It was a slow day in the Royal Palace. High Princess Celestia looked through reports from the Royal Guard and the other branches of the military. Many of them were very similar to each other: finance reports, recent recruitments, and comments from the Logisticians about each.
One from the Navy, however, caught her eye. The report was on the effectiveness of the new type of battleship that had been developed. “Dreadnoughts” these new battleships would be called, in honor of the warship, the ENV Dreadnought. They were faster, better armored, and better armed than any other battleship in existence.
“Basically,” she said to herself, “they’ll be the most powerful warships on the planet. Impressive.”
But Celestia herself was not feeling impressed. Not that it wasn’t impressive. It was indeed very impressive. She just couldn’t summon the feelings required to feel impressed.
One of her Solar Legionnaires entered her office and then bowed deeply. “Your Exalted Highness, the Chroma Lieutenant has submitted her report.”
“Very good, hand it here.”
The Legionnaire crossed the room and set the report on the desk in front of Celestia.
Celestia put a smile on her face and said, with the right tone, “Thank you.”
The Legionnaire bowed and left the room, closing the door as they left.
Celestia picked up the report with her magic, the gold glow casting a cold light.
The report was nothing special. Very few bits worth noting in the reports.
This proves that some Crystal Pony legends may, in fact, be true…
...waking a Crystal Pony from such slumber leaves them sluggish…
...Miss Yearling and her team have taken the cultural artifacts back to study…
And at the end of the report was a single line that suggested the possibility of additional reports in the future:
More information will be collected in upcoming weeks.
“Interesting.”
Underneath her signature, Rainbow Dash had included a note on another piece of paper with the report. P.S. Twilight and I believe that Sombra may not actually be dead. Please inform the Crystal Empress to be on watch for him.
“Hmm. Twilight and Rainbow Dash have similar intuition as I do. Very well.”
She shrugged. Not that she could do anything about it without the High Queen’s approval. Just the way it has to be. The way it’s been for two thousand years.
Rising from her chair, she brought the report close. Removing the note, as she would inform the High Queen about the request herself.
Stepping into her boots, she sighed. Cadence, Luna, and I can remember when we were on equal terms with the High Monarch. How the times have changed.
The crown she wore became wrapped in a gold glow, and it floated over to her head, where she looked at it.
By mortal standards, it was a thick thing, just over two centimeters. Gold, just like the rest of her regalia. For one such as her, it was near weightless, but, regardless, it weighed heavily on her head.
She lifted it up further and put it on, feeling the familiar weight settle on her head. It is very light indeed, but a crown’s weight is not from the materials it is made from.
Ruffling her wings, Celestia nodded and left her office.
******
Celestia paused at the doors to the throne room. She glanced down at the Throne Room Guards and asked, “Is the High Queen in the middle of an audience at the moment?”
The guard on the left shook his head. “Her Imperial Majesty just had one.”
Celestia nodded and entered the room, opening the doors with her magic.
Relaxedly sitting on the high-backed throne, talking to one of her ladies-in-waiting, was the High Queen of the Equestrian Unified Nation, Maelstrom III Ravenwing. She glanced up at Celestia’s approach. “Celestia,” she grinned, “to what do I owe the pleasure?”
Celestia held up the report and replied, “I received this report from the Chroma Platoon.”
Maelstrom nodded. “It must be interesting if you are bringing it to me.”
There was a nod. “Well, then.” Maelstrom held up a hoof when Celestia started to float the report over, “Show it to me when we have lunch. If it’s as interesting as I think it is, then I’d rather discuss it over something filling.”
Another nod. “As you wish, Your Majesty.”
Maelstrom grinned and clapped her front hooves twice. “Good, good. Let’s get going.”
******
For a lunch break, the food served was much more suited toward an actual lunch. “Your Majesty,” Celestia asked, after emptying her glass of wine looking at Maelstrom, raising an eyebrow, “do you intend to not resume court?”
Maelstrom shook her head, a grin appearing on her face. “No. Parliament runs our glorious nation, really, so the Imperial Court acts more as a sort of civil court than an actual government one. And I’ve had enough of idiot nobles for one day.”
“I suppose that idiots wearing fancy clothes and bothering you everyday would make anyone get tired of it after a while, Your Majesty.”
