//------------------------------// // Chapter 2: Fears and Findings // Story: Moamer's Return // by bonamb //------------------------------// Luna sipped the coffee, ignoring the scorching sensation on her tongue in favour of gazing blankly at a wall, thoughts burning fiercer than any drink could. Who would dare? Her sister’s student was due to arrive at Canterlot within the hour. Her sister’s student - the newest alicorn, the princess of friendship and most importantly, one of Equestria’s best thaumaturgists. Her ability to pinpoint even the finest traces of a magical signature was well known among those who even knew what thaumatic impressions were. Her skill surpassed Luna’s own, due to her more direct approach, and almost equalled Celestia’s even at her young age. Of course, Celestia was currently indisposed. Luna’s ears flicked as she heard the guard’s spearbutts thump - Twilight? Raven? - outside the tea room’s single, admittedly tall, door. They had been on high alert since the event, and Captain Edge would most likely keep them so until all possible danger had passed, and then some. The loss of their fellows would likely keep them all vigilant until even after then. “Princess Twilight has arrived, your Highness!” The guard’s voice, muffled by the door reached Luna and she almost smiled. Raising her own, she replied “Enter, Sparkle!” Watching the door creak open, she took another sip. She was sitting in the seat-cushion with the door on her right hoof, as close to being behind it as one sitting at a centred table could be, and the balcony on her left. Two avenues of attack, and two of escape, ignoring the fact she could teleport or simply blast a hole in the wall. Luna knew which avenue she would choose, should the entrant turn out to be a disguised hostile. Tia had not looked this bad even when she had faced her in battle over a thousand years ago, and Luna intended on retribution. Noctem’s magical signature, which was paired to Luna’s own, hummed louder in her mind's eye, a comforting, familiar noise. Luna raised an eyebrow as a lavender head poked itself cautiously around the door, analytic eyes flicking around the room until they came to a rest on her. Honestly, Tia did look awful, but if she had passed anything onto her student, it was the ability for both to have incredibly noticeable bags under their eyes. Twilight’s cautious look quickly transformed into a smile when she saw Luna sitting at the table, mug in aura and with as welcoming an expression as Luna could manage given the gravity of the situation. Trotting up to the cushion on her left, back to the garden, Twilight’s gaze flicked to the centre of the table and Luna, following it, momentarily blanked as to why, before realising that was where Celestia would have laid the tea set. Feh. All this etiquette had never seemed important to her before, her only peer being Celestia. She supposed she would have to learn. She had chosen this room to comfort Twilight, and she supposed the familiarity of the tea would do the same. She had learned something being Celestia’s sister after all these years. Twilight opened her mouth but Luna held up her hoof for a moment. “Distinguished?” She nodded at the old butler as he poked his head in after Twilight. “Fetch us our sister’s normal tea set, for our fellow Princess.” Distinguished bowed slightly, caught Twilight’s eye and smiled before withdrawing back through the door, closing it after him. Twilight, now sat, didn’t even flinch under Luna’s steady gaze as she once had. The lunar princess held the stare for a second then grumbled, deflating slightly. “How much do you know?” “What I know…” Twilight's eyes unfocused as she considered her answer. “I know that a massive typhoon appeared out of nowhere in central Equestria. I know that it was centred on Canterlot. I also know that Canterlot received a large amount of damage, far more than I would have expected something that was in the eye of the storm to. And, I noticed that Canterlot has a far greater concentration of ambient magic than is usual for the city.” A flicker of panic appeared in her tired eyes and she took a deep breath to steady herself. “And that Celestia has apparently, somehow, exhausted herself, something that I have never, ever, known her to do?! What- what happened?!!” Falling silent but continuing to take deep breaths to calm herself, she gazed at Luna, awaiting further answers. “A weather bomb.” “I’m sorry?” Twilight’s brow creased in confusion. Luna sighed, and elaborated. “A weather bomb. An enormous amount of pegasus or gryphon magic packed into a tiny package, fitted with the equivalent of a magical hair trigger. This one was set to go off once it was swept with a scanning spell. We once used one against our sister a thousand years