//------------------------------// // 28: Weight Loss // Story: The Night's Shining Armour // by Appleody //------------------------------// Chapter 28 Well, this is a day of firsts. The first time I’ve ever had a day out in Canterlot and the first time I’ve ever had to sneak back in. Hmm, maybe the second time for that last one. Anyway, it turns out to be a lot easier than you would think to sneak into the castle. All I had to do was change my form into that of regular day guard armour. Then a certain disguised pegacorn that I was adorned to, only had to casually fly up to her balcony. Not a single pony stopped us. You’d think that would worry Celestia, but she just casually fluttered in through her balcony’s doors without a care in the world. Happily munching on one of her many cream filled doughnuts. That’s another thing, for a guard, we have saddlebags pretty heavily laden with cakes. Maybe that improves the disguise, seeing as it’s Celestia’s room? Back at that cake store, she sure could put the sweets away. I think she had something like four doughnuts, a full sponge cake, two ginger bread ponies not to mention the boxes of cakes she’d stuffed into my saddlebags. I can’t complain, they tasted pretty good. “Ah, what a successful trip,” the disguised pegacorn proclaimed, after swallowing the last of her sweet. “The two of us really should organise another day out.” “Yeah, sure. Next time, we should bring Loony.” I’m sure she’d be up for playing in that arcade. If we can get her a disguise anyway. “Of course,” Sunny nodded as she began opening a secret hatch in the floor next to her bed. Woah, is this like some crazy secret government thing I shouldn’t be seeing? In answer to my unvoiced question, the disguised pegacorn said, “don’t tell Lulu about this.” Oh no, a secret even from the other half of the government. I hate that. “Sure, erm, do you think it’s a good idea showing this to me?” Just after I finished, she removed the cake boxes from my bags and carefully placed them inside. “I was thinking you could store your present here as well,” Sunny said nonchalantly. Seriously, that place is just for her personal affects? Suppose Loony has a magical lock on her diary. In response, I had the mini-Loony toy hop off of our back and look into the opening. As I expected, it was full of more snacks, as well as a couple books. Probably her diaries from the many years she’s lived. “Huh, this is actually pretty cool. Yeah, Loony probably won’t find it down there.” Almost immediately upon landing, the toy was grabbed by a giant pair of hooves and brought up to my wearers face, where she booped it with her nose. She then smiled at the toy and said, “excellent, I can tell you Lulu will love your newest form.” “I hope so.” It is kinda cute, but it isn’t really my form though. It’s just a sort of container for my mist. This does bring up a good point though, can I actually leave my mist inside it, far from my actual self? It might just get sucked back to me. Hmm, experiment time I think. Just as Celestia began lowering the toy into her storage box, I used my shoes to flow a larger portion of myself inside, before again cutting my main self-off. Hmm, that’s probably about 25% of me. Hopefully that will serve as a better sample size. When Sunny closed the door, the hidden storage area was swallowed by darkness. Seeing as I don’t really have eyes, the toy could still see its surroundings perfectly clearly. Huh, doesn’t seem to be anything else present worthy down here. It’s a shame we couldn’t find a second present for Celestia to buy. Cake is quite distracting. “Say, Sunny, what are you thinking of getting Loony anyway?” “Ah well, that is a secret,” Celestia began, before gaining a cheeky smile, “what I will say, is that it is something Cadance is helping me with, and something Lulu desperately wants.” Well, she probably has me beat there. Though, she does have the unfair advantage of being Loony’s sister. “I can’t wait to see it.” For some reason, that gained me a laugh out of the Pegacorn. Welp, better get undressed. Loony’s guards are probably still looking for me. She seemed to want to see me. Hopefully she won’t be too curious as to what I’ve been up to. Ah, if Crescent hasn’t dropped me in it, she’ll probably believe I’m in the library or something. The moment my guard helmet floated off of Sunny’s head, she cleared her throat, “erm Eclipse, would you be willing to do me another favour? I know you already did one, but this one is a lot more selfish on my part.” That made me put a pause to my disrobing of the pegacorn. What’s she on about? Today was hardly a favour for her. If anything, she was the one who helped me out. Turning my helmet around to look her in the eyes, I asked, “what’s wrong?” Helping her out is a small price to pay for getting Loony a present. “Well, you see, oh hang on a second,” Celestia interrupted herself as she attempted to levitate something without her horn. Putting a hoof to her amulet, the golden flames once again surrounded her, causing the alicorn’s form to regrow to its original size. This sort of forced me to increase my own size. Seeing as if I didn’t, Celestia would have one very crushed rib cage. If she was wearing my helmet, her horn probably wouldn’t have fared too well either. Seeing as there wasn’t a hole for it. Now back to her usual self, Sunny took a quick glance at her restored reflection, which turned into an intimidating glare, “the day guard would probably love to see me like this. I bet some of them have interesting dreams about it.” “You look like you’d fit in.” Suppose they would think it