//------------------------------// // Chapter 12: A plan for the day // Story: The Chronicles of No One // by Pr1me Sh0ck //------------------------------// Chapter 12 Noah awoke from his light sleep with a start, accidentally jostling the mare beside him and the filly across his forelegs. The moon had begun its descent behind the horizon, the sun slightly illuminating the sky in an ethereal twilight. Noah looked around, Ditzy gave her head a toss in her sleep, not awakened by Noah’s movement, Dinky simply rolled over, slipping between Noah’s forelegs. Noah slowly rose to his hooves, careful not the wake the mother or her daughter, and tiptoed around their sleeping forms and making his way over to the door. He opened it slowly, a small squeak the only noise it produced, and he made his way to the back door. He snuck outside, the sky lit further by the twilight glow. Turning to face the coming sun he stood in awe as the sunrise painted vivid orange hues across the sky, his muzzle slightly agape in an honest smile at the wonder he beheld. A soft yawn heralded the arrival of another pony. Ditzy had slept light, noticing Noah’s absence almost immediately. Dinky was perched upon her mother’s back, the filly had also taken note of Noah’s leave, the squeaking door waking her from her slumber. The trio stood together, not speaking just marvelling at the sunrise that unfolded before them. As the horizon finally relinquished its hold on the sun Ditzy turned, and trotted back inside, “I’m going to start on breakfast,” she said stopping at the door with another yawn, “Come in whenever you’re ready.” Noah didn’t respond for a moment, thinking about the events of the previous day and night, “I remember,” he said softly as Ditzy retreated inside, pausing a moment longer before following the mare inside. Breakfast both was and was not a simple affair. As Noah walked into the kitchen the smell of butter in a frypan hit his nostrils. He closed his eyes and inhaled deeply, the scent of batter and oranges filling his sense. “Pancakes?” he asked casually. “A good nose on you,” Ditzy replied with a sleepy smile, “Blueberry pancakes and freshly squeezed orange juice.” Opening his eyes Noah saw the mare at the cooktop, a bowl of batter perched on the bench, a ladle held carefully in her wing. Ditzy spun on the spot looking for something unknown with her wing still outstretched, the jug of juice lay in its path. Time seemed to slow for Noah as the mare’s wing swept closer to the jug. Just before contact was made a soft golden glow enveloped the pitcher, raising it up above the wing and placing it back down on the counter. Noah stood stunned, his jaw dropped to the floor, he had honestly thought that the mare’s wing would clip the pitcher, sending it crashing to the floor. A soft giggle from behind alerted him to the saviour, making him swivel on the spot. Dinky picked up a tea spoon from the table, the tell-tale glow of magic surrounding her horn and the cutlery. She waved it in Noah’s face a couple of times, bopping him on the head before putting it back onto the table. “Cheeky,” he muttered, pouting a little before letting a smile crawl across his face. Dinky’s horn regained its aura, Noah turned around just in time to see Ditzy swing around again, a plate of pancakes balanced on one wing, a platter with the juice, some cream and fresh cut lemon on the other. Both items were shrouded in Dinky’s magic, any sharp movements that her mother made were softened allowing for the meal to make it to the table intact. “Oops left the stove on again,” Ditzy said, she turned around quickly, her wing catching a glass and knocking it from the table. Noah watched as Dinky’s quick reflexes caught the glass before it hit the floor, setting it back upright on the table. “Nice catch,” Noah mentioned, the filly on the end of his compliment beaming back at him. “Yeah mum can be a bit clumsy sometimes,” Dinky replied, “It helps I can do magic to catch things.” “You weren’t that clumsy yesterday when you were beating the stuffing out of me,” Noah said, turning to the mare, giving her his attention. “Well, when it comes to Dinky I’m as careful as anything,” Ditzy replied, somewhat bashful at the compliment, “But she is right, I can be a bit of a klutz.” “Surely you can’t be serious.” “You saw Town Hall?” Ditzy dropped him a dejected look, “They call me Derpy because of my clumsiness, I’m the reason it’s in such disrepair all the time,” her faced turned down, a saddened look upon her face. “That can’t be the whole story,” Noah sounded unconvinced that the mare was simply ‘a klutz’. “It’s not, my condition makes it hard to perceive distances,” she looked up at Noah, catching his full gaze for the first time. Her eyes wouldn’t line up, one always looking off in another direction. “Your eyes,” Noah gasped, a hoof quickly covering his mouth. Ditzy nodded, “The doctors called it Wall Eyes, I can’t focus properly, it doesn’t mean I can’t see, it just means I sometimes miss some things in front of me or misjudged how far away things are.” Noah’s mind went into overdrive, a problem like this felt familiar. He found himself quickly lapsing into his realm of memories, he looked quickly searching for when he might have encountered any similar problem. The sun above pulsed once, a shell of a memory drifting down to Noah. He had the answer. Noah snapped back to a confused look upon Ditzy’s face, “I might have a solution, I’ll let you know after breakfast and a bit of thinking,” he said, leaving the mare even more confused as he dove back into his pancakes. Luna strolled confidently up to the meeting room doors, nodding at the Solar Guards defending them, she grasped the handles in her magic, flinging the doors wide open, “THE PRINCESS OF THE NIGHT HATH ARRIVED,” she bellowed into the room. All the attendees cringed at the