Secrets and Lies (phase one)

by keithsterling


Chapter 3

January 1 2026, 0930 hrs Equestria standard time, outside the Castle of Friendship, castle garden, Capital city of Ponyville, Friendship Kingdom

In a hidden away area of the garden of the Castle of Friendship, Princess Cadence Sparkle stands talking to her uncle Justice. She is attired in a vermillion colored top of the knee length dress and light gold gladiator sandals with her Princess’ regalia. Despite Justice’s warning to her about the plot targeting the Friendship Kingdom, Cadence traveled from the Crystal Empire by herself to warn her sister-in-law, Princess Twilight Sparkle, about the plot against the Kingdom.

“Uncle, I am sorry for going against your wishes. But I would never forgive myself if I didn’t warn Twilight about the plot, she is my sister-in-law you know.” Cadence says apologetic as Justice leans against a rock.

“I know that niece, I know that Twilight is your sister-in-law. It’s just that you snuck away from the Crystal Empire without telling me. I worry a great deal about you, Cadence. Like Celestia, you have shown me boundless love. That’s the real reason I wanted to reunite with you, Cadence, in this new form to feel that love again from you.” Justice explains as a tear came to Cadence’s eye. She walks up next to him and gives him a kiss on his cheek, a gesture she forgot to return when he reunited with her in the Crystal Empire.

“That should help, uncle.” Cadence says affectionately as Justice took hold of his niece’s hand in his.

Suddenly there was a tremendous explosion startling both Justice and Cadence who quickly spread their wings and take to the sky. From their aerial position, the two Alicorns can make out a smoke plume rising from the coast of the New Lunar Republic. Without another word, the two Alicorns speed toward the smoke plume to investigate and render aid (if needed). As they come in range of the NLR coastline, several large explosions continue to go off as the remaining warheads in the battery self-destruct. Justice quickly puts his arm out to prevent Cadence from getting any closer to the unsafe location. He points towards a grove of trees near the shoreline to land and wait for the explosions to subside.

“How are you Cadence?” Justice inquiry as he lands in the grove followed closely by Cadence who lands soon after her uncle.

“I am fine, uncle, Just had some trouble keeping up with you. It’s hard to believe those metal wings of yours make you faster than my natural wings.” Cadence comments as Justice chuckles softly catching her after a shockwave from the explosion knocks her off her feet.

For the next few hours Cadence sits on a large rock with her legs dangling down waiting for the explosions to subside. Down by her feet her uncle waits as he, turns his head toward the rock. He notices through the opening in Cadence’s sandals her toenail polish color. He looks up toward her and she gestures with her head to go ahead and remove her shoe to get a better look at the polish. As he held his niece’s slender and silky light pink bare foot in his hand with teal green colored nail polish he looks back up at her.

“This nail polish on your toes, Cadence, complements your pelt color perfectly. Very nice niece.” Justice said complementing her as it caused Cadence to blush a bit.

“Thank you uncle, you’re the first stallion to notice my new nail polish that I’ve been wearing for a week on my hands and feet.” Cadence said dejected resting her chin on her chest.

“Surely, your husband notices your new polish, Cadence.” Justice comments as he puts her sandal back on her foot and buckles it for her. She opens her wings and flaps down from on top of the rock, landing in front of her uncle.

“Uncle can we talk about my personal life later when we get back to the castle, it will make me feel a little bit better talking to you.” Cadence said her voice cracking as Justice agreed to meet her in her room so they can talk.

The two Alicorns make their way back to the location after the many explosions had subsided. The first thing they notice was the mangled and twisted remains of the chain link barrier that surrounded whatever this structure was. As Cadence sets foot onto the grounds, she can feel the radiant heat come up out of the ground through the thin soles of her gladiator sandals. This unpleasant sensation causes her to clamp her teeth together. Noticing that his niece was in distress, he quickly spreads his wings and sweeps her off the ground.

“What’s wrong Cadence?” Justice inquiry carrying his niece away from the location in his arms.

“Uncle, it feels like my feet are burning.” Cadence said as she grimaces. Slowly, the unpleasant sensation subsides as a cool ocean breeze blows through the opening of her sandals, soothing her feet.

“How are your feet now, niece?” Justice inquires as Cadence walks about.

“They’re ok now uncle, they don’t hurt anymore. After that experience, I don’t think I should set foot on that location without boots.” Cadence explains sadly as her ears drooped on top of her head. She wants to be of some help to her uncle who searches for clues to identify the structure.

“It’s ok niece, why don’t you look around out here, those explosions probably tossed fragments from the structure all over the place, see what you can find.” Justice suggests as she begins searching the area.

