//------------------------------//
// Ch.6 royal encounters 
// Story: Project F.R.I.E.N.D.S.H.I.P. 
// by SaltWriter the leviapony 
//------------------------------//


Chapter 6.


     Celestia sat in a small briefing room, looking over the various forms and notes that had been delivered to her. She was worried about the recent events that have slipped by under her notice, and was taking action to get caught up on these events. Somehow someone had made things normal for her, and because of this she saw the blaze of sweet apple acres much too late. From this, she had meet with various ponies to get updated on what was really happening.
     The news hadn't been comforting. While still loose, the news that came had mostly been the same, ponies are disappearing, and some force they have never seen before is involved with it. In her years of living a force like this has never worked against them, even chrysalis wasn't this well structured with their plans.
     Her thoughts were interrupted when Luna stepped through the doors to the room. She appeared disheartened, bangs under her eyes and a feel of tiredness from her lack of sleep. She slumped into a chair in the corner of the room and drank from a cup of coffee placed on the table. She had spent many hours gathering info from ponies as well, forgoing sleep for speed. Celestia waited for her sister to finish before speaking.
     “Luna, I know things seem bad, but straining yourself like this will only make things harder. Please, take some time to rest, and we'll discuss what you've learned later.”
     “It cannot wait sister. I've seen the spread of the chaos before even the fire, yet I ignored the signs of distraught. I need to make up for lost time and effort, even if I must resign sleep to do so.” She placed the cup back onto the table and pulled a set of papers from a bag she carried with her. Celestia took them up with her magic and began to shuffle through them.
    “These are lists of ponies I've noticed missing on the dreamscape since last month. I've noticed that the elements have been specifically targeted, since over the course of these past few days they've become absent.”
    “Yes, the town reports confirm this too. But what concerns me is how the perpetrator was able to mask their deeds so well from us. News outlets, magic letters, all seemingly blocked or altered to a degree no other villain we've fought before has.” Celestia put the papers down and grabbed a cup of coffee from the other table in the room. She delicately sipped it before looking back at Luna.
    “I imagine whoever is behind this will strike here at the castle soon, so we best be prepared for whoever it may be.” The two got up, and went to the throne room to talk to others of the guard. They had little idea what was to come.

    On the outskirts of the castle, a mare with a long cloak sat under the shadows of a nearby building. She watched the movements of the guards, and began to make her approach. As she did so, one of her eyes flashed pink, and stopped her in her tracks.
    “Remember, let me talk. I can't guarantee our safety if you step out of line. Stay quiet, and if things go south, I'll take control.” The eye returned to the darkness, and the mare resumed walking to the castle. At the gate, the guards blocked her entrance with their spears. Flame smiled, and gave the guards a polite curtsy.
    “Forgive me if this seems unaccounted, but I have urgent news regarding the recent events around here. I have to tell her majesty Celestia right away.” the guards gave each other a glance, then lowered their weapons to allow her through. As she walked past, her left eye glowed excitedly.

    In ponyville, starlight paced the floor of the castle, pondering about twilight's decision. Spike sat nearby, watching from a chair. Finally, the unicorn turned to the dragon and shook her head.
   “There isn't anything here for us to do, what with the town being mostly empty. Come on, we should help twilight.” She motioned for him to get on her back, but he hesitated.
   “but she wanted us to stay here in case the mystery pony tried to do something here.” As starlight thought about this, a large thud was felt in the castle, coming from the balcony. The two rushed up to find a dragon, gleaming in strange armor, smash through the glass doors with a large sword. He walked in and stood upright, looking around the room before settling on the two.
   “Forgive me this rude interruption, but I have orders to make sure you two don't do anything dumb while the plan finishes.” As he spoke, spike gave starlight a 'told you so’ look before stepping out with her.
   “Well, tell your 'master’ that I won't go down so easily. I'm going to end your plans, whatever they are, here and now.” Starlights horn fired a barrage of beams, which the dragon deflected with his large sword. He then swung the sword at starlight, causing it to smash into the spot where she once stood. She fired a few more beams at him before he turned, his eyes glowing yellow under his eye band.
   “magicae cincinno.” With that, a circle formed around starlight, chains binding her horn to the floor, along with her head and hooves. Fangorn turned around and gave her a smirk. 
   “You didn't believe I would fight against a magic user without bringing measures to counter magic, did you?” Starlight continued to struggle with the restraints of the circle as fangorn prepared his sword. He hesitated when a spray of magic fire hit him in the face, searing the blindfold in the process.
    “Hold on starlight.” Spike began to fumble with the chains, his scaled hands being burned by the magic energy. Fangorn rubbed the ashes of the fold away, revealing the pale white eyes underneath. In a quick motion, he brought the sword on top of the two, a spray of magic and blood forming around the library. A tear fell from the dragon's eye at the sight, pulling his sword out to clean the blade. 
    “the job is done sir, thought it seems a hollow victory with the current set of events.”
    “You'll have to get over it fangorn.” The tinkerers voice responded through his headset. “We still have a lot to do before the end, and I need everything to be right. Now, get here and be ready to execute on the next phase.” With that, the headset cut off, and fangorn looked at the mess in front of him. He wiped the feelings away and began working on the damage.