was interesting to see her dressed as one of them. She does look quite impressive; however, the day guard armour isn’t really all that imposing. Her increased height probably would be enough to intimidate most other guards. Saying that, don’t the Princesses both have armour of their own? It would make sense if they have to lead armies and stuff. We’re getting off topic here. “Erm, so back to the favour?” Once she stopped playing royal guard, Sunny returned to the matter of her apparently selfish favour. While using her horn to pull out her dresser’s chair, she turned to the rooms clock and gravely said, “in a few moments, I will be setting the sun.” A pretty amazing feat. “Okay.” “At that time, my sister will know I have returned,” Celestia said matter-of-factly. “And, that’s a bad thing?” I’m not liking where this is going. A sigh escaped the Sun. “No, it means that her guard will be able to retrieve me for our planned nightly activities.” “What sort of activities?” This is related to her complaining about torment, isn’t it? Loony would never do that. Well, nothing to severe anyway. They do occasionally butt heads. “The start of my exercise regime,” she continued with closed eyes. “I did promise her I would lose some weight.” Lowering my helmet down, I took a quick review of Sunny’s form, causing her face to tint slightly. Wow, I think that’s the first time I’ve ever seen Sunny truly embarrassed. Maybe she doesn’t like that I’m judging her? “You don’t look fat to me.” “That is very kind, however, I do weigh a lot more than the average pony,” she said while eyeing a set of scales in the rooms corner. A set clearly not wide enough to fit the entire pegacorn. “Probably because you’re over twice their size.” If she were the same height, she’d probably be underweight come to think of it. Alicorns do seem to be pretty lithe in comparison to regular ponies. Another sigh escaped my friend. “That is not good enough for Lulu.” She then raised a hoof to forestall my next attempt at confidence building. “Anyway, I wish to ask for your help with the exercise.” In response, I said, “I know nothing about working out. I don’t have any muscles.” To help prove that fact, I produced some mist to lift a random hair brush from her dresser. My words seemed to bring a little life back to my friend. “If you remain at my side, it should be possible for you to help with my sister none the wiser. That will show her I am not so unfit.” This does sound like cheating. Ah, without Sunny I’d have disappointed Loony for sure. These friendships really need a bit of give and take. “Well, I’ll try my best.” With my help secured, the pegacorn began to relax on her seat, before patting my helmet. “Thank you, my friend. You truly are a loyal companion. It is quite clear to see what my sister sees in you.” “Okay, so, how are we going to do this?” Guard armour probably isn’t going to cut it. That caused a twinkle to enter the Sun’s eyes. “Oh, I have the perfect thing.” A few minutes later, the actual sun had been set and I found myself entering the castle court yard still adorned to my alabaster friend. Ahead of us, Loony was clearly distracted. She seemed to be overseeing some guards on the construction of some sort of large pully machine. Upon seeing her, my wearer casually approached until she was but a shoe step behind, before nudging her side with a wing. “Sister, I am here.” This, to Sunny’s visible delight, caused the busy pegacorn to jump slightly, before spinning around to meet us. Loony then attempted to veil her surprise with a greeting, “ah, sister. We were worried thou would attempt to escape thy promise again.” The Night then put a hoof to her chin in thought. “Mayhaps thou art braver than We thought.” “Nonsense sister, you know fine well I would never abandon something as important as this,” Sunny said in probable mock shock. “I have even come prepared.” As she finished, she did another pose in front of Luna. This time crossing her forelegs with her wings extended, while looking up into the sky. That’s probably something pony models do. Does it highlight what she’s wearing? What she was wearing, was a matching set of gym shorts and top, which is kinda strange seeing as ponies rarely wear trousers. She also had me make a set of sweat bands for her four ankles, her forehead and one for each wing. She probably looks like someone from the eighties. In my opinion, it looks quite funny, but if she says it makes sense then sure. It probably makes more sense to be naked, but then her plan wouldn’t work. After taking in our ridiculous appearance, Luna actually whistled before saying, “wow we are impressed sister, however…” She then paused to rub Sunny’s upper lip, while a large grin started to form. Her hoof coming away with some white frosting. “Thou should do better to hide thy last-minute snacking.” Without faltering, Sunny said, “that was to provide me with some much-needed energy for the coming events.” At Sunny’s words Loony’s tone seem to warm up, “We are glad thou shares our enthusiasm for this.” “Well, I know how important this is to you,” Sunny finished with a warm smile of her own. So glad they aren’t going to be bickering the entire time. With their initial combative exchange over, Loony tilted her head to the side, before asking, “hast thou seen Our confidant? He was last seen at thy side.” Is she wondering where Sunny got her new outfit from? Oh dear, our covers blown immediately. Luckily, Sunny already had an excuse for us. “Eclipse? Once he filed away my day court reports, he said he wanted to enjoy some time reading in the library.” Hey, that excuse