//------------------------------// // Chapter 6: Nightmare Falls // Story: Time Turner's Discordian Detective Agency: The Panther of the Bluebloods // by Rodinga //------------------------------// “Discord!” The statue gasped in mock shock as he brought a claw to cover his heart. “You finally figured out what I am. Congratulations on solving that case detective, brilliant work there. I’m only the prize exhibit in the world’s largest statue garden with the name emblazoned in big friendly letters on the pedestal.” The statue bent over and swept a claw across the pedestal that suddenly lit up in neon lights to proclaim the name “Discord”. “You’ve always treated me with such disrespect.” Its tone shifted to faux sadness, “It’s been rather hurtful to tell the truth, especially after all those times that I helped you.” “Helped me?” I responded  skeptically as I remembered our initial encounter. “ You cursed me to ‘live in interesting times’, how does  as curse translate to help?” “A curse?”  It spoke, followed by a snort of laughter. It stood up and jumped down from the pedestal and walked around me. “Oh please, you wouldn’t understand a curse if it danced in front of you waving Celestia’s mane around.” He snapped his fingers and the same mane appeared on his head. “I gave you a blessing that removed you from the boring mundane and thrust you into—“the statue had brought a paw through the mane cascading from its head. “Hmm how does Celestia do this, it’s rather soft…” “How in that twisted mind of yours do you consider this a blessing?” I asked, losing patience with the statue’s antics.  Its attention returned to me. “Well, I daresay I’ve made your life much more interesting and successful. After all you did decide to call yourself a ‘Discordian Detective’, how did you come up with that name anyway? Because it sounded cool? In that case I’m the prince of coolness,” he boasted as he put on a set of sunglasses. “You know you look ridiculous with that mane and those glasses together,” I said to the creature as it started to recline on thin air. “Why tank you,” it said snapping its paw. A glass aquarium appeared out of thin air and fell over me, trapping me inside. Discord laughed as goldfish swam circles through the air around me. “You’ve been a rather interesting diversion for me, helping you solve all those cases by subtly influencing the threads of fate around you,” It said is it twirled streamers through the air. “It’s as much as I can do in this pathetic state, so you’ve been a wonderful source of entertainment.” It walked over and stuck its head through the side of the fish tank. “So I’m giving you this little hint: What you have stumbled upon causes shadow to fall, threatens with a magic nearly lost to the ages and can only be truly mastered by those with dreams of power.” The statue stood up and lifted the tank up away from me. “I shall be seeing you again soon little colt. Do try to remember what I’ve told you.” It shook the tank it held above me, creating a torrent of cold water to fall out and hit me in the face.   The impact knocked me over and I could feel myself rolling down a hill with far too many points on it. My vision swam as it slowly returned and I found myself back in Ruff’s quarters, instead of facing Discord’s hospitality. Then I head somepony crying, I looked up to see where the sound came from and saw Lucky Catch sitting on top of the pile. Her hoof held against the crystal as it pulsed with a dark purple light, the other hoof stretched out in the direction I had fallen. Tears were falling from her eyes as she cried, “Time Turner, no…” I started to climb toward her, the gems falling away beneath me as I tried to climb faster. As I got closer I noticed her eyes had turned green and she stared off into the distance. The few blinks of her eyelids matched by pulses from the crystal. “Timey, don’t leave me,” she wailed as fresh tears fell from her eyes. I scrambled to summit of the pile and did the only sensible thing that occurs to an earth pony in the face of the unknown. I turned around and bucked the crystal as hard as I could. I couldn’t remember what happened next, as far as I could tell the crystal shattered under the force of my hooves and released the magic contained within. That magic blasted out in a wave from the broken crystal, throwing us away and demolishing the gem pile. As I lay on the ground I suddenly felt weary, the stress and lack of sleep from the last two days building up to carry me off into a dreamless sleep.   