She swirled through howling winds and nosedived for the city below. Keeping her eyes closed until reaching terminal velocity, only opening them as she released her wings to break in a perfect arc straight through into an open window at the highest tower in Canterlot.
Fortunately, the cleaning staff remembered to keep the window open this time, and she was able to touch down on the carpet in front of her workbench without glass splinters between her teeth. Floating behind her encased in a magical field, was her sleeping secretary, Haywood.
”Luna?” he asked with bleary eyes. ”We have returned already? What time is it?”
She released Haywood onto the sofa at the far end of the room, inspecting him. The old stallion didn’t appear worse for wear despite their weekend-long adventure to the hills south of the Smoky Mountains. Though his white mustache and mane did need combing, as he resembled a mad professor gone supervillain.
”It is early morning,” she answered while taking her seat behind the desk. The inbox with arriving messages contained a dozen new letters, though one carrying the sigil of the West Pony Trading Company caught her attention.
Haywood grumbled and stretched like an old cat on the sofa, then jumped off and approached her desk. ”Have you been awake all night?”
”Indeed!”
In truth, during most of the night flight from the Smoky Mountains to Canterlot, she’d been multitasking between sleeping, soothing ponies’ dreams, and flying with him caught up in her magic.
Still, sleeping as such wasn’t particularly restful. No doubt there were visible bags under her eyes despite her dark coat. But there did exist a remedy for her situation that could cure her deprived state without fail: a product that she ranked highest among the many achievements in this age of discovery.
“Haywood,” she announced with her hoof outstretched. “Bring me a pot of coffee, extra strong.”
The stallion mumbled under his breath, only the word ’addict’ being discernible, though ultimately he did vanish in a flash of teleportation. With the imminent arrival of the divine brew underway, she passed the time by going through the letter from the WPTC.
The reports sent to her were the result of a deal made in the aftermath of the currency crises and reveal of the dragon, Gordon Rich. In light of his previous economic tampering, both sides agreed to work more closely together to prevent another collapse of the financial system. Technically, the WPTC and Gordon Rich had done nothing illegal and couldn’t be prosecuted for their meddling under current laws, but their actions and secrets were now in the princesses’ sight, and both parties agreed that cooperation was the preferable choice, going forward.
Gordon Rich might be the wealthiest citizen in Equestria, but for all his riches, his rights didn’t differ from that of the average pony. Having two immortal and unbribable rulers made sure of that, and if the oversized lizard decided to cause trouble again, she had a secret weapon in the form of the spearhead of knowledge.
The threat of having Princess Twilight Sparkle and her unrelenting resolve to pester him about dragon culture sent to his cave again all but guaranteed that there would be no more foul play. The dragon did once threaten to leave Equestria and take his gold with him, but she knew the threat was hollow. The West Pony Trading Company was too profitable for him to go and abandon his shares.
Before she had finished reading the introduction of the letter, Haywood appeared beside her desk with a tray and several steaming cups. She hadn't had any access to the black gold out in the wilderness and salivated at being finally being served some. Not wasting a second, she emptied the first cup in one fell swoop, and despite the scalding heat, she smiled satisfyingly as the liquid invigorated her body and soul.
”You know that ponies have been sent to detox facilities for less?” At least his look of disapproval wasn’t as bad as the time he caught her one morning drinking straight from the pot. When she made no reply, he quickly changed the subject. ”Did we do the right thing with the Hooffields and McColts?”
”Whatever do you mean?” she asked while taking a more modest sip of the second cup. ”Everything worked out according to plan. Honestly, I don’t know why Twilight’s magical map table didn’t originally send us instead.”
”Well, I believe this time it was more of a squabble at the local bar instead of outright war,” Haywood noted. ”The message sent to us overstated the situation. There was barely a land dispute to begin with.”
”Nonsense,” she replied to the former and waved away his argument with a hoof. ”If Twilight and Fluttershy dealt with the situation more permanently, this all would have been avoided.”
