//------------------------------// // Panicked Lines and Sweet S.M.I.L.E.s // Story: A Queen's Perspective - Correspondence // by gerandakis //------------------------------// Dear Queen Twilight, this is Rarity. I'm afraid Sunset did worry too much. She's still a bit shellshocked. Fluttershy is taking care of her, so don't worry. She started calming down after we told her what you wrote. She'll write back herself once she feels up to it. If your Fluttershy is anything like ours, then I understand why you feel sorry for this 'Discord' character. Hoping no more such disaster scenarios pop up anytime soon, Rarity Dear Twilight, don't scare me like that. When I got your message, I sent out a group text to the girls and curled up on my bed. I hate knowing there is some big, apocalyptic event going on and not being able to do anything about it. So now that my freakout is dealt with, let me analyze all the things that happened. You held the alicorn magic of Celestia, Luna and Cadence for a while and then half of it for over a day? Wow. I mean, I knew that changeling queens are powerful and you're good with magic but ... wow. You raised the sun? Wow. Oh and Lowered the moon. At the same time. Impressive. And you figured out how to do so on the spot. Now onto this Tirek. He absorbed all the pony magic in Equestria and you managed to hold him off? Wow. Really shows just how powerful alicorns really are. But why didn't he try to drain the magic from your shields? Or from the engines of your ship? (I seem to recall something about those being magical) I hope Discord learned his lesson. Betraying Equestria never works out in the end. (I know I learned that). I had some encounters with voidstones myself when I was Celestia’s student, I know that can't have been pleasant. (Back when I was Celestia's student some lowlifes tried to foalnap me. I won't go into details, let's just say that Celestia was none too pleased.) I agree with Rarity, let's hope something like this doesn't happen again anytime soon, Sunset Dear Sunset, apparently he couldn't drain magic from within a spell matrix. He seemed to absorb magical potential not the actual magical energies. I'm not sure how that works just yet, I'll check the logs on the shipmounted manascopes once we're home. The engines do indeed use an artificial form of pegasi magic to keep the ships aloft, but the magic is generated directly in the manasteam engines and immediately integrated into the spell-matrix to keep the ship aloft, before that the energy exists only as steam and pressure. I assume that's why he couldn't drain it. I don't think it was for a lack of trying. Lowlifes tried to foalnap you too? They never learn do they? I might have to ask Celestia about this. Sorry for scaring you, Twilight Dear Sunset, just a quick follow up. I asked Celestia about the whole foalnapping thing. It seems you weren't the first one either. Apparently that happened to her last seven protegés before us aswell. Might be why she insisted on keeping a locator beacon on us at all times, now that I think about it. Given the tone in her letter (Being technically her social equal and an important figure in an allied nation is doing wonders to get her to drop the royal mask, she usually just does that around Luna and Cadence), I assume that by now she just finds it bothersome. If I recall correctly, when she rescued me she simply teleported me back to the castle, put a facsimile of me in my place and showed me the spell to remotely control it. Not sure why, maybe just so I could watch the fireworks. She wasn't all too pleased then either. Hoping you are well, Twilight Dear Twilight, seriously? Nine times? With nine consecutive students? The really don't learn do they? Kinda reminds me of what you told me about your return to Canterlot after your rebirth. Only then you were not only a longstanding friend of the Princess but also technically a foreign dignitary. But really, the message of 'Don't mess with Celestia' shouldn't be too hard to get, should it? Even I knew better than to try that. But I do recall watching the fireworks myself. She doesn't fight often, but when she does, Celestia is brutally effective. Might have something to do with her centuries of experience. Take care and don't get in any more world-ending scenarios, okay? Sunset Dear Sunset, I just got a letter from Rainbow. After what happened with Tirek, she's been promoted, she can now command a squad. Tomorrow she'll start on a tour of duty. I'll admit I'm a bit worried for her. She'll spend a week at 'the Line' and that's not exactly a safe place to be. Oh well, I suppose she is military, that's not generally the safest profession anyway and I know she's well trained, but I can't help but worry either way. I hope she'll be safe, Twilight Dear Twilight, The Line, huh? I've heard the tales. The chaos spawn are dangerous critters. I sure don't envy her. Tell her the girls and I are wishing her good luck, I've told them about it, Rarity nearly fainted. Stay safe, both you and Rainbow, Sunset Dear Twilight, things went rather weird today. This afternoon CHS held the competitions to determine the students who would participate in the games. Now I think you mentioned something about knowing Lyra and Sweetie Drops in your world. They went a bit overboard in competing for the team, mainly against one another. Not really neccessiry seeing how they both qualified in the end. The other competitors for CHS are Flash Sentry, Ditzy Hooves, Sandalwood and Micro Chips as well as the girls and yours truly. Adagio decided her and her sisters having so many centuries of life experience would give them an unfair advantage so they didn’t try to get on the team. We'll see where things go from here, it's still two more weeks to the games. Hope you're well, Sunset Dear Sunset, indeed I do know them, in fact Lyra was a classmate of mine at Celestia's school. 'Sweetie Drops' however is a bit of a special case. I know a mare that's obviously her Equestrian version but she calls herself Bon Bon. Now I would ask her about it but that might be difficult without mentioning your world and the Mirror. I'll let you know if I find something about her, Twilight Dear Twilight, that is actually rather odd. As far as I've seen, things that happen in Equestria, are either mirrored here or they're not. A discrepancy like that is a bit strange. Maybe that's just a thing that happens, both names are synonymous with each other. I'll let you know if I can think of an explanation, Sunset Dear Sunset, I've found the answer. I remembered something Celestia was once talking to herself about. (She tried to hide it, but before Luna came back, she was rather lonely.) She mentioned a 'Sweetie Drops' then. So I wrote her a letter asking about it. Her answer was not what I expected. She said I could tell you this, but please don't give this information to anyone else. Celestia, until ten years or so ago, had a secret agency called the Secret Monster Intelligence League of Equestria (or S.M.I.L.E. for short). After some incident involving a bugbear the agency was shuttered. And all agents became 'dormant assets' as she called it. Basically, they went into deep cover all across Equestria. Sweetie Drops chose to go undercover in Ponyville and 'Bon Bon' is the name of her cover identity. Like I said, not what I expected. I guess all that means is that your Sweetie Drops isn't a secret agent. Take care, Twilight Dear Twilight, really? S.M.I.L.E.? Are you sure Celestia was running that agency and not Pinkie? It really sounds like they came up with the acronym first and worked backwards from there. Oh well, I suppose that solves that mystery. I'll make sure no one else finds out about this, Sunset