Once again I drifted back to consciousness, my eyes complaining about the light in the room as I brought a hoof to cover my face. I rolled over onto my side, feeling each gemstone that I had been lying on. I yawned as my body started to properly wake up. I felt  like I’d been asleep for hours. I looked around to see the room had been trashed, gemstones were scattered everywhere from the blast. I trudged around the room looking for Lucky Catch, calling out several times before I heard a faint response. I found Catch buried under a small pile of gems, waking up from her own rest. Once she returned to lucidity she wrapped her arms around me and dragged me down into a hug. “Time Turner, I had the worst dream.” “I had one too, Catch,” I reassured with a pat on her head. “Something in that crystal caused them.” Catch was lost in thought for a moment and brought a hoof to her mouth as she remembered. “It did something to you, I ran up to push you away from it and it—“Catch didn’t elaborate further. I looked around and spotted a shard from the crystal lying in reach. I turned the shard over with a hoof and nothing happened, clearly whatever power lay within it was long gone. I recalled the words Discord had spoken to me, ‘causes shadow to fall, a lost threat wielded by ponies dreaming of power.’ “Catch, do you remember the legend Twilight Sparkle told us?” “It was about how the Panther was a guardian that betrayed its master, right?” Catch answered as she brought herself back to her hooves. “It was a guardian against ‘creatures of the night, the forces of darkness and those that hide in shadow’,” I quoted. “It certainly seemed to be guarding Blueblood last night.” I brought the crystal shard over so Catch could look at it. “I’m not a unicorn so I couldn’t tell you what kind of magic it was, but it seemed dark and shadowy enough.” Catch looked up at the ceiling. “Aren’t we beneath Prince Blueblood’s chambers?” I nodded. “So if that crystal had… shadow magic in it, wouldn’t the panther feel it?” I gave my assistant a very genuine grin. “You’re getting better at this, Catch.” Her face utterly glowed with the praise I’d given her, somehow I knew she’d treasure this moment forever. I turned the crystal over. “I think this crystal was charged with dark power and planted to summon the Panther. Wherever the Prince went I’m sure Ruff probably took this with him when he followed his master, since it was on top of the pile it had to be his favourite.” “So, Ruff was responsible?” Catch asked, to her credit she didn’t look like she believed that either. Her tone was that of a pony knowing they’re asking a stupid question, nothing wrong with that. “Somehow I doubt Ruff can cast magic like this.” Catch gave me a shrug, “He’s been arrested too, so he’s the patsy not the mastermind.” “So a unicorn then,” Catch reasoned. “Any idea who it is?” “I have a couple of ideas.” I gave her a sly smile. “But I’ll let you keep guessing.” Catch gave me an unamused look and snorted. “You don’t know yet either, do you?” Poor filly looked like I just offered her ice-cream and then took it away. I couldn’t give her all the answers. “I can’t be sure until I confront him. First though I need to find Blueblood, so I can let him know his panther problem is gone. Then I’ll find the mastermind and hold him down while you give him a good kicking,” I added with a wink. We left the gem vault and climbed up the narrow stairway to Blueblood’s chambers. Just outside the door I stopped Catch and said, “Let me go first.” If we got jumped by an overzealous guard I could just hit the reset. I opened the door and entered Blueblood’s opulently decorated room. Just a brief look around and I was flabbergasted, most of the contents were made of actual gold. The walls were covered in portraits of Blueblood himself and his predecessors in dramatic poses or proving their worth as stallions. The mantelpiece was covered in trophies and an entire wall was taken up by a huge wardrobe. Catch walked in behind me and simply said “wow.” It was the right word to describe this monument to a stallion’s ego, vanity, pride, greed and pettiness (1). A more discerning look also showed what I had missed before, Blueblood wasn’t here. I went across the room to a gem encrusted window and looked out onto the city of Canterlot below. Night had fallen and the moon was at its highest point, the mare stood out on the surface of the full moon. Down in the field between the Palace and the City itself a large party was underway. I shook my head in disbelief at the sight, It was the middle of the night on the eve of the summer sun celebration. The exploding crystal had knocked us out for eight or so hours. Well, at least it explained why