Griffon of Canterlot
Chapter 65.5 – The Vault of the Past
In the dining room Princess Luna tapped a hoof on the table while looking to each of the doors as she drank a bit of her coffee. One field of her magic holding the coffee mug, while another lazily spun an enveloped card in the air. She had been waiting for her sister to come in, or either Gilda and Gale, but none of them were showing up which puzzled Luna.
Luna got up from the table and walked up to one of the doors, opening it up with her magic to see two stallions stationed there. “Where is my sister?”
The guard responds, “On this day no pony sees her.”
“No pony sees my sister on her birthday?”
“No Princess. From what I've heard, the last time Princess Celestia celebrated it was around 800 years ago, ” the guard answered.
Luna's eyes shifted trying to thin of any reason that could held her understand why her sister wouldn't celebrate her own birthday. Let alone the conceptof not doing so for 800 years. “Guard, do you know the reason?”
“No, Princess, no pony knows. And if any ask, they either get ignored or a sharp response of, 'It's personal and leave it at that! That's all we ever get for an answer.”
“Is she in her room?”
“Yes.”
Luna nodded, “Thank you, I will go see my sister.”
The two guards looked a bit concerned, “Princess... Just be ready if she snaps at you.”
“I will and thank you.” Luna said as she left heading to her sister's bedroom. “What happened to you, sister? Why close every pony off on this day? Your day?”
Arriving at her sister's door Luna raised a hoof to knock, but thought she should just open the door instead. As her magic gripped the door, the guards standing watch by it quickly shifted away from it. She knew this was serious if they were that wary. "Sister?" Luna walked in upon opening the door to find it was semi dark inside. Closing the door behind herself, she use her horn to light up the room and saw Celestia sitting on cushions by a very dim, low fire.
Celestia was holding what look like a porcelain doll of a grey and white baby griffon. Humming to it and muttering sweet words to it as if it was alive. “Sister?” Celestia raised her head turning it slightly and Luna caught sight of tears falling. “Celestia... Why are you crying at that doll?”
Celestia sniffed a bit, turning back to the doll she rocked it back and fourth in her forelegs. “Nightingale... My sweet Nightingale... Luna, she only had a whole day's worth of life and it was over... It was my fault... My birthday wish...”
Luna slowly stepped towards her listening to Celestia. “Sister you had a griffon child?”
Celestia nods slowly while moving a hoof over the feather fluff of the doll. “Yes... I fell in love with a kind honourable proud griffon... I fell in love with King Grover the ruler of Griffina,” Celestia said softly. “He brought candles with him on my birthday 800 years ago in this very room... He got them from a Zebra shaman and said there was a chance a birthday wish can come true and it did...”
“You created life with it?”
“No... I became a griffon with my Alicorn magic. And through the heat of the moment, set of a series of events that brought us closer than ever before. That night, before midnight, we- Well...”
“Yes you do not need to go there, Sister... Continue beyond that please.”
Celestia nodded. “The next day, hover I was still a griffon and then I found out why. I was with child... I was with Nightingale. For eight months I lived my life as a whole new race... The largest griffon any have ever seen. When the eighth month passed... Nightingale came at one minute past midnight. And for a day, we were the perfect family. But as all wishes go that create something or change something... It ends at midnight... Fades...”
Celestia cried, holding the doll right to her muzzle and nuzzling it as tears fall on the porcelain face of the griffon doll. “Oh Luna, I tried everything, I burned almost all my magic trying to save her! She was soooo innocent! She had a right to live! But it was not to be...” Celestia turned to Luna. “Grover and I, our love stayed but our marriage was hidden. We both were never the same again... The loss of our daughter broke the perfect family we became... I so wish that I could have seen her grow... Seen my daughter become a beautiful griffon...”
Luna bolted to her sister's side, falling upon her and giving her a hug. “Oh Celestia... I am so sorry for your loss.” She started to cry too. “You blame yourself because of your birthday wish... You believe it to be your fault... Sister... It isn't, none of this is...”
“Thank you, Luna... Thank you for listening...”
“I am always here for you, Celestia...” Luna looked to the doll. “She's beautiful. And Nightingale?”
