//------------------------------//
// A Delivery 
// Story: Azure Flame 
// by Silver Page 
//------------------------------//

	Blueblood grumbled angrily to himself. Not because he was mad, but because he was fairly certain he could taste the color yellow, and see infinity. In short, he had the worst headache in history. Princess Luna had tried to alleviate his pains with a spell, but the two royals soon discovered that healing magic and Mana Fatigue just made the agony worse. So after ten minutes of writhing in pain, and thirty minutes of Luna apologizing profusely, Blueblood was ready to face the day.
“So, how is everypony from the Hospital doing?” Blueblood asked, as he and Luna walked down the corridors of the castle. They were supposed to meet with Celestia and the Royal Guards about the incident, and Blueblood wanted to know what had happened after he had passed out.
“Everypony is fine, including little Bouncing Ball. She’s weak, but will be alright. As for the rest, a few of the elderly patients were startled and needed some blood pressure medicine, but for the rest, all is well. The guests are also fine, and they were escorted home safely and without problem,” Luna said, enlightening her nephew.
“Excellent, I’m glad to hear it.” Blueblood was quiet, and for a while the two just walked.
“How was the party, nephew? Before the incident of course,” Luna inquired, and Blueblood’s stoic face softened with a smile.
“It was wonderful, Aunt Luna! The ponies were polite and unafraid, and I was able to dance with Miss Rarity!” A blush crept onto his face, which Luna noticed. She decided to hold off on teasing him, however, till she had more to work with.
“And you didn’t enter Snob Mode?” Luna asked. At that, Blueblood stopped in his tracks. He blinked.
He hadn’t gone into Snob Mode! Not once during the evening had he felt the need to become the prissy snob he usually was during social functions! Was it because of Rarity? Was it because there hadn’t been any nobles? He had never been to a party or social event where he hadn’t once felt the need to protect himself with the aloof attitudes and manners of an arrogant jerk! 
“I didn’t…” Blueblood whispered, and Luna, stopping in her tracks as well, cocked her head to one side.
“I didn’t! I didn’t enter Snob Mode, or feel the need to do so! What’s happening to me?!” Though overjoyed at first, Blueblood couldn’t help shake the feeling something was wrong, and to be perfectly honest with himself, he wasn’t very good with handling change. 
“Be calm, Blueblood. Deep breathes,” Luna encouraged softly, and Blueblood complied, taking her advice. To his surprise, it didn’t take as long as he thought it would, so that was a blessing.
“Sorry, Aunt Luna. I’m not so good with sudden change,” he explained, embarrassed. She just smiled kindly, and together the continued on to Celestia’s personal briefing room, where hopefully, some facts would make themselves clear.
After another minute, the pair walks into the tastefully decorated room that served as the Solar Princess’ personal living room and occasionally her briefing room. The room was full already, with Celestia seated on a cushion bed with Twilight and Cadence on her right and left sides, respectively. Shining Armor stood next to his wife, and the other Elements of Harmony plus Spike sat on couches and pillows placed around the room. A few guards from both the Day and Night Guard stood at attention within, to protect their respective mistresses and their guests.
“Hello, Blueblood, I’m glad to see you are awake,” Celestia said, noticing him enter with Luna. “Thank you for getting him, sister.”
Luna nodded in response, and Blueblood takes a look around at the expression on the rest of the room’s occupants. 
Cadence wore a worried expression for her cousin, and he was touched she felt such concern for him. Shining Armor also looked worried, but from a more military standpoint. An entire hospital was taken hostage and a member of the Royal Family was nearly assassinated! This was the worst catastrophe thwarted since his wedding fiasco with the Changlings!
Twilight and Rarity shared a similarly concerned look at Blueblood, though Rarity blushed and looked away when she met his eyes. He’d deal with that later, Blueblood thought as he pushed it to the back of his mind. 
Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie looked even more worried than Cadence, and their expressions were also mixed with sympathy and sadness towards the prince. He felt a smile come to his face at their concern, and nodded a greeting to them, making them smile a bit as well.
Applejack and Rainbow Dash had more of an angry expression, clearly furious at being thrashed by the trio of anarchists last night. Blueblood was certain he didn’t want to piss them off any more than they already were.
Lastly, the young dragon Spike sat on thick cushion next to Twilight, rubbing his eyes, clearly waking up from sleep. 
“It seems we have everypony here,” Celestia said after a moment of looking around the room to check that everypony was indeed present.