I felt so well rested. “That’s a big party.” Catch stood beside me looking down through the glass at the festivities below. “I think that might be Vinyl on stage down there.” I leant against the glass and looked down as well. I could barely see the pony on stage and couldn’t quite make out her mane colour in this light, but the white coat was a match for the DJ that detested me. “Well, she does go where the party is.” I looked back at the opulent room again. “Somehow I doubt Blueblood went down to enjoy Vinyl’s music, he can afford better.” “There’s supposed to be a party for the nobility and their invited guests,” Catch said. “But nopony knows where it is unless you’ve been invited.” I groaned, “Paranoid nobles wearing their very best.” I tapped a hoof against the glass. “We need somepony that can get us into that party. Who do we know that we can bribe, threaten, cajole or ask nicely for guest passes?” We both thought for a moment before we came to the answer at the same time: “Octavia.” This late at night we made no attempt at concealing our passage as we travelled toward the palace entrance. We walked in a brisk canter toward entrance without even a single guard looking at us twice. It never seemed like the guards ever did anything anyway, Equestria hadn’t faced a major threat in centuries. We quickly left the palace and entered the kingdom of noise ruled by the increasingly popular Vinyl Scratch. My ears had clamped themselves against my skull in a vain attempt to spare me from the audible torture being inflicted on them. Thankfully my business wasn’t with Vinyl, just her marefriend. We skirted the party and travelled around to the back of the stage where I expected to find our refined friend in charge of the festivities. We ignored the stage guards completely as we passed them. We were backstage before they even realised somepony had actually looked at their intimidating forms and then ignored them entirely. Octavia, the infamous first chair cello of the Canterlot Symphony—and former gangster—was standing on a soapbox issuing orders to a small herd of ponies. We joined the back of the herd to listen in. “…At the start of the next set, Miss Scratch wants a heavy mist to cross the stage.” Octavia pointed down into the crowd. “You two, position yourselves to fan the mist out onto the stage with some wind.” A pair of pegasi saluted and flew off. “You four, get the dry ice out of the box and start using it when Miss Scratch signals during the end of her current set. On the second signal start the pyrotechnics, Vinyl will direct them herself. Any questions?” No pony dared to raise a hoof. “Good, now get to it.” The rest of the herd scattered away from Octavia’s soap box and left Catch and me the only ponies standing near Octavia herself. I clapped my fore hooves together to applaud Octavia’s imposing leadership skills, enhanced as they were by the box. I received one of Octavia’s patented derisive looks as she noticed our presence. “I must say I am surprised to see you here, Time Turner.” Octavia stepped down from her box and approached me, “I thought you would not want to miss the celebration in Ponyville.” She stopped in front of me, turned and gave a smile to my assistant. “Especially when our dear Lucky Catch, travelled so far to join you.” “It’s good to see you again, Octavia,” Catch replied with a smile. “Let’s just say Time’s plans tend to change.” “Amazing pun right there.” I said with a roll of my eyes. “A few more like that and I’ll be lucky to catch you when you fall over your clever tongue.” “So you can still add a turn to a phrase, detective,” Octavia said at me. “Just like…” I came to a halt, my brow creasing in thought. “Octavia… I can’t do anything with that, what is an octave anyway?” Octavia and Catch both laughed lightly at my confusion. “It’s good to see you two again,” Octavia said with a rare smile crossing her face.  “Considering that you came to see me now I’m guessing that you probably want something from me, am I right?” “Can’t get anything past you can I?” I asked rhetorically. “I’m currently working for Prince Blueblood and I need to find him quickly. He should be at the little get together the Nobility are attending tonight.” “And we figured you would be on the guest list,” Catch added. The derisive look returned to Octavia’s face. “You want me to abandon the management of the single largest public event of the year, into the capable hooves of Vinyl I might add, to take you to a party?” ‘Well, when she puts it that way,’ I thought. ‘I suppose her reputation is at stake, I’d hate to have Vinyl in charge of mine.’ “I’ll return the favour at some point. Let me know if you need something and if I can do it, I’ll do it.” Octavia’s face took a turn for the contemplative. Her eyes ran up and down me for a few moments, as a smile began to cross her face. I felt weirdly exposed, like she was weighing me up for a competition or something. “So, you’ll do anything?” Octavia’s tone only worsened my discomfort. “As long as I doesn’t hurt or kill me,” I replied somewhat reluctantly. “You might just enjoy it, Turner.” Octavia glanced toward Catch; I turned to look as well and noticed my assistant had moved a little closer to me. “One issue, Turner,” Octavia continued. “I am afraid my invitation stipulates that I can only attend with one additional guest.” “Ah, that is an issue.” I rubbed a fetlock across my forehead. Catch gave me a thin smile. “I suppose I can wait outside.” “Actually,” Octavia cut in. “I would prefer it if Catch remained here.” I raised an eyebrow. “Vinyl is occupied performing on stage and does not have the time to direct the stage crew. It would be better for somepony she knows to remain here to relay her directions.” Catch raised a hoof. “Considering what I’ve done to Vinyl are you sure she’ll be okay with me doing that?” Considering that Vinyl had been a target for Catch’s temper on a few occasions, I wouldn’t surprise me if Vinyl demanded somepony else. “Not an issue,” Octavia reassure as the waved for Catch to put her hoof down. “I shall have a word with Vinyl before we depart, believe me, she will be okay with it.” I leant over to whisper in Catch’s ear, “Guess who the stallion in their relationship is.” Catch snorted and started to giggle, while Octavia gave us a derisive glare. I left the party with Octavia, leaving Lucky Catch in control of one of the biggest events in the calendar. Octavia assured us that it was well within Catch’s abilities to deal with, noting wryly that “Catch’s ability to herd cats left her uniquely suited to the role”. Octavia was wearing her pink bowtie—a Rarity original—and had quickly brought her appearance to the impeccable standard that she usually maintained. I regretfully returned my fedora to my bags and left them with Catch, putting on a green tie that she’d bought for me as an anniversary present. If you’re wondering I returned the favour by giving Catch one of my pendulum clocks, it was a good thing I had one of my best designs in stock. According to Octavia the noble get together was located in one of Canterlot’s oldest—and most exclusive—neighbourhoods, near the palace and a short five minute canter away. “It is rather fortunate you are coming with me for this, Turner,” Octavia mentioned as we turned into the perfectly manicured district. I looked back with a raised eyebrow, “how so, Octavia?” “Well, after the… incident two years ago,” she said. “I have been absolutely inundated with rumours and inquires about the ‘tan stallion’ I embraced in front of the greater part of the Canterlot nobility.” “I thought the rumours were what you wanted out of that.” “Quite, the rumours are incredibly persistent and have kept any suspicion over my relationship with Vinyl fully repressed (2).” The smile she gave me was stripped of her normal control, giving me a hint of the true Octavia that she kept hidden under her outer shell. “It’s something I’m still thankful for.” “But you want to reinforce those rumours with another appearance.” I returned to looking straight ahead down the path. “You could have asked sooner, I would have been happy to discount my hourly rate.” “Then you do not object to briefly mingling at the party as my ‘coltfriend’.” I closed my eyes so I could roll them without her seeing it. “Does this count as me returning the favour?” “I would prefer to ‘save’ that for something else.” Octavia kept her face blank as I watched. “Well, then make sure we ‘mingle’ past the hors d'oeuvres table a few times then.” “Deal,” she said as the unrestricted smile returned to her face. I was surprised to find myself enjoying the experience. We were quickly admitted to the party and the pair of us had made our way to the central ballroom of the venue. There was some surprise among the guests to see Octavia with her scarcely seen coltfriend, which quickly turned to curiosity. Octavia led the conversations while I occasionally introduced jokes, witticisms and the occasional pun. In quiet moments we broke off to visit the snack table a half dozen times and I found myself sampling more flowers from the endangered flora list. It was a shame that Vinyl couldn’t do this with Octavia instead, because she was enjoying this more than she