//------------------------------// // Interlude - Fairy Tales // Story: Bad Mondays // by Handyman //------------------------------// She was accompanied only by the echoing sounds of her hoofsteps as she made her way down the colonnade. Luna’s beautiful moonlight pierced the darkness of the hallway at regular intervals, catching motes of dust that drifted lazily through the air. "Old magic?" "Yes, your Highness, it’s what he said." She had dismissed her guards for this little debriefing of hers, the fourth one she had given to this particular guard since the incident. Celestia didn't have to strain too hard to sense the spells and wards Luna had put in place to prevent eavesdropping of any kind. Nothing that would even hinder Celestia though, which meant Luna fully expected her to drop on by. A little knot of worry wormed its way around her stomach. "And thou art sure he had nothing to do with it?" "I saw the prince leave myself. Private Cloud Skipper was with him, and I didn't see anything suspicious at the time. To my knowledge, they arrived in Canterlot a day before news of the incident itself did." "We just wish to be certain." "Yes, your Highness." Luna had been taking an increasing interest in the human as the weeks passed by. Something about him greatly unsettled her sister, and Celestia dearly wished she knew what it was. Luna had been unable or unwilling to articulate. Celestia had long since learned her lesson and hadn’t pried any further since Luna had been unwilling to share. That was until the letters from Concordia had gotten just that much more insistent and probing for information about the creature. Attempts to contact the Black Isles about possible foreigners from beyond their controlled waters reaching Equestria had also been met with silence. Now that the human was supposedly dead, Celestia had hoped that, while tragic, it would at least cause everypony to stop concerning themselves with him and calm down. Unfortunately, that was not to be. "Thou art dismissed. And soldier?" "Your Highness?" Celestia waited outside the doors to her sister's private study. Waiting to hear what she said to the royal guard. "...Y-Yes, your Highness," came the guard’s voice shakily. Celestia resisted the urge to frown. Either Luna had whispered very quietly, or her glare was enough to communicate a point she was not privy to. Her heart went out to the little pony who had to suffer it. Luna had garnered a reputation for bringing ponies low who earned her ire without having to raise her considerable voice. Or even speak at all. The door opened, and the guard did a double take, her bright, green eyes blinking rapidly, mouth opening and closing in a stammer. Celestia smiled warmly at her to reassure her, and the guard immediately came to her senses, bowing low. "Good evening, your Highness!" she said crisply, pausing momentarily, "Please, excuse me," she added demurely. "Of course, my little pony," she said warmly as the guard trotted past, trying her best not to seem as if she was hurrying. "Sister, may I come in?" she asked, turning back to her sister's room. "Of course, Tia," Luna said from within, causing her sister to smile. She could hear the weariness in Luna's voice, which she had been hiding from her guard, and her use of her pet name meant she was glad to see her. It was a small thing, to be sure, but one she treasured infinitely. Celestia willed the doors open wider with her magic, allowing her entrance. Luna's study was magnificent. The circular room was lined from floor to ceiling with shelves of tomes meticulously organized to Luna's preference. All that meant was to say they were an utter mess, and only Luna knew what lay where. More than half of them were recent acquisitions, a distressingly large amount of them consisted of poetry, stories both fictional and folkloric, and recent histories. The wood that lined the walls was a rich, dark mahogany, and the polished marble floor was black with white star bursts in the pattern of the saddle constellation, an old favourite of Luna's creations. The immensely tall windows filled the room with moonlight. The room had numerous pieces of furniture relevant to Luna's studies: drawing desks, telescopes, a globe stand containing a large black orb filled with stars, a small table for when she dined while at work, and numerous writing desks filled with books and scrolls, each an individual area of study or project for the night princess. All that disregarded the entire piles of missives and work orders for the various duties she now held. Celestia smiled at that. It had taken some... adjustment, but she had eventually ceded more and more power to her dear sister, overcoming one thousand years of habitually managing everything in the kingdom. Luna had thrived in the responsibility afforded her, and Celestia, gratefully, had more time to relax. Luna sat upon her haunches on a purple seating pillow, her wondrous mane of night sky and starlight tied back