//------------------------------// // Chapter 1: A Summons To Canterlot // Story: Royal Business // by Jordan179 //------------------------------// Twilight Sparkle "Wait," said Twilight Sparkle. "She just wants you this time?" She sat in her study and held the scroll before her face, rotating it various ways in her aura as if the message might somehow change if she looked at it from a different angle. "That's what it says," replied Spike the Dragon, standing upright before her. His purple face grinned smugly, his green spikes twitched with excitement at having received a personal Royal Summons. "Guess she's finally realized just who is the Number One Dragon around here!" He patted his yellowish lamellar ventral plates by way of emphasis. "Spike," Twilight chuckled, "you're the only Dragon around Ponyville." "And thus the Number One," he replied with impeccable logic. Twilight smiled fondly at him. He was her assistant, her friend, her adoptive baby brother. He seemed so obviously smart and so capable to her that at times she forgot he needed reassurance of his importance in her world, being as he was the only Dragon in a civilization of Ponies. She would not deny him that comfort. "You're always Number One in my book," she told him. "Ah well. I guess you're right -- Princess Celestia has some important job to do, and she's noticed how hard you've worked to help me with my work. You're getting appreciated by others too, Spike. Congratulations." She smiled warmly at the small purple Dragon. "Thanks," said Spike, smiling back. "I'm going to work hard and do a really good job for her," he promised. "I know what I do reflects on you too. I won't let you down!" Twilight's eyes misted slightly as she recognized the attitude. It was her own, the ethos of a young member of the elite scholar-gentry of Canterlot. It was the culture she had absorbed as a small filly from her parents and her big brother, and now Spike had learned the same lessons from her. Be smart. Be honorable. Be diligent. Never let your family down. It made her so proud to see the wonderful stallion -- well, drake, to be precise -- that her little brother was becoming, that she felt as if she might cry from happiness. "I know you won't," she said softly, hoping that she had successfully concealed her emotion. Expressions of strong emotions embarrassed her, even when her little brother was her only audience. "I feel bad about leaving you alone, though," said Spike. "Will you need somepony's help tonight?" "Naah," replied Twilight. "There's going to be a big storm coming through here tonight -- the Weather Patrol was really thrown off balance by the need to divert rain to the White Tails to clean up the mess Red Haze made all over the eastern part of the mountains. They called for some rain, and got more than they bargained for out of the Everfree, according to Rainbow Dash. I'm just going to bolt all the shutters, curl up with a good book, and go to sleep tonight. No excitement," she predicted. "Well, at least I'm not gonna miss out on any fun," said Spike. "Sorry you're gonna be bored." "Bored?" asked Twilight. "I just got a new shipment of books in yesterday. Need to reshelve some of them. I have a new theory as to how to classify social history I want to try out in practice. Hey, you're the one who's missing out on the real action!" She grinned happily. She was half-joking. But only half. There was a flapping of wings, a gust of air, a ripple in the paramagnetic fields Twilight could feel through her horn, the familiar sound of a Royal Chariot descending. "Timed it close," Twilight commented. "Guess Princess Celestia really wants your company." She stepped forward, gave her baby brother a bump and nuzzle, then swept him protesting into a hug. "It's not like I'm still a little child," Spike grumbled as she did so. But he returned the hug anyway. "Have a nice time, Spike," she said to him as he walked to the door. "Be good." "Heh," said Spike. "I'll be so good the Royal Palace won't know what hit it!" He practically swaggered out the door, and Twilight looked fondly after him. They grow up so fast, she thought. Well, I think he's growing up fast. For a Dragon. There were key facts she did not yet know about the life cycle of a Dragon. That was part of the purpose of the research project she had set herself the day she had somehow managed to magically hatch him. It got difficult though. When one came to love him as a brother. None of her books on organizing such research projects had ever covered that topic She wondered if they'd ever figured it out, either. She had a sneaking suspicion that the asnwer was "no." Spike the Dragon "Hi, Pavo," Spike said as he got onto the Daylight Chariot. The leader of the two-Pegasus team was an old friend of Twilight and himself, youngest brother of Captain Aquilinus of the Day Guard. "Hi, Spike," Pavo replied His partner was somepony new, rather lightly-built by the standards of a Guards stallion, and Spike didn't know him. "This is Private Cloud Gust, still learning the ropes. Lucky he's got me to teach him, eh?" "You're one of the best," Spike said, not entirely honestly. In fact Pavo