“First off, I want to thank you, Spike, for getting your message to me as soon as you did,” Celestia said with a warm smile, and the room, even Blueblood, gave him one as well. The little dragon rubbed the back of his head and blushed.
“Aw, shucks! It was no problem,” he muttered, embarrassed. 
“I’d like to thank you as well, Spike,” Blueblood added, stepping up. Spike blinked in surprise, as did some others, Twilight and Rarity included. “You not only saved my life, but also that of Bouncing Ball and potentially every other pony in the hospital. Thank you.” 
With that, Blueblood nodded his head to Spike and again the scaled child blushed with embarrassment. He mumbled something about it being no big deal, and Celestia nodded in approval.
“Next, we need to discuss the people who committed this act,” the princess began, and turned to Shining Armor. “Do you have any idea who they were?”
The Guard Captain nodded, and levitated a folder from one of the nearby desks and held it up.
“We have some ideas, based on their descriptions. We think that the Earth Pony was a one Broken Plate, and his associates were the Pegasus Glorious Sundrop, and the Unicorn Muddy Ink. Those three have been sighted from time to time causing havoc and are likely behind a dozen assaults on high ranked Noble ponies across Equestria. None of their victims are dead, but all were severely beaten. A few still have not fully recovered, and may be crippled for life,” Shining Armor said, reading notes out of the folder. He looked up at Princess Celestia and Luna, the moon princess having taken a seat next to her sister, with Twilight scooting over to make room.
“As for what the Unicorn Muddy Ink shouted last night…”
“No King, No Queen, No Lord, No Master. We will not be fooled again,” Celestia recited, interrupting a surprised Shining and earning a terrified look from Cadence. Blueblood, who had taken a seat near Rarity and the other Elements, stiffened in shock.
“Those were the same words spoken to me 15 years ago, by the terrorist whom Prince Blue Wave sacrificed himself to stop,” Princess Celestia explained, when everypony gave her a surprised and shocked look. Twilight and Rarity looked over at Blueblood with worry in their eyes, and they saw him struggling to keep himself in control. 
At once, Princess Cadence jumped up from her seat and practically tackled her cousin, wrapping him up in a hug that proceeded to calm him down. She had seen the signs of a panic attack, and reacted as she had done all those years ago when Blueblood had become depressed after the death of his mother.  A few minutes later, and she released him with a sad yet comforting smile, and he returned it, though a bit less enthusiastically.
“Thank you, Cadence,” he murmured, as she walked back to her seat and sat down.
“I fear that these events and ponies are connected in some way,” Celestia said, as if the tender moment had not happened. 
“I agree, sister. There must be some sort of group or cult behind these pony’s actions. I find it hard to believe it is coincidence that two separate ponies would know the same battle cry as each other unless they were related in some fashion,” Luna said, agreeing fully with her sister’s assessment. 
Before any of the ponies could voice their ideas, a pair of maids burst into the room in a panic.
“What’s going on?!” Shining Armor shouted, and the maids trembled a bit before pointing behind them.
“This appeared in the throne room while we were cleaning in there,” the maid on the left explained, pointing a hoof at a large mirror. The second maid had a piece of rope in her mouth, and the rope was tied to a small wagon that was pulling the mirror with her. The mirror was massive, about seven feet tall and five feet wide, the glass was a smoky grey and set in a bright gold and silver frame. It was not decorated and seemed extremely plain, and would be unassuming, if not for the massive emblem in the center of the glass. An enormous stylized black bird, with its wings spread and head tilted back for a screech, dominated the middle of the mirror, and it was surrounded by a wreath of black flames. The design invoked a sense of tingling apprehension in all who saw it.
“We brought it with us, because there was a message attached to it,” the maid explained, passing an envelope to one of the Day Guards, who passed it on to Shining Armor. He opened it and read it, eyebrows shooting up as he read its contents.
“What does it say?” Luna inquired. He showed her.
“Hello and Goodbye?” the Lunar Princess read aloud, eyebrows also raised. A loud chuckle filled the air as soon as the words left her mouth.
“Hello, Princesses,” A voice full of loathing and dark amusement announced, and everypony in the room turned in shock to stare at the mirror, where the sound had come from. 
As they watched, the black bird emblem faded, and the grey tones of the glass vanished, revealing a bipedal creature standing in the mirror and wearing a heavy black robe and hood that obscured every part and feature of its body. A dark laugh broke their stunned silence.
“How is everyone this fine afternoon?” the creature in the mirror asked.