ago of a similar nature. They are, in effect, a city’s destruction in a parcel.” As Luna watched, she could see Twilight’s thought processes and conclusions falling into place stone by dreadful stone. Pre-emptively she cut the damning question off, taking the conversation in a direction of her choosing. “Yes, crafting one of these bombs would require power far greater than is usually possessed by a mortal, and yes, the weather magic would require a power similar to a unicorn’s to seal it, or an incredibly sensitive pegasus. Our sister chanced upon the creation of these in our youthful studies when she attempted to combine pegasus and unicorn magic to amplify the effects of a spell. The products of this experiment were initially intended to be makeshift power sources, for cities or massive workings.” Luna winced. “However, when destructive potential of the contained wild magic was realized and used by the Gryphons in their reunification wars, we scourged all knowledge of them from Equestria, aside from that which we held. That which the Nightmare used to great effect in the war of moon and sun.” Twilight took a breath to interject, but Luna held up a hoof. “In the thousand years since, there have been no new bombs, and thus we thought their existence had faded from history. But evidently somepony, or being, has interpreted the legends correctly, and somehow found evidence for the existence of these heinous creations, and created one themselves.” Luna finished and sat still as Twilight blinked, processing this new information. Under the table her hoof twisted briefly before she stilled it. This mare had been one of the first to accept her after her return, and as stable as she was now it would still hurt to be - Luna cut off the useless worrying with a mental snarl, and grabbing those thoughts, brutally twisted them into a tight ball and shoved them to the back of her mind. Returning her gaze to her fellow princess she awaited her opinion. “That’s… that’s terrible!” Luna flinched and opened her mouth but Twilight barrelled over her. “Taking an idea like that and… agh! It’s a marvel of thaumaturgy!” Twilight noticed Luna’s conflicted expression and quickly backpedalled. “I really don’t agree with your decision to hide it but I don’t know much about the situation in that millennium so I can’t really give an informed opinion about that, but it’s an amazing thing in itself. A magical concept that has never been put into practice until now, or then or whatever! Conventional unicorn magic can artificially guide, like in weatherwards, but never outside of magical theory have artificial spell matrices and wild magic been combined in that - wow!” Luna laughed, thrown off by Twilight’s train of thought. I suppose it should have been expected though. “It, ah, actually doesn’t use a spell matrix. The unstructured form actually helps with the free flow of energy and the magic is directed by the emotions and intent of the wielder. Similar in a way to bound weapons.” Twilight’s eyes grew even wider and she let out a small squeak. “Of course! Gems are a solid state battery that take well to storing pure mana but - oh. That’s what makes it explosive.” “Indeed. It flows too freely if directed to do so, causing a chain reaction and explosive release of all of the contained weather magic.” “Oh. Ok.” Twilight winced. “I can see why you hid them now. It can normally only be created by somepony with a sufficient amount, and the right kind of power, but can easily be tampered with -” “- to catastrophic effects.” Luna finished, still mildly surprised that Twilight had skipped over the Nightmare’s use of it altogether. Then again… she is the Princess of Friendship, or Magic, for a reason. Collecting herself, Luna shook her errant thoughts into a more acceptable form. “We have been informed that you are something of an expert on thaumatic impressions?” “Eheh.” Twilight adopted a bashful expression. “Yeah, it’s a side hobby, although expert is probably a good term for my contributions to that field. Celestia knows it took some of those stuffy academics long enough to accept giving me my PhD at that age.” Ignoring Luna’s raised eyebrow Twilight continued, getting more and more enthusiastic. “That’s in synthesis though, which is an incredibly fascinating field because it touches all aspects of science while - oh, Princess, bomb, national emergency, sorry!” Luna chuckled. “You know yourself and your subject. That is nothing to be sorry about. We were, however, going to ask you to examine the remains of the bomb after-” She paused as Twilight let out another audible squeak of excitement, waiting until she had sat back down in her seat and folded her ears back in embarrassment. “-after Captain Edge, who will be arriving soon, had briefed you