I’ll be honest. I may have been just a teeny bit paranoid of Antiquity. It was for a good reason though! When Mo gets going, he talks a lot. Unfortunately, just a little paranoid isn’t enough when it comes to Lady Antiquity Antipathy.
Lady Antiquity Antipathy, master of the house of poisons, poured me a steaming hot cup of the most delicious tea I had ever tasted. It was undoubtedly a custom blend, good enough to merit the status as a family secret that she claimed. As she levitated what would be my fifth cup over to me, I wrapped it in my aura and cast nearly every spell I could think of to look for poison.
Nope. Nil. Notta. Nothing.
Was she really not going to poison me? Best not to risk it. I waited a minute to let it cool, and then cast the spells again in case of a delayed reaction. Once more, there was nothing found, so I took a hesitant if satisfying sip of the brew.
“See, Princess? You have nothing to worry about.” Antiquity smiled demurely as she finally broke the silence that had built up while I tested the cup. “I have no intention of killing you today.”
“Another time, perhaps,” I muttered, causing her to chitter.
“Yes, indeed.” She took a sip of her tea. “I’m on business here today, after all.”
“And what is your business?” I arched an eyebrow. “You claim it’s urgent, yet you continue to dance around the subject.”
“Yes, well—” she took a slow sip, savoring the tea with a thrum, “—it’s a delicate matter, no? Conversing with thine enemy?”
“We’ve been making small talk for awhile.” I ruffled my wings, stirring some honey into my cup with a spoon. Another array of spells soon cleared the cup for consumption before I took another careful sip. “Perhaps we could be friends, Lady Antiquity.”
“Oh, you are so cute sometimes. I could just eat you up.” She smiled as I squirmed slightly at her turn of phrase.
“Please don’t.” My face scrunched.
“Calling us friends.” She sniffed. “Ve can assure you there is no such thing in this world. The world we live in is nothing more than an intricate chessboard, after all. The pawns may make ‘friends,’ but they hardly ever realize they’re born to be sacrificed. There is no meaning in such relationships when I can end them with a single move.”
She scoffed. “Meanwhile, the rest of the pieces scramble at their player’s whims – busy looking for a chance to backstab and supplant them. And the players? You and me and even little Mo—” there was so much venom in her voice at his name “—a player cannot afford fanciful dreams of things like friends. There are only mutual enemies and temporary allies. Anything else gets you killed.”
“You say that with such conviction.” I frowned, staring into my cup. “Even at my worst – when I’d lost all hope against Discord – I was never convinced that friendship was pointless. I was merely lost. Confused. Despondent.”
“And that is the weakness of your so-called friends.” Antiquity nodded. “Without them, you are nothing. I need merely pick them off as Discord did to leave you floundering. At least, if I should lose one of my pieces, I can take solace in the fact that they won’t be trying for my throat again.”
“That’s such a cold way to look at things.” I shivered, holding out my cup for more tea.
“You’ll learn in time, my dear.” She poured me my drink slowly and carefully. “Unlike that little maggot who came crawling to you like a helpless larva.”
Casting the detection spells, I took another sip as I mulled over what to say. Eventually, I decided to be direct. “You really hate Mo, don’t you? Why?” I grit my teeth. “What did he ever do to you?!”
Antiquity was silent for a few moments, eyes glassing over. “You’re right. Ve shouldn’t let my little hang ups get in the way of our charming little meeting. Suffice it to say that the Prince is a failed project of mine. I have generously invested much more time in him than ve should have ever allowed – all in a futile attempt to teach him how to properly be a lord.”
“Oh, Celestia, you hit on him too didn’t you?” I couldn’t help but giggle. “The last thing Mo would ever want is to be involved with a Widowmaker like that, even if you had no intention of ‘eating’ him”
Antiquity’s haw twitched. “Yes, well it was foalish of me to contemplate any sort of alliance with him. The son of the great Queen Chrysalis turned out to be nothing more than an idealistic foal.”
