//------------------------------// // Chapter 53 - The Maiden, Bunsen Burner, Shining Armor // Story: A Journey Unthought Of: Revival of Chaos // by Hustlin Tom //------------------------------// Three months, twenty-two days, fourteen hours, twenty-seven minutes, and fifty-three seconds. That was exactly how long it had been since the Maiden had last seen Princess Luna, her Dusk. It had been even longer since she had seen Princess Celestia, her Dawn. Though she supposed she should have begun addressing them by their royal titles and names when she had been brought to Canterlot, it was hard not to call them by the names she had given them when they were just little fillies. It was hard for the Maiden to think of the two Princesses as anything but that, even after fourteen hundred years of their being alicorns together. It had grieved her that no one had come to tell her anything of them or their well-being. Where were they? They wouldn’t have just forgotten her in the library study that they shared together. She had wanted with all her might to leave the glass container that was her prison, but she couldn’t. She wasn’t able to leave the room for fear of someone discovering her and mistaking her for some kind of spirit, only to try and exorcise her, or worse succeed at doing so. She instead sat in agonized worry on the study’s fireplace mantelpiece, now for three months, twenty-two days, fourteen hours, twenty-eight minutes, and thirty-seven seconds, feeling abjectly powerless in a situation she neither fully understood or had control over. Her state of consternation was interrupted when she sensed a sudden buildup of Tessaractal energy in the area in front of the fireplace. The phenomenon dissipated as a shrieking explosion and blue light appeared from nowhere, depositing a disheveled earth pony before her. In her state of frenzied worry, she barely processed the stallion’s exclamation, “The royal study? That was definitely off target. I suppose I’m lucky I arrived at all with this cobbled together hunk of junk.” She didn’t care what would happen, not anymore. She needed to know what was happening in the outside world. She jostled her spherical container open from the inside, quickly exiting through the top into the open air. Bunsen Burner looked up to the nearby mantelpiece to see a large cloud of green and yellow light leaving a flask located there, only for it to aggressively descend on him. The real world quickly faded around him into a grey inscrutable fog. From the stubbornly thick mist galloped a large white alicorn mare with straight red hair. Stopping just short of the old stallion in front of her, the Maiden asked hurriedly without thinking, “Do you know what’s happened to my daughters? Is Dawn alright? Where is Dusk?” Bunsen Burner looked up in genuine surprise at this unknown alicorn, “Who are you? What is this place? If I’m alive, don’t waste my time: Canterlot will be under attack soon!” The Maiden grasped onto the last few words he’d spoken and began a new round of questions, “The city is under attack? Is it the Changelings again? Where are the Princesses?” “Time is of the essence, Madame. Let us be brief: I am Bunsen Burner, yes, we are fighting the Changelings, and the Princesses are indisposed at the moment. Now, who and what are you? There are only four alicorns in this land, and you are not one of them.” The Maiden sighed, which her mental projection mirrored by placing her hoof over her face, “I am the..spirit of Celestia and Luna’s mother.” “Don’t bother trying to lie to me,” the old stallion growled, “there are no ghosts in this world.” “I’m trying to use concepts you can at least somewhat understand,” the Maiden’s projection shook her hooves angrily, “and what do you mean by ‘the Princesses are indisposed’?” “Wherever they are, they are not here. Now, whether you are some sort of magical construct or djinn I don’t care: just what exactly do you know about the Changelings?” “Is there a laboratory nearby?” “Why do you ask?” “Give me your hooves and I can make you a chemical compound that will lock their shapeshifting abilities at least for a short time.” “You are a scientist then?” the old stallion asked skeptically. “Within each Changeling’s genetic makeup...their essence… are a few traits that remain constant, whatever their current form. I can create a solution that activates some of those dormant traits, locking them into a temporary stasis of being.” “And you understand genetic theory as well,” Bunsen Burner shook his head and scoffed, “I have seen things very few could imagine, but this definitely is something new. No more charades: who and what are you?” A rumbling and two small tremors interrupted the stallion’s continued questioning. “What was that?” the Maiden asked as she looked beneath her hooves. “You don’t have full control of the environment,” Bunsen Burner murmured as he thought to himself, “which means none of this might be real. You looked down as you acknowledged that quake, so we’re most likely still in the royal study if we’re anywhere. Canterlot’s not on a fault line,” Bunsen Burner paused momentarily as he reached his conclusion, “Which means that the preparation for Siege Mode has already begun.” He then looked