“I blame you, of course,” Luna grumbled, levitating a parchment over to Shifting who was relaxing at her side. The pair were sitting in a small side-area, offset from the throne room. It was a nice place to take a break between nightly petitioners and read the usual updates and reports, and close enough to the kitchens to snag a bite to eat every now and again.
“Hmm?”
“Ever since your ‘infinity minus fifty’ thing, Twilight has been delving into how much power a Satyr’s paw, or other possible ageless artifacts, actually have. Apparently, she is bombarding my sister with notes; for which I am grateful though. Celie needs more ponies to talk to, Twilight included.”
“…I wash my hooves of any of that business. Not my fault she’s an egghead supreme.”
“Says the purveyor of fruit and vegetable poems, and all historical knowledge associated with them,” Luna shot back with a grin.
“Hey. She’s egghead Supreme. I’m Emperor egghead, in that respect. To be fair, I stumbled upon those facts mostly by accident, mainly because I knew the ponies!”
“I still blame you for ruining some of my favorite lyrics.”
Shifting chuckled, levitating a parchment over to Luna with a grin. “I maintain my innocence. Oh, could you sign this please? I mentioned it the other day, and finally got the paperwork in order. As the first squad of the Lunar Knights is formally established, I thought you should have the final say. Silty Stone has more than proven herself as a leader, I think.”
Luna let out a hum, signing the document before retrieving another report. “Of course, I look forward to seeing how she handles things. I trust your judgement, naturally, and from the brief interactions I’ve had, she seems perfect,” a frown then slid onto the Princess’s face.
“Luna?”
“The outbreak is spreading; and the strange cure we’ve been receiving actually worked on eliminating the illness from tests subjects,” she read off of another report, hoof tapping her chin in thought.
The Commander now also frowned, leaning over to examine the report. “Then this illness is what the First Wisher warned us about, then. We only are getting the cure in a hundred doses at a time, correct?”
“Aye. Not nearly enough to prevent the spread; but they’re being used on healthcare workers first as of a few days ago. The illness isn’t deadly though, so I cannot see how this is from the Windigos, yet it makes most sense at the same time. So far it’s just a few thousand infected with a common cold.”
Reading another report, Shifting nodded in agreement. “It doesn’t fit the Windigo’s profile. So far, as you said, it has just been a bad case of the flu and the cold. They want death, hatred, all of that. This thing- perhaps the Wisher was correct in saying it was some sort of different group. He did say Windigo’s weren’t the only threat…”
“Well, at least we have the cure; it seems to both destroy the ailment and prevent infection, at least as we’ve discovered these past two weeks.”
“Speaking of, how is Twilight doing? Two weeks is hardly time to recover,” Shifting tentatively asked, and Luna let out a gentle smile in return.
“She is coping. It is a horrible shock to her, but being able to pin all of this on an enemy helps her, I think. It answers the ‘why’ ponies would do such horrible things. She is still innocent in many ways of the world; and I hope she carries that with her for many, many years.”
Letting out sad sigh, the Lunar Knight nodded, Twilight’s horrified gaze still burned into his memory. “And I hope she does just that.”
“I think she will, Shifting. Better she learns now than later during our retirement. Along that vein, have the prisoners given us any new information?”
“Actually….” Shifting mused, retrieving a rather lengthy report. “They have, rather eagerly I might add when we threatened to drop them in the middle of a Northern blizzard. That misty-eyed spell we’ve been seeing? It’s unfortunately not mind control; they were completely in control of their actions. It’s some sort of spell-booster. Apparently, it lets this ‘Emissary’ communicate with the ones afflicted if needs be, and also directly with her masters. It also generally heightens one’s senses and abilities, but not to an extraordinary level,” Shifting read off, then frowning at a sub-note.
“Unfortunately, the visible mist in one’s eyes was the result of a hasty casting. It’s suspected such cues are no longer visible on the enemy’s agents. Speaking of, the info we have on the ‘Emissary’ is fairly light. She’s some sort of ethereal being who reports directly to, we guessed it, the Windigos. Only one or two sightings thus far; but nothing concrete. Where they are and why they are here…we still don’t know. The only information on that front is they are willing to pay handsomely to any creature willing to spread hate, or undermine national unity. Also, we’ve managed to avoid mentioning Windigos to the public, thankfully. Thus far, it’s just a radicalized cult. That, coupled with the Changeling’s help to quell rumors and excessive panic, has been holding the public emotion steady.”