She leaned closer to me. “You, though, dearest, have the excuse of being raised by ponies. I can tolerate your weakness because you grew up surrounded by it. Ve’ve seen hints of your inner strength from your battles to save Equis. And I’m perfectly willing—” she licked her lips, “—to teach you the errors of your ways.”
There was an unnerving hunger to her gaze as it crawled over me. “We both stand to gain so much from each other. I— Ve, could help you turn Equestria into something truly great: a true empire, rather than the mewling sheep it is now. An entire nation that sits upon the sidelines unless the world itself is at sake. Bah! You, Twilight, have the power to rule, just like me. I can help you climb from the lowest rung on the princess ladder to the top, and all it would take is you helping me do the same for my little hierarchy.”
She grinned a predatory grin. “You don’t need that useless maggot when you can have me.”
“Oh, Celestia. You’re really that far gone, aren’t you?” I groaned as Antiquity refilled my cup. “You think I’m just putting up with Mo for the sake of appearances. Look, I like Mo. I like Mo a lot. I might even love him.”
I poured all my feeling for Mo into my words. “I love the fact that he cares for others and wants to make friends, and I don’t care in the slightest he’s a changeling. I’m not using him to elevate how important I am as a princess, and I honestly resent the fact you think that’s what I was doing.”
I took a deep breath. “I truly want us all to be friends – just like Mo does.”
Antiquity pulled back – her hungering gaze turning calculating. “By the First Father, you actually have—” she hissed, “—feelings for him. This… this complicates things. Ve will need to adjust our plans to compensate for that.”
She tsked. “Well, still, I suppose I tried to save you. Our dear, sweet Prince just got to you first. All that potential going to waste, though…. No matter. In the end, it will merely give me one more weakness to exploit.”
“Hmm… yes…” she thrummed, pouring me another cup. “If anything, it makes my actual job here easier.”
“Corrupting me wasn’t your actual mission?” I arched an eyebrow – the clicking of my cup and saucer quivering together the only sign of anxiety I allowed to show.
“Nope!” Antiquity chittered. “That was just small talk. A bit of personal business to see exactly where you fell in the scheme of things. It would have been nice, but I didn’t expect corrupting the Princess of Friendship to be that easy. You wouldn’t be worthy if you were that easy.”
She sipped her tea, and for the first time I noticed that despite all she was drinking, she’d only poured herself one cup. “It did net me quite a bit more information than I was expecting, though. I mean, there were rumors of you two, after all, but ve didn’t dare believe in them. Oh, corrupting you will be all the more satisfying now.”
“I think you underestimate us both.” I smiled, only to frown as Antiquity’s grin grew.
“See, you say us,” she hissed. “But that implies there’s two of you for me to face. Who is to say that someling didn’t pay a visit to the Castle while we were chatting?”
“What?” My muscles tensed at the glee in her voice.
“Oh, my.” She smiled so sickeningly sweetly. “I suppose with all the small talk, I never did mention that I was here to warn you about General Carapace. Even as we speak, he’s sending a full squad of assassins to deal with your precious Mo. The poor dear must be terribly sick or wounded to hand off all his duties to that thick-skulled bodyguard of his. An excellent opportunity to make a move, if I do say so myself.”
“What?!” I tried to bolt to my hooves, only to fall over. “What did you do?!”
Antiquity laughed. “Oh, the poison is finally kicking in! It certainly took awhile!”
I tried to struggle to my hooves once more. “But I—”
Her laughter echoed all around me. “Divination spells don’t work on Mage’s Bane, Princess. Lovely little plant. Not exactly poisonous, but its resistance to magic can hide the real threats while slowly whittling away at your reserves. Isn’t it grand?! Now there’s no way for you to teleport back!”
My limbs began to go numb, and soon I couldn’t even attempt to rise. The only feeling left to be had was that of the cold, stone floor on my cheek and the goosebumps rising as Lady Antiquity stood. She slowly and sinuously cracked every plate on her body, smiling every time I managed to twitch.