implies I was avoiding going back to Loony’s office. Saying that, Loony did seem to ditch doing her paperwork as soon as I left. “Ah, excellent. We shall retrieve him before we begin,” Loony mentioned as her horn started to glow blue. A moment later, it winked out leaving the pegacorn with a slightly smoking horn. She went cross eyed to look at it, before turning a questioning eye upon my wearer, who’s own horn was currently glowing gold. “Sister, I believe it would be best if we leave him to relax a bit. He has been working hard all day after all,” came Celestia’s words, as she was clearly ready with all the excuses in the world. At least this one paints me a little better. Still, a real break in the library would have been nice. I haven’t actually had chance to go there today. “That may be so, however We believe he would really enjoy our routine. Plus, his presence will make it all the more lively,” Luna replied, with a decent reason to come get me. Well, if it’s going to be fun, I already have a front row seat. A sigh escaped my wearer at those words. Seems she’s going to break out the big guns. “Look, could we please keep this first session between as few ponies as possible? It is a little embarrassing even having some of your guard here.” That caused my dark blue friend to laugh out, “We doubt he would do anything to intentionally embarrass thou. Besides, We wish for his shiny company.” I didn’t think she’d be that interested in me coming down. The next carefully crafted response that the herald of sun came up with, was to just stare into Luna’s eyes. “Thou art aware, that Our dear Eclipse is not a pony, yes?” Loony said a little pleadingly. That is an astute observation. Celestia continued to gaze into Luna’s eyes without saying anything. Somehow, that act alone broke Luna’s will, as she threw her hooves into the air and scoffed, “fine, We shall see him later. Hopefully he will share our bed again tonight.” Wow, I don’t think I’ve ever had the pony, puppy dog eyes used from my perspective. It seems way too powerful. Wonder if I can do that? Make a pony give themselves the stare on my behalf? With her manipulation successful, Sunny regained her usual smile and said, “thank you sister.” She is way too good at manipulating people. She clearly has no feelings of embarrassment towards my presence in the slightest. Bet that used to cause Loony a headache when they were younger. The smile that she’d gained, died with Loony’s next words. “So, that means thou art eager to begin. Dost thou remember thy stretches?” “Yes, I remember the basics,” Celestia said, before stretching her fore hooves forward and pushing her rear into the air like a cat. The accompanying clicks that occurred felt pretty good. As Sunny stretched, Loony observed for a minute before doing her own impression of a cat, which from the outside does look incredibly adorable. I really love it when she does that. Shame she normally won’t do it in public. The two also continued to do other stretches involving their wings and pushing their legs into other awkward positions. With nothing better to do than watch, I took mental notes on their technique. Luna might want a helping shoe some time. Hmm, would that count as a massage? Maybe the library has a book on it. After a certain amount of stretching occurred, Loony decided her muscles were prepared for the coming events and stood up in front of a much less ready Sunny. Ignoring the fact that Sunny was still stretching, probably trying to delay the inevitable, Loony looked to her strange machine and said, “while the guards finish preparing our weights, it will be good to start with some cardio. Sister we shall begin with 100 laps of the courtyard.” Bleh, 100 laps! How far is that? In response, Celestia steadily stood up before saying, “you know, that will be foal’s play.” She then walked towards a white line drawn upon the ground, trying her best to hide the slightest shake in her muscles. Seems she doesn’t quite believe she can do this. Hopefully pegacorns are okay with this sort of thing. Loony followed close behind us, suppressing a laugh as she muttered, “We shall see.” A moment later, she lifted a whistle from around her neck and blew loud enough to possibly wake Pony town. Seriously? Loony, you’re right next to us. After a few seconds of us waiting on the start line, Loony blew her whistle a second time before spitting it out to say, “sister, that means go.” She’s probably deaf after that. For her part, Sunny just turned to look at her sister. “I do follow,” she said before tapping a hoof on the ground, “I am ready for a light trot.” Almost overlapping the word trot, Loony admonished, “canter.” With a small gulp Sunny corrected herself, “Yes, canter.” Before she lightly tugged on one of my sweat bands. “Just reassuring myself. Come on, time to start.” Oh wait, she wants me to get us started? “Sorry, I was a bit lost in the moment,” I whispered into my wearers ear, before taking off at a light trot. Shortly after, the sound of a second set of hooves came slightly from our left. “Faster sister, you call this a canter?” Loony encouraged, while keeping my pace. “Don’t we just need to be consistent?” I had Sunny ask. Isn’t that how people go for runs? You set a steady pace or something. Wish I’d asked Sunny how Ponies do this. Oh well, if this is how ponies do it, that’s fair enough. With that thought, I started to ramp up towards a respectable canter. The pace of a canter still seemed too slow for my Loony, as she only seemed to accept my efforts when our speed surpassed for what counts as a canter and became more of a