himself had only been in the Guard a few years -- Spike actually remembered when he'd come to the Palace, despite the fact that Spike had only celebrated his tenth birthday four months ago. But it never hurt to say something nice to a nice Pony, and Pavo was the nicest one of all four of those brothers. The Daylight Chariot rose into the air and described a wide circle around Ponyville as it climbed for its cruising altitude. Spike looked down with some interest -- he knew that as a Dragon he'd probably grow wings and be able to fly himself some day -- but he couldn't fly on his own yet, and rather envied Pegasi that ability. He could see the town spread below. The streets looked mostly deserted. Most of the townsfolk had already taken shelter from the oncoming storm, bolted their shutters and doors and were safe inside their homes. There were some still out and about, including some he recognized. The little pink Pony with the magenta mane walking slowly toward Sugarcube Corner with a load on her back was unmistakeable. "Hey, Pinkie!" he called down, hoping that one of his friends would see him riding in the beautiful golden chariot. He wondered if Pinkie could hear him. She did, and turned her head up to look at Spike. Her face rather shocked him. He hadn't seen much of her in the last few days, and looking at her with his excellent Dragon vision, he could tell why. Pinkie Pie looked ill. Her normally plump cheeks were hollowed and her usually-enthusiastic smile was a ghost of its normal self. Her mouth moved, and he thought she might be saying "Hi, Spike," but he couldn't be sure -- for once, Pinkie seemed too tired to yell. She looks half-dead, Spike thought, and shivered for some reason. He'd heard she got hurt fighting Red Haze, but that had been a week ago -- surely she should be mostly better by now? He hoped she would stay inside during the storm, and not push herself too hard. In his short acquaintance with Pinkie Pie, Spike had already noticed that she tended to overdo things. He hoped she didn't make herself sicker. It would be sad if Pinkie had to stay in bed and miss the Running of the Leaves. He'd heard they had a pretty cool party afterward in Ponyville, and she'd hate to miss it. In the park, not far from the library, he suddenly saw a familiar marshmallow mare, looking strange and small from this altitude, glance up at the golden chariot. He called and waved frantically, but he was not sure that Rarity had even noticed that he was riding in the Daylight Chariot. Ponies had very poor distance vision, by his standards. Aww .... he thought. It would have been perfect if she saw that I was being treated like somepony important. He felt obscurely cheated. "Hey, little guy," came a familiar voice from beside, and he turned to see Rainbow Dash pacing them, grinning at him. "Looks like you're traveling in style!" There was no trace of mockery, only admiration, in her rough but perky voice. "Hi," said Fluttershy, popping up from below and beside her. She smiled at him too. Fluttershy had never been shy with him at all; instead, she'd always been really interested by him. "Yeah," said Spike proudly. "I've been summoned to Canterlot on important royal business. By the Princess. Because it's important." He had kind of run out of things to say on the topic, but still liked that sound of his own voice saying them. "Way cool!" said Rainbow, and gave him a hoof-bump over the side of the Chariot. "Wish I could join you, but I've got a Weather Team to lead, a town to save -- just another day made of awesome for the heroine they call 'Rainbow Dash!'" "Because it's her name," added Fluttershy, smiling fondly at her friend. Rainbow gave her an odd look and Fluttershy got an apologetic expression on her face. As soon as Rainbow looked away, that expression vanished and Fluttershy actually winked at Spike, eyes twinkling mischievously. Fluttershy's sure looking happy, Spike thought. Guess standing up to Red Haze made her feel a lot better about herself. "Well, gotta go," said Rainbow Dash. "Have a good time at Canterlot." "Bye," said Fluttershy. They banked and winged away, returning to a group of pegasi who were now dropping below. Spike vaguely recognized a couple of them -- Cloud Kicker and Derpy Hooves being the most obvious from a distance. And now Ponyville was falling away below and behind them, as the Daylight Chariot made swift flight toward Canterlot. *** Princess Celestia "I feel strange doing this," said Luna, looking at her feet and scraping the floor with one hoof, a sign of nervousness Luna had always possessed in equine form. She'd done it back when she'd been an Earth Pony named Moondreamer over four thousand years ago, and she'd done it as a little filly at Paradise Estate fifteen hundred years later. "You're not unfamiliar with Dragons," Celestia pointed out to her Sister. "You befriended one, fought another, just a week ago. I would think that to you this would be an entirely normal interview." "In truth I fought both of them," Luna pointed out. "Defeated them both, too." "Yes," said Celestia, "but you were only playing with Fischfootur. You wanted to make friends