“Underestimate your enemy at your peril. Many a King has died while savouring what he thought was victory.”
- Queen Vega the Terrible
They held Pensive’s trial out in the square the next morning, and for all of the unicorn’s haughty arrogance the night before, it didn’t help him when faced with the howling rage of the citizenry. If there had been any fresh tomatoes in the capital to throw, Luna was sure that Pensive would be getting a face full of them. And somehow she knew that that was all going to change with this traitor now out of the way. Without him scheming to block the Senate’s progress, they would get some solid relief out to the country, and everything would be peaceful again.
And yet, despite everything seemingly being resolved, she couldn’t help but feel a sense of unease growing inside her.
Why, even as she was pronouncing his sentence, she realized that the western horizon had grown dark and grey, and not ten seconds later there was a crackle of thunder, and a cool drizzle began to fall over the city.
Something was strange about the rain, though. Somehow it didn’t feel wet enough. Whenever a droplet fell on her wings or on the back of her neck, it didn’t come with the pleasant coolness of a morning shower, but instead an unpleasant feeling of filth, like grease or oil one would retch at the idea of drinking. That was when she realized that the sky wasn’t grey. It was purple. And that wasn’t water that was falling.
The wind rose in Luna’s ears. A cackle, an echo of madness reverberating through the sky, a howling torrent of horrendous Chaos magic, dredged up from the past and now back to torment Equestria in its darkest moment. Out in the square she heard a scream, then a chorus as the crowd broke, dashing every which way looking for cover. Luna felt her mane standing on end and knew what was coming. She readied her wings and leapt up into the air, seconds before a kaleidoscopic bolt of reality-destroying lightning struck just where she had been standing, vapourizing the ground and leaving behind a spider web of cracks around a hole that opened into a yawning abyss of infinite blackness.
She had to get to the palace. To the Elements. Only with her and Celestia’s magic combined could they hope to fight back. Her sister would be there, restoring order, and together the two of them would take back the city, just as they had three hundred years ago.
But no matter how fast she moved, the storm seemed to follow her as she flew, focusing its energy on barring her path, a rain of lightning falling down in front of her every time that she turned up the mountainside.
One of them clipped her on the shoulder. The pain was instant, a searing heat that took the whole of her left side. In the next instant Luna was in a cartwheeling dive, her wings not responding to her wishes, the ground rushing up to meet her as all around the wind roared mad laughter in her ears and the thick rain coated every inch of her skin.
Right before she hit the cobblestones, they erupted in another blast of lightning, leaving only the void to catch her fall. With her working hooves she scrambled to catch the ledge before her body went over, but in the next instant, there was nothing. No light, no water, but still that wind pushing its way through her skull, carrying Discord’s mirth with her forever. Each new gust of the wind sounded louder in her ears, until—
Luna woke up, her heart pounding in her ears.
It was still dark in her room, but it was in no way quiet. Outside, the wind howled across the mountainside, but it was nothing compared to the chaos that was unfolding around her.
There were six other ponies in the room, two standing alert in clanking chainmail on the floor, two more by her dressing table, and the final two standing guard just inside of the doorway. For an instant, Luna’s breath caught in her throat, until she recognized Captain Brow at the table. The rest of them were surely palace guards then, here to protect her from something. They must have just arrived, and from their wide-eyed looks, they had come here in a hurry.
None of them had noticed that she was awake yet, but with a second look she spied a familiar sandy yellow mane on one of the guards by the door. It was Swift, back on duty finally. He would likely have a tale to tell her about how things were progressing at the Academy, but for now there was business at hoof.
Now better aware of the situation, Luna cleared her throat. All around the room the guards turned and snapped her quick salutes. She addressed Brow first. “Captain? Has something happened?”
An uncertain glance passed between him and Lieutenant Heart, who was the one with him at the table. She realized suddenly that only the two she had noticed first were wearing chainmail under their uniforms, and only a few others were properly armed. Neither Brow nor Swift was among that company. In fact, another look revealed that Swift had his shirt on backwards. Thankfully for him, nopony else seemed to notice.
Finally Brow stepped forward, offering up another trim salute before answering. “We have multiple situations at the moment, Your Highness. My apologies, I know that you’re going to have a lot of questions, and I’m afraid that we don’t have very many good answers right now. However, here’s what we do know.”