gallop. At that point, she called out in between breaths, “that is it sister. Hold it there, do not be so quick to outpace thyself.” “Do not worry about me Lulu. You should worry more about yourself,” Celestia said, still breathing as if she was at rest. To be honest, she practically is. Loony rolled her eyes at that. “This is not a competition sister. We are doing this to help thou.” “Please don’t make it a competition. Especially since you’re cheating,” I also chided into Sunny’s ear. That caused her to sigh lightly, before saying, “when my fitness improves, I will be sure to challenge you to a proper race.” “Ha, that is the spirit, but thou will never surpass Us,” Loony said with a laugh. A moment later the white line we’d started at crossed under our hooves. “Huzzah, just 99 left to go.” Oh joy, I could have been in the library. After ten laps of monotony, Celestia proclaimed, “this is too easy sister.” Off to our side, the moon was starting to show some minor signs of deterioration as she heavily said, “yes, Our earth pony magic is doing well.” I could probably keep this up all night, but at this rate, Celestia isn’t going to lose any weight and poor Loony is going to be wasting her time. Really wish Sunny was actually trying to run, she isn’t helping in the slightest. Maybe it’ll help if I let a little of my mist into her legs? Similar to in the past, I let my mist flow into my wearer, hoping not to put too much in as to possess her fully, but just enough to make her run. Almost immediately, Sunny’s muscles worked at my command and the run became so much easier. Rather than lugging around the dead weight of the pegacorn, she was actually helping me. There, she can do half the work. When another ten laps had past us by, Celestia had started to breath far more heavily than Loony. Even though she’d only technically had to put half the effort into half the laps. She really is unfit. Well, compared to Loony anyways. “Ha, feeling it now, are we not?” our slightly less tired compatriot joked. “I cannot feel any, phew, anything,” Sunny tried to say amidst our 21st rotation. Oh dear, 80 to go. This is not the way anyone should want to spend their night. I can’t even really talk to anyone. It would probably be more interesting if Loony knew I was here. Well, a promise is a promise. Just wish there was something more engaging than the same monotonous circle on repeat. Hmm, wonder how that little shard’s doing? It only took the lightest of thoughts about my separated piece to bring me complete awareness of the dark little chamber it was stored in. With only the slightest effort the shard had its plushie vessel sitting up, allowing me to make out the vast amount of cake stored around it. In the absence of my attention, the shard had formed a very fitting little metal skeleton within the toy. This made it much easier to use than it was earlier today. Well, seems I’ve found something to entertain myself with. Celestia will be fine, it isn’t that hard putting one hoof in front of the other. Wow, how I’ve grown. From hardly being able to walk, to walking in two places at once. How times change. So, with the shards newfound ability to move independent of me, I set about engineering a mini jail break. The first step was to unlock the door, which was easily done by using my mist to pick the lock. Actually opening the now unlocked door required just a modicum of the shards effort. All that was required; was for the toy to push its tiny, metal reinforced hooves against the door to be met with resounding success. So resounding, that my fluffy vessel all but flopped out of the hidden drawer, before landing with a light plonk on Celestia’s bedroom floor. The room, still shrouded in darkness from when she shut off the lights. Ah, success, but now what? I’ve still got 75 laps of time to fill. Looking across the darkened room, I could see Sunny’s dresser with its gargantuan mirror. Maybe I could take a closer look at this thing? Steadily shuffling over with the tiniest hooves, I made my way to the accompanying chair and began to climb. With the increased amount of mist, it wasn’t too long before I’d managed to heave my mini self’s container onto the chair. Obviously, the chair wasn’t a high enough vantage so with a little more climbing I took a seat upon the dresser table itself, letting me more easily see my present. It's kinda cute, in a weird doll of your best friend sort of way. It even has a mimic of Luna’s smiling face under the helmet. That’s some attention to detail. It hasn’t quite got the right proportions for Luna though. Her legs are longer, this thing’s are more like a regular pony’s legs. Suppose these toys aren’t meant to be anatomically correct. Maybe one I make could be better? It might be good practice for making a pony form? Ah, this one is a bit more permanent, seeing as it exists without me. After thoroughly checking out the toy to ensure it was up to snuff, I was left with another 50 laps of time to fill. Seriously, 100 laps is way too long. Well, let’s just use the time I’ve got to get a bit of practice moving in two places at once. With that, I had the toy hop off the dresser and begin making laps of its own around the room. The thundering hoof steps of the toy causing the lightest of shuffling sounds to fill the area. Upon completing its own set of 50 laps, I had the shard jump onto the Everest sized bed. It wasn’t actually that hard when the effort was put into it. Hmm wonder if this thing can float? The mist alone probably can. A sudden voice from close by broke me from my musings. “Sister, thou can stop now. Thou hast proven