on the situation.” Twilight nodded almost demurely and sat back, silent. Luna eyed her in trepidation. She looked as if she was desperately struggling to contain herself, but Luna believed that there had been more than enough explosions in the palace lately so she said nothing to set her off. They sat in an almost companionable silence for nearly 15 minutes, one filled with barely contained anticipation, which gradually dwindled away into worry as she remembered why she was excited in the first place, and the other lost in thought, coffee cold on the table. Halfway through Distinguished entered with the tea set and a smile, and Twilight was soon happily sipping away, looking far calmer, and marginally more awake. The spears thumping outside the door again caught Luna’s ear, disturbing her reverie, and she didn’t wait for the guards to announce the visitor, knowing his footsteps well. “Enter, Captain!” The door opened, quicker than it had for Twilight, and the Captain trotted through it. He was a taller than average unicorn, well-built underneath his armour. His coat was a light, faded yellow and his mane a dually toned deep orange. Luna couldn’t see his mark behind the metal barding, but she knew it to be a metal orb suspended in a unicorn’s red telekinetic field. “Princesses.” He bowed. “I understand I am to brief you on what we know thus far?” “And any and all theories that you may have.” Luna indicated the captain with her hoof. “Twilight, this is Captain Kinetic Edge. He was assigned by Central Command to Canterlot immediately after your brother left for the Crystal Empire.” Edge gave Twilight a smile. “Hello again, your Highness.” Twilight laughed. “Hello Edge - ah” her eyes flickered to Luna. “- Captain. Um, Captain Edge was a friend of my brother’s in basic, and I can still remember their group marathoning Ogres and Oubliettes sessions from before I left to live with Celestia. He was, and still is a good family friend.” Luna raised an eyebrow at Edge, saying nothing even as he flushed. “Ah. Yes, we know each other.” Edge coughed, clearing his throat. His face turned serious, and Luna could see his thoughts slotting into place behind his eyes. “Back to the matter at hoof. We have not conducted preliminary examinations of the bomb at your request Princess Luna, but we do have some theories as to it’s origin.” “Good.” Luna indicated Twilight. “You may know that our fellow Princess here is one of the four known experts in magical impressions, and of them, two are conducting research abroad, and our own sister is currently indisposed. We wished to hold off until we could get her to examine it.” “Ah. Do you think you would be able to glean some answers now, Princess Twilight?” At Twilight’s nod, Edge lit his horn- “No!” Captain Edge blinked, and his horn went out. “I’m sorry?” “It’s fine.” Twilight chuckled, breathless. “You really don’t want to be teleporting that. While the chances of smaller, secondary, explosions are unlikely now that the weather inside has been released, your thaumic touch could contaminate what little remains of the original signature. We should probably have somebody bring it to us on a trolley, or go to it ourselves.” Edge nodded, quickly processing this, and went to the door. Opening it and sticking his head through, he relayed her requests to the guards. As he returned to the table he flashed Twilight a grin. “Thank you your highness. My speciality is in spatial manipulation, not thaumaturgy. We haven't actually touched it yet, magically or otherwise. It’s still in what is left of the clearing room, which is being treated as a crime scene.” Twilight let out a brief breath through her nose and sat back. “That’s good. Would you mind filling me in on what’s been going on? Princess Luna told me what a weather bomb was -” Edge shot Luna a glance which Luna returned blankly “- but I don’t actually know how it came to explode yet, or why Celestia is currently bed bound.” At the mention of his ruler’s condition, the corners of Edge’s mouth gave a slight downward turn, before snapping back to neutrality. Luna theorised it was something to do with his professional guard pride, and the fact that somepony was able to hurt his princess. Perhaps that was a good thing though. No response would have worried her. “At seven o’clock last night, a package came in with the usual shipment to the Canterlot Palace mail office. At half seven, it was transported to the Palace clearing room. Not too long after that when one of the unicorn guards on duty - Gem Barrier - attempted a scanning spell, it detonated, killing everypony in the room. Princess Celestia was with a personal guest at the time, having recently lowered the sun, and was preparing to retire for the night. We assume she either heard, or sensed