would admit. Eventually Octavia decided she wanted to dance and dragged me the centre of the ballroom to prance around to the sound of a classical quartet. We balanced against one another as we rose up onto two hooves to dance as a pair. Octavia was much more graceful than me on two legs, primarily from her experience playing her cello. The occasional trip up from me was corrected by a quick reset. During our dance we had the opportunity to talk privately and I made use of the chance. “Octavia, have you seen Prince Blueblood anywhere yet?” “Unfortunately not,” Octavia replied. “The prince is probably somewhere more secluded.” “How do we find him then?” I asked as we spun again. “The host of the party would probably know where the important guests are.” “Who’s hosting?” “A unicorn stallion named Fabulator.” My eyebrows bounced up at Octavia’s response. “You know him?” Octavia asked. “We met briefly, what can you tell me about him?” I asked as I scanned the crowd for Fabulator. Octavia’s eyes flicked up as she thought about it, simultaneously dancing to the music. “Not much, he’s only a minor noble. I think this estate is the only land he owns, but he is supposed to be a respected investor. Tonight is probably an opportunity to increase his standing within the noble hierarchy.” “A shameless play for power,” I muttered. “The political game goes on.” We continued to dance for a few more spins, covertly looking over each other’s shoulders, but neither of us could find Fabulator in the crowd. It was time for a new plan. “So, it doesn’t look like he’s here.” I gave the room a more overt glance. “We need him to find us instead, any ideas?” “He is tonight’s host, so anything that happens during the festivities is his responsibility.” Octavia’s eyes glazed over while she instinctively let the music carry her dance, her mind deep in thought. My mind was also starting to put forward ideas, most of which I dismissed outright. This plan needed to be party appropriate, because Octavia’s reputation was on the line as well. “Well I’ve got nothing,” I admitted. “Everything I can think of would probably ruin your reputation, get us arrested, excommunicated or all of the above.” “The Detective is stymied by such a small problem?” Octavia teased. “Here I thought you were fantastic chess player.” Her face took on an uncharacteristic smirk. I was tempted to jump back and let her fall over, just to create a scene to get the host’s attention but decided against it. “I hate chess. It’s been played for so long that almost every strategy has a known counter and all creativity has been lost in the game.” I snorted my disapproval. “It’s just too limited for me, like this party.” “Well, then I shall just have to do something drastic then.” She leaned and drew our dance toward the stage where the quartet was playing. When we reached the stage she put me down and climbed onto the stage to whisper into the ears of the quartet. Once Octavia finished her request the tuba player nodded, the rest of the group stopped playing as the tuba released a short series of notes. The entire room came to a halt as the room started to focus on us. Octavia extended a hoof down to me and helped bring me up onto the stage in front of everypony. As my dance partner gave a clear “ahem” to make an announcement I noticed more ponies entering the room. The sudden stop in the music had gotten the attention of the entire party. “Ladies and gentle colts,” Octavia declared. “It is my most sincere pleasure to finally introduce you all my special somepony, Time Turner.” I’d been so focused on searching the room I’d barely heard the announcement. My head twitched in shock as I thought I’d heard Octavia admit to being in a relationship with me. Just to be sure I hadn’t misheard I said “reset” and replayed the announcement, listening with my full attention. ‘Lucky Catch is going to kill Octavia,’ I realized with horror. ‘And then Vinyl Scratch will come after me.’ Oblivious to the panic she was causing to me Octavia continued, spouting about how I inspired her work and that her music was timed to a metronome I’d made for her. The crowd was absolutely enraptured by Octavia’s voice and more than a few of the stallions were looking at me with envy. Just as Octavia was about to announce “our” plans for the future, I was saved by the twit. “Stop right there!” came a commanding voice as the crowd parted to reveal its owner. Shining Armour, pride of the sleepy guard paraded toward me in full dress uniform. The nameplate on his uniform still said Armor, so much for my attempts at teaching him how to spell. I brought a hoof to my face. “What do you want Armour?” I groaned, while making sure to add emphasis to the ‘ur’ sound in his name. “Time Turner, you are under arrest for the crimes of: Escaping custody, insulting an officer of the guard and tax evasion.” “My tax returns are completely legal,” I countered. “And if you can’t take little jab like a stallion then you have no place in the guard, let alone an officer’s rank.” “In that case, would you like to tell everypony how you escaped from the palace dungeons?” Armour’s question surprised me, specifically the fact he noticed that I didn’t deny escaping custody. “I’ve got friends in the right places, Shiny,” I said as a put an infuriating smile on my face. “You didn’t have the right to arrest me anyway, so why don’t you just turn around and walk away before you make more of a fool out of yourself.” Shining Armour was about to respond with whatever witty retort he could think of when he was interrupted by a hoof on his shoulder. The guard turned to look into the unamused face of Fabulator. “That’s enough, Lieutenant.” The noble’s voice brooked no argument. “We’re going to clear up this misunderstanding, right now. I’m sure the Prince is going to be pleased with you.” Fabulator turned his attention to me and Octavia, his face switched to a friendly neutral. “Also, congratulations to you two. Please follow me and the lieutenant.” We followed Fabulator and Armour out of the ballroom, the guard held his head down and his tail close. As soon as we left the room the music restarted and the party continued as if it hadn’t been interrupted, although the conversation probably took on a new topic. Fabulator led us all upstairs, past several rooms to a private balcony that held a commanding view looking south over the palace gardens toward Ponyville. Blueblood sat alone in silence, a glass of wine hovered next to him in a golden glow (3). “Well, Blue,” Fabulator called out as we came out onto the balcony. “Looks like I found the source of the interruption.” “Good, I was enjoying that composition,” the prince responded. He turned around to catch sight of us. “Lieutenant, I hope you have a good reason for interrupting the night’s festivities,” Blueblood’s tone was full of disdain for the guard. Shining Armour put more steel into his spine and stood straighter in Blueblood’s presence. “Actually,” Fabulator objected with an amused tone. “It was this pair,” he stepped aside to reveal me and Octavia to the prince. The prince’s eyes narrowed. “Time Turner, you are responsible for this?” “Actually, it was her,” I pointed a hoof at Octavia and she rolled her eyes. “And you are?” Blueblood asked. “Octavia,” she introduced herself with a bow. “First Chair Cellist of the Canterlot Symphony Orchestra, I beg your indulgence in this matter.” Blueblood enjoyed the little ego trip Octavia’s show of obeisance gave him. “That will depend on the reasons for your interruption.” I noticed Octavia take a breath before she spoke, “It was to confess my love for—“ “We needed to get your attention,” I interrupted. Blueblood turned to look at me and once I had his focus I continued, “I’ve come to report my success in the task you gave me, I could not wait for morning.” Octavia sighed in relief as I took the prince’s focus and stood still to avoid drawing his attention. Shining Armour looked toward me, suspicion written across his face while Fabulator looked on in interest. I had Blueblood’s undivided attention. “The Panther, you’ll be pleased to hear, is quite real.” The prince nodded slowly for me to continue. “My investigation turned up a few old legends that show it is a magical construct tasked to protect the royal unicorn line, starting with Princess Platinum and continuing down to you.” “My own research said as much,” Blueblood confirmed. “I hope you found more to it than that.” “Last evening I observed the Panther from afar with the aid of an animal behaviour expert.” Technically Catch is an expert, she’s a practicing veterinarian nurse. “Our observation concluded that the Panther is following you, in order to protect you.” “Yet the same construct was responsible for the death of a member of my line,” Blueblood objected. “Actually Blue, it wasn’t,” Fabulator broke in. “You told me as much yourself, remember? I believe you said Blueblood the Third was incapable of having a son. His eldest daughter Bluebelle instead married a stallion from another house who renamed himself Blueblood the Fourth.” Fabulator mused on this for a moment. “Suppose an argument between husband and wife became a little too heated and then the Panther intervenes.” Fabulator