Chapter 13
Luna landed softly in front of a small two-story house in the suburbs of Fillydelphia. It was painted white and blue with a red roof. Surrounding it was a white picket fence. In the yard was a toy fort and more outside toys strewn around it.
The Princess approached the house, only casually glancing around and knocked on the door. A voice from the inside told her to hold just a minute. Shortly later a maroon pegasus mare with a white muzzle opened the door. The pony’s eyes opened wide when seeing who stood on the front step.
“Your Highness,” she quickly bowed.
“Greetings, I am here to speak with a pony named Barricade,” Luna said with a smile. “What is your name?”
“My name is Foxy Stripes. Uh Barricade is in the living room, want to come inside?” Foxy quickly stepped aside and gestured for her to come in. Luna nodded and entered the house. The mare escorted her to the living room where a dark gray unicorn with blonde hair was reading a newspaper.
“Barricade, Princess Luna is here to see you,” Foxy said immediately as they entered. Barricade snapped his head up, blinked then threw his paper away and jumped off the chair he was in.
“Uh, Your Highness,” he said as he bowed. “What brings you here?”
“I do apologize for barging in here unannounced, Mister Barricade, but speed is of the utmost importance. I need to speak with regarding your mother, Mirage Rock,” Luna explained to him.
Barricade raised his head, arching his brow. Foxy showed the princess to a seat before heading out of the living room, announcing she was going to fix something to drink. The stallion in the meantime returned to his seat, eyes fixed on Luna.
“What about my mother?” he asked carefully, not quite sure how to read the princess who betrayed no emotions right now.
“I’m saddened to inform you, Mister Barricade, that your mother might be involved with dangerous ponies,” Luna started. She then told him an abridged version of the recent events, but still leaving out important names, only telling him what Twilight and her friends had witnessed, with some minor references to the Crystal Empire.
“Hmm,” Barricade furrowed his brow. “Mom has never been the same since dad died. Well you could almost argue she hasn’t been the same since my brother disappeared when we were little. She did sometimes mention she had met friends who were helping her cope, but never gave us any details.”
“Your brother disappeared?” Luna tilted her head, asking more out of courtesy since thanks to Twilight she actually knew the details, but didn’t think this was the appropriate time to reveal what she already knew.
“Yeah, over twenty years ago. I just remembered us going to bed, then mom shaking me awake asking me where my brother was. He had just vanished. I don’t think mom ever really recovered from that. Frankly, I sometimes wonder what happened, why didn’t I wake up? We were still sleeping in the same room,” Barricade sighed and shook his head.
“So you say your mother met new friends to cope. You never met any of them? Saw anything strange?” Luna asked, looking up when Foxy arrived in the living room offering her a drink which she accepted.
“No, just that they met regularly, but she didn’t want to bother us with it. I was a bit of a wild pony in my younger years and after I finally settled down with Foxy, she tended not to want to bother us with her personal life. Told us it was just a group of older ponies reminiscing about their younger years,” Barricade shrugged and grinned a little.
“Wild, is putting it lightly,” Foxy remarked, sticking her tongue out at her husband who returned the favor.
Hmm, well it is a secret group not even my sister and I knew about. It would make sense Mirage would leave her only remaining child out of it, Luna thought as she sipped her drink.
“I don’t really think we can help you with anything. I’m actually a little shocked to hear mom might be involved with something dangerous. You think she is alright?” Barricade asked, sporting a worried frown now.
You didn’t look too shocked when I told you about this, Luna glanced at Barricade, but didn’t voice her thought aloud. Instead just smiled reassuringly.
“Whatever she is involved with, rest assured Mister Barricade, my sister and I will get her out of it. We are already working on it,” she said and rose up. “Well, thank you for your drink, Mrs. Stripes. I won’t be bothering the two of you anymore.”
“No bother at all, I’m just sorry we couldn’t be of more help,” Barricade said and rose up as well. Luna nodded and after saying goodbye, allowed Foxy to escort her back outside.
Shortly later, the maroon mare returned to the living room, looking very concerned. Barricade walked to the window and looked outside, watching as Luna flew up and used her magic to teleport away.
The stallion turned away from the window, but before he could say anything, Foxy was already handing him a crystal amulet with strange engravings on it. Barricade nodded in approval and walked further into the living room, holding the trinket in his indigo-colored magic.
“High Shadow, in the name of the first queen, we need your audience,” the unicorn muttered and then floated the amulet over a shadow of his chair.
The shadow started to stretch and began to rise. From it a soft, green light began to emit and it started to swirl into a small portal. In it appeared the visage of the High Shadow draped in her cloak.