into a tail as she scribbled furiously on several pieces of parchment, the desk strewn with dusty tomes and scrolls. Maps, bestiaries, and miniature globes of the world surrounded her. Celestia frowned at the last items, noting how pretty much everything about the globes, apart from their home continent and the land of the zebras, was wildly inconsistent. "Luna?" Celestia said, "It has been three weeks, Luna." The Princess of the Night sighed and put down the peacock-feathered quill and parchment. "I know, Tia, it’s just..." Luna didn't look up at her sister right away, nervousness worrying away at her to the point where she let her airs slip. "We just can't let it go. It does not make any sense. None of what mine guard reports makes sense." "We knew the human didn't tell us the whole truth. Of course he wouldn't. Why is it such a surprise he had more secrets to reveal between when we had him as our guest and the festival?" Celestia asked. Luna had been rightfully suspicious of the human. Claiming to wake up in the Everfree of all places with no idea how he got there? Claiming to have come from far across the waves and somehow landing in Equestria without running into the Black Fleet? The site of ancient magic by Spurbay that was disturbed, just at the same time the human had been in the mountain, with nopony else recalling anything to do with it? And now another badge had surfaced: a golden clasp with a unicorn's horn superimposed over a clover. And once again, it had been found at a site where the human had clashed with a pony wielding strange magic, just before he disappeared. There was clearly something else going on they did not know about. "We know." Luna sighed. "And now the griffons are arming themselves again." Celestia frowned. "I am doing my best to smooth things over with the High King." "Sister, a pony wrought destruction with powerful magic in the midst of thousands of griffons. Such powerful unicorns are the demesne of Equestrian battlemages." "Or the other pony kingdoms...," Celestia reflected darkly. She, of course, would rather not suspect her fellow Princesses of such underhoofedness, but the lesser pony states? "Regardless, Gethrenia and Firthengart are increasing their defences and guarding their borders strictly. I have been dealing with anxious duchies on the borders concerned with the military build-up. You've seen the Countess Heartfire's speech." "I have. I do not much care for such warmongering. Besides, Firthengart and Gethrenia had a falling out over the incident. Their kings have been... engaging in rather undiplomatic discourse and are making neighbouring griffon states who border them within the High Kingdom nervous. If anything, the griffons may face an internal war because of their stubbornness." "Perhaps it is best that they do," Luna reflected. Her gaze could cut diamonds as she glared at the pages before her. "Better than facing a full war with the High Kingdom because of their paranoia and rampant accusations of pony treachery by their petty nobles. Perhaps we could actively encourage that to avoid—" "No," Celestia said sternly, placing her hoof on Luna's desk with a resounding thump. Luna jumped, blinking up at her sister. "Luna, it is not as it was a thousand years ago. We have been friends with the griffons for many centuries. We cannot think in such ways anymore," Celestia said before her gaze softened. "I don't... want to see another war if I don't have to. Especially not over a misunderstanding. Not after last time..." Celestia graceful features bore a pained expression that passed quickly. Luna remained quiet as she studied her elder's face. "If we did as you suggested and tried to encourage instability amongst the griffons to avoid them uniting in fear against us for something we did not do, and we were caught, we would only embroil ourselves in a more disastrous war." "Tia, I didn't... I was trying to think of Equestria's interests. We have two belligerent states on our borders, and our ponies are clamouring for reciprocation in raising our military presence." "Those are major trade borders, Luna. We can't afford to lock them down with regiments, cannons, and forts for a prolonged period. It would only raise tensions and the griffons' paranoia further," Celestia said, taking her hoof off of the table. She looked to the side, noticing her reflection in the polished marble floor. Her aurora mane made it seem as if there was a nebula dancing among the unmoving stars of Luna's floor. "I will try to ease tensions. Do not concern yourself over this any longer, dear sister. Get some rest. Read a book perhaps," Celestia said. Luna looked down for a minute before slowly nodding. Her horn lit up as she undid the tail her mane was in, shaking her head and letting it flow freely once more. Celestia smiled lightly at her younger sister before turning. "Goodnight, Lulu." "What if that's what he's after..." "I'm sorry?" "What if this was the human's goal? To drive