"She's where?"
Luna sighed. She actually looked somewhat guilty. I blamed Trixe for this. Logically I knew that Luna had to be somewhat responsible since it had only been five minutes and Trixie wasn't quite that annoying, but I still couldn't help but want to place the blame wholly upon the blue show mare. Especially since I was still annoyed she got Luna's okay to wear her hat and cloak on duty somehow.
"The moon. I said I banished thy loyal mare to the moon."
"She's not that loyal. And I was afraid you said that. But I thought…"
The stars in her mane flared. She had changed since that first day. Taller, stronger, and most impressive the stars. I think her hair was slowly becoming translucent too. She stood up and glared forward, but not directly at me.
"Does thou believe those tales as well? The moon is ours and ours alone. We were banished to it, but not by Celestia, twas the elements. Only they could reverse my magic thusly to do such a thing."
"Reverse?"
"Her mane and eyes calmed. Yes, we intended to use the rare stellar conjunction to trap our sister in the moon, thus separating her from the sun, but still binding her to us so we could control it. Thankfully it did not work that way."
"And the conjunction only appears every thousand years. But this wasn't in any of…"
"Of course not. This was near the end of my reign of terror. I had no time to record such things."
"She is alive, right?"
"Of course. Unlike my lazy sister I have returned the moon's air." Then she blinked. "Though sister is correct it should not really have air, but not breathing is so annoying."
"I imagine Trixie would feel more than annoyed if she could not breathe."
"Too true good captain. At least I finally understand what my sister sees in her. Perhaps I will train her as she has asked."
I blinked. I was very confused. She was mad enough to banish her to the moon, but that results in wanting to train her? Then I spun around as I realized Trixie had gone behind my back again. She will pay for that.
I was getting better. The first time Luna teleported me I passed out, but now I merely felt a little dizzy. Overall a great many things seemed to be progressing smoothly. Most of the moon guard's extra obligations were coming to an end. Some of the various items in storage I realized should be checked based on the chariots was either properly preserved by the spells or well on its way to being fully repaired. The three damaged chariots were in perfect working condition, and the other two were fine. I understood the purpose of the war chariot well enough, but the purpose of the other heavily enchanted chariot was not. In fact its overall design was simply perplexing in general.
"Your majesty I know you said that you don't need me but...."
"We are sure."
Everything was going smoothly. The chariot Luna sat in looked amazing, Wrath and Vengeance, the two strongest stallions in the bunch were already hitched up. Luna's cloak also looked nice even though I didn't see the point. She also had assured me she might have missed a few minor things about advances in equestrian culture, but she was confident they wouldn't matter. Despite all that there was an ominous feeling in the pit of my stomach.
"Are you really sure you want to go though with your plan? I understand that Ponyville is not thought of as traditionally dangerous but I have read the same reports you have."
"I'm not sure of that, but we still think this is best. We shall arrive in style, but we do not wish any guards to remain. Surely the elements of harmony can manage."
I sighed. "I suppose you're right your majesty. I'm sorry to doubt you."
"It is your job." She shook her head. "You should not apologize for that. I cannot speak for mine sister, but we certainly do not wish to be surrounded by thoughtless yes ponies who never speak thine minds."
"I see your majesty."
"We may discuss this more later, for now we must not be late. Away good sirs."
Then with a swift takeoff they were gone. Firecracker then came trotting up to me, sans her armor, but wearing a metal mask with a glass window for her to look though, and of course a hole for her horn. She was a leafy green with vibrant orange hair and a few yellow streaks. The orange was even more neon than my natural color, and the yellow similarly vibrant. Both her mane and tail were spiked, hair forming somewhat random spikes. It reminded me of an explosion, which I'm sure was the point. It varied quite a bit, some days even hiding her horn.
"Hiya Sky. So our old timey princess is really going out into the world. Weird."
"Yes. So have you made any progress with the armor after Luna helped you decipher her original notes?"
"We're sizzling. Well, none with your super special armor, but I think we finally ironed out all the resizing glitches, and can even make new full featured armor now."
"As in having all of the enchantments from the original, not just most?"
She nodded. "Yeppers Bossmare. Probably with no problems at all with that now."
"Probably?"
"Well, one set exploded, but I think that's just me, the rest of the girls haven't had that happen at all."