Justice lands back in the location and begin searching around the area; which is strewn with chunks of reinforced concrete and burned pieces of metal. As he moves toward the shoreline, he soon discovers the remains of a large square concrete building. On the remains of an outer wall, Justice notices a small black box with singed buttons on it. A single, small, green LED light remains glowing on the box. Justice figured, at one time, this structure had some kind of a highly secured entrance that needed a pass code.

Adjacent to the keypad, was an anthro pony sized opening into the structure. Justice sticks his head into the opening of the interior and notices the structure has collapsed in on itself. Through the rubble, Justice could make out, against one of the walls, were the remains of a mainframe computer system.

He figured that it ran the whole structure but for what purpose, he didn’t know. As he turned around to rejoin Cadence outside the chain link barrier, lying on the ground was a twisted steel door. Painted on the door was B-101. With no other clues to be gathered at the location, Justice flies out and finds Cadence looking at a large piece of silver metal with something written on it.

“Did you find something niece?” Justice inquiry as Cadence turned toward him with a smile on her snout.

“I did uncle, but I don’t know what these letters and numbers mean.” Cadence said puzzled as she hands the piece of silver metal over to her uncle. Justice set it on the ground in front of both of them and knows right a away what it is.


(LRM 10)

“This writing means Long Range Missile 10. You said you found this out here, niece correct?” Justice said as Cadence pointed towards a light forested area nearby.

“Right over there, uncle, with a lot of other metal debris strewn about.” Cadence explains as Justice snuck a kiss on his niece’s cheek causing her to blush.

“What was that for, uncle?” Cadence inquiry placing her hands on either side of her face, a little bit embarrassed because she was not ready for her uncle to kiss her on the cheek.

“You, my dear niece, might have just solved the mystery of this structure, by finding this vital piece of evidence.” Justice explains as Cadence’s face flushes with happiness.

“So what was it?” Cadence inquires

“It was an automated self defense long-range missile launching system battery.” Justice explains as they both spread their wings and fly back to the Friendship Kingdom.

January 1 2026, 1330 hrs Equestria Standard time, Eternal palace sub-basement level, Capital City of Chimera, Master Command Center, Principality of Dream Valley, Independently owned land in the Solar Empire.

The master command center is located in the sub-basement level of the Eternal Palace in the Principality of Dream Valley. It’s independently owned land within the Solar Empire but not under the banner of the Empire. Celestia does have family ties to Dream Valley, being the wife of Marquis Justice Silverlight, the son of Duchess Shimmering Diamond Silverlight.

The master command center is a huge two floor complex with a huge holographic world map that floats in midair in the center of the room. Below the holographic world map, are many computer work stations. They are linked to a multitude of monitor screens manned by numerous Imperator Alicorns communication technicians. Conducting the controlled chaos of this center was 6ft 10in extraordinary looking dark blue colored imperator alicorn mare with a crimson red mane and tail. A pair of silver bio-mechanical feathery bird wings rest on her back. Her slender equine figure was attired in an ice blue skirt uniform with a pair of black pumps on her bare feet. This Imperator Alicorn mare was Duchess Shimmering Diamond Silverlight.

A moment later, Shimmering Diamond was joined in her command pod by a 6ft 11in everlasting, beautiful, morning blue colored Imperator Alicorn mare with a pink mane and tail. A pair of gold bio-mechanical feathery bird wings rest on her back. Her perfect equine figure was attired in an Emerald Green below the knee length dress with a pair of grey strap sandals on her perfect bare feet. To around out her outfit, she was wearing her imperial Princess regalia. This Imperator Alicorn mare was Imperial Princess Ophelia Silverlight, the ruler of Principality of Dream Valley.

“Welcome, Your Imperial Highness.” Shimmering Diamond said annoyingly as the statement irritated Ophelia a bit, till Shimmering Diamond giggled at Ophelia for a little while.

“Oh Shimmer! You are just as bad as my own Grandson is, you both relish annoying me with using my formal title in private, when I have told both of you don’t use my formal title unless it’s in an official capacity. I mean in court and public, got it.” Ophelia said irritated as she hissed at her daughter.

“But anyway, Shimmer, why did you ask me to come down to command center?” Ophelia inquiry as Shimmer flipped a few switches on her control board causing the huge holographic world in the center of the room to shrink down and reappear in her command pod.

The smaller holographic world spun once around before flattening out, and zooming in onto the coast of the New Lunar Republic. On the coast, a large wireframe model formed representing a structure. After the computer analyzed the wireframe model, the results came back. It states that the structure was the New Lunar Republic automated long-range missile launching self defense coastal battery with four heavy explosive missiles.