“Brother Barricade, what is the matter?” she asked softly.
“The Lunar Princess was here, asking about my mother,” Barricade explained, bowing his head as he did.
“It is as I foresaw. The Celestial princesses are investigating all possible leads they have. I have already taken your mother to a safe place. Perhaps it would be best that you and your family join her until you can reunite with your brother,” the High Shadow told him.
Barricade nearly dropped the amulet from his magical grip when hearing that. “M-my brother?” he whispered astonished. Foxy held one hoof over her mouth.
“Yes, your brother. He is the herald of the True Return. The King has named him his son. Come, bring your daughters. I will take you all to Mirage,” the High Shadow told him and what could be seen of her muzzle formed a smile.
Outside the house and using her powers to remain invisible, Luna watched the exchange through the window with a heavy scowl. The Lunar Princess was almost tempted to barge inside and demand proper answers, but already she could sense immense powers coming from the portal and the being on the other side.
Looks like the whole family is involved, she thought as she watched Foxy bring two fillies into the living room. They were all soon engulfed in a shadow and vanished.
“Isn’t spying a bit beneath a Princess?” a voice addressed her.
Luna whirled around and her eyes opened wide when seeing the High Shadow standing there right behind her, staring right at the alicorn, despite the cloaking spell. Seeing no point in maintaining it, the princess dropped the spell and became visible again.
“Your voice sounds familiar,” Luna remarked. “Who are you? Reveal yourself!”
“You are not my sovereign, Princess Luna. I do not take orders from you. I have already sent a letter to your sister, warning her to stay away. I was hoping I could give you a similar warning,” Ira said calmly, not moving to take down her cloak.
“While you steal away our subjects? Using them as pawns to have the vile King Sombra return?!” Luna growled and her wings rose up in irritation.
“I have stolen nothing. All those who follow me do so of their own free will. I have made no alterations to their minds, nor used any spells to compel them. I simply gave them a promise and have delivered on that promise,” the High Shadow countered. “My goal is simple - to regain what I once lost.”
“You expect me to believe that!” the princess snapped, half ready to charge, but holding back since the High Shadow was only talking and not showing any indications of hostility.
“Believe what you want, it changes nothing. I’ve given you celestial sisters a warning to stay away,” Ira stated and then jumped back, immediately sinking into the shadows of the picket fence.
Luna growled and swiftly took to the air. From there she activated her magic and teleported back to Canterlot.
“We know nothing really new about Calcite, except that her family says she sold her soul to Sombra, but she was a fairly minor member of his collaborators, just living the high life at the expense of her fellow crystal ponies,” Shining Armor reported to his wife.
Cadance rubbed her forehead tiredly, not liking what a mess this was turning out to be. Bright Spark’s list had at least eased the investigation on several ponies suspected of collaborating with the king.
“What ponies dared to tell me about this Order of Umbrum is that they could never tell if a pony was a member or not. They dared not speak ill of the king near anypony in fear that a nearby pony was a member and would report them,” Applejack said, shaking her head in dismay.
“So basically just the same as Bright Spark told me,” Shining sighed. “A lot of suspected members have already disappeared. Guess news spread fast about Calcite. We only have a few former guards detained.”
“This jerk ass Prince is sick, making a group like that,” Rainbow Dash grumbled. “What kind of a pony has his followers kill themselves if captured?”
“Never underestimate what a loyal fanatic is willing to do,” Shining Armor remarked with a heavy frown. The attention of the four ponies were brought to the entrance of the throne room when Twilight, Rarity, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie came running.
“Twily, any news on the journal?” her brother said when seeing his sister.
“Oh boy, do we have news,” Twilight said but before she could say more, Pinkie Pie was already talking.
“We went to this nice lady called Mirage Rock, who was an expert on Dark Ponies to read the journal. But then it turned she is Temor… I mean Private Iceland’s mom and he disappeared away from her over twenty years ago. The Journal told her how Private Iceland was captured and she got super sad, so we decided to leave her alone for a little while. She got better and had translated more of the journal for us. But then we saw her sneak out to meet this guy called Brother Wing who called her Sister Mirage and they called someone called the High Shadow who was über creepy and she told them that King Sombra was coming back and Temor had been chosen to do it and then we quickly ran back to Celestia and Luna to tell them about all of this and then we came back here,” the pink pony sped out without taking a single breath in-between, leaving Cadance, Shining Armor, Applejack and Rainbow Dash to stare at her a little bit confused. Twilight and the rest just nodded to confirm what Pinkie said.
“That’s basically what happened. Mirage is a member of an order called Order of Umbrum. They are preparing for Sombra’s return and Private Iceland is apparently the key to it,” Twilight Sparkle said, raising her brow when Shining Armor looked at her sharply.