Celestia smiled slightly, sniffing a bit. “In honour of you, the sister I had lost for 200 years...”
Luna smiled back as she wiped the tears away from her sister's eyes with a hanky. “Thank you, Sister...” Celestia returned the favour, then they sat by the fire for a few minutes pressing their heads against each other and looking down at the griffon doll silently. Celestia felt some relief with her sister by her side on this painful day for the sun princess.
The door opens suddenly, both sisters turning to the light of the door. Sunbeam stood at it breathing laboriously in and out. “Princess Celestia, sorry for bursting in but it's urgent! Gale and Gilda are missing!”
Celestia quickly got up with Luna. “What!?”
“Explain!” Luna adds.
“No pony's seen them leave the room or the house. We went in to find only Prince Gale's plush on the bed and no sign of Gilda at the tower house.” Sunbeam reported. “Prince Gale would never go far from his plush.”
Celestia looked to the doll. “No, please no...” What Sunbeam said next caught both sisters' attention.
“They're not the only ones missing too! Mayor Greystorm with his wife Octicovix are unaccountable for, and no pony saw them leaving the castle either!” Sunbeam continues to report after breathing in and out again, “ Amber has also arrived saying that Doctor Trace didn't report in for work this morning, nor did she hear him leave. And Doctor RS that griffon with the wild feathers, also hasn't been seen on the grounds.”
Another guard came up. “Captain Armor didn't change over with the nightguard captain, nor have we been able to locate him. And there were reports of a strange glow from four domes of snow on the far side of the mountain Princesses.”
Celestia's eyes shifted left and right with alarm. “All mis-” A scroll suddenly appeared before her and Celestia swiftly opened it. “Twilight says Rainbow Dash hasn't been seen since this morning after she saved Rainbow from crashing into the ground when her feather explod-” Celestia seem to realise something and this caught her mid freeze caught everyone's attention.
“Sister?” Luna got an answer as Celestia's horn suddenly glows and, in a instant, both princesses vanish before the guards' eyes.
Sunbeam looked around and so did the other guards. “What do we do?” One guard asked.
“We look for them throughout the whole castle, just don't look under flower pots and pillows... I've seen searches from some ponies in searches before being that stupid and wasting time.” Sunbeam said looking at them. “Well?" They stood to attention. "Send word out to the other guards!”
“Yes ma'am!” They saluted and rushed off, Sunbeam looking back into the bedroom before closing the door with her hoof.
In a blinding flash Luna found she now stood with Celestia in some sort of large hallway at a juncture with large torches on marble pillars lit up. A large red carpet splitting to lead under four large, thick, stain-glass dome windows. The cross point of the carpet lead down another hallway, through sets of two massive double doors, and up to one big one at the end of the hall, There, large golden griffon guard statues flanked the door while holding flag poles. One gold flag was an Equestrian one depicting Celestia with the sun and moon to the left and right of her. The other was a crowned griffon holding up an idol with a large tree behind it.
“Sister, what is this place and where are we?” Luna looked around the still hallways taking notice of the dark grey armoured pony guards standing watch before the great door. They looked eerily similar to what looked to be clay guard 'statues' standing against the walls in pairs, Her magic sensing their true nature as all magical constructs, enchanting clay golem guards made in pony shape.
Celestia starts to walk and Luna follows. “We are in my private vault, this is where all my journals and personal effects are kept. No pony knows of it and where it sits under is a restricted zone for the safety of all.”
“This great hall is your personal vault!?”
“Indeed, but we get to that later. What's more important, is finding if there any connection between this vault becoming active,to the disappearance of my son and everyone else.” Celestia said knowing more than she was letting on.
One of the armoured clay guards stepped up and saluted to them. “This one look different...” Luna stated
“It is.” Celestia replied and stood firm to the guard. “Captain Clay Guard, report!”
The guard stomped once and speaks. “PRINCESS CELESTIA! CCG 001 REPORTING!” He said in a sharp non-emotional voice and continue to speak. “CELESTIA AND GROVER VAULT ACTIVATED AT ZERO HUNDRED HOUR PAST ONE!! CSG 227 ARRIVED AT ZERO TWO HUNDRED ENTERED THE CHAMBER AND HAS NOT LEFT! PRINCESS!”