With his magic, he lifted a map up off of the table and held it vertically against the room’s wall, offering everypony an excellent look at it as he delivered the briefing. “At approximately 0600 hours, Canterlot was struck by a large atmospheric disturbance. Not rain,” he cautioned, seeing the spark that had lit up Luna’s eyes. “Dust. In fact, it’s still going on, as you can see.”
Taking another look out the window, Luna realized that the darkness she was seeing wasn’t the crisp blackness of nighttime, but instead the billowing shadow of a dust storm. It was probably past dawn by now, but without being told it she wouldn’t have known. “Didn’t anypony see it coming? I thought we had scouts for this sort of thing.”
Swift answered from the doorway. “The city’s contingent has been drawn down to free up teams for the countryside. Apparently this one slipped past us.” He sounded like he took that as a personal affront.
“In any event, once the storm hit, there was no diverting it,” Brow continued. “About ten minutes later, it seems that the palace was stormed by the protesters who had been camping in the plaza outside. Perhaps they were only seeking shelter, but regardless they caught us totally unprepared. After that, I can’t say much of anything for sure. Most of us were still in the barracks when the alarm was raised, and we were quickly cut off. Guardspony Swift and I rallied this force to come here and protect you, Your Highness. Another group was to be looking after your sister, but I’m afraid that I can’t confirm their success.”
Luna’s first instinct on hearing that was to take a look out the window, since Celestia’s tower was, after all, only about a hundred feet away. But even that short distance was completely choked off by the gusting clouds of dust. That was probably the most frustrating part. Normally it would be impossible for the Guard to get cut off like this, since you could always rely on a pegasus to carry a message, from one end of the palace to the other if need be. But now they couldn’t even be sure of what was going on in the next room.
Getting out of the bed, Luna took a look at herself in the mirror on her dressing table. The usual morning routine was definitely going to have to wait today, but that was fine. Yesterday had required the professional air of a politician. Today, Equestria needed a whole different kind of Princess. She took a deep breath, steeling herself for what came next. “What exactly are we facing out there?”
“Just civilians, I’m sure,” Swift answered. “But scared ones, and angry too. I wouldn’t be surprised if a few of them have started looting by now.”
“We won’t be able to send them out into that storm,” Brow added. “Once we’ve secured a few of the halls we can perhaps hold onto them there. Give them a breakfast maybe, and let them go once the sky clears up.”
Luna nodded. They wouldn’t end up letting all of them go, at least if Swift’s prediction about the looting turned out to be true. But there certainly wasn’t any sense in being heavy-hoofed in this situation. Things were tense enough in the capital already.
“Captain,” she said, turning back to the room and addressing Brow. “When we move out, we’re going to have three objectives. First, somepony needs to link up with that squad protecting Celestia. If we even have to, that is. I wouldn’t be surprised if she came and got us first.” Celestia was, after all, usually a very early riser. It was entirely possible that she was halfway to containing the situation already. “Second, we need to secure the barracks and the armoury, and set up a central command center to get the whole Guard organized. Third, we sweep the palace room by room, sending any civilians to the Great Hall. Once the storm is over we can get to work on processing them. Understood?” That last question was given to the room in general, and there were nods all around.
It was more than just nods though. As the Guard formed up around her door, they seemed almost to have grown taller just hearing her speak. There was a pride and professionalism in those steps that hadn’t been present in the confused and frightened squad huddled in her bedchambers previously. Knowing that somepony was in command could do that, and when Luna joined the group at the doorway, she felt at home among them, braced to march out and face whatever stood on the other side of that door.
Sure, there wouldn’t be any combat to be had in mopping up the civilians in the palace, but even so this was an invigorating way to start the morning. Perhaps she ought to schedule a few drills right around the time that she normally woke up.
With the group at the ready, the door opened, revealing a corridor that was eerily quiet given the situation. The wind of course could be heard moaning balefully overhead, though thankfully with not an ounce of glee. But besides that, the path down to the antechamber was still. Luna could have thought that it was just an ordinary morning, were it not so dark. Usually the few simple windows in this corridor would be bathing the whole hallway in the golden light of dawn, but instead it was black as midnight, and illuminated only sparingly by the light of Brow’s lantern, aided by what light Luna was able to produce with her horn.
A muffled shout echoed down the hall, along with a clang of metal. Luna led the group straight for the sound, trotting lightly on the stone floor.
As they swept around the corner and into the antechamber, Luna was prepared for anything.
Unsurprisingly, what they found was a collection of perhaps half a dozen civilians, armed with an assortment of iron implements, from short candelabras right up to one that looked like a proper spear. Hearing their entrance, the civilian with the spear wheeled around to face them.
