//------------------------------// // Prepare to Wed Against All Odds // Story: Kingdom of the Moon // by PheonixCircle //------------------------------// It was about one and a half month after the army departed from Westbrucke. The king had returned some days prior and was outraged when he heard that his son had proposed to a commoner. She might be the priestess of the princess's personal church and might even receive some tutelage from her. Nonetheless, she was no noble and held no title and no land except for the small house she lived in. "How could you propose to someone of her standing?" the kings asked his son this morning as they were eating breakfast. It was apparent that he was holding his anger back as he spoke. Even the servants understood this much and shivered in fear of a possible outburst. "She certainly is no bad pony, don't misunderstand me. But we could have found someone like her in nobility too." Conglatius V was in no aspect better than his father. He also held his anger back. In his case it came from his father's missing capability of understanding his decision. "Father, I travelled with her to a dangerous cave. I told her more in these two weeks than you were ever willing to listen to in my whole life. I had arguments with her and laughed with her. I lover her and I will marry her. There is no room for discussion." The servants knew exactly what was going to happen as soon as they saw the look in the king's face. They left the room the royal family had gotten in Westbrucke silently as the kings stood up and looked down at his son. "You will NOT marry her. I will NEVER allow you to marry a commoner as long as you don't want to face the consequences." the king said. The prince stood up to look his father in the eyes on equal standing. "You will stop calling her commoner if you do not want to face my wrath. And what consequences could you mean to bring upon me that could make me stop from marrying the mare I love?" "If you dare to marry her I will deny you your right on the crown of Icewind. Your uncle will be king and his descendants his heirs while you live as commoner in this city with only the wealth you earn on your own." The prince stood there shocked that his father really thought about taking his birthright. He thought about doing what his father wanted as the image of Moonprayer came back to his mind. His face became hard and the king saw the kind of resolve in the prince's face he rather had not seen. "If you want to do this, fine. I will no longer stain your precious surroundings with my presence." he said before turning around and leaving the room. "Wait." the king said but his son had already left. He looked at the plate before him and threw them from the table before smashing his hooves on it. Conglatius IV fell on his knees, his face buried in his hooves asking himself what he was doing. He was still sobbing when one of the servants was daring to take a look. She remained silent and shook her head to the others to signalise that it was inappropriate to enter know. The dishes would have to wait until the king would have left the room. -------------------------------------------------------- Around the same time the princess arrived in the church where Moonprayer was reading a letter. "Good news." the priestess said. "The goblets seem to have arrived in Flankrium and Icewind. We just need to activate them as soon as possible." "Good, but this will take time I can't spare at the moment. I have to admit that I think bringing them to their respective cities was too early. We could have lit them here and then brought them over, saving my time." Luna answered. As soon as she saw the priestess blush, she added "But this is just a minor problem. Nothing to be worried about as long as I find an excuse to leave the castle for a longer period of time." The priestess nodded simply. Luna was about to ask her how things are going with the prince when he entered the church. His face was signed with anger and sadness as he approached the priestess and the princess. "Welcome majesty" he said to Luna before turning his head to Moonprayer. "I have to tell you something important. And I prefer to do so in private. If you could follow me..." Moonprayer looked at the princess, seeking approval to leave. Luna smiled and nodded. "Go, I just wanted to see if everything is all right. My time is short either way so it doesn't matter if I return now or a bit later. It might even give me some time to learn a bit more about Equestria's and Winterwald's past." The priestess was visibly relieved, in contrary to the prince. His feelings were still changing between anger and sadness about what happened with his father mere minutes prior. Both waved as the princess was entering the blue flame that was hovering over the goblet. -------------------------------------------------------- Celestia was reading the last report that her student sent her. As always it was nice to read about the things Twilight had done with her friends. Her joy is bound to every word that she had written and Celestia was happy that the once lonely pony now had friends she could spend time with. The only regret that Celestia had while reading the reports was the fact that everything happened because she wanted her sister back. Just as she thought about Luna the door to the throne room was opened by her. "Celestia, I have to ask you something" the younger asked. Celestia wasn't surprised that she came. She had the feeling that she would come one day and this day it was particularly strong. What Celestia didn't realise was the fact that she really felt Luna approach as well as Luna felt her sister's presence. "Hello Luna. Sure, ask whatever you need. I have some spare time at the moment and my ears are always open for your questions and your opinion." Celestia said calmly. She was trained to hide her true feelings and if Luna had been capable of reading her mind she would have seen that her sister thought about all the possible questions that Luna could have asked about Twilight and her friends to search for any weaknesses. But the question that came through her off a bit. "Can I take some free time?" was what Luna