Chapter 9
The song ended, Princess Luna pulled the needle off the record and crossed the room to the table; she picked up a glass jar full of ashes in her mouth and began spreading the jar’s contents around the perimeter of the room.
Twilight, Rainbow Dash and Vinyl only watched in silence at the Princess’ task, utterly confused as to what she was doing. Eventually she made her way back around to the front of the circle she had made, and set the empty jar back down.
“I love that song, you know? It was written during my exile... but it might as well have been written for me,” Luna said.
“You know Princess? You’re not a bad singer!” Vinyl said, grinning like a madmare. “It’s almost a shame that you’re the princess, otherwise I think your calling would have been as an entertainer.”
Rainbow and Twilight looked at their friend oddly, unsure of where she was going with this, but they chose not to say anything unless Vinyl was onto something.
“Why thank you!” Luna said with a smile. “I don’t think we’ve met miss...?”
“Vinyl Scratch... though you may be more familiar with me as DJ Pon3.”
Luna tilted her head to the side. “Who?”
“That’s all right, I’m sort of famous, but not like Sapphire Shores famous,” Vinyl admitted.
“Who?” Luna asked again.
“Heh,” Vinyl chuckled. “I’m not Pips Domino famous,” noting the author of the song that Luna had been listening to.
Luna chuckled. “Nopony is Pips Domino famous.”
“When I was a filly, I used to sing his songs on a street corner, I love them!” Vinyl said enthusiastically.
“As do I... I’m not lowering the shields. Nice try though,” Luna said, seeing right through Vinyl’s attempt to gain her trust through mutual admiration. “You all are practically swimming in the Siblings taint. I’m not taking any chances.”
“Princess please! You have to come back with us! You’re not well! Your doctors only want to help you!” Twilight cried out.
Luna snorted, steam billowing from her nostrils. “My doctors are the Siblings Nightmare!” She shouted.
And then it all started to make sense. Twilight understood Applejack’s behaviour at Fluttershy’s cottage. After the explosion of Sugarcube corner the previous October, She and all her friends had gone to the Royal Hospital for treatment... they too had all been treated by the Siblings Nightmare in some way, the Siblings had poisoned their friends against each other. They had to, and it made since why.
They were the bearers of the Elements of Harmony. The same magic that had split Nightmare Essence, the Herald of Chaos, from Princess Luna and separating him into the Siblings Nightmare. The Elements of Harmony only worked when they were all together, and by poisoning them against each other, it gave the Siblings unchecked power to do as they pleased with Equestria, nopony could stop them.
Twilight’s mouth fell open at the realisation. Princess Luna nodded at her.
“Then... you’re not...” Twilight began.
“No. Despite their best efforts, sanity is something I still have,” Luna assured her.
“But... surely, Princess Celestia...”
“Tia knows far more than she’s letting on. She’s not going to do anything about it though,” Luna said. “Not much she can do without breaking the rules, and it’s not something she’s willing to do.”
“Rules?” Twilight asked in confusion.
“You have me there. I don’t remember a lot from before being Nightmare Moon and the exile on the moon. I do remember something about the rules... just not what they are,” Luna said with a shrug. “What I do remember is mostly about Tia, you wouldn’t know it, but she’s the shy one. Not me. When I first came to Ponyville, it was because a thousand years passed... and I had just gotten done being Nightmare Moon. Tia on the other hoof wouldn’t do anything outside her comfort zone unless I prodded her to,” Luna said. “Before my exile, Equestria enjoyed healthy relations with the Cossacks, once I was gone, Tia shut them out and everypony gradually forgot all about them.”
The three ponies cocked their heads in confusion.
“Exactly,” Luna said. “Tell me Twilight; does Kazaki konfederatsiya, sound at all familiar to you?”
It did. The package from South Island containing engine parts for the Lord Stuart had a customs stamp that said that. Twilight nodded her head in affirmation.