     Celestia and Luna listened to the strange mare in front of them, her words helping to paint the picture more. It was a bit sudden for the info she brought, but it helped clear a lot of the misconceptions in their work.
    Which only made them on edge. The cloaked form and the knowledge made her statements all the more untrustworthy (despite helping fill in some gaps). Not to mention the glow in one of her eye.
    As she finished her explanation, the door to the throne room burst open, twilight flying in and landing in front of the princess's. Everyone in the room looked at the alicorn, clearly tired from use of magic, as she began to turn to the cloaked mare.
   “So… you're the one… causing this.” Her ragged breaths could barely be heard, but even that small bit was enough for the sisters. Celestia shut the doors with her magic, while luna flew down to help twilight up from the floor.
   “What's going on my princess?” Emerald asked, trying to keep the sharade up for the two. The three princesses made their way towards the unicorn, twilight staring back with barely hidden fury.
   “I think you should know, since you've caused all this.” Celestia noted her students malice, but continued to look at the unicorn.
   “But, you have no evidence of that. I just came to help the princess's with their problem.” Before she could continue, twilight fired a beam from her horn, blasting away the cloak that she had placed on her body. 
    Luna and Celestia gasped at the sight of emerald, now decloaked to them. Her face and eye torn off, reveiling the mechanical underlayer and glowing eye. The blast also burning away some of her feathers, reveiling the metel feathers and joints. But twilight, undetured, began to fire another beam at her, this time being blocked by a magic shield.
    This knocked the two out of their shock, and the two princess's fired a beam as well. The combined strength destroying the sheild and blasting emerald into the door. The strike continued, shredding the mechanical alicorn in a blast that they didn't expect, and were knocked out from it.

    At the base, the tinkerer looked at the now blank screen of emerald, cracking the bottle in his hooves from the tight grip. The workers nearby waited in silence for their next command, watching as he placed the bottle back on the table. He began to type on the keyboard and pressed a button on the dash, shaking his head as he did so.
     “It seems we have no choice. For the plan to continue, we have to use the combat protocol. I thought we could get by without it, but I guess even I can't plan for everything.” He finished the preparation, then hovered his hoof over the final switch. He took a deep breath before pressing it in.
     “I'm sorry emerald, I didn't want this for you.” He turned back to the screens and watched.

     The three princesses walked over the chared remains of the alicorn, the two sisters in a state of disgust, while twilight smiled wickedly. The parts still sparked and one of the eyes still glowed, but the body remained motionless. 
     “Whatever was this thing?” Luna asked, giving a worried glance to her sister.
     “I guess it doesn't matter, now that it's dead. Let's get rid of it so…” before twilight could finish, the eyes flared to life, and a blast of magic knocked the three back. The body then became surrounded in a bronze glow, swirling in and around the body. The glow soon covered the body, shining so that they couldn't see it. The ball of energy begain to rise into the air, the hue turning a silver, then to gold, before bursting out through the room.
     When the three princesses looked back, they stood speechless. The alicorn had been refitted with a brown fur pallet, camo pattern across the body. Her eyes were silver, a mane of etherial green flowing from her head and tail. Her wings were tipped with polished metel, and a set of metel claws sat on her front hooves. Her eyes glowed pink again, and she smiled at their stunend faces.
     “Now you've really done it sparkle. We had plans to work with, things we had needed to do. And now you've completely ruined them. No matter however, as the big finale will soon break you even more.” With that, she used her magic to make a large explosion, shattering the windows and breaking off the ceiling of the castle. She flew off, with Celestia and Luna close behind as she flew to cloudsdale. Twilight took a second and paused, wondering what she could mean, before flying off after them.

     The tinkerer felt the blast from the other side of canterlot, his temper flared and he smashed his hooves against the console. The workers nearby reeled at the outburst, before watching him walk out of the room. Keros walked beside him as he made his way to the door.
     “What are you doing sir? We have the monitors to show the display, why are…”
     “I need to see this myself. Fangorn will be meeting us here soon and we need to move.” He continued out to the balcony with keros close behind.