“We know it!” he shouted, the locks of his long black mane drooping down over wide, desperate eyes. “We know you’ve hidden it here! You’ll show it to us!” He lowered the spear threateningly.
Swift had reacted before Luna could even open her mouth to speak. There was a flash of a yellow mane beside her, and then the civilian was flat on his back, the spear on the floor beside him.
“Drop your weapons!” Luna called out to the rest of the civilians, almost falling into her royal voice. “I promise you all, nopony is going to be harmed.” She could see a grain of uncertainty in their eyes, and then they complied. The rest of the squad enveloped them right away, picking up the weapons for themselves. Luna approached the one Swift still had held down.
“Guardspony,” she said. “On your hooves.” Swift gave her a quick look, then jumped up with a flick of his wings, taking the spear for himself.
That left the civilian with the black mane still on his back. She could have just left him to get rounded up with the rest, but perhaps she could get some quick information first. “What’s your name?”
He brought his eyes up to meet hers slowly. Draped over his shoulders were the tattered remains of what might have once been a nice coat. “Inkwell,” he said simply, though with a clear hint of anger in his eyes.
“And what is it that you wanted to find here, Inkwell?”
He was trembling. “Food, of course. Everypony knows that it’s stockpiled here in the palace. What’s left in the city, at least.”
Luna shot a glance over at Brow, and he nodded. “Rumours. They’ve been spreading like wildfire through the streets, and there’s just no use in trying to keep them down.”
It made sense. At least it meant that tracking down the intruders would probably be pretty simple. Most would be in the kitchens and pantries. She took another look at Inkwell. “Were you really going to use that weapon?”
He shook his head. “No, ma’am. But when the storm hit, I knew that I had to get somewhere. There were a few that went in right away, maybe a little organized, but for me I followed after. Please, Princess. I’ve just got to find something for my fillies back home. I’ve just got to find something…”
By now he was crying, with rivulets of tears snaking down from his eyes, but Luna was in another place entirely. In her mind she was in Pensive’s office again, the smug traitor looking coolly at her from across his desk. A little organized. Could it be? Nopony could have planned the dust storm, but if the senator did have co-conspirators out on the streets, they could have taken advantage of the situation. It seemed impossible that Pensive could have gotten a message out to them in the short time since he’d been imprisoned, but it was just possible. And in any event, somepony definitely had to check.
Brow was shouting, organizing the squad to get the civilians on their hooves and marching for the Great Hall. Luna snapped back to the scene right away, and instantly started issuing commands.
“Lieutenant Heart, take two others up to Celestia’s tower, and see if you can find that other squad. Captain Brow, I want you to keep making for the barracks with these civilians in tow. The Hall is in that direction anyway. I’m staying behind. Swift!” The pegasus swiveled his head to her. “You’re with me.”
There were crisp nods all around, but Luna didn’t stay to make sure that everything went smoothly. Instead, she took off out the antechamber’s western door, soaring along halfway between a gallop and a glide, only touching the floor whenever she needed to navigate a tight corner. With the darkness outside, the passages through the palace were still plenty dark, with only the occasional burning lamp flashing by as she flew. Luna knew all of these passages by heart though, such that she could have flown them blindfolded.
As the pair swooped tight around a corner, another squad of palace guards came into view, trotting back the other way with a bunch of civilians in tow. Luna didn’t have time to slow up for them, though. If Pensive had somehow managed to break out, they had precious little time before he vanished into the streets.
Without breaking the stride of her wings, she reached out with her magic and shoved them all to the sides of the corridor, creating enough of a gap for her and Swift to get through. She could hear him just behind her, but he was saving his breath, and probably doing his best to watch her back at the same time.
Finally the two of them arrived at the stairwell down into the dungeons, and Luna slowed herself to a stop, her hooves setting down on the cold stone floor with echoing taps. This was the only way into or out of the palace’s lower floors, so they could afford the moment’s rest. Outside, the wind was still howling, about the only sound to be heard in this wing of the building.
Swift stayed hovering beside her, the spear still ready to use at a moment’s notice. “The dungeons, Your Highness?” he asked calmly. “Do you think that we might have a breakout?”
“Maybe,” she whispered back, eying the stairwell carefully before taking any steps down.
There was light down below, the bare flickers of torches set upon the walls, but not a sound was coming up out of the gloom. Even so, she didn’t want to take any chances. Pensive wasn’t going to pose much of a threat to either of them, but the ponies that were helping him might be more willing to fight.