thy point,” came the tired words of one of my co-runners. Oh yeah, I started to zone out of that jog a little. With that, I had Celestia steadily slow down to a walk and began moving towards the source of the sound. A light, “thank Faust,” escaped my wearer’s lips as we walked. The source of the sound was one heavily panting Luna, who was currently laying down in a patch of grass, while two night guards fanned her. It took a monumental amount of effort not to laugh out loud at the sight. The icing on the cake was when one of them poured a bucket of water over her head, to her visible delight. Poor Loony, seems she over estimated her abilities. “Thy will is quite impressive sister,” she begrudgingly admitted as we approached. Once we arrived at the recovering pegacorns side, I let go of my grip on Sunny’s legs. It’s probably not the nicest experience, not being able to move when you want. This had the unforeseen result of causing Celestia to immediately collapse the ground, where she immediately dragged her legs close to her body. “My legs are on fire. Please make it end,” she quietly complained to someone in the floor. The light chuckle from her sister didn’t even perk up Sunny’s ears. “Oh Celly, where hast thy bravado gone now, hmm?” Loony jested, while directing one of her guards to start fanning Sunny instead. Suppose it has gotten a little warmer, the fans might be a little much though. The bucket of water that Sunny dunked her head in definitely was. Saying that, these sweat bands are holding on to an awful lot of sweat. Ringing them out on to the grass was quite unpleasant. I’m probably going to smell of Sunny’s sweat for days. After a few minutes of laying almost motionless, while Loony relished the sight of her ruined sister. I tried a little experiment. Steadily I lifted one of Sunnys forelegs off the ground, before letting go. In response, it immediately flopped back to the soft grass without a care in the world. Whoops, maybe I should have paid a little more attention. Seeing the slightest sign of life from her sister, Loony sat up and said, “We really did not think thou would complete the full 100. Not even We could keep up with that.” “Really wish you had said that earlier,” Sunny complained more coherently, “I would have stopped if I could, but something inside would not let me.” Sorry about that. I bet her secretary would kill me if she found out about this. “Do not fret, thine efforts were commendable,” Loony encouraged once more, before she stood up to inspect the strange pully system her guard had been setting up. “We are uncertain if this will be too much for thee after that start.” Can’t believe how well she’s recovered compared to Sunny. Saying that, she might have given up a lot sooner. With the potential sign that the exercise would end, Sunny rolled onto her front and tried not to sound to delighted when she weakly said, “if you think that is the best. You are the expert.” Poor pony, maybe I can fix this somehow? With limited options, I decided to try and feed more magic into my wearer. Hopefully that will do something to help her recover. It helped Loony last time. Loony continued inspecting the machine and with one final scratch of her chin came to a decision. “Well, we can only try our best. It might upset the guards if their hard work goes to waste.” A groan escaped my wearer as her hopes were dashed. She then steadily sat up and looked at the monstrous creation Loony had commissioned, with its massive weights connected to large heavy-duty chains. It looks like some sort of torture device. At least her limbs no longer feel like lead weights, so swings and roundabouts. Off to our side, a knew voice chirped up, “with respect, it’s probably healthier to ease into this sort of thing. None of us could have done what you’ve achieved.” The thestral guard then bowed once he’d finished speaking. “Thou art correct,” Loony said as she turned to her unnamed guard, causing him to smile. The guard then immediately lost this smile when she continued speaking. “We shall begin with the lighter weights and progress from there.” Pretty sure that guy wanted us to call it a night. Regardless of what the assisting guards thought of the situation, Sunny dragged herself to her now lighter hooves and walked towards the death machine. In her ears I whispered, “maybe you should have a longer break, take another five minutes and have a drink or something?” As I made the suggestion, one of the guards was already offering the two princesses a drink, which they both greedily drank. Once she thanked them, Sunny smiled and said to everyone, “I am feeling a lot better now. This should not be as bad as the run.” “That is the spirit sister. Would thou wish to go first?” Loony asked while gesturing to the chair that no one should ever want to occupy. “Just as a test run. If it is too difficult, you may need to take over,” Sunny said, a little more cautiously than when we first began. Upon taking her seat, she gripped the chains with her fore hooves and gave a light pull, causing the stones to wobble slightly. Seems like I may need to do much more of the work here. There’s no way anyone can be expected to lift these crazy weights. Wait, how’s Loony going to do it without my help? With only a muscle twitch as a warning, Sunny began pulling on the chains. With so little warning I raced to assist, causing the stones to rocket skyward before Sunny let them fall rapidly to the ground with a crash. For her part Sunny just winced slightly, while everyone else’s mouths just fell open. Even Loony looked surprised. When she returned to her senses