“Oh, I could do so much to you right now,” she hissed, sauntering around me and out of sight, before bending so close I could feel her breath on my ear. “It’s so tempting too. I just know your darling little Mo—” she chittered chillingly, “—would blame himself for all of this.”
“But no, I have other business to attend to,” she sighed, pulling back but staying out of sight behind me. “You’ll be happy to know the paralysis will only last fifteen minutes to half an hour. You’ll have just enough time to teleport back and save him.
“The… catch…?” I forced my lips to move through sheer willpower.
“Ah, that, well…” I heard the distinctive thrum of magic before a thunderous boom shook the building. The sound of muffled chanting and screams began to filter through the walls, and the changeling behind me chittered. “I’m also in charge of the distraction.”
I managed to twitch my wings, but that was all. The sound of the door’s lock clicking closed sounded behind me just before hooves pounded upon it.
“Princess Twilight, we need your help! The protesters have gone out of control! There’s riots in the streets! Riots! Princess Twilight!”
Antiquity laughed once more, the fractured echo bearing down on me from all sides. “An impossible choice, no? Your subjects or your friend, whatever shall you do?”
I heard the familiar sound of a portal opening behind me. “I must go now, however. I cannot risk my forces remaining in the hive should the Prince live.” She sniffed. “If you’re smart, you’ll let him go, though. Your subject’s lives are on the line, after all. Regardless, whatever you choose, dearest Twilight, we shall be meeting again.”
The pounding on the door morphed into the rhythmic thump of somepony bucking the door as I lay there – the sounds of panic from outside feeding my imagination all manner of images. Guards were shouting. Metal was crashing. The occasional zing of a spell filtered through.
“Princess Twilight! Please respond if you can! We almost have the door down!”
With a mighty crash, the door splintered open. “Princess!”
I was instantly surrounded by guards checking my vitals and using changeling detection spells. Straining my wings with all my might, I managed to flap and ward them off. “I… will be… fine….” I hacked at the effort such a small sentence took. “It’s not… lethal…. She just… wanted… to prove a point….”
“With all due respect, Princess.” A lieutenant saluted before continuing, “This goes far beyond proving a point.”
“I’ve handled worse….” I managed to twitch my hoof in a wave. “You should be out helping with the riots….”
“The minute the explosion went off, we had to check on you, Princess!” All the other guards chorused their agreement with the lieutenant.
“Where was the explosion? Was anypony… harmed?” I was able to weakly flex my foreleg in an attempt to start getting feeling back.
“No, Princess! We already checked! There were just a few broken desks in the lobby!”
I sighed, desperately wishing I had the ability to properly message my temple. “And you… didn’t find that at all suspicious?” I bit my lip and tried to force myself to stand. “I’m not her target here…. The ponies outside are. She wants them to… tear each other apart.”
“But, Princess—”
“She didn’t harm anypony herself for a reason!” I snapped at the poor guardspony, stumbling back a step to steady myself. “As it stands, every injury – every death – is on our hooves, not hers! She just applied the little bit of pressure needed to bring the tension here to a boil! Now, I’m ordering you all to get out there and try and calm everypony! I need to gather my strength for a teleport back to Ponyville.”
“You think the other Elements can help, Princess?”
I drunkenly shook my head. “The other Elements are probably already on their way by now. Send a messenger towards Ponyville, and you’ll probably intercept Rainbow Dash at least. Get her to double time it over – have her do a rainboom and everything. It might help calm ponies.”
“Then why are you going to Ponyville, ma’am?”
I bit my lip. “I have to save somepony very important to me. The riots are a distraction— Or maybe they’re a test— I don’t know. All I know is that I need to get back to Ponyville. As soon as I’m finished there, I’ll be sending a message to Celestia and teleporting back.”
