//------------------------------// // Preparing Phase Six // Story: Between Day and Night // by Davesknd //------------------------------// The seat of power. The heart of Equestria. Canterlot’s center. There were many ways to describe the throne room. Right now, Luna would have used two: dim and silent. She made her way to the throne and took a look around. “Why are all of the drapes closed, secretary?” she asked quietly. “Ugh, with all due respect, Princess, could you please refrain from using the Canterlot voice?” the secretary, a spectacled, light pony with a tidy brown mane and tail and a pen and inkwell cutie mark answered. Luna knew her well. She had first met Money Penny in Ponyville, where she was visiting her cousin the mayor, and was dressed like a devil. An extremely adorkable Devil, who had cowered in fear before the princess. “We do not use the royal... We do not use all components of the royal Canterlot voice, Mrs Money Penny.” “Oh, sorry, princess....” the mare answered meekly “I assumed you preferred a darker lighting.” The moon princess took a closer look. Rings under bloodshot eyes, much blinking, soft voice, her trademark collar and tie not as neat and tidy as usual. “Mrs Penny, you apparently celebrated our name a little too much yesterday night.” Luna stated bluntly. The mare looked crestfallen. “I apologize sincerely, Princess. I am usually...” Luna sighed. “We are well aware of your diligence and efficiency. But we cannot listen to our subject’s pleads in the dark. Open the drapes.” “Erm... I don’t think that will be necessary.” The secretary admitted. “Why? The court will start in a few minutes. What about the first appointment?” “There are no appointments.” Money Penny answered humbly. “WHAT?” Luna cried, earning a small groan from her secretary. “They even refuse to talk to us in court?” “To be honest.” The smaller mare answered, grabbing a clipboard with wobbly magic “I don’t think that this is the case.” Luna gave her an inquiring look. “We had a filled schedule, but everyone quit their appointments on short notice." The secretary explained carefully. “Most said that they were not feeling well and asked to be rescheduled for afternoon or tomorrows court.” The wheels in Luna’s head turned. “They all have a hangover!?” “There were a lot of customers.” Money Penny admitted, trying not to imagine how much damage had been done to the economy. The moon princess sighed. She wanted some time to plot, not half a day without anything to do. “Then we will stretch etiquette and shall listen to those without appointments.” Luna ruled “Mrs Penny, go, drink some water and rest until afternoon.” “I could not leave you alone, princess!” the secretary answered bravely and instantly regretted raising her voice as a headache hit her. “Keeping you here would qualify as torture.” Luna informed “And it has been abolished after all! At least if what Celestia told us is true.” “Thank you, princess.” The pony answered meekly and took a deep bow. Luna was glad that she was not trembling, like she had the last time. The secretary left quietly. “Now, please open the drapes. It is too dark in here.” “It is?” one of the two night guards, flanking Luna asked. “Yes.” Said one of the regular unicorns, who was about to open the drapes. “Sorry, I’m still getting used to these new eyes.” The honour guard answered, blinking as light flooded the room. “Anypony else hung over?” Luna asked sourly, but no answer came. Blasted Sky had done a good job with the guard. *Court time started.* *Five minutes passed.* “Did we make it clear that we will see any petitioner?” “Yes princess!” “Still nothing?” “Sorry.” Suddenly a guard entered the throne room, removed his helmet and bowed before the princess. “Princess, there are a few petitioners who would like a word.” He said calmly. Luna put on a smile. “Lead them in!” she said gladly. Seconds later, she felt regret fill her heart. Five ponies entered. She had the questionable joy of knowing very well. They were considered pillars of society and were lead by the one and thankfully only Prince Blueblood. The alabaster stallion took place and held a small piece of paper in his magic. “Prince Blueblood. What may I...” Luna started diplomatically, but the unicorn interrupted her. “Unhoof our ruler!” he demanded, holding the paper menacingly. “What?” “We know that you have done something to auntie and we want her back!” he stressed “You may have put satin over the peasant’s eyes, but...” “Wool.” One of the others corrected. “Who in their right mind would use such a cheap material?” Blueblood wondered loudly and continued “You may have... done that thing to the lower classes.” And he stressed the last two words in the same way one would stress *Barbed Tapeworm* “But we, the paragons of this kingdom, we shall not be fooled by your brain washed followers and these monsters, you call your honour guard!” Luna could feel the temperature drop. All of her night guards used to be regular guard ponies and there was still a deep camaraderie between the two factions. Not just the four night ponies were glaring at him; all ten guards within the chamber gave him rather angry looks. While the prince’s armour of arrogance was too thick to notice, the other “paragons” held out their pieces of paper protectively. “What are these papers?” Luna asked. “Your puppets wouldn’t let us in with our weaponry, so we demanded that they gave us receipts for when we leave!” Blueblood answered proudly, not feeling how the temperature dropped lower. Luna grabbed one and took a look. “1 Pitchfork? 