“Twilight! I can’t stop them!”
At Rarity’s voice, Twilight turned and saw that the circular stone was beginning to glow with several cracks running through. She closed her eyes. “Rarity, everypony, come over here by the princess. Let them in.”
All of them complied while the rock continued to crack. Luna looked questioningly at Twilight. Twilight smiled weakly at her. “Things have… changed, in your absence, Princess.”
At that, the rock gave way, and a dozen ponies in armor filtered into the room, shouting at the group to stand down.
“And why, exactly should I stand down?” Princess Luna asked, smirking.
At those words, the soldiers all dropped their weapons. Words like ‘Princess’, ‘Luna’ and ‘Impossible’ were heard. All of them bowed. “Princess… we did not know you were here.”
The leader of their group spoke. “I am Lieutenant Quickwing, Princess. We were pursuing these criminals, as per orders.”
“Criminals?” Luna asked. She looked at Twilight. “Two of these ponies are national heroes, Lieutenant. I don’t see how they can be criminals.”
“Princess…” Twilight started. Luna glanced at her. “It’s true, unfortunately. We’ve broken Equestrian Law by deserting when they took our ship.”
“Seizing property? Deserting? That is not the Equestrian Way, Twilight Sparkle. You will have to explain yourself, once we have left this musty room. I doubt this situation is simple. Please, Lieutenant, have your men stand down, and let us leave this cavern for more spacious surroundings.”
At her request, all the soldiers left the room, taking their weapons with them. Luna followed them, with Twilight and her companions behind the princess. Twilight took the opportunity to think of what she was going to say. The truth, obviously, but whose version? Regardless, it was going to bombastic to Luna, who didn’t yet believe that the Flood had come.
The large group of ponies made their way to the surface, and fanned out in the clearing. Everypony avoided the corpse of the giant pony, except for Luna, who stared at it with a worried expression.
“Fan out. I want a perimeter,” Quickwing said. His soldiers complied, scattering around the clearing. He looked back at the princess.
“How did… who… how did this beast die? Celestia herself created it.”
“That is unknown, your highness. It was dead upon our arrival. The fugitives may know,” Quickwing responded, looking at Twilight.
Luna glanced at the lavender mare as well, curiosity and a bit of worry in her eyes. “Twilight Sparkle?”
The mare in question looked at her hooves, and then up to the worried face of the princess. “It was I who killed it, Princess. It attacked my companions and me upon entering this clearing a week or two ago, and I was forced to kill it to make it stop.”
Luna seemed to want to question it, but with the giant hammer placed firmly into the thing’s skull, its cause of death was fairly obvious. “Why were you here in Everfree, Twilight Sparkle?”
Twilight frowned. “Princess, this may have been Everfree before, but now it’s Torres Island. Unexplored. Somepony hired my crew and me to see if it could handle pony inhabitants.”
Twilight could tell that the princess wasn’t listening to her words anymore, so she stopped.
“Twilight Sparkle… you are not lying when you speak of a flood.”
“No, princess.”
The princess’ eyes took on a dark look, a haunted visage overtaking her. She lowered herself to the ground, shaking slightly. “Oh, dear,” she breathed, staring straight ahead.
“Princess, are you okay?” Twilight asked, extremely concerned. She nudged forward and lay next to the shaking alicorn.
“No, Twilight,” she told the mare, not bothering to look at her. “I am not okay. This… this is the worst news I could have thought to receive.”
Twilight frowned, her eyes showing a look of pity and sympathy. “Why is that, Princess?”
The deep-blue alicorn opted to look at the lavender unicorn as she spoke this time. “Twilight, the reason I was imprisoned in that magical box was to contain the rising waters.”
Twilight reeled with that thought, staring at the ground in front of her. The princesses knew that the flood was coming? And they’d tried to do something to stop it.
But they’d failed.
And that thought scared Twilight. Scared her very much.
“How did you know, Princess?” Twilight asked, trying to get the alicorn’s mind off the failure. Luna shook her head quietly. “Celestia found out. She would not share her source with me, only that he or she was trustworthy. So we sealed ourselves away to siphon off our magic. But it was not enough, apparently,” She said, sighing again. She looked at her surroundings. “I did not sanction this royal navy, and Celestia certainly did not either. What in the name of Harmony has happened to Equestria in our absence, Twilight?”
Twilight took the opportunity to relate all of what she knew had happened during Luna’s absence, leaving out bits she thought were not important enough to be in such a summation.
Following the unicorn’s little impromptu history lesson, Luna pursed her lips. “Cadance and your brother. By all rights, you are a princess, Twilight Sparkle, and yet they hate you for choosing your own life. I fear to think of what has happened with the flood to disrupt our flimsy balance of Chaos and Harmony. Though, I am surprised a little bit. I fully expected my nephew Blueblood to make a move for the throne.”
Twilight coughed, looking away. “He did, your highness. Violently. It didn’t end well.”
Luna narrowed her eyes at her sister’s pupil. “How, exactly, did it end?”
Twilight pursed her own lips in distaste, since that subject was one she had hoped to ease the princess into. Death was far more common than it once had been. “Nearly a hundred ponies died, princess, and dozens more were injured badly. Blueblood himself lost his horn, an eye and a hoof fighting the admiral. Many still haven’t recovered, and the prince himself is secluded on a very small island to the south of Canter Island. It was only two years ago.”
Luna closed her eyes, taking in the news. After a short while she opened them, and she took on a look that seemed impossibly old. “So much violence in the wake of this flood. And still it does not equal mine own. This, I am glad for.”
After that ominous statement, Luna smiled down at the nervous unicorn. “Well then!” she announced, suddenly brightening. “Twilight Sparkle, we must join the navy’s ships in pursuing your own ship, in order to clean the stain off your otherwise impeccable image and allow you to live in peace.” Hearing this, Quickwing ordered his soldiers to gather, and waited for the other five beings to join them back towards their ship.
Lowering her head down to Twilight’s level, Luna smirked. “Now, Twilight, let’s be off. I have ponies to speak to,” she said.
“Yes, princess,” Twilight responded, trying out a nervous grin.
Luna shook her head. “You are now a princess as well, Twilight. You will call me Luna, or I will proceed to call YOU ‘Princess’ at every turn.”
“Yes p… okay, Luna,” Twilight stammered, even more nervous than before. Off to the side, Redheart chuckled at the lavender mare’s obvious discomfort and looked at Rarity.
“You owe me seven bits, Rarity,” the earth pony said, mirth in her eyes.
The unicorn scowled back at Redheart. “Sometimes I overrate you, Twilight,” she muttered, opening a saddlebag and drifting said bits into Redheart’s. “I would have thought you would have made the princess connection on your own years ago,” she grumped, and the group of five set off toward Quickwing's soldiers, avoiding the giant corpse of the beast.