a wedge between nations to sow seeds of distrust and... and..." "Disharmony?" Celestia asked, raising an eyebrow. Luna shook her head. "No, this is nothing like Discord. What if this human is... is an agent? He told us there were many kingdoms across the sea, a lot of humans. What if he was sent ahead, to sow destabilisation across the continent between two of the biggest kingdoms in the land?" "...That is a rather unlikely scenario," Celestia pointed out. "Tia, we saw him with our own eyes. He released something ancient and dark in the west. He was first spotted leaving the Everfree of all places," Luna said, looking up at Celestia pleadingly. "You know as well as I do what secrets that forest holds." "We've had the castle under guard for years now, Luna. Nopony has reported anything." "But still, is it not the least bit suspicious that it is there he was discovered, according to the testimony of his own king, the young Johan, when I spoke to him that evening you whisked the human away to interrogate him?" "It was a friendly chat," Celestia said, raising a hoof. Luna smiled knowingly. "This human has went and latched on to a diplomat of the griffons to avoid prosecution after admittedly working with the changelings, the relationship between them we still don't know the full truth of." "He did tell us about their relationship." "Dost thou believe him?" Luna said. Celestia's silence answered the question for her. "He then proceeds to overthrow a kingdom and place a candidate of his own backing on the throne, then terrorizes ponies and griffons alike!" "He never actively goes out harming ponies," Celestia pointed out. "As far as we know, but nor does he dissuade ponies of his disrepute and infamy," Luna continued. "He then accompanies the griffons to Canterlot, challenges the prince to a duel demanding blood, instead arranging for the debt to be settled on an arena floor rather than a cobblestone street." She held a hoof up to stymie her sister's interjection. "Then when the time comes for the festival, this event occurs, and the human is nowhere to be found. Not even a body, only his cracked shield, and now we are left with a major incident, with griffons and ponies losing lives and paranoia and distrust amongst nations," Luna said, letting the implication hang. "I cannot dismiss the possibility that he was sent to destabilise the continent in preparation for a human invasion." There was silence between the two sisters for some time. "This is an unsteady theory, Luna," Celestia admitted, though clearly shaken by her sister's implications. "Perhaps, but thou must admit, it is awfully convenient how all this trouble seems to follow one errant warrior," Luna said. "We saw what he was reading before he turned on Blueblood. How many adventurers dost thou knowst to spend their free time studying the laws of a foreign country?" Luna continued. "And... And I saw something in his eyes. Something I have not seen in... I don't know. It was familiar. Yet alien. Surely you saw it too, sister?" "I am not sure what you're referring to Luna," Celestia said honestly "His eyes are strange, granted, but—" "Not the eyes themselves! The look! That look! I've seen it before, long ago. I just... I can't remember when. We were sure thou wouldst know it too, though," Luna protested. Celestia shook her head. "...Perhaps we were seeing things." "It probably doesn't matter," Celestia said reassuringly. "I will handle the griffons. We can work this out – I'll even have Twilight work on it as part of her diplomatic training. For now, it is best to assume the human is gone." Celestia came around the table to her sister's side. "After all, you can't find him on your globe, can you?" she asked with a smile. Luna snapped up and looked at Celestia with wide eyes. "Thou swore thou wouldst not interfere wit—!" "I know I did," Celestia said. "I kept my word and didn't interfere. It’s just that I too would place a tracer spell if I were in your hooves," Celestia admitted with a smile. Luna grumbled. "Let us not worry over imponderables and what ifs. Instead, let us deal with the problems that are before us now." Celestia placed a wing over her sister. Luna let out a breath through her nostrils. Her eyes closed, and her brow furrowed. "I suppose thou art right, sister mine... for now," Luna said. Celestia gave her a squeeze with her wing and kissed her on the top of the head, which Luna shook off, causing Celestia to titter. "Just relax; you have a long series of engagements for the next month. Don't spend one of your few nights off fretting over this." "I'll try." "It's all I ask," Celestia said as she left the room. She paused before passing through the door. "Have you... found Blueblood yet?" she asked hopefully. Luna just looked at her without expression. "Not even a single dream?" Luna shook her head slowly. Celestia frowned ever so slightly before nodding and leaving the room. Luna listened to her hoofsteps die away until the sound