1 Torch?” she read “You are the lynch mob?” “I refuse the usage of the word *mob*!” the prince yelled “We are the heroic defenders of Equestria’s rightful ruler! Unlike the guard, which is either brainwashed or incompetent!” At this point Luna’s ire and annoyance disappeared. She saw how all the guards tore Blueblood apart with their looks. There was digging your own grave and there was digging a grave and building a mausoleum on top of it. “Not only have they allowed the peasants to dilly dally the night away, they failed to see your scheme, forceing us to act and go so far as hinder our heroic stand!” the prince continued. Luna was fascinated. He was building higher and higher. “Where is auntie?” he asked gruffly. “Enjoying her vacation.” Luna answered calmly. “Nopony has seen her since the day before yesterday! Reveal her location!” Blueblood continued. “I did!” one of the day guards stated suddenly “She was raising the sun, as usual, on her balcony. She even waved when we flew by.” “I did not ask you, peasant!” the prince snapped “And even if you are not conditioned, brainwashed or deceived, it could have been a puppet, an illusion or anything! You were probably fooled by a few simple mirror tricks!” Luna’s eyes widened. He had just deemed the mausoleum unworthy and went on to heaving stones up his own pyramids. “So, what exactly do you want us to do?” Luna asked carefully. “Release the princess and surrender to her judgement!” “So, you want us to fetch our sister, so you can see that she is well and free?” the moon princess assumed innocently. “I think I made myself clear!” “Of course, Prince!” Luna answered calmly “I will send someone to go and call my sister.” “Very good!” Blueblood answered with his default expression of smug superiority. “Good... all there is to do is call for Celestia and tell her that you demand her to cancel her vacation.” Luna stressed the last words gravely and one of the “liberators” looked up. “We will demand that she takes back the throne because you think that she was severely mistaken to believe, her sister could do a good job.” Now a few beads of sweat started to appear on the faces of all ponies besides the prince “Certainly she can understand that you are scared by change and rather have her chained to this throne.” Whispering started behind the clueless prince. “We can also ask her to do a little dance for you, while we are at it, since she is apparently little more than a windup toy to you!” “Yes! Yes, that would be sufficient!” Blueblood answered completely sincere. This was nothing short of a wonder of the world! A monument to endless arrogance and selfishness! And on the pedestal these words appear: `My name is Blueblood, King of Idiots: Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!' Luna couldn’t even think about doing the universe a favour and send this creature to Tartarus. A being like this should be studied and preserved. Luckily for the prince, one of his acquaintances grabbed him and started whispering into his ear, while a mare walked to the front. “That won’t be necessary, my Princess!” the mare said quickly “I think we overreacted a little. Maybe... we should just calm down and give the princess some time.” “Yes, we can always liberate her when she is overdue!” another stallion threw in and the group started to scuffle backwards, dragging an angry prince with them. “THIS IS NOT THE LAST YOU HAVE SEEN OF ME!” Blueblood managed to declare, shortly before the closing door cut him off. The doors closed. Luna sighed loudly. “Two bonus free days to all guards present!” The guard ponies looked at the princess in surprise. “Erm... thank you!” one said “But why?” “Because I would have mauled him after *puppets*!” Luna sighed “Anyone else out there?” “Actually, yes!” the guard at the door answered. “Lead them in.” Luna announced, fearing the worst. “I present to you, a member of the exclusive Crust family.” The guard announced. Luna instantly knew her fears confirmed. What could be worse than spending time with Jet Set’s snobby wife, Upper Crust? “Lower Crust! Geologist!” “OH! THANK THE STARS WHO FREED ME!” the moon princess exclaimed. Quickly she caught herself and a little blush invaded her cheeks. “You did that on purpose!” “Maybe.” The announcing guard answered and opened the door. A small and rather broad pony with a black and purple, hooded robe entered and kneeled before the princess. He removed the hood, revealing a yellow unicorn stallion with a brown and pale red mane. “Princess- he started slowly “Erm- oh, sorry!” he kneeled down again “Greetings, Princess. I, your humble servant, erm, Lower Crust, have come here before you.” *You don’t say...* Luna managed not to speak this thought. There was a reason why Autumn was the leader and speaker of the followers. “I have come here before you!” Lower stressed again, apparently hoping that some divine script would appear from above or that Luna’s hoofs would turn into cue cards. “Erm- because of what we did.” “We have heard of your deeds, my follower.” The moon princess said with a smile. “We are proud and happy that you have spread joy amongst all our subjects.” A few moments passed “You may stand.” The stallion got up and nodded. “Erm- I’m here because of the money...” he said slowly. “Money?” “Yes- erm- we sorta made a bit of a profit...” the unicorn answered “Erm- we kept the price so low, we hardly got above raw materials, but there were a few donations...” “Oh?” “Erm- and we thought- after voting, of course! Since the boss and Diamond Shadow were busy and we decided to vote.” Luna suppressed a chuckle. Democracy... how