I sighed. "When you say explode is it something that could happen any time or…"
"It was really quick. The second it got wet, boom. I'm trying to recreate it, but so far I haven't managed. I mean you should have seen it. It was great."
I hung my head. "Please tell me there is a good reason you…"
"Duh." She rolled her eyes. "So far nothing else has blown up, which I'm kinda sad about, but at the same time exploding armor would not be fun. Unless somepony else was wearing it but only…"
"Firecracker."
"Sorry. The point is I had Song and some of her girls put the rest of the armor up on the roof and such just in case until we can duplicate it, then once we know what I did and can be sure no one else did anything similar."
"Okay. What about the sorting?"
"Uh, it's going good, but mostly that's Blossom's show. I mean she borrows some of my girls and some of Trixie's when she can, but only she really knows exactly how that's going. I mean I know you do some work on your own…"
"And I don't need to be told. Okay. I just thought they might have mentioned something to you, that's all. Also Blossom does hand off reports sometimes."
"True enough." She giggled. "She works way too hard sometimes."
"So does this mean I have to take Bee trying to convince me to change the armor design seriously next time?"
"Maybe, but knowing her I figure she'll go strait to the top."
"Celestia…" I began, then paused. "Oh, Luna. Yes, and unlike her sister she might not send her right back to me with a note on trusting her superior officer's judgement."
"Yea. Anyway, don't you have something to do."
I blinked, then took off into the air as fast as I could manage. I wasn't really sure why I was doing such a thing to Blueblood's estate, but I'd disliked him ever since that horrible attempt to hit on me in front of most of the assembled moon guard. Trixie had apparently had some run in with the fool recently as well and was equally eager. She should be waiting with her squad and Sweetsong's so we can pull this off. There are times I'm bothered by what the training focusing on stealth operations the regulations suggests, but there are other times I enjoy the pure joy of sneaking around.
Luna was glaring at her sister. Celestia just sat there blinking. I had seen many expressions on her face over the years but confusion was not one of them. I was trying to remember if I had ever actually been in her personal chamber before, but I still wasn't sure. I was also trying to pretend I wasn't intently focused on the exchange rather than the mirror in front of me. It was a large golden decorative piece that I had the strong feeling would be covered in dust if not for the magic of Canterlot.
"Don't thou give me that look. We both know you know that thou know what I mean."
"Truly Luna, I do not." Then Celestia's eyes opened. "Wait, are you using old equestrian? Why are you doing that?"
Luna said nothing, but just glared. Celestia really did look confused. Then suddenly Celestia laughed. This did not stop Luna's look of course.
"I'm sorry Luna, but really. I'm not laughing at you, but at myself. I didn't notice. I mean you know how it is. One language comes, another goes, little things like specific words and modern style hardly even register."
Luna opened her mouth, paused, then sighed. "That's right." Then suddenly she turned to me "But you should have known better."
"It isn't my place to say."
"What? That I am making a fool of myself?"
"I thought you were aware of how you were speaking and it's oddity in this time period, and that you simply chose to speak in that manner."
"Oh." Luna's head drooped. "I see." Then she once again glared at me. "But unlike mine sister you have heard me use the royal Canterlot voice."
I blinked. "Oh, that's what that is. I wondered why you were shouting."
"Surely you must have realized that was not normal."
"I didn't hear you use it." Said Celestia "Though do you know who Sky's father is?"
"No, why would that matter?"
"High Commander Steelwing is known for many things but…" I began
"He is your father? So you do not even think it's that loud?"
"Father isn't always that loud, but I've certainly heard him be far louder. That and it wasn't my place to say anything about that either."
"Sister, I still don't understand." Said Celestia "It's been months. How could you not have adjusted to modern equestrian? Have you not been studding all this time?"
"Well, sister…" Luna looked away. "You see, I well…"
Celestia sighed. "You said you'd consider my advice, but since I did what I said and let you handle it yourself you studied nothing but science and magic, ignoring all maters social and modern."
Luna's head whipped back to her sister. "That is not true." Then she paused and looked down. "I also studied history but didn't even notice the shift in the language, which means this whole mess is my fault."
"There is no need to find fault in this."
Then Celestia hugged her sister. After a moment of awkwardness I realized what I had to do. I gave a light smack to Dream Volt's helmet and walked out of the room. I wasn't sure if he was actually asleep, but odds said he was. He was up instantly, and after a quick look around the room, left swiftly.