“At 9:30 am this morning, this very structure exploded, destroying the battery, prior to the explosion, our sensors picked-up something.” Shimmer explains as a wireframe figure appears on the screen running from the battery. The computers, once again, analyzing the wireframe model and the results came back. Soon a 3-D image of Solar Prince Somnus Silverlight appeared on the screen with all his vital stats. The most telling was his species. It marked him as hybrid Terran Alicorn and Imperator Alicorn stallion offspring.

“By Celestia’s light. Did my great grandson intentionally destroy one of his Aunt Luna’s missile battery?” Ophelia’s voice breaks as tears come to her eyes as she must now kill her great grandson because the eternal magic of his Imperator Alicorn side has started to twist him.

“Fortunately mother, he did not, some pony else did.” Shimmer explains as a second figure appears on the screen walking into the battery. The computer, once again, analyzing the wireframe model and the results come back. Soon a 3-D image of a generic earth pony stallion appeared on the screen with all the generic vital stats of the species.

“I figured Somnus was trying to stop this other pony from doing something to the missile battery. but could not as the whole thing exploded soon after.” Shimmer said finishing her report to her mother and returns the world back to the center of the room.

With that, Ophelia turns on her heels and walks out of the master command center. She walks down the hallway, back to the elevator, to ride it back up to the main floors of Eternal Palace. Once on the main floors of Eternal Palace, Ophelia finds a quiet place away from the main areas of the palace to make a call. She passes her hand a few times over her MCV till the holo-phone appears. She dials a number on her holo-phone and it rings several times before the holographic head of her great grandson Somnus springs to life in front of her.

“Hello Great Grandmother Ophelia. Is something wrong?” Somnus said friendly as Ophelia managed to form a smile on her snout.

“No Somnus, I just wondered if you have time to talk with this old unicorn mare, that happens to be your great grandmother?” Ophelia said teasing as she got a laugh out of Somnus.

“Oh, Great Grandmother Ophelia, you are not old. Mother and Aunt are much older than you.” Somnus said refuting his great grandmother’s claim that she was older than his mother and aunt.

“Thank you great grandson, you truly know how to cheer up a unicorn mare. But you didn’t answer my previous query?” Ophelia ask as Somnus chuckled to himself.

“Your timing is perfect Great Grandmother. I am in my room at the Presidential manor. Auntie got tied-up at the Presidential palace on business, so she will be coming home late, when she gets here, we are going to have dinner together. So I can talk till Auntie arrives.” Somnus explains as two unicorns begin to talk to each other.

Its several hours later, after finally finishing her marathon shift at the Master Command Center in the Eternal Palace, Duchess Shimmering Diamond Silverlight is finally able to return to the Silverlight stable in the Capital City of Chimera to rest and recover. The moment she set foot in the mansion vestibule, she hangs her uniform jacket onto a nearby coatrack. A moment later, she moves from room to room gathering choice items.

The first item she grabs from a nearby cabinet was a small plastic rectangular tub. She deposits the tub on the drain board next to the sink. Before heading to a room on the second floor of the mansion, she turns on the water to allow it to slowly warm up. While getting the other items. She soon returns carrying a small bag of Epson salt and two clean towels from the bathroom on the second floor.

Before returning to the kitchen, she spreads out one of the towels she was carrying on the floor in front of her favorite chair in the family room. She fills the tub halfway up with warm water and pours the Epson salt into the water stirring it with her hand to mix-it. She carefully carries the plastic tub into the family room and sets it down on the towel in front of her chair. At which time, she carefully pushes the tub forward enough to slide in behind it allowing her to sit in her chair. She reaches down and removes her heels from her feet. She unleashes an audible sigh of relief as her sore feet sink into the warm water solution.

“Greetings mother, am I intruding in on your relaxing time?” Justice said worried noticing his mother is soaking her feet. When he was a small colt, his mother would ask him to fetch the tub and Epson salt from the bathroom. After she prepared the solution, she would ask him to go pick out a storybook that he would like her to read to him.

“Greetings baby. No, not at all. I just finished up a marathon shift at the command center. Wearing my heels all day really takes a toll on my feet, so I just wanted to soak them and beside I am the one that told you to come at this time. It would be the only time I would be home.” Shimmer said reassuring as Justice lifted his head and looked at his mother’s face.

“So baby, what do you have to report on your current mission?” Shimmer inquiry as she sat up in her chair to listen to Justice’s report.