//------------------------------// // Things That Go Bump In The Night // Story: Her Dark Inheritance // by GoesKaboom //------------------------------// Celestia sighed as her internal clock, the mechanism that alerted her to the necessity of raising or lowering the sun, pinged her subconscious. “Court is done for the day. Return to thine homes and have a restful slumber. I shall see everypony in the morn when we reconvene.” As all of the various nobleponies, petitioners, and courtiers filed out of the throne room, Celestia thought back to the topics of discussion that were brought up that day. First had been the news of the death of the aggressive, bellicose Penguin Empress, Mofubuki. The leader of the Penguin Nation had been making overt, threatening displays towards not only Equestria, but many of the other nations as well, a problem that Celestia feared she would have to step in to solve. Pengin was a tiny nation, and its penguin inhabitants were woefully behind the other species in terms of advancement. Picking a fight with Equestria, or Saddle Arabia, or Griffindell would only end in tragedy and bloodshed for the flightless birds, something that the pony regent would prefer to avoid. Empress Mofubuki's demise was at least one headache averted, but now there was the matter of her successor, her son. Equestrian intelligence forces did not know enough about the new Emperor to determine whether or not he would be a threat. Affter that, Celestia had been regaled with tales of things that happened after the sun went down. Normally that wouldn't have been her domain, as things that happened after dark were her sister's responsibility... or at least, they were supposed to be. That was the complaint that had been brought up repeatedly from various nobleponies and business owners all around Canterlot. Princess Luna had apparently been slacking off in her duties and responsibilities as Guardian of the Night. Ponies were reporting a recent upsurge in crime and other unpleasantness after the sun went down. The euphemistically-named “Flower Town” district in Canterlot seemed to be the seat of all of these activities, and Luna appeared to be neglecting her duties in regards to taking care of the problem. Truth be told, Celestia was beginning to worry about her younger sister. She rarely, if ever, saw her sister apart from when it was time to change the day to night, or vice-versa. And on the rare occasions that the elder alicorn did see the younger outside of their duties, the younger seemed to be stuck in a constant foul temper. She did not want to talk at all with her sister. She would raise the moon and stomp off to who-knew-where until it was time for her to lower the moon. Up until now, Celestia thought that her sister had at least been doing her job of monitoring what happened in the nighttime and taking care of any problems that might arise during it. But if the criminals running amok was any indication, she wasn't doing that duty, either. All signs were pointing to the fact that the Princess of the Day was going to have a... conversation with the Princess of the Night, something that she dreaded. Celestia knew that the younger alicorn would likely not react well at all. But when it came down to protecting her little ponies, Celestia would fight even her dear sister if it became necessary. “Are you going to lower the sun or are you going to terrify the population of our country that something terrible has happened to their beloved Sun Princess?” Luna's voice was enough to jolt Celestia back to reality, and the white alicorn realized, rather sheepishly, that she had been standing lost in thought for a good ten minutes or so. Celestia also noticed that there was a harsh, sarcastic bite to her sister's words, but she chose to ignore it for the time being. “Sorry, Luna,” the elder sister apologized. “I was thinking about something else.” With her horn glowing with the power of the sun itself, Celestia rose into the air and her power intensified. The sun slowly sank beyond the horizon, enveloping the world in pitch-black darkness for a few moments. Once Celestia stepped out of the way, Luna stepped up and performed a very similar ritual, only this time, the moon rose and illuminated the world with its soft light. Spreading her wings, the younger mare prepared to take off to parts unknown, as she always did, but Celestia, her mind on the petitions brought to her during the day, asked the younger to wait for a moment. Luna did as requested, a wary look on her face. “Luna, today I heard something from one of my little ponies. Apparently there have been some problems arising at night in the Flower Town district. When other ponies are sleeping, there have been reports of others taking advantage of this to commit crimes. As Guardian of the Night, it is your duty to prevent such things from taking place.” Celestia knew that Luna wouldn't appreciate being lectured about her duties, but the older alicorn certainly did not expect the response she got. Luna's wings clamped down violently towards her sides, and the younger sister strode purposefully towards the older, the