spell cancelled them out altogether as her sister crossed the threshold. Luna sat there for some time afterwards, nothing making a sound in her sanctuary other than the sound of grains of sand ticking away the time in an hourglass somewhere high above her. She looked at the notes she had been making, useless scribbles going over and over the first-hoof account her guard had given her. Old magic – exactly what was that supposed to refer to? Dark magic? That was old, but she had never heard it being referred to in that manner. And the pony had targeted the human's unicorn servant, if she recalled, the one reported to have been harassing him in the streets while he was in Canterlot, whatever that had been over. "What's the connection?" she asked herself, staring at the page as if it could give her the answers she sought. "What is after this human... and what did it have to do with the botched assault on the train?" She glanced over at the globe of stars. Each one was one of her 'special cases', ponies she paid particular attention to for one reason or another. Most were... troubled in some manner. Others were just plain dangerous. The human was supposed to be added to their number. And for a time, he was. She had noticed a new star appear around the time Stellar reported she had placed the tracer on him and retrieved a... sample in the process. Then, with an abrupt suddenness, it had disappeared. That had unnerved her. Even if he had died, it should have still been active for some time afterwards. But there was nothing, and the implications of the magic at work in order to completely nullify the spell she had designed herself just raised more and more questions. In the end, she supposed it didn't matter. At least not anymore. Dead or not, her sister was right. They had bigger concerns right now. She sighed, trying to put the questions out of her mind, levitating a book down from the shelves. It was an old book, full of tales even she was familiar with when she had been still a filly. They had changed over time, but she still enjoyed the old fairytales ponies told, such as the Wheel in the Orchard, or the saga of Ironheart, or the Enchantress in Glass. The latter was a strange, vague tale that recounted a strange magician from another world. She enjoyed that one but couldn't for the life of her understand why. It was short, little more than a lengthy poem, and she certainly hadn't read it when she was younger, but it felt familiar somehow. Like an old friend or a worn book by your bedside you read and reread again for the simple pleasure of it. She indulged in the time honoured fantasies so as to put her worried mind at rest once more, if only for one night. There would be time enough for worry later. --=-- The changeling whimpered as it was slammed hard against the cold unforgiving rock of the cave. Its wings flittered in anxious spasms as it struggled to breathe. The spectral claw that gripped him grew in intensity, pulsing with greenish-white light as ethereal fog came off of it in waves, falling to the ground, covering it in a steadily thickening bed of otherworldly essence. The red unicorn glared at him, her eyes incandescent with fiery light, her horn sparking intensely with the same greenish, unnatural magic, her expression furious. Behind the red pony, the other changeling shifted, trying to crawl away as quietly as possible. Crimson turned her head. Her pupils were not visible, but he froze all the same as he felt her gaze upon him. A flash of magic and the sound of tearing flesh filled the small cave as a disembodied spectral maw manifested in the air, hovering over the cowering changeling who stared up at the giant, carnivorous teeth with open mouthed horror, the space between the teeth occupied by a blackness brighter than any light that hurt to look at. The meaning was clear, and so the changeling did not move. "I will ask this again," Crimson stated, her tone level but clearly irritated. "Why?" "Orders!" the cowering changeling on the ground barked. His voice had an odd buzzing sound to it, a strange kind of echo that accompanied it. "We were ordered to release you!" Crimson narrowed her eyes at the creature. The maw lowered itself toward him, and he shuffled closer to the floor as if trying to hug the ground itself as tightly as he could. "Why?" "It was the agreement!" The other changeling piped up to save her comrade from the unicorn's threats. Crimson turned back to face her captive. When they had captured the pony originally, they had not expected anything much more than dealing with a relatively powerful mage. So when they released her from sedation, they were expecting her to exhibit the same magical weariness all unicorns did upon waking, rendering them unable to properly coordinate between hoof and eye, let alone cast magic. Not this pony, however. She had started chanting rapidly upon waking, and the two changelings had been caught off guard, leading to their current