Chapter 4: the arrival
The next day, twilight, rarity and a half awake rainbow dash all met at access panel 1A.
Twilight looked at rarity who was telekinetically moving about 7 suitcases. “Um, rarity, do you really need that many bags?”
Rainbow yawned for a minute, then said, “you know how she always says if we went to earth, she’d insist we bring a sundress, yawn, she wasn’t kidding.”
“Are you ok,” twilight asked.
“Didn’t get much sleep, stormy’s been hammering in the overtime lately, if this negotiation gets us more water, Im taking as much time off as I can get,” dash yawned. It was common for pegasie and thestrals to work on water distribution, and all of them knew how seriously stormy took her job as manager. Truth be told, water distribution wasn’t rainbow’s real passion, it was a temporary job to pay her half of the bills until she got her real dream job, a spot on the lunarbolts. They were the most elite flyers in the republic, dash had envied them since she was a filly, and was constantly practicing to get into the lunarbolt academy.
The three mares entered the tram and after ten minutes they arrived at dome 0.
“Oh, Dome 0, the height of sophistication, and only the first stop, twilight darling, you are so lucky you get to come here whenever you please,” rarity said.
“So can anyone else with probable cause,” twilight muttered.
The trio was escorted to the palace by two guards. They were lead into the main hall where pharynx, luna and a white unicorn with a blue and cyan mane and black, silver and blue armour.
“Ah twilight, I take it these two are coming as well,” luna asked when they entered. Twilight nodded and luna continued, “we will be sending you to a small, quiet town by the name of ponyville, evidently a festival is to be held there tomorrow where my sister plans to announce the merger should things go well. You will be sent to the outskirts of town, your cover is that you are simply there for the celebration.”
With that pharynx shifted his form into a black pegasus with a red mane and purple eyes. His fake cutie mark seemed to be a flaming shield.
“Well, i’m all set,” he said.
“Everyone ready?” luna asked to which all of them nodded, “alright then.” her horn lit up in a bright blue light, the light left her horn and engulfed the four in front of her. When the light faded, they were gone.
“Are you sure this is a smart idea, your highness?” the guard next to her said.
“You know my outlook, captain Armour, I’d rather have the information and not need it, then need it and not have it,” luna answered, “prepare for our departure.”
“Yes ma’am,” captain armour saluted.
Down at the planet, a blast of blue light hit the ground then faded and the four ponies were in its place. Twilight looked around in awe, while she had seen plants and clouds before but the way they were arranged here, it was beautiful. she also noticed the sky was a bright blue rather than the midnight blue with stars they were used to, and the only star that could be seen was the sun. the sun itself felt nice and warm on her coat, and the wind was cool in contrast. She looked out to the horizon, unlike in the republic, there wasn’t a dome that would cut you off, it was infinite.
“Wow, I never thought i’d see it,” pharynx said jaw dropped.
“It’s beautiful,” twilight responded before realising they weren’t here for the scenery, “come on, we should be close to ponyville.”
Meanwhile in canterlot celestia, cadence, and the nobles were waiting for the arrival of princess luna and her senate, whatever that was.
“How much longer before she shows up?” blueblood asked.
“Princess luna will be here soon enough,” celestia said.
Then as if on cue, a blue blast of light landed in front of them. Went it faded a cloaked figure, just a head shorter than celestia, along with a blue unicorn with white mane and a playing card cutie mark, a large, cyan earth pony with a full moon cutie mark, a black bat pony with a violet mane and storm cloud cutie mark, and five guards, four in black and silver, the fifth was similar but had various shades of blue, this was likely the captain.
“Princess celestia,” the cloaked figure removed her hood revealing her midnight blue coat, and ethereal mane that resembled the night sky, she bowed.
“Princess luna,” celestia bowed in return, “it’s good to see you, sister.” her court was a little set back by this, the lunar princess was her sister?
Luna kept her cold expression, “I hope you’ve finally resolved the issues that made me and my subjects leave.”
“Down to business as always,” celestia faked a smile, she thought that luna would be a little happy to see her, but she had seen this coming, “and yes I have tried my best to eliminate these problems. If you and your court would like to come inside, we can begin right after lunch.”
“Very well,” luna said following her sister.
Blueblood took a look at the lunar senate and scoffed, “your court only has one unicorn? And you actually let this freak show, bat pony in,” to this stormy growled in rage, “now you see here, first of all, I am a thestral, not a ‘freak show bat pony’, secondly I was elected by my fellow citizens to represent them in government, I earned my way in, what did you do to get in?”
Blueblood was about to continue but celestia said, “enough, we are here to negotiate, not get into a race war, blueblood, the lunar republic’s government works differently than ours, please don’t insult their delegates.”
Blueblood brushed himself off then walked away.
Celestia sighed, “I apologize for my nephew, he has the belief only a unicorn can handle government.”
“Well if we were back on the moon that would have prevented him from getting into a government position in the first place,” luna said, “am I to assume he is the only one in your court with that belief, or are there others, afterall, your court seems to be mostly unicorns.”
“Um, well,” celestia started before cadence answered for her, “it’s mainly just blueblood, the nobles get positions based on their family line, which are mostly unicorns.”
When luna looked in the direction of cadence she realised she was face to face with a third alicorn, she just stood there for a moment, jaw dropped. Did celestia have a child? How in the name of faust was she looking at another alicorn.
“Oh, we haven’t been introduced, I’m princess Mi Amore Cadenza, but you can call me cadence,” cadence let out her hoof, “a pleasure to meet you aunt luna.”
“She really bucking did,” luna thought to herself be for shaking her hoof.
“I look forward to getting to know you,” cadence said, “it was actually my idea to invite you for the festival.”
“And I you,” luna said flashing a grin, something told her she was going to like her new niece, but she was still gonna chew celestia out.
When she was sure cadence was out of earshot, luna said, “so, you didn’t mention I had a niece in any of your letters.”
“Oh yes, isn’t cadence something,” celestia replied.
“So, did you finally settle down or did you have too much wine with your cake again?” luna bluntly asked which actually got a reaction out of her sister, “what no, no, cadence isn’t my daughter, she’s adopted, and she sees me more like an aunt anyway.”
“Than how is she an alicorn?” luna pressed.
“Oh that, It’s a spell I recently perfect, when a pony shows great knowledge, understanding, compasion, and magic, the spell will transform them into an alicorn, cadence was chosen when she perfected a love spell that saved her village,” celestia explained, “but what about you? Have you any foals?”
Luna let out a small laugh, “no, i’m afraid not, though I do try and help the young ones of the republic as much as I can, but closest thing I have to a child of my own is my student twilight, she’s quite the powerful unicorn. And i’ve known her since she was a filly.”
“Come on let’s head to the dining room, I made your favorites,” celestia said.
“Breakfast for lunch with a large assortment of fruit?” luna asked to which celestia nodded, “Huzzah!”