Loony quickly said, “easy up a little. This is the warm up.” She then set about halving the weight on the chain’s ends. So, was that set up wrong? It seemed like we just lifted over a ton of stone. With the weights now half what they used to be, Celestia easily completed her set and started taking it in turns with Loony, who seemed to mirror Sunny’s strength. Upon completion of the basics, Loony began taking us through various techniques she was apparently well-versed in. I say apparently, because a couple of times, I did spy her asking a few guards about them. Probably because techniques have advanced in the last thousand years without her knowledge. As Celestia seemed to be quite happy with how her weight training was going, seeing as even without my help she could have potentially lifted the ton, I decided to go back to my little shard. Currently, the shard was having its vessel pace up and down upon Celestia’s bed. Seeing as the two sisters were currently engaged in weight training, it seemed only appropriate that Loony’s mini me could join in on the action. And so, a montage ensued where the two pony sisters gradually increased the weights they were lifting, while at the same time a little toy did the same. Starting out with a book, moving to the chair and finally settling upon the corner of the bed itself. It seems my mist is still pretty strong on its own. For its size anyway. Anyone could lift those things. Once the heaviest thing in the room had been tried, I focused my attention back upon my friends, who had apparently also completed their own training. This time they were both in decidedly better shape than after the run. Suppose that’s what happens when a spirit isn’t forcing you to perform. Loony was probably just trying to keep up out of pride. Anyway, the two sisters had settled into a friendly chat during what Luna referred to as their final rest period. “So Celly, dost thou wish to come to a late-night party with Eclipse and I,” Loony asked nonchalantly. It was pretty clear she really wanted Sunny to come. “Of course, I would never miss a party with you sister,” Celestia said happily. Probably eager to participate in a social event with much less physical activity. “Huzzah, thy student will be pleased,” Loony called out. “Erm, is Twilight going to be there?” Sunny asked curiously. “Why would she not be? ‘Tis her party after all.” Upon hearing the news, Celestia tapped the floor nervously, before finally saying, “I am sure it will be fine. Twilight would probably like me to come.” She sounded a little uncertain at the end. “Of course she will. Now then, art thou ready to begin working those wings?” Without any prompting, Sunny extended her wings and gave a quick flap. “I will admit to being a little tired, but I am sure it will be possible to complete whatever you have in mind,” she said while gazing at the clouds. “Ah perfect, the guard have already set up a course for us,” Loony said following Celestia’s gaze. Above us in the night’s sky, was a number of cloud rings the guard must have created during the distraction of the run. They’re really pulling out all the stops with this. When Loony was teaching me to fly, we just jumped off a cloud on repeat. Suppose flying through a course takes a bit more experience. Seemingly more eager to fly than run, Sunny took off and made for the starting ring. Not even asking for any assistance, probably dreading a repeat of my earlier form of help. Once she arrived at the start alone, I cautiously asked, “do you still want me to help with this? I’ll make sure to stop when you ask me.” “Of course,” came Sunny’s distracted response as she looked back down at her sister still on the ground. Loony was currently removing a few supporting bandages from her left wing and wincing repeatedly. “Sister! Are you okay down there?” Sunny shouted to the ground bound pegacorn. “Do not worry, We shall be joining thou soon,” came the frustrated reply, as she awkwardly flapped her still recovering wing. Even Celestia winced when Loony let out a pained squeak. Seeing this, to the pleasant surprise of my wearer, I floated us rapidly back to my friend. I then placed a borrowed hoof on her shoulder and said, “maybe we should call it a night? This has been a great work out already.” Celestia clearly agreed with my words, going so far as to show sympathy on my behalf. “’Tis okay sister, do not let Us hold thou back. Enjoy thy victory lap,” Loony said with poorly veiled disappointment, while looking jealously at Celestia’s unharmed wings. Celestia also looked to her wings, before her eyes rested upon the small pieces of fabric I was currently disguised as. “You know, Eclipse would probably be able to help you.” “We are aware,” came the sighing response, “he would have likely jumped at the chance to aid Us.” I really didn’t expect my absence to be a problem. “Okay, sounds like you want me to go and retrieve your knight,” Sunny said warmly before turning to walk away. Seems she wants to pretend I wasn’t here all along. Maybe it would be better to reveal me and run the risk of angering the pegacorn. It would be better than leaving her so disappointed. Sadly, a hoof gripped our shoulder, preventing our quick exit. “Nay, he is likely asleep by now,” the now smiling pegacorn said, “he is quite the lazy one for a spirit of the night.” Hey, I just like a bit of a lie down. A chuckle of agreement escaped the sun, “I agree, he does need to get out more.” Wow, you really can’t talk to me about that. This whole thing is your fault due to your laziness. The appearance of a cloud at ground level interrupted the Princesses