Luna nodded slowly, the gears in her mind churning through the report. “I’d say that’s a good start, Shifting. That is disturbing that so many ponies were willing to act with deadly intent however. A full-blown mind control spell would have been more palatable, in a way.”
“I agree. But considering how many creatures in the world there are, there is always a group willing to put profit or powerful alliances ahead of morals. Equestria has been the exception rather than the rule, I think.”
“Not without attempts of course. It got lost in the shuffle, but I found this interesting,” Luna remarked, levitating a report over to her Commander.
“This was a year ago. Apparently, our enemy tried the same thing in the Royal Guard and the Legionnaires as in the Night Guard.”
“And why didn’t we learn about this sooner?” Shifting muttered, reading the report. His eyes then widened as the stallion blinked.
“…oh.”
“’Oh’ indeed. The individuals were easily rooted out, and in the case of the legionnaires…aggressively eliminated. That organization has ponies of whose families have served my sister for generations. To try and infiltrate that, rather than the Night Guard, was bound to fail.” Luna mused.
“We never put the attempts together, because it seemed to be a simple mutiny based on a loose group of fanatics, rather than a cohesive effort. Now however….”
“That was their trial run; to see if it could work, and how to modify their plans in the already-in-motion infiltration of the Night Guard,” Shifting finished.
“Exactly. My Night Guard was easy to infiltrate; being largely of Thestrals we trusted with little question, and being a newly reinstated organization. The Legionnaires especially is a generational and fiercely loyal bunch.”
Shifting let out a sigh, leaning against Luna’s shoulder. “This is outside my area of expertise, Luna. I’m good with singular threats, but this? This is almost like being a general to an army. The Lunar Knights is different; shock troops, but this is slowly moving towards all-out war.”
“It would seem that way, but I doubt the Windigos have enough bodies for that. A few thousand perhaps, hired help and such, but no. Their methods must be different; yet this pathogen that is spreading doesn’t seem to be their doing,” Luna mused.
After a few moments of thought, Shifting nodded in agreement, but continued to frown.
“I think it is from them; but that goes against all logic. There have been very few deaths; only minor inconveniences thus far. It doesn’t match up against their methods and motives. But that’s my hunch.”
“Well, I’ll certainly take your hunch into account, Shifting. Until we have concrete evidence however, we just have to move forward.”
Blowing out a noisy breath, Shifting stood, stretching with a slight wince. “I agree, of course. This is just out of my element, and more in your area. Widespread planning and so forth. At least that nasty bug hasn’t reached Canterlot yet.”
A loud yawn caught both of their attention, a familiar alabaster alicorn wandering into the room sleepily. “…This is not the kitchen,” Celestia grumbled, prompting two heads to tilt in confusion.
“Sister? I thought you were in bed,” Luna asked, prompting another loud yawn.
“Couldn’t sleep, more common. Hmm. Just wanted some different herbal teas…” The still-drowsy ruler mused, and Shifting was struck by how normal Celestia looked. Mane still tousled in disarray and lacking her usual regalia; she looked like any other pony having trouble getting a good night’s sleep.
A bit of knowledge I suppose few understand. They are just like everypony, everycreature else, just lacking in age. But then again, I have a unique perspective on that…
“Do you want my help, Celie? I know you haven’t been sleeping well,” Luna asked, but a shake of a head was Celestia’s response.
“I’ll manage, but thank you Lulu,” Celestia replied. Her entire frame then contorted in a massive sneeze, the Alicorn wincing slightly in pain.
“Something must be in bloom.”
“Sister, you told me that you haven’t had allergies in a few hundred years.”
As the slowly-waking Alicorn looked over to her Sister and Shifting, the latter casually opened a storage portal, the unicorn donning a gas mask as he took a step back from Celestia. A magical touch urged Luna to keep her distance, the Commander of the Lunar Knights letting out a sad sigh.
“Princess Celestia, I think you should report to the infirmary.”
“Why? It’s just a…cold…” Celestia huffed, words then fading as the realization hit her. “Oh dear, you don’t think…?”
Luna’s horn lit up as protective spells surrounded her, the alicorn looking to her older sister sadly. “Let’s get you checked out, Sister.”
Shifting sent a private message to his Knights to get their protective gear ready; the stallion taking a deep breath of filtered air as he accompanied the two alicorns down the hallway. He had a feeling that things were about to get very, very interesting.
To Be Continued in Sunspots