the detonation, as the guards outside the room saw the teleport flash under the door - later confirmed by the guest - and next we knew she was inside the clearing room, with the bomb.” Edge hesitated. “I have an idea of what she did, but perhaps Princess Luna would be able to explain the process better than I, as she has knowledge of these bombs.” Luna gave him a pointed look, which he returned with one of almost mock innocence, humour covering the pain he felt at the loss of his guards. “We can.” Placing her hooves on the table, Luna shuffled her thoughts, and began. “What I think my sister did upon teleporting to the room, was to attempt to contain all the energy of the explosion within a telekinetic bubble. A conventional, if reinforced spell matrix with Celestia’s full might behind it, versus wild magic. In essence, she tried to overpower it. This, obviously did not work, as it might have for a normal explosion, where all the energy is expanded within an instant. A weather bomb instead produces a prolonged, concentrated patch of wild magic, about twice the size of a large city, lasting up to a week and destroying anything within it.” Luna’s hooves twitched before she stilled them. “What I assume she did, once she realised what exactly it was that she was holding, was do the opposite. She did as she would when making a weather battery, and attempted to control the storm via sheer power and intent. This method did succeed, and over the course of the night she immersed herself in the storm, and expanded it over the surrounding countryside, gradually dispersing its power over an increasingly wide area until it failed and dissipated.” Twilight’s eyes were wide as she gazed at her and Luna huffed to herself. “My sister is a fool. What she did, did work, but upon doing so she prevented me from helping. She made the spell her own - one advantage that conventional matrices have over wild casting is that multiple casters can assist with or leave a spell even after it has begun, while wild magic requires only the casters who started the spell to stay until the spell finished, or they died.” That was definitely awe in Twilight’s eyes, and perhaps a little fear. Edge was unreadable. Luna sighed, and continued. “That singular explosion took on the full power of one of the most powerful beings in the world and would have succeeded if she didn’t invent them in the first place. We would like to know who exactly has the knowledge, and power to create one of these bombs, and who would dare to attack us at the very heart of our nation.” There was silence, before Edge coughed. “We have some ideas. Our allies in Yakistan and Prance are also looking into this, and they appear to be innocent. Most of the evidence points to Gryphonoia so far, and our specialists don’t think it is a set up, but they could be wrong. It came from Gryphonoia via a very circuitous route - being repackaged along the way, the paper trail is almost indecipherable, and they managed to avoid all scans beforehoof. And the container is decidedly gryphon in origin.” Twilight leant in. “Um, would I be right in saying that this means they have ponies who redirected the package within our borders?” Edge nodded at her. “You would, your Highness. I have already dispatched a squad to the most recent point of origin, this one, unfortunately, being Ponyville.” Twilight’s eyes widened and she stuttered for a second before quieting, seemingly lost in thought. Luna restrained herself from slamming a hoof into the table and shocking her companions. She was furious. She was beyond furious. Traitors? In Equestria? Her sister gave them a life of plenty, and how did they repay her? Regicide?! Gritting her teeth she grated out.“We should confront the Gryphons - if they had no part to play in this then they can help. If they did -” “- We should be careful.” All eyes turned to Celestia as she walked through the door. Out of the corner of her eye, Luna saw Twilight visibly whiten and Edge suppress a flinch. She didn’t blame them, Celestia looked awful. A few hours unconscious apparently hadn’t changed all that much. Her mane was down, long, pink and bedraggled - still slightly damp - draping down her neck and barrel, reaching almost to her knees. Luna herself had cleaned that and her fur after she fell unconscious, prior to leaving her in her bed as before both had been sticky and matted with sweat. That, was far from the worst part though, as Celestia who had always been always tall, lithe and athletic despite her diet, now bordered on the verge of dangerously skinny. Her cheekbones stood out in sharp relief on her face, and muscles stood hard on her barrel and legs. If Luna looked closely, which she didn’t care to, the faint ridges of her spine and ribcage were visible just before