bashing of my sleep cycle. “Thanks Spectre,” Loony said to a lone guard, before taking a seat on the newly provided ramshackle transport. “Go sister, I expect 50 laps this time.” That earned her a sigh of resignation, before I was carried up into the sky once more and suddenly running the cloud ring gauntlet. All the while, Loony’s cloud was sitting in the middle so she could more closely watch Sunny’s progress. Are we really giving up on helping Loony? She’s the one who wants to do this the most. It was then I had an idea. There’s another part of me just sitting in place waiting for something to happen. Maybe it could help? Back in Sunny’s abode, the little stuffed toy steadily floated off of the bed and into the air. Ha, I did it. Saying that, the toy is much lighter than Loony, the small quantity of mist may not be able to lift the much larger mare into the air. More magic would probably help. My brain storming was quite abruptly interrupted, when the door to the absent royal’s room swung open, followed by two sets of hooves making their way inside. As I turned to look at the owners of these hooves, a fearful gasp was heard. Right, who’s invading Celestia’s bedroom. It turned out to be two maids, one glowing a very familiar green. They were currently both paralysed with fear staring at the smoky floating toy. Okay, probably should ease their minds a little, I have spoken to the maids before. “Erm, hello. How are you two doing?” There, I’m so much better at this now. One of them, the regular pegasus, began steadily backing away towards the door. Probably deciding it best to clean another room until after I was gone. The other one, currently disguised as a unicorn, just tilted her head in curiosity. “That voice sounds familiar… Eclipse?” she asked uncertainly. Thank goodness it was Skitter, she’s probably one of the only people who wouldn’t freak out. “Yep, that’s me,” I said while bringing the toy to her eye level. “Just trying to sort stuff out.” “Swift, you seriously know the possessed doll?” the second, no longer fleeing maid incredulously asked. I think her name’s Bucket. She seemed to be one of Skitter’s friends. Well, her disguise’s friends anyway. “It’s Eclipse, you know,” she said with some surprise, before becoming unsure herself, “Princess Luna’s erm… second in command?” ooo, the changelings seem to think highly of me. Recognition seemed to dawn on Bucket’s face, “you mean the tin can that always follows her around?” “Heeey.” That’s kinda rude, I don’t go around calling ponies meat bags. Then again, I did call one a fleshy one time. Not to their face though. Glossing over the hopefully unintentional insult, Skitter said, “that’s the one.” She then turned to my floating toy, “so, what are you doing here anyway?” I don’t really have a good explanation. “Just trying to… do my job. Anyway, what are you two doing here?” Yeah, let’s turn this around, I have a pegacorn to help out. “We’re here to see if Princess Celestia needs anything before, she goes to bed,” Bucket said in a well-practiced manner. I knew these ponies waited on her hoof and wing. Once Bucket finished, Skitter immediately piped up, “unofficially, we were asked to make sure Celestia is getting enough rest.” Well, she is getting the opposite of that currently. The night guard probably haven’t told anyone what Luna had planned. I mean, I didn’t even know until two minutes before shoe. “I don’t think we were supposed to let the Princess find out about that,” Bucket said in a loud whisper. “Relax, keeping an eye on them is basically Eclipse’s Day job,” the disguised royal bug reminded her cleaning comrade. Suppose that’s true for Loony. I am her confidante after all. “Besides, if you can’t trust your stuffed toys, who can you trust?” “Yeah, but at the moment, they look like something out of a horror movie. The next thing that’ll happen is that they’ll ask to play with our soul or something,” the pegasus said warily, while waving her wings around. They have movies? I’ll have to see if Luna would want to go see one with me. She probably hasn’t seen any before. As she folded her wings and Skitter laughed at her, an idea formed in my head. It might be a good idea to test if I can actually lift a pony like this. Helping a pegasus fly can’t be too different to aiding a pegacorn. “Erm, Bucket, would you be up for doing me a favour? It would help out Sun… Princess Celestia.” The pegasus began to look unsure again, as she looked into the toys glowing red eyes. “It really depends on what it is.” Welp, time to make the request. Floating the toy closer to her face, causing her to take a couple steps back, I asked, “would you wear me for a couple minutes? I need to see if there’s enough of me for flight.” I punctuated the final words by pointing to her wings, which for some reason became clasped more tightly to her sides. “Cleeean, I think it wants to possess me,” the maid whined. “This really is the half way point of the horror movie.” “Don’t be such a foal, I’ve worn Eclipse before and it was fine,” Skitter said with a smile. Thanks Skitter. “She’s quite a nice mare when you get to know her.” Dammit Skitter. “Wait, they were that dress you wore after coming back from that bug place,” realization displayed clear as day upon her face. “Okay, go on then. Make me look as good as Clean did.” “I don’t think there’s enough of me for that,” I said, as my mist left the toy, allowing it to fall to the ground. It then steadily surrounded the maid’s wings and formed into black metallic feathers, coating her primary feathers completely. “Okay, how’s that?” The maid immediately extended