sound, bar the Princess of the Day. Celestia stood at the head of the table, towering above her subjects she merely rolled her eyes at her sister’s antics. “It is so nice of you to join us Lu-Lu.” “Oh Tia, We have the most interesting news,” Luna exclaimed with obvious excitement, bounding over to her sister, “We met somepony new last night, he-.” “We are in the middle of a crisis here,” Celestia interrupted, agitated at her sister antics, “I don’t have time for you to regale me with tales of some new pony with lucid dreams again. We are trying to deal with an invasion that occurred yesterday, during Cadance’s wedding. The culprits ar-.” It was Luna’s turn to interrupt, all excitement left her voice, she spoke with a flat tone. “Bug-like ponies, smaller in stature, white fangs, pure green eyes, almost pupil-less, tatter frills for manes and tails, gossamer wings resembling a beetle almost, and a horn that looks like a dagger.” The ponies in attendance all stopped, staring at the Princess, she had been absent for the entire time, how could she have known what the culprits looked like. “Well you know what they look like, but they-,” Princess Cadance started. “They have both flight and magic, using a previously unknown technique to take the form or at least image of loved ones, making them almost indistinguishable from regular ponies,” Luna interrupted once more. Mouth’s that were agape now dropped to the floor in the Princesses knowledge. All at the table thought that she had not yet been brought up to date. Twilight Sparkle broke the silence, “How could you know all that, you weren’t even there,” a hint of disbelief edging into her voice. “You forget, Magic, that We are the Princess of Dreams, and through all of last night We hath been soothing reoccurring nightmares of our little ponies,” Luna responded with a smug smile, “We learnt almost all we needed to know except for the most important question, why.” Celestia nodded at her sister, recognizing her knowledge, “So you know that we talk of the changelings.” “Changelings,” Luna muttered to herself, rolling the word around her mouth a couple of times, “We Cannot say We’ve heard of the creatures,” she said to the room. “No nopony can, nopony even knew they existed until yesterday, they were barely a myth before the invasion, and now we are discussing how to handle the situation.” “We should scour the towns closest for remnants of the changelings, they need to be captured before they do any further damage,” Cadance stated, hatred seething from her words. “Yeah, Ponyville could be in trouble, we should go there right away and make sure they’re all right,” Rainbow Dash added, launching herself up into the air and hovering a few meters above the table. “Normally Ah don’t like ta jump ta conclusions, but Ah agree, these varmin need to be dealt with,” Applejack’s strong southern accent entered the fray. The four other elements, muttered their agreement with the plan, adding in parts of their own accord, protect Ponyville and kick some bug butt. Even the captain of the guard Shining Armour was nodding, his usual stoic expression replaced with barely hidden rage. “ENOUGH,’ Luna bellowed, making the occupants of the room jump once more, “Our first duty is to take care of this city and its citizens.” “My sister is right,” Celestia said, a grim expression rising in her features, “We should search the city and make sure any remnants are taken into custody, and then we can search the surrounding towns.” “But they attacked my wedding!” Cadance screamed at the solar princess, “You don’t know what it’s like to have one of your most magic days almost ruined.” “AND YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND,” Celestia roared back at the pink princess, Cadance cowering at the anger that rolled off Celestia in waves, “You weren’t there, you weren’t at Marelem during the trials! None of you were even born and Luna had just been-.” Celestia broke down, a small sob escaping her, tears trickling down her muzzle. All in attendance watched in shock, unknowing how to deal with the situation. Luna trotted over, raising a comforting wing and draping it across Celestia as best she could. “It was right after the banishment of Nightmare Moon, only a couple of months had passed,” Celestia began, her volume so soft that all leaned in to hear her whispers. “Have you ever wondered why there are so few bat ponies?” she asked, not waiting for an answer, “There was a cult, they were very small but they grew to immense power immediately following the events of Nightmare Moon.” “They began a rumour, a terrible lie that the bat ponies that followed Luna were as evil as Nightmare Moon herself. They started this lie so they would have a villain to rally the ponies against, and this lie… it grew.” She sobbed once more, burying her muzzle under Luna’s wing. “They spun this lie growing it to the point where in one small town, Marelem, the ponies snapped. In fear the lie of the evil bats had grown to the point where random ponies on the streets were being accused of colluding with them.” “There was no basis for these accusations, no basis for the lies, yet in their fear the ponies of Salem put hundreds of their own townsfolk to the trials. Water, fire, dirt, cloud, all these trials and more were used on innocents to determine if they were in conspiracy with the bat ponies. Held underwater, torched at stakes, buried alive, dropped from clouds, if a pony accused survived just one of these trials they were guilty and hung, if they died, they were sometimes found innocent posthumously, most other times they were branded weak but still associates of the bat ponies.” “The bat ponies themselves… they fared much worse… I was weakened by the battle, unable to help them… to stop the cult before it all got out of hand. By the time I managed to intervene the