers will be at full strength now, though I could not hold up the order of nature for it I suppose.”
The princess felt her eyes start to water a bit, “Oh, Celestia, I’m sorry! I don’t know what to do, this is all my fault! I should have located the chalice myself much earlier, now it’s in the wrong hooves and our poor friends are out trying to get it back!”
“Your majesty, please,” begged a nearby unicorn nurse, giving her a tissue using her magic, “you are still weak, this is no time to beat yourself up!”
Luna accepted the tissue gratefully and dried her eyes, tossing the used tissue in the wastebasket next to her cot. She then picked herself up, and carefully stood on all fours. With a flick of her head, and a bright flash of blue light, her hair began to wave as if in the wind once again.
“I am not weak,” she said, a bit annoyed, “but in the interest of Equestria’s security, we must find out what has happened immediately.”
“Perhaps you should consider visiting Techorse or one of the others in their dreams,” suggested the Princess of the Sun, “if you’re still having trouble reaching Midnight Blaze. What is it about him you find so special, Luna?”
“I’m... not certain,” answered Luna, taken aback by the question, “I simply sensed a connection of some kind. I have faith he’ll bring back the chalice with the help of Techorse. But… something has most certainly gone wrong tonight.”
Celestia wanted her sister be able to relax, knowing she felt responsible for the chalice and its potential abuse. She came up with a plan to help ease her siblings’ worries while at the same time acknowledging the seriousness of the situation.
“If you feel so strongly that something has gone wrong, tomorrow morning we should leave for the Crystal Empire at once,” Celestia declared, “we will find out quickly what’s happened to our friends, and maybe if we’re lucky, the chalice will already be in safe hooves.”
One of the doctors clad in a surgery gown tried to protest, “Princess Luna is no condition to be going anywhere after such an episode!”
“I will be fine,” assured the princess, “it would do me more good to ensure the safety of the Crystal Empire by leaving first thing tomorrow.”
“As you wish,” answered the medical staff member respectfully, bowing and leaving the room.
Once the hospital room was cleared out save for the two royals, Celestia assured her sister things would be ok, and left to make plans with the guards as to who would keep watch while they were gone. Princess Luna returned to her bedchamber upstairs to make preparations for her attempt to contact Techorse, provided he was actually asleep. Climbing onto her soft canopy bed dressed in blue comforters and fancy pillows, she shut her eyes gently, and began her search.
But before she could, she heard a soft, yet goading masculine voice that had not been heard in quite a long time.
“I’m back...”
Cadance had to explain for yet another time Rosseth’s background and history with her, which was starting to get a bit frustrating. Lighthearted, definitely one of her more feisty subjects, had shown up late at night demanding to be seen, with Captain Arbiter’s blessing. But feeling like it was her duty to fix what she had done to the zebra, she was more than happy to tell the story again. The two mares were enjoying a hot cup of tea together, neither of them intended to get much sleep anyways with the various disasters going on in the Crystal Empire.
“So that striped jerk tricks me into showing him the bank, and he robs the place!” whined the earth pony, holding her teacup firmly in her front hooves, “So you sent the guys who shot down that griffon after him?”
“That’s right, Lighthearted, Techorse and his friends have gone to catch Rosseth,” she answered, nodding, “if they come back with him, you’re welcome to visit him… in prison.”
Lighthearted saw Cadance’s expression go sullen for a second, “Hey… what’s wrong your Highness? You told me he was some kind of an early failure of yours, but… he’s making his own choices even if they’re really dumb. You can’t blame yourself.”
“I… I suppose not,” she answered, looking up, “I’m just sorry he hurt you like this.”
“Well when we catch him, the judge will be the least of his problems,” muttered the disgruntled mare, “he owes me a big apology! Just wish I could help those stallions you sent out.”
“We have no idea where they went,” admitted the princess honestly, making Lighthearted tilt her head in confusion, “they kinda went off on their own really early in the morning and haven’t come back since.”
Cadance watched her set down her teacup and roll her eyes, “I can’t imagine why. Look, would you like me to help you?”
“We appreciate any helping hooves we can get,” said Cadance slowly, surprised at her subject’s gall, “but how are you going to help?”