her wings to review me and seemed quite impressed. “Huh, these go quite nicely, was kinda hoping for a knew uniform though.” She immediately changed her tune when I flapped her wings and suspended her in the room, with some difficulty. “You said it wasn’t possession!” It wasn’t really supposed to be, there isn’t really enough of me to float her on my own. This is a problem; I need more magic. Lucky there’s a decent supply in my room. Gently placing the mare on the ground, I attempted to reform my armour, creating a version of me a head shorter than a pony. Looking up at the two mares, who were both now giving me adoring looks I said, “could you hide the toy for me? It’s a present for Loony.” That earned me a salute from the disguised changeling, “of course, I’ll just put it in our room.” My room! She really has to stop using ‘my’ room. “Oh, and keep it a secret, please.” I added while starting to make for my bedroom. “Count yourself lucky Duster didn’t see you; this would have been all over the castle in seconds,” Bucket joked as she steadily folded her now bare wings. “She isn’t that bad,” Skitter chided. The last thing I heard as I left the room was Bucket saying, “I don’t see you trusting her with your royal bug secrets.” Huh, it’s nice to see the changelings trusting ponies a little more. After making a quick stop off in my bedroom to fully drain my poison joke farm, I managed to increase my size to that of my usual stature. It did take leaving out much of the material my usual form had, like full leg armour, but hopefully that will be enough. Loony is looking more and more disappointed by the second on that cloud. With all the messing around practicing with my second form, Celestia had already completed ten laps of her course before I could reach the courtyard. Above me, the two pegacorns were still very much engaged by Sunny’s monotonous laps. Loony was so engaged that she failed to notice my second form steadily floating up behind her. “Come on Celly, thou art flying almost as badly as Eclipse,” she shouted in her sister’s direction. Ouch, saying that. Almost as badly means my flying has improved. Hmm, Sunny is helping quite a lot though. Ah, she’s probably still tired. “It has been some time since my last proper flight sister,” Sunny called back. “Did you really have to set such extensive goals?” “Hey Loony, what’s going on?” I interrupted. Just play it cool, she doesn’t know I was here. She won’t notice that I’m half my mass. Please don’t notice. My words slightly surprised the dark blue pegacorn, who immediately spun around upon her cloud to look at me, a wide smile on her face. “Eclipse, what art thou doing out here?” Off to the side, flying at a leisurely pace, Sunny had a much bigger reaction. She quite clearly winced and turned her head to look at the two of us with some panic, before becoming confused. Seems she might have thought she was rumbled for a minute. She was so confused by my presence, that she even tugged on one of my sweat bands, probably testing if I was still there. Ignoring Sunny’s plight, I said, “one of the maids said you two were having fun out here and I was wondering if I could join. I’m not intruding, am I?” “Thou can never be intruding upon us,” Loony said warmly before looking to her sister, “however, Our sister is just finishing up her flight and then we are done for the day.” From the outside, Celestia appeared to be quite lazily flying through the rings. Clearly without me and Loony pushing her, she had almost had enough. The sight made Loony look back to her injured wing and sigh. Okay, this is it. “Well, would you like me to take you up there? I did say I’d be your wings.” That caused the pegacorn to brighten up nicely. “If thou art offering thyself to Us, I would be a fool to reject thou.” Rather than adorning myself to Loony in the usual method, I morphed my entire second form into just the chest plate and a large metallic set of wings. Lacking something for a head and legs felt strange until Loony placed my chest piece over her head. Allowing me to feel her own limbs as my own. My wings then fitted to their required positions. One worn across her good wing, the other placed above her injured one. As she moved her good wing, I had the alternate mirror the movement to the best of my ability. “Thou would make a fine prosthetic,” Loony said as she brought our wings in front of herself. “I really do appreciate what thou does for Us.” She said while using a forehoof to give them a gentle rub, before jumping off the cloud’s edge. It took quite a large amount of effort to keep her afloat, but using her own magic to help, I managed it, allowing Loony to glide over to her watching sister. Upon reaching her she used the tip of her good wing to playfully jostle her mid-flight sister about. For her part Celestia only laughed out, “glad to see you could join me.” “Thanks to Eclipse, is he not the sweetest?” Luna said, while pointing to her wings. Her opinion might be different if she knew I’d been helping her sister. “He is a nice pony,” Sunny admitted with a nod. Not really a pony, but I’ll take the complement. Once we had settled into a steady rhythm alongside Sunny, Loony had an idea. “Hey, dost thou wish for a race? We wish to see who can win, the alicorn of the night with one wing behind her back, or the sun at her peak.” “Except for the fact I have been flying for the past hour?” Celestia quipped before becoming more serious, “I will try not to beat you by too much.” Oh great, how long am I going to have to race against myself? Well, however long it takes, sorry Sunny, but Loony’s gonna win.