her hind legs. Her eyes completed the picture, the tiredness in them outclassing Twilight’s by an order of magnitude, dreadfully shadowed. Walking slowly up to the table, she nearly fell onto the seat closest to the door, before seeming to remember herself and straightening with some of her usual grace. Luna silently slipped her the unfinished mug of coffee and Celestia took it with a hoof and downed it. Putting it back on the table she sighed, and quietly repeated herself, a hint of a croak in her voice. “We should be careful. We don’t know for sure that it was the Gryphons, and I am loath to accuse an innocent party.” Luna huffed and Celestia fixed her with a tired gaze. As Luna opened her mouth to speak Twilight beat her to it with an exclamation and wild eyes. “Princess! You - are you alright? No, of course not that’s a silly question after that - will you be alright?! I’ve never seen you like this before!” The corners of Celestia’s mouth curled up. “Then I am delighted to surprise you once again Twilight, though perhaps it isn’t quite as good a surprise as you would have hoped. I will answer your question later though, once this is concluded.” She turned to Edge. “Captain.” “Your highness.” Edge nodded to Celestia. My father sends his congratulations, well wishes and a… cake and hopes you will be able to resume fencing with him soon.” Both Luna and Celestia snorted, though Luna privately suspected it was for different reasons. As Celestia’s stringy mane slipped slowly in front of her eyes she replied.“I thank him for the cake and wishes, but unfortunately I don’t think I will be fencing any time soon. My bed is to be my home, if my sister has anything say about it, for the foreseeable future.” Luna eyed her now empty coffee mug, and reached up into her personal kitchen, teleporting an entire press onto the table by the tea set. “Which is where you should currently be, sister mine.” Celestia made a half-hearted attempt to glare which was ruined by the way her eyes drifted off at the last second to stare blankly at the wall.  Luna, sighing, poured her a cup and passed it, not missing how her sister used her hooves to pick it up again. A squeaking of trolley wheels in the passage outside and a knock on the door heralded the arrival of the bomb. As Captain Edge shouted for them to enter, Luna glanced at Twilight. The poor mare was still staring at Celestia, too stricken to be as excited as she was before. Nudging her telekinetically, Luna indicated the trolley. Twilight blinked and turned to the bomb as it was lifted onto the table, though her eyes kept flickering back to Celestia. It was not unlike a vase. It was tall, with a widened, sturdy base, and made of an undecorated, solid wood, metal strips around it and going down the sides. Luna agreed with Edge's assessment of it being of Gryphon origin, though it was decidedly archaic. A large cork was deposited on the table text to it. Twilight examined it for a second, and her horn lit up, tendrils of violet magic caressing the exterior. She hummed in thought. “Okay… right, give me a minute or two and I should get the impression. Just...” As Luna watched her fellow princess, the probing magic gradually became a full aura, and Twilight’s eyes lit up. She sat there, immobile and seemingly lost to the world. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Celestia almost manage a full smile at the sight of her student immersed in her talent. Breaking out into a coughing fit, she recovered and turned then to Edge, the last of her smile disappearing as she sat up a little more. Speaking quietly, throat hoarse, she asked. “Who were the guards on duty?” Edge winced. “All of them are due to have military funerals. Gem Barrier was the one who scanned the package. Some of her plate is still intact, but her partner, Heavy Duty…” Luna tuned them out. It wasn’t that she didn’t care when in fact she did, greatly. In the olden days, Luna was the mare who went out drinking with the troops the night after a successful mission or battle, and Celestia was the one who stayed, planning. Luna was the one who wept openly, while her sister preferred to keep her outbursts of emotion quiet and private. What concerned her more than the deceased guards though, was Twilight. The alicorn had started the scan with a relatively neutral, if worried expression. However, her brow had gradually furrowed, and now her face looked to be fixed in an expression of disgust as she probed the bomb. “It’s wrong!” Celestia and Edge looked up, and Luna observed Twilight carefully. “It’s just… wrong!” Twilight shook her head like she was trying to dispel an annoying fly. “The magic. Unicorn magic has a particular frequency, as does Zebrican, Deer or Changeling, but this is just wrong! Celestia, your