cute. “And we, that means the followers, of course, we wanted to... well... donate it... to charity.” The stallion levitated a small scroll out from under his robe. The moon princess accepted the scroll with her magic and took a look. It was the certificate for a bank account. A not exactly slim bank account. “You made all that in one night?” Luna asked with hint of surprise. “Yes. We had a lot of customers.” Luna bit her lip. It was peanuts compared to what some nobles threw around, just to have an excuse to meet up with their friends and stroke their egos. But those ponies raised it on short notice and in one night. It irked the moon princess that she couldn’t make more than a short announcement out of this. The followers clearly earned more than a short mention in the newspaper, but anything more would earn an outcry from the rich and mighty, who would probably call the lunar Princess biased and trying to push her little cult into the spotlight. And Luna had just fought off a lynch mob... “We shall put this money to good use!” the moon princess decreed “There are several free clinics and foal shelters which will be very happy.” Her words earned her a huge smile from the awkward stallion in front of her, which worsened her ire toward the current state of Equestrian high society. “We are exceptionally grateful that you took it upon yourself to do this.” Luna continued. If she couldn’t give them a medal, she could at least give them some nice words. “Again, the creativity, diligence and hard work of the followers have shown that the night is not to be feared anymore! Go home and rest with the knowledge that you have done a great service to your princess and Equestria as a whole!” “Princess... Thank you!” the stallion managed to squeeze out of his trembling lips “We are happy to serve you.” The moon princess waited a few moments, allowing the stallion to compose himself. Then she asked: “If we may inquire, how are the plans for the heating plant developing?” “Oh!” Lower Crust almost keeled over from the change of topic “Very well, my princess. I... well... my part is not very important, but the team is very optimistic. The new colleagues make our old plans... erm... well... they are really shoddy in comparison, but I think we are on the right track.” “Continue to do us proud.” Luna closed and smiled as the follower bowed and turned to leave. But he suddenly spun around again. “Oh, before I forget!” he stuttered and grabbed beneath his robes again. “This is for you!” A thermos levitated towards the princess. “We... well, we thought you should know what we sell in your name...” he explained and quickly left. She let out a small sigh as the door closed. It was still difficult to believe that this awkward little unicorn was not only the brother of Upper Crust, one of the snobbiest beings in Equestria, he was also a brilliant geologist, founding member of the followers and one of the fathers of the geothermal power plant. Autumn had one thing in mind, when he recruited Lower Crust into the followers: Find a way to provide warmth during the eternal night. For some reason, he had apparently expected Nightmare Moon to freeze and starve her subjects to death and decided to prepare excessively. Lower and several other followers had managed to develop plans for a heating plant that would use the natural warmth of the earth’s core. Lower had provided knowledge about the temperature, hot spots and how the soil would react. When Luna had seen the plans for herself, she couldn’t help but admire the stallion a little. It was an idea that had simply not occurred to ponykind before. Earth ponies could easily grow wood to burn, Pegasi had access to storm clouds to fuel radiators and unicorns had their magic. Nopony had ever thought of digging for warmth. They had even covered a “hot cloud” system to provide additional warmth to Cloudsdale. “Are there more petitioners?” the moon princess asked loudly. “Not right now, your majesty!” The moon princess relaxed and gave into her musings. How could she utilize the stallion in her plans? What were his other victories? Her gaze drifted through the room and suddenly it hit her. A grin formed on the lips. Perfect! That went fast! Now all she had to do was get through court! “You can send in the next.” “There aren’t any, majesty...” “None?” “It doesn’t seem so.” Luna let out a sigh, popped the thermos open and took a swing of the wine. “We don’t suppose anyone happen to have a deck of cards?” *Later that day* Luna’s mood had improved over the course of the day. There had been no further lynch mobs or other angry ponies. Things had greatly improved when Fancy Pants and his wife had used their scheduled appointment to congratulate her. She had even managed to get those darn edicts signed early. But the biggest stroke of luck had been when she had seen Celestia fly into the evening sky with enough water for a cloud. It had given her a chance to measure her sister’s feelings. While a thousand years were a long time, it had been clear that Celestia had several things on her mind. The moon princess had suggested that her sister might want to visit the five statues they had received a long time ago. An idea she was extremely proud of. Not only were the statues a good reminder not to distance yourself from your subjects, they were also a gift from a pony that had once courted the sun princess. How else would he have learned so much about the divine sisters? Surely, a reminder of old happiness would be a well placed push. Now, Luna only had to make sure that she was not gauging Twilight’s