Maelstrom looked at the speaker, a Crystal Pony. The grin grew wider. “Is that a commentary on systems that have nobility and royalty?”
The Crystal Pony shrugged. “Just an observation, Your Majesty.”
There was laughter from the other ponies at the table. “You may not have meant it, Sanguine Quartz, but that was indeed funny.”
The Intelligence Officer stared at the speaker. A very slight frown crept onto his face. He looked over at the High Princess. Pointing at the report sitting in front of her, he asked, “Your Exalted Highness, what is in that report that you have there?”
Celestia nodded and floated the report over to him, replying, “See for yourself.”
Grabbing the report, pushing his untouched food aside, Sanguine Quartz began to read it. The frown had faded, but his expression remained neutral. He glanced up at Celestia and spoke. “So, the legends are true. What of it? There’s nothing in here that can help us root out the infiltrators that we’re hunting.”
“Well,” came the reply from across the table, the speaker grabbing the report in his magic and pulling it toward him, and skimming through it, “this Crystal Pony is an asset we can use, Sanguine. No one will expect it.”
“Indeed, Captain-General. But only if we can be sure that Rainbow Dash’s loyalty is to our nation.”
“After all she’s done for our nation, you still-”
“Shining Armor,” interrupted another stallion, one holding himself with a noble air, “an Intelligence Officer such as Sanguine Quartz is right to be suspicious. Rainbow Dash was, up until five years ago, part of Ponyville’s weather patrol and a Wonderbolt reservist. Then, when she became a Royal Guard, she enrolled in the Officer Training Program right out of Basic Training, which she then passed with flying colors. Think about it, she is naturally talented possessing a natural cunning and intelligence that not many ponies have. With such advantages stacked in her favor, why wouldn’t she be suspicious in some way?”
“Marius, you too?”
Marius Blueblood looked at the Captain-General of the Royal Guard, and smiled. “I am the Prince General of the Equestrian Unified Nation. My responsibility is that of the internal stability of our nation. With the Royal Guard as a key part of it, any personnel that are suspicious in any way need to be treated with a certain… grain of salt, shall we say.”
He looked over at his brother, and asked, “What are your thoughts, Damocles? You have a report from the Chosen of Loyalty, a Lieutenant of our Royal Guard that confirms that what the Crystal Ponies have held as traditional belief for so long is true. We have unknown infiltrators in our midst, and we don’t know how deeply they are imbedded into our government and military. And the Chosen of Loyalty has, in a short period of time, risen far, and may have ambitions to rise further.”
Damocles looked up from the report which had been passed to him. “This report is indeed interesting. But, as Sanguine has pointed out, it is utterly useless in assisting us in rooting out the infiltrators. It is true, however, that this Crystal Pony could be helpful regardless.”
He looked at Shining Armor. “It’s much too early to tell if that will be the case.
“As for the young Lieutenant from Cloudsdale, she is not a threat. She’s stubborn, brash, competitive, but loyal. We can trust her. But, we should make sure of it first.”
Maelstrom spoke up then. “What do you suggest, then, Grand Prince?”
“We head to Ponyville. We find out what Rainbow Dash’s loyalty lies and if Twilight Sparkle can be brought into this.”
Shining Armor’s eyes narrowed. “And afterwards?”
Damocles looked Shining Armor square in the eyes and replied, a smirk appearing on his face, “Who knows? Maybe we keep her out of the loop and sideline the Lieutenant. Maybe we bring them in, have them help us with this. We’ll have to see. You can’t always plan everything four steps ahead.”
Maelstrom nodded. “There’s our next step. Celestia, take Luna, Cadence, Shining Armor, Sanguine Quartz, Marius, and Damocles with you to Ponyville. Find out where Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle’s loyalties lie. Bring them in on this if you can. And remember: Do NOT speak of this to anyone outside of our Circle.”
She looked at Shining Armor, and said, “Drop the barrier now. The time for secrecy has passed. Our move is made. Now, it is our foe’s turn.”
************
“So, they know about our infiltrators, then.”
It was not a question from the Queen, but the messenger answered regardless. “Yes, My Queen.”
The Queen smiled. “So, Celestia, what are you going to do about this, hmm?”
She looked at the messenger, and commanded, “Send word to the cell commanders. Tell them to continue with the operation. They might know of it, but they haven’t taken action yet. So, we will watch and wait.”