left the inevitable result for us to imagine. “I suppose that makes sense,” Blueblood conceded. “But why is it appearing now?” “I can explain that,” I said. “I assume you remember your servant Ruff was arrested yesterday?” “An investigation found that he had been stealing gemstones from the palace vaults.” “Well, after I met him in the palace dungeons, which Armour was responsible for by the way, I decided to check his hoard.” Armour came back to life. “So you admit to trespassing in the palace and breaking into a secure crime scene?” “Lieutenant,” Blueblood said. “Yes sir?” “Shut up.” Chastened, Armour returned to the standard stony expression of a professional guard with only a slight twitch of his eye giving away his frustration. “Detective, continue.” “On Ruff’s gem hoard we located a quartz crystal positioned as close to your chambers as possible, this crystal was charged with dark magic.” There was a collective gasp from the three unicorns present. Fabulator spoke first, “Detective, could you elaborate on the effect of this dark magic?” “It caused nightmarish visions when we came in contact with it, the field around ranged from purple to dark green.” Blueblood’s coat somehow became even paler. I continued, “The legends around the panther suggest it would react to such a thing, it was probably protecting you from its influence.” “What happened to this crystal?” Blueblood asked, his tone taking on a dark note. “Destroyed,” I answered. “The remains are still in the room but the power has left it.” “Then it seems I owe you and the Panther for protecting my sanity.” Consider my surprise when I actually recognised the tone of respect in Blueblood’s voice. The prince looked toward a nearby clock. “The sun should be raised shortly. Once Aunt Celestia returns this afternoon I’ll be having a long discussion with her about this.” Blueblood lit his horn and opened a cabinet on the wall, taking hold of a set of three wine glasses. “Fabulator, I think this calls for a drink.” Fabulator nodded, “I’ve got a bottle of ’52 Crémant de fantaisie, this seems like an appropriate occasion.” Fabulator went inside to get the bottle. “Sun should be up in five minutes, hurry along Fab,” Blueblood murmured. Octavia came up alongside and spoke quietly to me, “How often have you been doing this since we last met?” I shrugged, “every now and then, but I think this will be the first time I’ve drunk forty eight year old wine.” “I believe I have made the right choice with you,” Octavia responded cryptically. Fabulator returned at a brisk canter and presented the bottle of wine to Blueblood who took it with his magic. The prince cracked the cork and caught the stream of pressurised alcohol in his magic and guided it into the set of wine glasses. He presented a glass to everypony except Shining Armour. We all turned to look toward the west, where the moon waited to be lowered over the horizon. Situated as we were on the west side of Canterhorn Mountain we wouldn’t be able to see the sun rise in the east. As the clock on the wall reached Five-Thirty, the scheduled time for the sunrise, we looked toward the moon. Blueblood raised his glass. “Lady and gentlecolts, a toast in the name of Princess Celestia, may she have another thousand years of peaceful rule.” Everypony echoed the prince’s toast as we watched for the moonset. As we watched, waiting, the mare in the moon disappeared from the lunar surface. Luna’s Notes: (1) Despite his faults, Blueblood hast a few qualities that make him useful to us, despite how few they are. Principally, he is remarkably adept to his role as prime minister of the council and as the barrier between our sister and the nobility at large. There are few in this world that he truly feels affection for, beyond his “aunties” and his “cousin”. (2) Despite widespread acceptance of fillyfooling within Equestria, the nobility and their close associates remain principally opposed to the practice. Their reasons are primarily related to the integrity of noble bloodlines. As a result, openly declaring oneself to be a fillyfooler will result in being shut out of any social or business relationship with members of the nobility. This would of course cripple Octavia’s career and see her quietly removed from the Canterlot Symphony Orchestra. (3) The Dry Equestria Act which forbids the production or sale of alcohol has an exemption clause for any wine that was owned before the law was enacted. The nobility, naturally, stocked their wine cellars in the month leading up to the enactment and continued to partake in the substance during the period the law was enforced.