“We have already had a run in with the Order of Umbrum. Remember Calcite, the pony Rainbow Dash saw kill herself? She was a member,” her brother told her and then explained to her what the group in the Crystal Empire had discovered.
Twilight groaned in frustration and sunk to the floor. It was dawning on her that this was far more complicated than she had initially thought, and while they had been wasting time both here and in Canterlot, Prince Temor could be just about anywhere at this point.
“Twilight, where is the journal?” Cadance asked.
“Mirage Rock took it to this High Shadow. The Order of Umbrum has it now,” her sister-in-law bemoaned and slowly sat back up. “The worst part is, we still don’t know where Private Iceland went.”
“Why do you call him Private Iceland?” Rainbow Dash asked. “Isn’t his name Temor now?”
“Because that is the name his parents gave him. I don’t care what Sombra has twisted him into,” her purple friend said defiantly. “We need to find him. Hopefully his brother isn’t in on this and we can remind him that he still has a family here. Even if his mother is lost.”
“I’m afraid it won’t be that simple,” a voice spoke up, once again all eyes were on the entrance. Celestia and Luna stood there both looking uncharacteristically grim.
“What do you mean?” Twilight asked as she stood up and faced the two princesses.
“I went to talk with Temor’s brother, however something in his behavior aroused my suspicion and I feigned leaving. Listening in on him and his wife, they too are members of the Order,” Luna reported.
“Twilight, you did get my letter warning you about the High Shadow?” Celestia asked, looking at her student who cringed.
“I got it on the train, but I was in such deep thought over what had happened, I put it in my bag to read later,” the unicorn confessed and pulled out the letter with her magic. Celestia just smiled and nodded.
“I understand. It’s no matter, I got a letter from the High Shadow, warning us off interfering in what is happening,” the Solar Princess told the rest.
“And I met the High Shadow,” her sister then added and scowled hard. “There was something familiar about her voice but I couldn’t place it. She too gave me a warning, claimed she was merely regaining what she had lost. I could sense great powers in her.”
The meeting was interrupted when suddenly a swarm of bats came flying in from the open nearby balcony. Rarity immediately ducked, covering her mane. The small creatures started swirling around the group, screeching as if they were in a hurry to say something.
“What is going on?” Twilight looked at the bats confused. “Fluttershy, can you understand them?”
Fluttershy flew up to the swarm of bats as she concentrated on the screeching. “Little friends, calm down. This isn’t a cave and it’s daytime. You should be napping.”
Everybody on the floor watched as Fluttershy continued to talk with the excited bats. They couldn’t really hear much from the one-sided conversation except the occasional “oh,” and “oh my.”
Finally though the swarm rushed right back to the balcony door and back outside, save for one bat that kept fluttering around Fluttershy who was waving the rest goodbye. The pegasus then slowly descended back down, the bat still circling her.
“First of all, Leatherwing is awfully sorry for interrupting us like that, but he and his family saw something really strange a few days ago,” she reported, the bat screeching a little as if to agree with her statement.
“They first went to Ponyville to see me, thinking this was something important to tell us, but Angel told them I was here, so they rushed to the Crystal Empire to tell me about it,” the pegasus continued.
“What did they see?” Celestia asked. Most of the ponies were all ears though Rarity kept eyeing the bat warily and kept her distance.
“Near the borders of Equestria and the northlands, they saw two strange ponies. One seemed to have a green crystal coat, the other one was gray but with a red horn,” Fluttershy told them.
“That must be Temor and Emerald, they are already in Equestria,” Twilight gasped as she recognized the description.
“Wait, why would the bat know to report something like this to you?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“Oh, Leatherwing and I are old friends, I helped his sister when she hurt her wing. He sometimes likes to come to me and tell me stories of what he sees from afar,” Fluttershy chuckled. The bat made some screeching sound that could almost be a laugh. “He thought this looked important because he’s never seen ponies like that before.”
“And Leatherwing was right to come to you with this news,” Celestia nodded in approval, causing the bat to blush a little. “We finally have a lead to where Temor is headed.”
“Fluttershy, can Leatherwing show us where he saw those ponies?” Twilight asked. She didn’t even really need her friend to ask the bat. Leatherwing was already nodding and screeching in excitement.
“Good. Twilight, you and your friends go with Leatherwing and try to track down Temor from there. Luna and I will confer with Cadance and Shining Armor about the current situation,” Celestia ordered. She didn’t need to say it twice, Twilight and her five friends were immediately rushing out of the throne room along with the bat.
End chapter 13