magic almost smothers it, but what remains is disgusting. Natural magic, however it is structured, leaks energy and gradually fades over time if not connected to a source or leys, but this is a leech! It’s a spellform that started with little to no energy initially cast, but instead ripped it off… something?! Somepony?! I could feel it trying to grab onto mine even though I was shielded but…” She shivered. Celestia and Luna shared a look. In the previous millennium, vampiric magic such as this had existed among some covens, but Luna knew Celestia hated it, and upon the fall of the Nightmare and the dissolution of witchcraft into legend, Luna assumed she had let it fade over time. This too? The sisters both opened their mouths to speak but after a pause, Celestia nodded to her. Luna gave a tight grin and spoke. “Another form of magic from the past, which we once thought lost?” “Indeed” Celesta coughed again, breathing getting worse the longer she sat. “The bomb is a coincidence, but more archaic magic? I believe somepony -” “- Or thing -” “ - is trying to send us a message. We need to-” Celestia broke off into yet another coughing fit, and Luna teleported in a napkin and passed it to her. As she held it to her face, Luna continued. “I agree. What we need to do is find the previous owners of the bomb, and discover why they passed it on, and what exactly this magic may have done to any ponies who may also have come in contact with it.” As Celestia nodded, still coughing, Edge spoke. “I recommend we send a division to the point where it entered our border when we find it. If all goes well which I don’t believe should be too hard, considering our excellent relationships with most of our neighbours, we might be able to get a diplomatic pass to continue following the trail, into whatever territory that may be.” Luna raised her eyebrows at him. “And what if it came from the gryphons?” He paused. “Then we boost the guard presence in all the border cities, give training on recognising bombs -” here he looked pointedly past the princesses -” or other archaic weaponry that has been hidden, and hunker down and hope for the best.” Luna nodded. “Tis not a bad idea. You will need to consult with your peers, but we see few flaws with your plan. Gryphons respect strength, but they watch diplomats like a - ah - hawk. We would not be able to follow the trail inside their territory.” She turned her eyes to Celestia, who was shaking, hard coughs racking her thinner frame. “Thank you for your council Captain. We will be taking our sister to rest now. Call a meeting with Command, and I will join you there.” “Princesses.” Edge stood up and bowed. With a flash of light, he disappeared. Twilight had been watching Celestia with growing worry as she continued to cough, eyes widening as she spotted blood on the napkin. Luna nudged her as she stood. “I will be joining Edge shortly, after I make some arrangements, so we would consider it a great favour to us if you would take Celestia to her room, and perhaps get her to eat something.” She eyed Celestia, concerned but trying her best to hide it. “Liquids. Cake would be too heavy for her to handle as of this moment.” Twilight looked at her blankly for a second before she processed what had been asked of her, and nodded frantically. “Yes! Of course, I -” Luna breathed out a breath she didn’t know she had been holding. Knowing her sister when left unattended, Luna would later find her in her office, after she somehow managed to drag herself there. “Thank you, Twilight Sparkle.” Gathering the smaller mare in a hug, she gave a last instruction and an encouraging smile. “Call Distinguished, he will know what to do.” “Of course, I will, I mean- yep, I’ll get her there! She’ll be fine!” Twilight lit her horn, and with a nervous grin she disappeared, taking Celestia with her in twin violet flashes of light. Trotting over to the balcony, Luna stared out into the garden for a second. She believed that Twilight would get her sister safely into her room, and she most likely wouldn't receive better care and attention, even from Luna, than her faithful student could provide. It would also be a good opportunity for them both to bond, Twilight never having seen her teacher like this. She wished she could see them both but…She had work to do, and a distressed nation to take care of. Shaking off any and all malignant thoughts, Luna spread her wings and leapt over the balcony taking the long route around to clear her head. Faust knows she would need it, if she wanted to catch the poor unfortunate responsible - which is what they would be, once Luna found them. Baring her teeth in a vicious grin, Luna soared down towards the administrative buildings. Watch out, whomever you are. There will be no escape from me.