back up at the Maiden, “You have no love of the Changelings, that’s obvious, and we each have knowledge the other can use.” “Are you proposing that we collaborate?” the Maiden asked as she flicked her projection’s tail. “Precisely.” “Guards!” a deep voice boomed down the high marble halls of Canterlot Castle. Those who were nearest, two very inexperienced guards, bolted towards the sound of the voice as if it were the bark of their drill instructor. The two found an older stallion wearing a war saddle, a glowing container, and some kind of ovoid device standing just outside the doors to the Royal Sister’s private study, who was the apparent owner of the voice who had called them. “Guards,” the earth pony now spoke in a normal tone of voice, “I ask that you would arrest me and take me to Prince Shining Armor immediately.” The two guards looked at each other in bewilderment; they hadn’t been trained for this situation at the Royal Guard Academy. “Excuse me, sir,” one of them, a pegasus, replied, “But asking to be put into custody is no laughing matter!” “Do I appear to be amused?” the grave looking earth pony asked as he turned and began briskly trotting towards the Proclamation Chamber. “Sir! You shouldn’t go that way!” the second guard shouted. “Or you’ll do what?” the stallion looked over his shoulder with a smirk, “Exactly as I asked?” The two guards looked at each other and realized their blunder. “Why would we arrest you?” the pegasus guard asked again. “Let’s see,” the stallion put a hoof to his chin, “I’ve committed crimes against the crowns, been given a life sentence banishment from Canterlot which I am currently disobeying, and oh,” he popped open the glowing container around his neck, and out sprayed a torrent of eerie green light that morphed into the shape of a ghastly looking alicorn, “I’ve been practicing necromancy.” “The attack is projected to take place within the next twenty-four hours,” Prince Shining Armor thought aloud, “How long would it take to mobilize and position the Wonderbolts around Canterlot airspace?” “At top speed they’d arrive in two hours and have enough fight left in them for another straight eighteen hours of airtime,” a war clerk called out. “We desperately need them right now,” the Prince’s Military Advisor General Blitz Hammer declared, “they haven’t been psyched out by these bugs like the Royal Guard has, and they’ll be a morale boost for sure. That’s bound to give us an advantage!” “Do we have any idea on numbers for battle ready unicorns?” the Prince called out. “The garrison has 118 unicorns on duty,” another aid called out. “And the RSD?” “Forty-seven, sir,” Lieutenant Swiftfeet replied with a nod, “though right now they’re helping with the preliminary checks for Siege Mode.” “Do we have enough war saddles to cover all our earth pony and pegasi units?” the Prince asked as the doors to the outside hallway opened. Everypony’s eyes turned towards the unexpected intruder, who was ushered in by two very startled royal guards. “Thank you, gentlecolts,” Bunsen Burner said to them as he looked to each in turn before approaching the table on his own, “I’ll be able to handle myself from here.” “Sir?” Lieutenant Swiftfeet exclaim out of force of habit. Prince Shining Armor blinked several times before asking in genuine surprise, “How did you-” “You know I wouldn’t be here if the situation weren’t so dire,” he replied, “Before you do anything, I offer you a proposition: I will help as I can during the upcoming battle. You can arrest me for violating my banishment afterwards. I can provide vital resources towards defeating the Changelings, as well as perhaps speeding up final checks for the defense of Canterlot.” “This is outrageous,” a political advisor called out, “How did this madpony slip into the city, and why are we even listening to him? Guards, take him away!” The two previously cowed guards were shamefully bustled out of the way in favor of more experienced ponies who began to approach Bunsen Burner slowly. “Wait,” Prince Shining Armor called out, and all eyes turned to him in surprise. His face was set like stone, and he leaned forward in his seat a little, “Let him stand.” “But your Highness,” the same political advisor protested, “He’s a criminal and a traitor, lying and scheming towards his own ends: he cannot be trusted.” “That’s true,” the Prince looked at the old stallion, “but it’s just like he said: he wouldn’t be here if he didn’t have something to offer, and he has a large amount of tactical knowledge. Besides, our list of available allies is short. If it came down to it, with the way things are looking now, I’d strike a deal with Nightmare Moon if she could beat these bugs for us.” The room was silent as the grave as this pronouncement sunk in. “I’m holding you to your promise, Bunsen Burner,” he finally addressed the old stallion, “I will have you arrested and set for immediate trial once this is over for violating your sentence.” The old stallion nodded with a grim smile, “The law must be upheld, no matter the consequence.” The Prince nodded in reply before looking somberly to Lieutenant Swiftfeet, “He’s your responsibility, soldier. Take him below.” “Sir,” the pegasus replied simply with a salute.