“Hold on, if Princess Celestia shut everyone else out, what about the gryphons? Why did we talk to them?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“I would imagine because there wasn’t much other choice,” Luna said. “Gryphons are hyper-aggressive, and they also happen to be right on our doorstep. Keeping them happy was something that Tia needed to do to satisfy her need to protect her children... and now that she’s accepted the ambassador from South Island; it’s going to be impossible to continue doing that... Equestria will go to war... the problem is we have nothing to go to war with. Gunpowder may have been invented in Equestria, but we’ve long since forgotten it,” Luna said, half talking to herself more than anything else.
“The kangaroos will help us! I’ve seen it!” Rainbow Dash called out.
“Yes. That might be why you’re swimming in their taint,” Luna said. “While I have no doubts that South Island will support us, you should take everything you saw with a grain of salt. The Siblings Nightmare are not here to help us. Everything they’ve done has been in their best interests, not ours. If they showed you something, it’s because they want it to happen that way.”
“They said that the flashes were from Overdrive...” Rainbow said.
“And some of them likely were,” Luna said. “He’s out there, in this forest right now, the Grey Smoke? That’s him.”
“You seem to know a lot princess...” Twilight said.
Luna smiled and gave the unicorn a small chuckle. “Twilight Sparkle, do you think that you’re the only pony who reads? When I got back, the first thing I did was read every book in the Library you studied at in Canterlot. I read at 4000 words a minute, I pick up on things. I learned a lot about the state of the rest of the world, Kangaros, their allies and Gryphon currently fight on each of our world’s five continents, save one. South Island itself, Gryphons can’t get there because they’re too tied up fighting the Cossacks on what they call the Ostfront.”
“They wouldn’t be dumb enough to attack Equestria if they’re overstretched are they?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“Dumb? I wouldn’t call it dumb, what kind of resistance would they meet? There are thirty kangaroos in Equestria with two tanks that are barely operational. The rest of the populace have never even seen a gun before, let alone have any idea what they do. There hasn’t been war in Equestria since before I was exiled. The Gryphons could march from the Hoofson Bay to Canterlot before meeting any kind of resistance at all if they outflanked the Kangaroo XX Corps,” Luna said.
“That’s all fine and dandy! What are we doing standing around here while we could be doing something about it!” Rainbow Dash called out in annoyance.
Luna frowned at the pegasi before her. “I would... the problem is I don’t know where to go from here. I was most concerned with escaping from the Royal Hospital... it was actually way easier than I thought it was going to be, that ward I was in was designed to keep Unicorns from escaping, the designers didn’t think to provide safeguards against a unicorn who could break a window and fly out it,” Luna said with a small smile.
“It seems to me that the key is going to be the kangaroo ambassador, and getting Princess Celestia to go to war with the gryphons. If they’re going to attack anyway, the least we can do is get as many kangaroo troops here when they do,” Twilight said. “I don’t exactly like that idea, but I don’t think we’ve got any other options.”
Vinyl and Rainbow Dash agreed.
“You three aren’t going anywhere until I figure out how to clear the Siblings taint from you. I can’t take the chance that they programmed your subconscious to attack me the moment you’re free... It’s more the Paragon style, but I wouldn’t put it past them,” Luna said, opening a book and flipping through the pages.
“What? We’d never do that!” Rainbow Dash cried out as if she was insulted.
“Correct. You wouldn’t. That’s why they wouldn’t give your body the option,” Luna said plainly. “Ah ha! Found it! Remove magical influence... hmm, oddly simple.”
Luna shut the book and walked up to where the three mares were standing. “I’m going to drop the shield, more likely than not, one of you is going to attempt to attack me. I’m going to defend myself with a stunning spell. Whatever you do, don’t move from where you’re standing under any circumstances. If one of you has had their subconscious tampered with... well then there won’t be anything you can do with it.”
Luna lowered the shield around the three ponies to cast the spell.
Twilight leapt forward.