“I’m going first, but you follow right on my tail. There shouldn’t be any trouble, but, well, just in case…”
He nodded, and then Luna started her cautious steps down. They had put Pensive into the holding cells, which at least meant that they were only on the first level. Soon enough the senator would find his way down into the lower levels, where the spaces were reserved for the properly convicted criminals, but for now they could limit their search to just the holding area, which was one big antechamber where the guards would hold their post, with a handful of cells attached to it.
The silence ahead of her meant that the guards of course were gone, probably off in the rest of the palace. Unless maybe Pensive’s goons had taken them out of commission first? Luna had to force her muscles to relax, her breath to come slowly, as she took in the space ahead, step by step. In all likelihood, she had been imagining things, and she was going to find Pensive still locked safely in his cell, totally unaware of the chaos that was going on above him.
One more step off of the stairway, and Luna was in the middle of the room, with a clear line of sight into all of the cells. She wasn’t even slightly surprised to see that they were all empty.
Swift came up right behind her. “Are we missing somepony?”
Luna ground one of her hooves into the floor. “Yes. Somepony very important. We’ll have to hope that the search teams will find him as they’re combing the palace looking for the rest of the intruders.”
“Don’t you think they’ll be gone from the grounds by now?”
“Probably,” she admitted to her frustration. There was a chance that Pensive might have stuck around, if he didn’t want to go out into the storm and thought that he could get away with hiding until it passed. But even if that weren’t the case, they would just have to comb the streets, or the foothills, or anywhere else he might have gotten off to. For now, at least, Luna had the rest of this mess to deal with.
The Great Hall was packed full of ponies by the time that Luna and Swift got back there, though it was a pleasantly organized sight compared to the one that had greeted the Princess as she woke. What civilians had so far been found were milling about within their own space on the massive stone parquet floor, lit up only by the furtive pinpoints of torches and lamps spread throughout the room.
High on the wall, the decorative windows that would normally be lighting the space now showed only blowing clouds of blackness. The delicate stained glass figures of Celestia and Luna, usually resplendent in whatever light the room held, only stood out in a strange contrast against the dust that had caked into their crevices.
Brow had gotten his command set up on the room’s northern wall, and there was a constant stream of guards checking in at the post, organizing the search and recovery operations throughout the whole palace. The only pony still missing from the space was Celestia. Luna had assumed that she would find her sister here in full control of the situation.
A sudden nervous thought pushed its way into her mind. Had something happened? No, Celestia was probably out leading one of the search teams herself.
The ponies at the command post all offered the usual snapped salutes as soon as they saw her and Swift approaching. She waved them all off. “What reports, Captain?”
Brow licked his lips in apparent nervousness. “We’ve nearly completed securing the interior of the palace, Your Highness, but I’m afraid that we’ve found no signs of Princess Celestia.”
For a second Luna wasn’t sure what to say. “She wasn’t in her tower?”
He shook his head. “I’m afraid not. Nor in any of the rooms that we’ve checked. We had hoped that she might have rendezvoused with you at some point, but now we must presume she is missing.”
“Hmm, perhaps.” Luna considered it. It was inconceivable that her sister could have been overwhelmed or somehow incapacitated in the confusion. Celestia was an accomplished magic user after all, and no stranger to combat either, even if she was about three hundred years out of practice. Even whichever ponies had helped Pensive escape shouldn’t have been able to offer her any challenge.
“We’ll find her around somewhere,” Luna said, offering the guards a resolute nod despite her concern. “Perhaps coordinating similar matters elsewhere in the city. Once the storm breaks, everything will be sorted out.”
There weren’t any objections, but Brow didn’t look particularly convinced, and Luna didn’t blame him. It sounded improbable, but it was the only logical conclusion that she could come up with at the moment. “Captain? About the search, there’s something else.”
He listened intently as Luna filled him in on everything that they had discovered in the dungeon, and to the fact that there was probably an escaped prisoner around somewhere in the building. The good news was that with the storm still raging outside, it was possible that Pensive was trying to wait it out, holed up in the palace until some break in the winds offered him a chance to escape.
“If the search has found any locked doors, I’d suggest circling back to them,” she cautioned.
“Let us see.” On the command post’s table, floor plans for the whole palace had been laid out, with each room marked as cleared as soon as solid information came back. Luna could see that black X’s by now covered almost all of the palace’s outer wings, except the extremities of the Senate’s offices. There were still countless small offices and doors to check there. Plenty of places where Pensive might have decided to hide. Yet there was only one red mark on the map so far, placed over the wide open square of the Senate chamber. Brow looked up at her questioningly.