I tried to light my horn, only for it to sputter and flicker. “If you haven’t already, you should get somepony to contact the other princesses as well. You might reach them before me, and every second matters.”
The guards cast uneasy glances between themselves. “Princess…”
“You have your orders, don’t you?! Go! I will be fine in a minute!” I wheezed, refusing to let the heaviness in my limbs send me sprawling over.
“As you command, Princess!” They all saluted – some more uneasily than others – before marching from the room.
“Fifteen minutes to half an hour,” I groaned, slumping back onto the ground. My muscles were crying in agony over the effort it had taken to stand for appearances sake. “Nothing about that says I’ll have enough magic to teleport back.”
I weakly kicked the table holding the Discord damned tea set. “Stupid Mage’s Bane! Stupid Antiquity! Gah! There has to be something I can do!”
Conjuring my notebook and quill with enormous, migraine-inducing effort, I ripped out four sheets of paper and began to sloppily write out notes to Spike and the other princesses. I couldn’t be sure I’d have the power to get back to Castle in time. With a bit of my precious remaining power, I sent them off. Hopefully somepony would get to Castle in time. I didn’t even know if he was capable of defending himself – being a fortress of friendship and all – and I didn’t want to risk it.
Now to wait. I couldn’t go outside wobbling like I was injured – it’d only make things worse. No, I needed to stay here until the paralytic wore off. Then, I’d try to teleport back, and failing that, I’d head out to try and calm the populace.
“Umm… Princess Twilight?” A changeling nervously skittered through the door – her small horn and holes marking her a harvester. “S-sorry for taking so long to contact you, but I had to work my way through the riot and past the guards.” She gulped. “V-ve haven’t had to do anything that scary for a long time.”
I sighed. “It’s alright…” I paused, hoping to get a name, but none was forthcoming. “I’m guessing Hera wants an update?”
There was a meek nod in response. “Prince Morpheus, actually.”
I looked up sharply, ears perking. “He’s out?!”
“I— I don’t know, Princess? Out of what?” The changeling shrunk in on herself. “Is there something ve missed in our daily reports?”
Exhaling, I leaned back. It was just a misunderstanding on her part. Mo wasn’t out yet. “No. No. It’s just something Hera was paranoid about letting slip out. Not that it did us much good. There’s a bunch of assassins heading to Ponyville, and Mo is stuck in his Chrysaling.”
“Prince Morpheus entered a Chrysaling! Really?! Truly?!” the changeling’s whistling echo was ear splitting.
“Yeah…” I nodded, grinning at the memory, “...he did. It’s kind of a secret until he gets out, though, so…”
“But he is out!” The harvester jumped about, wings chirping gleefully. “And now the second part of his message makes so much sense!”
“The second part?” I arched an eyebrow doubtfully.
She winked, all nervousness replaced by sheer jubilation. “He told me to tell you that you owe him for breaking a Pinkie Promise, and that you better make up for it with plenty of orange blossoms. Oh, I bet I know what that means. I collect ‘flowers’ like that for a living! The rest of the hive will be so excited to hear about this!”
A huge weight found itself lifted from my shoulders. “Oh, thank Celestia, there’s no way Hera would prank me with something like that. Listen… umm… Can I please have your name?”
“Tibia!” the changeling chirped.
“Yes, Tibia, listen.” I grabbed her in my aura to stop her bouncing about. “You heard me mention the assassins, right?”
She nodded, subduing almost instantly as I hit her with the seriousness of our situation once more.
I grimaced, putting her down. “I need you to warn Morpheus about them. They’re being sent by someling known as General Carapace, and I don’t think I’ll be able to get back in time to help. Lady Antipathy spiked my tea with Mage’s Bane, so I’m running on fumes.”
The little changeling frowned as her horn lit up. “Assassins. General Carapace. Mage’s Bane. Ve got this. Is there anything else you need? I was ordered to serve you as if you were the Prince himself.”
“Just keep me company until I’m able to properly move.” I smiled. “Don’t tell Mo quite yet, but Lady Antipathy also spiked the tea with a paralytic.”