asked. Celestia was surprised enough to let her real feelings through for a single moment: sadness and curiosity. "Why do you want to take some free time?" she asked her younger sibling, partly because she was hurt that Luna could possibly dislike being with her or even worse, began to dislike her again and slowly be drifting into the darkness inside her. "I wanted to visit some places in the north to search for something that could have been created in the past thousand years and other places that once were populated and now are deserted according to your documents." answered the dark alicorn. Celestia was again a bit surprised. She realised that these thousand past years and the fact that she was her sister made it almost impossible to predict her future movements. Something that Celestia again found highly suspicious. "I am sorry but I can't allow you to leave the realm. Your return is relatively unknown and accidental discoveries could lead to you being attacked." Celestia answered. But her mind was set on another thought. Leaving the realm would bring Luna further out of her control. "I can't risk that. I lost you once and there won't be a next time." Celestia saw the feelings change within her sister's face. Hopelessness followed by anger and the typical regal face of the nobility. "So be it." Luna said and turned around. "Wait." Celestia said. "I wanted to inform you that I intend to invite my student. Twilight Sparkle." Luna turned to her sister again. "She is the one that saved me, isn't she? Is there a particular reason you want to invite her?" "I had hoped for you two talk for a bit. Get to know each other better. As far as I can see, you haven't made any friends here, have you?" the sun princess answered. Luna hesitated. Was she trying to lie? "No, I haven't, that is true." Another pause. "I think you are right. Meeting with your student could give me insight into friendship and what is needed to acquire it. Thank you sister. I am leaving now and go study some more. Good day sister." "Good day." was everything that Celestia could add before Luna had left. Celestia understood that something was strange but she thought into the wrong direction. While her focus was set on the local problems and mainly her student she had never realised that there could be another place her sister was demanded. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- At the same time Luna went to Celestia, in the far northern part of Equestria where the Crystal Empire was located, preparations for an important wedding were made. Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, to most known as Cadance, was about to marry none other than the captain of the royal guards and Twilights big brother, Shining Armor. What he didn't know at this point was the fact that after he proposed, Cadance had been kidnapped and Queen Chrysalis of the Changelings had already taken her place. He didn't realise the change in her behaviour because both were working hard to ensure the prefect wedding and met only for short moments. Moments in which Chrysalis strengthened her enchantment on her soon to be husband and slave. A marriage that will aid in the final steps of her plan to invade Equestria. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Luna had just sent a letter to Westbrucke ordering the departure of the Army towards Osttor and taking the goblet with them. She knew better than anyone that the journey would take several weeks and because she couldn't leave the castle for a longer period of time another way had to be found. She just hoped that the flame wouldn't burn out on the way there. She was aware of the fact that physical laws didn't work the same on magical flames as on normal ones but she never tried to extinguish a magical flame with a gust of wind. She was sitting on her bed and reading some scrolls she had lent from the library in Westbrucke. It was interesting to see which families died out and which came into being as time past. She also noticed that there were certain families with connections to families in Equestria. The most obvious were the Pies. Luna closed her eyes and imagined the meeting she had held after she arrived in Westbrucke. At first everything was foggy, but after a while she began to see details. She immediately noticed a pony with a mane like the Element of Laughter's mane, as fluffy but with a different colour. It seems that over the time, certain families would resemble more their respective Equestrian counterparts than others, she realised, and Prince Conglatius V's image appeared before her inner eye. Beside him appeared an image of one of her sister's student's friends. The element of generosity, if she recalled correctly. The princess sight as her mind turned back to the final battle for the re-unification of Winterwald. She was well aware that the fight for Flankrium was a matter that was resolved with a huge amount of luck. But this time the situation was different. Almost all information on Osttor has vanished and the last time someone heard information from Osttor was centuries ago. The possibility of a hostile population was far greater than Flankrium and the missing knowledge on the current situation could cost many lives. But Luna knew that it had to be done. She hadn't built these for cities out of spite. Every city should have his main goals and should be dependent on the others to strengthen the bonds even if the cities were distant from each other. Naturally she had also planned for each city to survive on it's own for some time but to see them survive this long on it's own was truly fascinating and miraculous. Luna was again astonished by the persistence of ponykind to keep fighting even if the odds are against them. Her concentration turned to the scrolls again. The wedding of Moonprayer and Prince Conglatius was ahead and she wanted to know how the traditions have changed over the time. To they still wear something blue and something borrowed or is it different? She read about these things because she wanted to not only attend, but also to help them a bit.That was her pride not only as princess of Equestria, but also as current leader of Winterwald.