Celestia rubbed the underside of her snout. “That's strange. That clay pony scout went missing a little after there was no war with the griffons, during the moments before Guto fell from power...”
“What does that mean sister?”
“I do not know, but it seems to be another connection to the vault I haven't stepped in for the last 150 years...” Celestia look at the guard directly. “You are to stand by and wait. If something happens, be on alert. And register Princess Luna as equal to me in all manners.”
“REGISTRATION COMPLETE! PRINCESS LUNA! STANDING BY!” He walked to the side and stood at attention.
Luna stared at it. “That is one weird clay pony guard...”
“That he is. Come along, Luna.” They walked down the great hall to the large door at the end. “As I said before... Last time I was here was 150 years ago... When it became active for a very short time...” Celestia took a deep breath feeling tense and sick. “Inside is a sphere that I created trying to save Nightingale... Both I and Grover agreed to keep it here safe and sound. We never figured out what it did or what it was...”
“You never tried to look deeper into it because of Nightingale?”
“Correct...” Celestia said, using her magic to open the massive door. They walked in to stand before a large golden statue in the middle of a large circular room. It stood at thirty hooves tall with two griffons holding up a slightly pulsing, glowing sphere above them with one pair of their talons, white their other talons gently held a baby griffon. Their heads bowed to reverence to the child.
Surrounding the statue was a few dishes with wires attached to thrm and flat plates resting against the pillars, sides pointed directly at the sphere. “I gather that's new?” Luna asked upon seeing Celestia's surprised look.
“It is...” Celestia answered as they walked closer to one. “These are computerized machines, but they look different to anything I have seen...” Celestia took a closer look at one and reached out, about to touch it.
A voice spoke out, catching their attention. “I wouldn't do that, you might get a shock. I didn't get a chance to ground some of those wires in the rush to get the equipment set up to find out how Nanner Maple ended up in that thing.”
They turn around to see the largest griffon they have ever seen laying atop a pile of pillows, and with their fore paws holding a strange tablet of some kind. The tablet was connected to a wire, which lead to a box with many wires, and the wires connected to that spread out around the room to connect with all the strange dishes and flat plates one by one. “Luna... Please tell me do you see a massive griffon lying on the pillows Grover gave to me?”
“Yes, I do...”
“Hi, Princesses Luna and Celestia,” she waved to them with one paw. “the name's Sunflower. And with the pleasantries over, we've got work to do.”
“Tell me, exactly why are you inside my vault? And while you're at it, how did you get in my vault?” Celestia asked bluntly.
Sunflower raised her tablet. “After Nanner Maple vanished right before my eyes, I tracked her here. And I used a gem from a clay pony that had been kept by my family for generations, ever since the defeat of Guto the Betrayer, to let myself in.” She went back to typing on the tablet.
“Okay... And what work were you speaking of before?” Luna asked still staring over the large form of the griffon before her eyes.
“Princess Luna, the work is most likely why you are here. Finding out why Nanner Maple, and whomever for you recently disappeared, are in that sphere.” Sunflower looked up at it, pulsing on top of the golden statue.
Celestia turned, looking back at it. “My son, Gale is inside that?” She didn't know what to think, wondering how could it have happened? Or how it was possible.
“If he's one of those that vanished like my nanner, pretty much...” Sunflower responds. “So... We going to keep talking about it? Or are we going to do something about getting them out?”
“We are in a rush?” Luna asked.
Sunflower gave them a stern look. “Oh, we definitely are.”
Celestia turned away from the sphere walking a few steps closer to Sunflower. “Explain griffon!”
“It's Sunflower, and to explain I just need to show you this! Do the maths!” Sunflower turned the tablet around to them. What they sisters saw made their blood go cold with horror, and their voices froze from fear after seeing the numbers with a display of the sphere's energy levels.
Sunflower speaks firmly of what they did not what to say was displayed before them...
“Because by 23:59 at the final second to midnight tonight... that sphere will cease to exist!”