After taking a deep sigh, Lighthearted reached behind her mane with a hoof and removed the traditional hair ribbon from it. Her mane fell down over her eyes before she pushed it out of the way again.
“Let’s just say I’m kind of used to dealing with stallions like this,” she said, “I’ll bring back Ross and the others.”
“But they went outside the thermal barrier,” explained Cadance, frowning, “it’s way below zero out there right now.”
“It’ll probably have to wait until tomorrow, sure,” she agreed, “but in the meantime, I wanna know why he robbed the bank, anyways. Myself, and the rest of the Crystal Empire deserve to know.”
The alicorn felt her heart jump at the idea, surely her land would fall into chaos again if they heard what Rosseth was going to do. But Lighthearted had let her hair down out of her ribbons, a sign that she was probably ready to hear just about anything.
She frowned, “Lighthearted… if you must know why Rosseth robbed the bank, we believe he might...”
“he might be trying to bring back King Sombra. Even as early as tonight.”
The earth pony fidgeted for a moment, then burst into a healthy laugh, “Princess Cadance, that’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard! He’s been blown to pieces.”
“Rosseth has one of the pieces, his horn,” countered Cadance, “and you’re not the first pony to laugh at the idea… but I really think he might do it, magic responds to the emotions of all living things, Lighthearted. If his hatred for me is really strong enough, it could be done.”
“Then I guess I’m going to have to help with that, too,” she answered, shaking her head sarcastically, “Princess Cadance, there are just some things magic cannot do, right? I wouldn’t know, but… putting back together a pony who was blasted apart?”
“If you don’t believe me, that’s fine,” she answered gently, “but don’t underestimate Rosseth. He’s hurting on the inside, and many evildoers are individuals who got badly hurt.”
Lighthearted took the teacup back in her hooves and drained the contents, “I understand.”
After a long silence followed by the return of the teacup to the tray brought out to the familiar, cozy tea room, Princess Cadance’s subject ended up changing the topic suddenly.
“So what’s it like being married anyways?”
It caught her off guard, “What?”
“Oh, sorry,” sighed Lighthearted, “I was trying to change the subject. Now that I’ve gotten all the information I need about Ross, I find it weird I’m talking to my leader like we’re old school friends. Guess this is what we really wanted in the Empire anyways… a good leader who will listen to us, right?”
Cadance tried to answer the original question, “I try to be a servant to my subjects. But, what was that about being married?”
“Nothing, nothing, you just seem to have everything handled is all between that marriage and running the roost around here,” she said, chuckling and shaking her front hoof, “I’m just being silly like usual.”
Awkward silences and looks brought Cadance to saying, “Oh, well, um… It’s great. A lot of hard work and making it work, but, it’s great.”
“Yeah, I can tell.”
“There’s something wrong, isn’t there?” asked Cadance, raising an eyebrow, “What is it, Lighthearted?”
“Again, it’s nothing!” denied the mare, turning a little red, “I’m just blabbing on because I’m trying to keep my mind off of how that stupid zebra tricked me with his stupid charms, and his stupid tricks! I spent the whole day with that idiot and he goes and robs the bank! Am I right being mad about that?”
“Ohhhh, that!” giggled Cadance, playing along, “Well of course. Being tricked by someone you trusted isn’t healthy at all. Do you need me to help you relax? You can spend the night here in the palace if you’re too stressed to go home.”
With the hole already having been dug deep enough, Lighthearted stood up to refuse the offer politely.
“Thank you, but no thank you! I’m fine going home,” she said, “I’ll see myself out. Need to get ready for tomorrow so I can have enough energy to go zebra hunting!”
“Okay, best of luck to you!”
She left the princess sitting by herself on the tea room couch, the door shutting quietly. Once she was absolutely sure she was gone, Cadance’s magic sparked to life, and a small yellow ball of light hovered in front of her face, next to one made of black and white light. Awkwardness, stuttering, denial, redness in the face… all these little factors added up in the Princess’s head to something much, much more than what the earth pony waitress wanted to admit! She moved her horn in a special pattern, and a pink heart surrounded the two spheres of energy.
“Hmmmm… could it be that Lighthearted...?”
Princess Cadance shook her head, and the energy all vanished into puffs of smoke that dispersed in the air of the tea room.
“No, I’m just overthinking things again!”