predicament. "He... agreed to the Queen's demands in return for your safe release!" "What demands!?" she snarled, squeezing the changeling that much tighter. It squealed in pain. "Service!" the other said, not moving his gaze away from the horrifying maw hovering mere inches above him, its jaws partially clenched shut, the roiling blackness within those teeth spilling between the gaps. He no longer covered his eyes with their covers, staring up at the magical death trap with open fear. Crimson let up the pressure on the changeling she had pinned to the wall, flicking her ear in the other’s direction. "He agreed to serve in order to free you!" "What," she said flatly. Her emotions, however, were plain for both of them to see, and it was painfully obvious her ire was quickly approaching a point that wouldn't exactly be healthy for either of them to witness. "It’s all we know! It’s all we were told! Please!" the female pinned to the wall cried. Crimson glared at them in turn for a long painful moment. Then, just as suddenly as it had occurred, the claw holding the changeling in place disappeared, and she slumped to the ground, whimpering in pain. The maw held its place painfully close to the cowering changeling on the ground before it too faded from existence. The fire in her eyes died down as the cascading magic of her horn ebbed and dissipated, the ethereal mist gathering on the cave floor melting away into nothing. She grit her teeth as she tried to keep her emotions under control and hide the weakness in her knees as she struggled to stay upright and mobile. She was really in no condition to be walking anywhere. Having summoned that much old magic, she was exhausted. She stopped, screwing her eyes shut. When he had said he would protect her, she had never imagined he would do it by putting himself into slavery for her sake. To changelings no less. That... She honestly did not know what to make of that, but it was something she wasn't going to let stand. Speaking of letting things stand... She paused at the cave mouth, turning back and looking at the two mewling changelings she left injured and traumatised. Where there was one changeling, there were probably more nearby. She certainly knew what Mistress would demand of her in this situation and briefly calculated how much power it would take to cause a cave-in to bury these creatures alive. Then she thought about what Master would do. What Master did do in her case. "Do you want to live?" she asked. The two changelings were beside each other now. The one who had been cowering on the ground was being helped to his hooves by the other. Both froze at the unicorn's words. Piercing blue eyes partially hidden by an unkempt brown mane narrowed when they didn't respond immediately. "Do not make me repeat myself," she warned. The changelings looked at each other. "Y-Yes... we want to live," the male replied, the other nodding in agreement. "Then you are going to help me for however long it takes me to find my Master. Am I understood?" "...Yes," one of them stated. Crimson's eyes narrowed further. "You are going to swear to me," she demanded. The changelings seemed confused, or at least the one who didn't cover his eyes did. She dug her right forehoof into the ground for emphasis. "Or would you rather this be your tomb?" They looked at each other again. It took a while, but eventually they nodded. "We swear." "Not good enough!" Crimson shouted, her eyes glowing furiously as she advanced on the changelings by a few steps. "Do you think me some foal born yesterday!? Swear to me like you would swear before your queen!" The changelings scrambled back from her fearfully, tripping over one another. "Well!?" "We swear! We swear!" they cried, both of them falling to their knees, lowering their heads to the ground facing her. Their heads turned to the side, exposing their necks to the open air. Both their eyes were now uncovered. Crimson paused momentarily at the odd method of fealty. She shook herself and returned to her stern expression. She let them stay like that for a full minute before finally speaking. "Good," she said, her eyes returning to normal and her horn dying down as she turned on the spot. "Come with me," she commanded. They hesitated until she shot them an irritated glance. "Where are we going?" one asked, following her out of the cave mouth and into the forested mountainside. The immensely tall pine trees towered above them as sunlight struggled to reach the ground. Crimson thought on that for a moment; she had considered merely returning to the capital and contacting Master's friends and servants, but she had to consider the possibility that if Master was gone from there, Mistress would likely have moved someone into the city to look for her. Plus she didn't know the full circumstances of Master's deal with Chrysalis. There were simply too many things she did not know. "First tell me everything you know," Crimson demanded. "Everything since you abducted me."