Chapter 3 - Recalling Past Events
Canterlot was always a quiet place at night. Celestia doubted if there was anypony that had decided to stay up this late at night, other than the two princesses and the New Lunar Republic of course. She sighed as she began to recall the events that had occured earlier that day.
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"Your Highness!" shouted Celestia's watch commander, Dark Bolt as he slammed the door to Celestia's private study open. Celestia looked up from the report on how the treaty with the griffin ambassador was going. "Yes Dark Bolt, what is it?" Dark Bolt was a midnight blue unicorn with a red mane and his cutie mark was a red shield with a flaming sword on it. He started to pant and leaned against a column to help support himself. "One second your Majesty, I'm a little tired from the run here." Celestia waited for a few seconds while the commander began to catch his breath. "Commander Dark Bolt is there a good reason that you have disturbed my studies?" Celestia said while she gave her commander a glass of water. "Thank you and yes there is; Discord's statue has gone missing!"
Celestia stopped what she was doing to turn to the commander. "How could that have happened commander?"
"The guard on duty at the time reported seeing another guard and a unicorn fighting in front of the statue, but when he tried to stop them the unicorn and the statue disappeared in a flash of light."
"I hope you realize commander that this is bad." Celestia replied as she readied her teleportation spell. Dark Bolt nodded respectfully as he replied, "I know your Highness. I have realized this and have began to search the castle for any sign of magic." Celestia completed the spell and Dark Bolt found himself outside of the throne room. "So Dark Bolt what happened to the guard found arguing with the unicorn and what progress have you made on the castle search?" Celestia asked as she led Dark Bolt into the throne room.
"I'm sorry your Highness the guard was killed from the teleportation spell the unicorn used and the castle search hasn't gotten that..."
"Dark Bolt!" a pegasus guard yelled as he interupted the commander.
"Yes, what do you need?" Dark Bolt replied as he turned to the guard annoyed that he had been interrupted.
"The unicorn has been spotted leading Discord into a room in the dungeon of the castle and the guard has been assembled outside of the door," the guard mumbled, not expecting the princess to be with Dark Bolt.
Dark Bolt jumped up from his seat and started to run over to the door, "Why haven't you arrested them yet?"
"We were waiting for your word commander," the guard replied.
Before they could do anything the two ponies found themselves in front of the door to the room with the pricess imbetween them. Celestia then said, "I believed it would be easier if I was the one to talk to Discord" Dark Bolt nodded and turned to the guards. "Are we ready?"
"Yes Sir!"
"Then lets go..."
Before he could say anything else a dark presence came over the group. Celestia's look hardened and she began to get a reddish tint to her coat.
Dark Bolt backed away from Celestia as she said, "Commander I beleive it would be best if we went in the room now." Dark Bolt stopped and nodded to an Earth pony guard as he squared up to the door and began to run at it as Dark Bolt yelled out, "Breaching!"
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Celestia rubbed her forehead with her hooves as she started to get a headache from the days events.
"Sister!"
Celestia turned to find her sister Luna coming in with another unicorn that was cloked in a dark blue robe in tow. "Hello my sister what can I do for you today?" Celestia said as she tried to hide the discomfort of the days events from her sister.
"Do not play games with me Tia do you think that events like these would slip from my view. Even if Discord and his accomplise didn't use dark magic to do whatever they did I would have been informed by my second-in-command," Luna yelled.
Now that Celestia had a better look at the pair she recognized the other pony as Lightning Bolt, a close friend of Luna and one of the heads of the NLR. She paciently waited as her sister continued to ramble on about how inconsiderate Celestia had been about trying to hide Discord's release from her sister. As her sister finally stopped to take a breath Celestia started to speak, "Lightning I believe you should go as I try to talk some sense into my sister." Lightning nodded, "As you wish your Magesty." As he turned to leave Luna put her wing in front on Lightning Bolt and held him back.
"No Tia, whatever you need to say to me can be said in front of him," Luna said while she glared at her sister. Celestia motioned for the two of them to take a seat. They all sat down and Luna quickly told her sister that they had heard the story from a night guard who had been at the castle at the time. "How did he know that Discord had escaped the spell was a powerful spell to be sure, but it was only temporary. Before Discord said anything he turned back to stone." Celestia said with a puzzled expression.
Before Luna could reply Lightning cut in and quickly said, "Rumers travel quickly in a castle. It doesn't take a genius to know when to listen to them," and in a voice only Luna could hear, "Careful your Nightestry we don't want to give away the NLR's secrets do we?" Luna replied in the same voice, "Trust me Lightning. I trust my sister wont betray me, and for the last time call me Luna." Lightning nodded and mumbled to himself, "Yes Luna because it was perfectly expected when Celestia betrayed your trust and banished you to the moon wasn't it." Both the sisters turned to the unicorn with puzzled looks on their faces. He simply shook the feeling off and looked with a bored look on his face to the pair. "Don't you think we should begin?"
The princesses looked at each other and nodded, Luna showing no signs of the anger she had when she came in. "So Discord is a statue again and the accomplise he had is nowhere to be seen. Am I correct?" Lightning stated. Celestia turned to him and nodded, "Yes Discord is stone again and unfortunately the unicorn he had with him is gone."
Luna now had to interupt her sister, "How could the unicorn have gotten away?"
Lightning simply said, "As far as I know the unicorn teleported away from the site before he could be apprehended, but what I want to know is this." Celestia looked at him waiting for the rest of the sentence he had started. "Do you know what the spell was trying to do?" Celestia was taken aback by his question, "What do you mean?"
Luna began to yell at her sister again, "The spell that Discord was trying to complete when you arrested him. What did it do?"
Celestia was about to reply when Lightning's eyes widened. "You don't know do you? The portal Discord made after you came in was to get rid of the evidence wasn't it?" Celestia kept her head low to the ground now when she replied, "Yes, the evidence was destroyed in the portal. We have very limited knowledge about what the spell did or what he could do with what he made."
Luna narrowed her eyes at her sister, " The spell was completed before you entered was it not?" Celestia nodded. Luna sighed and began to wonder how her sister thought she could take care of this on her own, "Do you have any spell experts on the site currently?" Celestia looked at her sister and raised an eyebrow, "No, my only expert is out of town until Tuesday of next week." Luna nodded to this and motioned for an unicorn to enter.
The unicorn was a bright red mare with an orange mane. Her cutie mark was a red flower with fire behind it. Lightning looked at her with a surprized look on his face, "Fire Bloom what are you doing here?" Fire Bloom didn't reply but she went over and sat behind Luna. Celestia looked over to Lightning and then to Fire Bloom, "You know each other."
"Yes Fire Bloom is the NLR's magic researcher, that I have recruited to help you find out what the spell did," Luna said. Lightning glared at Luna with anger for a second before returning to his blank expression and looking back to Celestia.
Celestia looked at the group and smiled, "Well then I do believe we should get to work then."