Haywood massaged the side of his head. ”You do realize that arranged marriages have been illegal for a thousand years? What am I suppose to tell Celestia in my report?”
”The truth. I simply let slip the idea that the Princess of the Night would be very pleased if there were a marriage between a son and daughter of each head of familie.” She paused for a moment. “I would never have said such a thing without confirmation that the two in question secretly weren’t already smitten by one other.”
A quick visit to both of their dreams had given her more than enough evidence that they would be thrilled with this new arrangement.
“Besides, when you have two families isolated on the far fringes of Equestria’s border, you need to make a determined effort to protect the gene pool.” She thought about it some more while draining the second cup. “The moon only knows they needed to.”
“I’ll leave that last part out,” Haywood said as he held his head high while walking toward the adjacent secretary room.
Ignoring any potential fallout from Haywood’s report, she continued reading from the WPTC letter. So far, there had been little of note. The trade with the changeling village on the edge of the Badlands proceeded without incident, and there hadn’t been any more kidnapping attempts despite numerous infiltration checks.
Changeling issues aside, most of the letter was pointless fluff, until she reached the very end.
”Haywood!” she called out for her secretary. ”We have a situation on our hooves.”
Haywood poked his head into her office, the orange tie now perfectly straightened and his mane less unruly. ”What world-ending disaster is it this time?”
”It seems there has been an international incident on the high seas while we were away.”
Haywood tilted his head and took a seat on the chair opposite her desk. ”Oh, what happened?”
”The Gryphon Navy has established a blockade against all trade vessels docking at Gryphonstone-controlled ports.”
There was a heavy frown from Haywood as he processed the information. ”They are blockading their own ports?”
”In essence, yes.”
Though that wasn’t the whole truth, as while the council in Gryphonstone controlled the capital and commanded most of the nations army and navy, their rule of the other gryphon cities existed only on paper. Those cities often governed themselves with little to no regard to the council’s wishes.
”I take it the West Pony Trading Company weren’t too happy about this?”
Instead of answering, she levitated over a map highlighting eastern Equestria. Trade routes over land and sea were marked going in and out of gryphon lands; most important were the ship routes between Manehatten, Baltimare, and Fillydelphia that connected to the gryphon ports of Hildburg to the north and Gryphonberg to the south.
”Indeed they are not,” she answered while tracing over the map, then tapped with a hoof on Hildburg opposite of Manehatten across the Celestial Sea. ”A WPTC trade ship defied the blockade and sped past the gryphon navy. Reportedly, they delivered their cargo to Hildburg and made it safely back to Manehattan, but the action infuriated the gryphon navy command, who ordered one their carracks to open fire on the trade ship.”
”What? That’s scandalous.”
”They claimed it was a warning shot,” she said, the letter afloat in her magic.
In this instance, she would believe it. Most of the Equestrian navy was moored at port, but if they deployed to the Celestial Sea, they’d outnumber the gryphons seven to one. If you counted armed trading vessels the number was closer to twenty in their favor. In truth, the WPTC trade fleet alone could most likely best the gryphons at sea if they wanted to.
Haywood was still visibly appalled. “Princess Luna, do we know why the Gryphonstone council did this?”
“No idea,” she said while folding the map on her desk until it was small enough that would fit inside a pocket. “The gryphon ambassador and Celestia might know, but it doesn’t matter.”
“Why doesn’t it matter? This could escalate into to a serious incident if we do nothing!”
She stored away the map in a saddlebag and began rummaging through her filing cabinet, searching for a specific letter.
“I’m certain that my sister has already made the necessary arrangements,” she began, withdrawing a piece of paper and placing it on the desk for him to read. “Do not forget, Haywood, that we manage domestic issues. Leave the foreign affairs to Celestia.”
The stallion was about to object but eventually nodded.
”What’s this?” he asked when she deposited a letter in front of him.
”It is the letter informing us of the land dispute between the Hooffields and McColts.”
She waited for him to connect the dots.