emotions wrong. Earlier, she had noticed how the purple unicorn had entered the dreamland. Maybe she could find a few clues in there. After retreating to her room, Luna quickly entered the sleeping world and homed in on the space that currently hosted the student. Silently, she slipped into the dream. And left even faster! “Mission Accomplished!” Luna said to herself with a huge blush. “And without any intervention whatsoever...” She really didn’t need to see that! Forcing herself out of the memory, she had noticed how the resting world had been void of her most loyal follower and his girlfriend. “I should go and see if Autumn is ready!” she said loud while trying not to blink. She could see nothing but white and purple when she closed her eyes. The moon princess made her way towards the guest room but stopped at the other end of the hallway, when she saw it open. An armour clad night guard left the room, but turned around to talk to the pony still inside. Not wanting to pry, Luna averted her gaze as she moved closer. The sleeping world’s ferry mare was used to seeing her fair share of naughty dreams but that was in the sleeping world. While she avoided those including her or her sister with great care, she had never minded it. Sexuality was natural and important after all and dreams were there to explore what reality would not allow. Seeing open displays of affections that went beyond the boundaries of family in the awake world on the other hoof still made Luna rather queasy. The world of consequence and order was, after all, not to be taken lightly. Slowly, the princess reached earshot distance. “...and take good care of yourself. I really don’t want you to get hurt.” “Don’t worry, hon, I’ll be careful.” “Please be. It would be a huge loss to good looks everywhere.” “Sigh... you only love me for my body.” “Mostly... yes. But your cooking is a bonus.” Luna rolled her eyes. That was not very nice of Agent Shadow to say, but she was probably joking. The moon princess cleared her throat. Both Ponies spun and kneeled down. “Princess! We didn’t hear you approach!” the stallion said meekly, a huge blush forming on his cheeks. “Do not mind it.” Luna said calmly “I hope you two rested well.” The two ponies in question looked at each other quickly. Now Diamond Shadow was blushing too. They hadn’t gotten as much rest as they should have, since she had felt like doing the *Poor Lonesome Cowgirl* routine and rode her steed into the sunset. “We have much to plan.” The moon princess stressed “Would you mind if we used your room ?” “Erm... of course not.” Autumn said very carefully and both ponies entered. Luna followed and her jaw dropped. “Why is there a huge pile of... stuff in the corner?” she demanded to know. Again, four cheeks lit up. “You see, Princes... when the maids asked us what we wanted to eat, they stressed that they could provide us with anything...” Autumn explained “And I asked *anything* and they stressed *anything*... and so we thought... erm...” “Let’s try it out...” Diamond Shadow finished. “So... you asked for...” Luna made her way over to the pile. “A hatchet? A glass eye? A giant banana? Are those inflatable Diamonds?” “Suffice to say, we were impressed.” Autumn offered carefully. The moon princess let out a sigh and rubbed her forehead. “I hope you are not too disappointed with us...” the stallion added rather crestfallen. “No...” Luna answered flatly “Celestia and I make a game out of it too... Suffice to say: the maids have become very good at it.” She shook her head: Inflatable diamonds... It truly took a very unique mind to prepare for Nightmare Moon by digging for warmth. Diamond Shadow bit her lip and stepped forwards. “I have to apologise, Princess! It was mostly my idea. I got a bit euphoric after I heard that Autumn was to be treated as a royal guest.” “You did no harm.” The moon princess stressed “Most of this is worthless and I doubt that you will keep all the... trumpery. And I think I have to ask if the maids have some connection to Discord... this looks like his talon-paw-hoof-tail-work.” Luna turned to the two ponies. “But enough of that! We have some plotting to do!” The two smaller ponies nodded and Diamond Shadow saluted. “Diamond Shadow, starting tomorrow afternoon, you will both keep an eye on my sister and intercept any attempts to disturb her holiday. I had a very worrying meeting with a few nobles and I believe they might prove troublesome.” Luna decreed. The Pegasus gave another salute. “And Autumn: Your help will be essential.” She continued “You were brought up in Canterlot in the same social class as Twilight Sparkle. You visited the same school and therefore know more about current romantic ideals and notions than I do. You will help me analyze their relationship and support it with ideas and situations! Right after I contact Red in Ponyville, we will plan what activities I will suggest to my sister tomorrow.” “Erm... Princess... I feel honoured that you consider me for this job.” Autumn said carefully “But, I’m not exactly the most romantic-“ “YES, you are!” Autumn’s head turned to look at the Pegasus, who had just interrupted him. “Sorry, love, but you ARE.” Diamond Shadow stated coldly “You know what a mare wants! Trust me on that.” “Well... I guess I can usually guess what you want...” “And what am I? Diced Tomatoes?” “No, but...” “Love, Princess Luna needs your help hooking up the supreme ruler of Equestria and one of the greatest heroines in recent history. Now go and do your patriotic duty!” Diamond Shadow demanded. Autumn let out a sigh and nodded: “Yes, honey...”