“Plenty of entrances and exits to that spot, but I suppose it could be barricaded. Not somewhere we’d normally look either.”
She nodded, feeling some measure of certainty creep into her bones. “Get a squad together for me. I’ll take care of him myself.”
The doors were in fact barricaded, probably with lecterns and seats piled against them from the inside. Enough to stop any casual investigation, but naturally Luna only had to give the obstruction two shots of destructive magic and the way was clear. On the other side, she would find Pensive and the rest of his conspirators, and she would arrest him once again, this time sending him all of the way down to the bottom of the dungeon, under constant guard until his trial in the afternoon. She had her triumphant grin all ready to go as soon as the smoke thinned out, but on the other side of the door instead something else was waiting.
Pensive was there, of course, his suit rumpled and his mane standing upon his head in tangled disarray. But rather than hiding under a desk in fear, he was standing tall at the chair’s lectern, the gavel held firmly within the brown aura of his magic. And the rest of the chamber wasn’t filled with his henchponies, but instead a rough assortment of several dozen other senators. They at least were looking properly fearful given the situation, and quite a few had taken cover behind their lecterns.
“Pensive Prose,” she declared, letting her voice echo back to her before continuing. “By the authority of the Crown, I arrest you for high treason against Equestria, inciting a riot, and escaping from public detention.” She didn’t have to make any gestures before Swift was at the senator’s side, his spear lending the point some extra authority. “Have him taken down to the dungeons and put under constant watch; I don’t want any chance of him leaving again. And keep looking in this wing,” she added, motioning to the rest of the squad. “His conspirators might still be hiding around somewhere.”
Pensive blinked, apparently confused. “My conspirators, Your Majesty?”
“The ponies that helped you escape, of course.” Luna was going to enjoy questioning this traitor in public this afternoon. The way that his eyes bulged when he realized there were no options left brought a warm feeling into her heart. “Unless you expect us to believe that you somehow managed to get out of your cell alone?”
He had no reply to that. Throughout the upper benches of the room, Luna could see some astonished expressions on the faces of the other senators gathered. The extent of Pensive’s schemes hadn’t yet been made public after all.
“Oh, Nay by the way,” she added, speaking to the room in general with a look of pure satisfaction on her face. “I assume that’s what you were doing just as we interrupted?”
Pensive gave her a wry grin, somehow able to summon his irritating smugness even as dirty, tousled, and under arrest as he was. “After a manner of speaking, Your Majesty. Though I’m afraid that this time neither you nor your sister has any say in the matter.”
“What are you talking about?” Celestia knew more of the procedure than she did, but Luna was sure that the two of them got a veto on every measure the Senate could pass. “Whatever devilry you think you can give us as a parting shot, it will only add to your sentence once things are over and done.”
Swift was by now leading Pensive out into the hallway, and Luna followed along with the rest of the guard. “Your Majesty,” Pensive continued once they were out into the hall. “I’m afraid that simply isn’t true. And while it is well within your prerogative to have me detained, I would advise that there are perhaps larger issues demanding your attention.”
Luna wheeled on him, the frustrations of the morning, and of the whole past week, suddenly boiling up into her brain like scalding hot steam. “You dare to lecture me about the severity of our situation? When fully half of it is your fault and you’ve done nothing but try to make the problem worse?” She sharpened her voice to a point. “As you say, those ponies outside might not be satisfied with your blood, but keep talking and maybe we’ll find out, hmm?”
Taking a step back, she gave Swift a firm glare, sure that her feelings were all too evident in it. “I need to go find Celestia. Try not to kill him on your way to the dungeon.”
Swift gave her a short nod, and so Luna turned right on her hooves and started making her way back toward the Great Hall. Maybe the Guard had heard from her sister in the meantime. That was the only loose end left to tie up for this forsaken morning.
But Pensive apparently wasn’t done yet. “Your Majesty, wait!” he called out behind her, finally showing some emotion other than arrogance.
“What under the Sun do you possibly think that you’re going to gain by persisting in this, Senator?” she answered, not breaking stride. Then, suddenly, a thought pushed through the haze of her rage, and it was enough to make her pause and give him another look. “And why are you calling me that?”
The oily grin that grew on his face was purely villainous. “I can explain everything, if only you would give me a moment.” He bowed his head to the floor. “My Queen.”