”It is a bit suspicious that we were sent away on what was essentially a wild goose chase.” She motioned for him to continue when he looked up. ”That also happened to send us way out to the westernmost outback while, at the same time, this trade dispute broke out in the east.”
”Suspicious, indeed,” she said. ”Which is why we need to discover the name of the pony who sent us out there in the first place.”
Haywood inspected the back and front of the letter in his hoof. ”I can’t find a sender on it.”
She mused about that fact. Any letter reaching her department would have undergone scrutiny. For the problem to be verified, it needed tangible evidence that something was wrong or else be vouched for by someone who the Crown trusted.
”Take the letter to Celestia's advisor, Kibitz, and find out who sent it.”
Haywood responded by scruffing his mustache before leaving the room. No doubt he understood the implications. With him gone, there was little for her to do but consume the last cup of liquid delight.
With so many momentous events lately, she’d little time to work on some of her pet projects. First was her airship, The Moon’s Return, which stood half-finished in Canterlot shipyard, its construction delayed another year courtesy of a particular dragon’s lawsuit.
Secondly, and more ambitiously, were her plans to restore what they now called ’The Castle of the Two Sisters’ to its former glory. The reconstruction of Equestria’s former capital would cement her return as princess and co-founder of the nation. Not that ponies didn’t accept her now, but she felt there was a need for a more permanent and grandiose landmark.
Of course, such an undertaking required considerable resources. A railway connection to Canterlot and Ponyville needed to be established, and in doing so, deforesting a broad path through the Everfree Forest to place railways. The workers installing the tracks also needed protection from the often dangerous wildlife, and the Crown wouldn't provide the guards required, since the reconstruction was privately funded. That had been the only demand her sister made before approving the project, which meant employing mercenaries.
Another issue was that even if she managed to coax enough investors to support the project, and the former capital was restored as budgeted, an isolated city in the middle of the Everfree Forest wouldn’t offer much commercial value to repay the initial investment. Canterlot already served as the city of choice for the aristocracy, and the forest provided little else than timber in terms of resources.
Of course, its remoteness would make it ideal as a military bastion and refuge in times of crisis, not to mention the importance of protecting the Tree of Harmony hidden beneath. But she knew this wouldn’t be enough to convince her sister. The location of the Tree of Harmony was something only a select few ponies were aware of, and building a fortress at its location might draw unwanted attention.
Deciding to dwell on those issues later, she redirected her mental faculties to the gryphon problem. If the current dispute originated from inside Equestria somehow, then there were only a select few who could orchestrate such an endeavor. Gordon Rich and the WPTC possessed the necessary resources and connections to manage such a feat but were quickly dismissed, as they had the most to lose in a trade dispute. The dragon might be devious and cunning, yet his greed made him predictable. He would never sanction a scheme harming his profits.
The trading company did, however, have rivals and enemies both domestic and foreign, primarily due to their vast business outcompeting many smaller actors, though these factions were minor players in the game and didn’t hold enough political sway to affect nations on such a scale. The Equestrian Royalty was capable enough but would never attempt something so devious, except maybe for Blueblood who she dismissed due to incompetence.
The door to the main entrance of their department opened, and a sour looking Haywood trotted from his secretary office into hers.
”No luck?” she asked.
Haywood shook his head. ”I found out who sent the letter.”
”And?”
”The letter was sent to us by none other than The Element of Laughter: Pinkamena Diane Pie.”
Barely conscious of how her jaw dropped at the reveal, and with a mind that raced at the speed of caffeine, she thought about the implications. The limited interaction she remembered with the pink mare was mostly during formal dinners and celebrations, and if Pinkie Pie was responsible for any crimes, it would be for single-handedly keeping the country's supply of chocolate artificially low with her consumption while still retaining a perfect figure.
”Princess Luna, how do we handle this?” he asked.
She turned toward the open window. ”Do you even need to ask?”
“There is a train leaving in—” he began, but realized he was no longer standing on the floor as a blue ethereal tendril wrapped around his barrel. “We haven't even had breakfast yet!"
The strong winds effortlessly drowned out any further complaints.