stones of the throne room creaking under Luna's angry hoofsteps. “And of course the beloved Sun Princess takes the word of a mortal pony without thinking that the despised Lunar Princess has her reasons for doing what she does?” Princess Luna snarled, every syllable dripping with venom. As her anger rose, she unconsciously slipped into the more formal diction that the princesses used with their subjects. “Of course thine sun-loving subjects doth have no idea that the lesser princess hath her reasons for doing what she does, oh no, they runneth to the favored royal when things doth get uncomfortable for them.” Celestia, shocked at the vitriol her sister was spewing, tried to calm her down. “Luna, nopony thinks of you as the lesser princess-” “THOU SHALL NOT LIE TO ME!” Luna hollered, her horn flaring with involuntary magic born of her rage. “Do not lie to me, sister. I know what they think of me. They hath never liked me, and they never shall. Thou can see it clearly in the way that they doth act. I know about the situation. I hath been watching and waiting. If I make a move too early, they shall know what I plan! But thine sunshine-loving ponies, in their ignorance, do not understandeth.” “Luna, I-” “Do not. Do not, sister,” the younger alicorn spat. “Next time, thou should think before you accept what the ponies doth tell you.” With that, Luna launched herself off the balcony of the throne room, soaring off to wherever it was that she spent the nights until it was time for her to lower the moon. Celestia stared off after her sister, wondering if she should follow her. There was something behind her sister's vitriol that troubled her deeply, although she couldn't quite place a hoof on it. Luna fumed as she soared through the night sky. It was just like Celestia to jump to conclusions, believing some random mortal pony over her own sister! The fact that Celestia was actually right in this specific case didn't matter, it was the principle of the thing that upset the night alicorn so much. Yes, Luna had been aware of the goings-on in Canterlot’s “Flower Town” district for quite some time now, but she wasn’t particularly inclined to do anything about them, unless the incidents were to suddenly increase in severity. Despite the images that most ponies had of the city as being a wealthy unicorn enclave, there were pockets of the city that were anything but. The Flower Town district was one of them. It was one of the few places in all of Equestria at that time that non-ponies could be found- they were attracted by the lucrative business market- much of it pseudo-legal or outright prohibited. The area also had a bit of a reputation of being a red-light district. Anything anypony wanted could probably be procured here, as long as they had the bits. As her duty as the Warden of the Night, Luna had been paying attention to the supposed “crime wave” sweeping through Canterlot. Her investigation had, in fact, led her to the Flower Town, but upon closer inspection, she chose not to act. Yes, there had been a spate of crimes, but they were mostly minor property crimes and mostly committed out of desperation. A handful of foals breaking into a local bakery, but stealing nothing but a batch of muffins and three loaves of bread. They left the money be, and Luna saw that they were starving. Their desperate act was born of necessity. Some of those youngsters looked like they were days away from death if they didn’t get something to eat. As a princess of Equestria, Luna could not in good conscience prioritize some baked goods over the lives of her little ponies. Or, for instance, the case of the desperate young stallion robbing a wealthy unicorn in order to pay for medicine for his foal. The stallion’s child had come down with a terrible case of pegapox, and was in complete and utter misery- if the disease progressed much more, the foal’s life would be in danger. As the stallion couldn’t find work, he was reduced to committing crimes to pay for the medicine he needed. And besides, Luna found it difficult to feel sorry for the victim. That particular noblepony had made his fortune by exploiting the dwellers of areas like the Flower Town anyway- it could be argued that the stallion was just stealing his own stuff back. There were hundreds of cases like that, none of them causing any more damage than a few stolen bits here and there or a shattered windowpane. And yet the nobleponies were making a fuss over the loss of a few bits, the equivalents of which they could probably find in their sofa cushions? And Celestia was actually listening to them? In Luna’s eyes it was a gross miscarriage of justice. But nopony noticed or cared, and the desperate ponies just kept putting their faith and trust in Celestia anyway. It made the younger alicorn hopping mad. All things considered, though, Luna decided to spend that evening in the Flower Town- disguised, of course. There was a tavern there, run by an absolutely enormous unicorn mare- Luna hadn’t thought that normal ponies could grow to approximately the size of adult alicorns, but if Lace Parasol was any indication, they could. The