bat ponies had fled, I’m not even sure how many were left to flee. The silence that hung in the room was palpable, heads hung in shame at the considered action, mouths agape in horror at the story that had unfolded. “Is that what thee wants,” Luna asked Cadance softly, tears of her own forming, “Another Marelem, and with the changeling’s ability to take ANY form, how many innocents doth thou think will fall?” Shame infiltrated its way across Cadance’s features, “No, I don’t want that,” she said softly, she faced Celestia dead on, “What would you do?” Celestia allowed a small smile, the victory was Cadance’s common sense, “There is still a media blackout about the whole wedding, it is likely that no one outside of Canterlot knows what has happened, we need to reassure the citizen of this city that everything that can be done is being done.” “We are almost certain that no more Changelings can be found within the city, but I will have all available guards on search duty reassuring the ponies,” Shining Armour stated, a stoic look resuming its rightful place on his face. “See that it is done,” Celestia said with a small smile, “However I will need you and Cadance to submit to analysis, there is likely some changeling magic residue that we can use to our advantage, maybe come up with a countermeasure. What’s more we need to avoid media frenzy on this, as soon as the media curtain falls there might be pandemonium let’s try to avoid that.” Twilight stepped forward, raising a hoof in a scholarly fashion, “A well written royal notice on the matter would probably help avoid a nasty situation, it should clarify a few points on the changelings, and make sure that vigilantism is entirely avoided.” “Good point my dear student, we shall send out a preliminary report for the town guards at once, it will avoid any them jumping to conclusions but it should make them keep a closer eye on the townsfolk. A follow up report shall be sent in a couple of days when we have more information, this will include the royal notice about the incident, and hopefully we can nip this in the butt before the media create frenzy.” All in attendance nodded in agreement, “Then it is decided, Captain, organise the searches and have the Wonderbolts report to me to deliver the preliminary report to the towns, Twilight, you and Cadance should start researching the changelings and their magic, also try to find out what kind of spell was used to eject them from Canterlot. The rest of you, take a well-deserved rest, I’m sorry but I need to keep you here a little while with the Elements of Harmony just in case.” “But Princess Celestia!” Rainbow Dash started, “I really want to help, can’t I fly the letter to Ponyville, check up on home while I’m there, piece of mind for the rest of the girls and all.” “I suppose that would be alright, it will be up to the Wonderbolts to let you join with them but I don’t see the harm, I’ll send somepony to set you know what they decide. Now please, the rest of you, try to relax, we shall let you know when there is something to tell. “So what’s this solution?” Ditzy asked as she stood at Noah’s door, Dinky had run in after Noah, jumping onto the pillow pile, finding the most comfortable spot. “Your problem is somewhat similar to one that I was having with a project of mine,” came the muffled replied from the back of the wardrobe, “AHA,” Noah exclaimed as he pulled out his box of electronics. “Aha?” Ditzy enquired, confused at how a box might help her situation. “I don’t want to get your hopes up just in case this doesn’t work but here’s the deal,” he pulled out the micro quadrotor, “This device I was building had the problem where it couldn’t see, it couldn’t process the vision fast enough, so to help it see I used these,” he placed a set of components on the night stand. “What are those?” “Ultrasonic sensors, they use high frequency sound waves to detect objects and then sends a signal based on the distance away from the object,” Noah explained happily, thoroughly immersed in his field and teaching what he knew to another. “Now I can’t be sure this would work, and even then it would take quite a bit of time, and I would need to find a way to power the device, but two of these devices when working together would detect an object in front of you to your left or right and would send a signal, probably a vibration. The vibration would be on the left or right of your body, or both, this would tell you where an object is, and the strength of the vibration would tell you how far away the object is.” Ditzy was growing more and more entranced at the description as Noah went on, although he couldn’t promise that it would work, so many doctors had told her she would be like this for the rest of her life, she allowed herself a brief moment of hope. “Like I said,” Noah began finishing up, “I can’t promise it would work, or if I could power it, but if you are willing, I’ll try and help you.” Ditzy nodded furiously in agreement, any possibility no matter how slim, was better than nothing, “If you would be so kind as to try, I… we would be so grateful.” “Well I can’t get started on it right away, I need to go see Big Mac, I wanted to check out the library, and I think I need to head to the hospital once more,” Noah said, stroking at his chin. “Well what are you waiting for,” Ditzy practically yelled, “Go, GO, hurry up,” she ushered Noah and Dinky out of the house, barely giving Noah enough time to grab his cloak, “Where to first?” “First I want to go to the hospital once more, just by myself, you had some shopping to do yes?” Noah asked. “Yeah,” Ditzy said dejectedly. “Well point me in the direction of the hospital, and I’ll meet you in the market in about an hour or so, yeah?” “Yeah,” Ditzy said, now excited, pointing Noah towards the hospital before heading off to the market with Dinky in tow.