with him the moment he stood up to you -- you're like that. You recognized him as a fellow-spirit. The other one, Blue Blazer -- now that was a serious fight." "Well, to some extent," Luna admitted. "I didn't kill him, after all." "Because I told you not to kill any of them," Celestia said. "And you don't really like to kill Dragons. You're merciful." "Now you make me sound soft," Luna complained, almost automatically. "You're a good Pony." Celestia smiled at her fondly. "And a brave one. And if you can defeat and befriend an adolescent lava-drake; then put down a full-grown lightning drake without killing him, then surely you can have a nice normal meeting with a pre-adolescent mage drake who is already Our friend." "It is -- it is different," pointed out Luna. "Yes," said Celestia. "Spike won't be trying to blast you to bits. That should make the meeting more relaxing, not less, even for a confirmed thrill-seeker like yourself." "It's not that," Luna said. "It's just awkward." "Oh, for our Mother's sake," replied Celestia, becoming exasperated. "You've even met Spike before. Twice. Remember? When you first returned to Ponyville, and then again at the celebration of your freedom from the Nightmare." "The first time, I was Nightmare Moon," pointed out Luna. "He fainted. The second time, I was weak and dazed and I didn't really get to talk to him much -- or at all, really." Celestia remembered Luna at that party. She'd been disoriented, extremely shy even for her normal self, and spent most of the party staring dazedly at Twilight Sparkle. The only Pony she remembered Luna actually talking with at length was that nice big red stallion -- Applejack's older brother Big Mac -- Celestia knew his name because he was one of the backup Element Bearers. And both of them had seemed unreasonably shy during that conversation. "Well then," Celestia said. "You can talk to Spike now, and at length." "Surely he will want to return to his mistress ..." Luna began. "Adoptive older sister, actually," said Celestia, "and if you say 'mistress' that way these days, you'll give other Ponies entirely the wrong idea about their relationship." Luna flushed slightly. Celestia knew that her younger sister had realized that once again the deceptive similarities between late 5th and late 15th century Equestrian had betrayed her. Words shifted connotation over time, and what had once simply meant "female in charge" now meant what Luna would have used "leman" to describe, namely a female with whom a male was in a love affair. "And no," continued Celestia. "There's a storm out of the Everfree coming in on Ponyville tonight. Spike will stay overnight at the Palace. You'll have plenty of time to chat with him to your heart's content." Luna looked down again. "Yes, well, but on what excuse?" "Luna!" said Celestia, mane streaming with her annoyance. "You're a Ruling Princess. You don't need an excuse. Just say that you want his report on recent events in Ponyville, on business of the Realm. Which is the truth." Luna was silent. "Sister ..." continued Celestia more gently, stepping over to her and bumping cheeks with her. Their manes mingled, the rainbow and the dark blue stars. "You want to know how Twilight Sparkle is doing. She saved your life -- your very soul -- from the Shadows. You want to be her friend. There is nothing shameful in this." "But ..." said Luna helplessly., "I'm still so lost." "You certainly found your way well enough when you kicked out those interloping Dragons," pointed out Celestia. "I knew then that I really had my old partner back. My Lady of War. My little sister." She smiled warmly at Luna, and Luna smiled back. "But what if I make a fool of myself?" Luna asked. "I don't know this new world -- my speech is archaic, my understanding of a thousand little things imperfect, and if I play the fool Spike will tell her." "Oh," said Celestia. "You're nervous about what this new born Dusk will think of you." "Yes," admitted Luna. "Am I a fool to care?" "No, of course not," said Celestia. "But ... Luna ... " She paused for a moment, tried to think of how to say it. "Twilight Sparkle is a scholar. And a gentlemare. She is familiar with cultural differences. And she is polite. And she's a very good Pony. "I know Twilight Sparkle very well. And she is not at all likely to look for reasons to despise you. This would be true even were you not my beloved sister, and you are my beloved sister. "As for Spike, he is a good and cheerful child. He has been raised by Twilight's family as her younger brother, as a young gentlecolt, and he is also a kind and friendly creature. Neither of them are looking to pounce upon your weaknesses. "Just be friendly," finished Celestia. "Be the friendly, merry mare that I know you are truly, and in Spike you will simply make another friend." "Haply I may," said Luna. "Or at least not play the fool complete." She breathed hard, thought for a moment. "Very well, Sister," she said. "I shall try." "That's my baby sister!" said Celestia, hugging Luna. Luna grumbled slightly at the appellation. But she returned the hug. When all was said and done, they would always be sisters.