light gray mare was always willing to look out for her fellow ponies, and a more generous mare Luna couldn’t imagine. Landing in the shadows outside of Lace Parasol’s tavern, Luna applied her disguise spell. To anypony who looked at her, she would appear as simply a dark blue unicorn mare. Luna stepped into the shop, although she wasn’t prepared for what she saw. Lace Parasol stood behind the bar, sobbing in absolute despair, while a griffoness and an Earth pony mare tried to comfort her. At first, the alicorn couldn’t figure out what was going on- had Lace Parasol’s husband died, or her son? But then she looked into the separate room, often used for private parties or gatherings, or simply when the tavern was full to capacity in the main room. “I’m tellin’ ya, I didn’t steal no ruby!” a teenaged colt yelled. “I found it in the mountains when I was takin’ some beer to the dragon that lives up there- Sharpteeth- you can go ask him, he likes beer, and he always orders a bunch of it on Tuesdays! When Sharpteeth told me that ruby wasn’t his I brought it home cuz I thought my mom would like it! I didn’t know it was stolen from Prince Whatsizname!” Luna recognized the colt as Lace Parasol’s son, although she couldn’t remember his name. She could, however, remember the name of the stallion interrogating him- Authority Point, captain of the Royal Guard. “Don’t lie to me, boy! You know that ruby came from the residence of Prince Pure Lineage!” Authority Point shouted. “And I know scum like you! Don’t deny, you stole it! What did you steal it for- were you planning to buy salt with it? Or something else?” Concerned, Luna approached the sobbing mare. “What’s going on? What happened?” Lace Parasol looked up at Luna, then started to cry harder. The griffoness glared at her. “And what business is it of yours, pony?” she snarled. The Earth pony mare placed a calming hoof on the griffoness’s hindquarters, to ground her. “Please don’t make things worse, Gaphna…” “No, I’ve had it with these upper-class ponies walking all over my friends!” Gaphna spat. “They don’t care about any of us! Hell, half of them would kill me on sight if it wasn’t for the fact that if word got back home, it would start a war with Griffindell! Why should I be polite to some uppity mare?” “I can help,” Luna insisted, feeling rather insulted. Who did this griffoness think she was? “I want to help!” “And what help would you be able to offer?” Gaphna asked sarcastically. It was at that point that Luna remembered the disguise spell and dropped it. The other individuals’ mouths (and beak) dropped open. Indeed, Lace Parasol was so shocked that she stopped crying, and looked nervously at Gaphna as though she was afraid the griffoness would do something stupid. “Now, will someone please tell me what in Equestria happened here?” “I see,” the alicorn said shortly, having listened to Lace Parasol’s tale of how her son had been on a delivery when he discovered the ruby. Apparently the ruby hadn’t belonged to the grumpy old alcoholic dragon who he’d been delivering beer to (and for a dragon to deny that a piece of treasure was his or hers, that was really something), so the colt had decided to bring it home as a gift for his mother. Lace Parasol swore up and down that her son hadn’t stolen it from anypony. A simple truth spell Luna cast proved that the mare was telling the truth. And after hearing from the other mare that the ruby allegedly belonged to Prince Pure Lineage, Luna had made up her mind. The obnoxious buffoon of a unicorn was, unfortunately, distantly related to herself and Celestia, something like a fourth cousin twenty times removed, but he played up that fact and strutted around as though he was king of the world. Likely what had happened was that he’d seen Lace Parasol’s son walking past with the ruby and decided that he wanted it. So he’d sent the Royal Guard after the hapless colt. “Thank you for telling me. Believe me, madam, I will most certainly resolve this matter myself. In fact, I can guarantee you that unless there is an actual problem, the Royal Guard will not bother you, your family, or your establishment again.” “What… what are you going to do, Your Highness?” the mare asked. Luna just smirked enigmatically. “You’ll see…” the alicorn mare said, before striding into the separate room, where the interrogation was taking place. “THOU SHALT UNHAND THAT COLT, BY ORDER OF THINE PRINCESS!” The Royal Canterlot Voice was loud enough that it could be heard halfway across the city. “But Princess Luna…” Authority Point began, likely to try to explain his actions. But Luna was having none of it. “SILENCE, THOU PERNICIOUS SOLDIER OF FORTUNE!” the alicorn howled. “THOU HAST THAKEN ADVANTAGE OF THY POSITION TO HARASS AND HARM THIS COLT AND HIS MOTHER! A SIMPLE TRUTH SPELL WOULD BE ENOUGH TO DETERMINE VERACITY OF HIS CLAIMS, HAST THOU NOT PERFORMED ONE? OR HAST THOU FORGOTTEN THAT THOU ART A UNICORN?!” Back in the main room of the tavern, the two mares plus the griffoness just looked at each other. “Damn…” Gaphna said. “Damn is right…” Lace Parasol agreed. “You said it,” nodded the Earth pony mare. TBC