“S-she’s not still here, right?” Tibia giggled nervously, casting her gaze about.
“I don’t think so,” I sighed, “but who knows.”
“A-and the Prince really entered his next Chrysaling?” Tibia looked to me with wide, starry eyes.
“Yeah, he really did.” I closed my eyes, smiling. “I was supposed to be there for him when he got out, but I guess fate had other plans.”
“Well, then, make new plans when you get back.” Tibia finally settled into a seat – the mayor’s big, spinning seat. She twirled around a few times before coming to a rest, legs kicking. “I mean, from the sound of his message, you’re breaking new ground. Orange blossoms? A crush?” She chittered. “If he actually returns your feelings, it’ll be like one of those old fairy tales.”
“Fairy tales?” I arched an eyebrow. “Mo has never mentioned changeling fairy tales.”
Tibia chirped, eyes widening as they retreated behind her haws. “Did I say fairy tales? I meant… umm… ahh… please don’t tell the Prince or his retinue?” She sneaked a peek from beneath one haw.
“About?” I prompted, gesturing with one hoof.
“Well…” Tibia kicked at the air from her seat, spinning slightly, “...I come from really common stock, you know? There’s a better chance of Tartarus freezing and then thawing to become a lovely springtime meadow than there is of me actually meeting the Prince.”
“Oh, I’m sure he’d love to—” I began.
“No, Princess, that’s not what I’m getting at. It’s… umm… those of us really far down the ladder have taken to using… more conventional methods of keeping records?” She whistled shrilly, glancing back and forth furtively. “We learned a long time ago that some knowledge is best kept out of the hivemind, so we sort of… relied on oral tradition. As long as we didn’t upload the memories or leave a paper trail, the lords were less likely to find out about certain… purge-worthy information.”
Her wings gave a discordant chirp. “Like, some of us knew rumors of what it really took to enter the next stages of the Chrysalling. Noling had any proof, of course, just stories and the like, but we held onto a lot of the knowledge the lords wanted gone.”
“Fascinating.” My quill was flying through pages worth of implications in my notebook. “How long has this been going on?”
“A couple hundred years, maybe?” Tibia shifted in her seat. “Ve really don’t know, Princess. That’s the whole problem with keeping it oral. Y-you’re not going to tell the Prince, right? None of the lords must ever find out.”
“Tibia…” I sighed, “...don’t you think now is the perfect time to tell the lords – or rather to tell a lord? After today, well, I have a better idea of just how bad things are, but don’t you think Mo— Prince Morpheus has earned your honesty?”
Tibia was quiet for a while. “If he’s really gone through the next iteration of his Chrysaling… I’ll talk to a few changelings I know, and we’ll put it to a vote.”
“That’s all I ask.” I stood and stretched, wings flaring, back popping. “Until then, I promise to keep your secret. Eurrrgh! Oh, I think I’m finally ready to head out there. Do you mind staying here?”
“But I want to come with you!” Tibia shivered. “Even if it’s terrifying to think about going outside right now, I can’t let you go alone. Ve can’t let you go alone. If you’re really the reason Prince Morpheus was able to enter his Chrysaling…”
“Tibia…” I groaned, massaging my horn with my frog, “I don’t need any kind of protection.”
Her echo fractured. “B-but what about that assassin from House Flynn? O-or Lady Antipathy? You’re still caught by surprise sometimes!”
There was no possible way to logically refute that after having just been poisoned. Celestia give me strength, I was going to have to watch out for her, wasn’t I?
“Come on then, Tibia.” Ruffling my wings, I stood tall, trying to look as princessly as possible. I tossed my mane back to make it seem windswept rather than wrecked, and a few simple cantrips made the rest of me presentable.
“And make sure you stay near me!” I strode from the room – months of training with Celestia making my pose perfect.
It was time to put everything I had learned about being a princess to the ultimate test.
