At long last, it seemed, Shining had gotten what he wanted: He was no longer being dragged into court politicking, council bickering, or Captain Hauseway's scheming. He was left alone to his duties of regulating the Imperial Household Guard, keeping up the discipline and training of the noble knights.
Oh, and his little pursuit with Cadenza.
It was for that other princess-ly duty that he had slogged up the side of the Mountain to the doors of the Solar Monastery. Though it was hard to tell from below, the doors of the observatory dome atop the block monastery building were open, as the brothers studiously observed, measured, and recorded the movement of the holy sun.
There was already a monk waiting for Shining at the door. "You're after Manered and her, right?" The robed unicorn eyed his armor.
"That's right." Shining nodded. The solar devotees apparently didn't hold the junior princess in as high regard as the sun princess.
They proceeded through the narrow corridors to the familiar library. He’d visited multiple times with Twilie on research projects when she’d been too young to go on her own. Shining had, admittedly, been bored out of his mind every time, and not payed much attention.
"I'll leave you to it." The monk grunted trundled off to his next duty.
The library was in total disarray. Candance and Manered had apparently covered every table and desk with books scrolls they’d pulled out from the stacks, and they were still gathering more.
"Oh dear." Shining carefully stepped around the piles of books to approach the central reading desk. "I hope your tower isn't this cluttered. If it is you should invite me up some time to let me straighten it out."
Cadence, hunched over an old tome she was scrutinizing, stirred from hearing his voice. “Hi Shiny.” She sat up and stretched. "Funny joke. And it surely is a joke. Propositioning a princess is high treason."
"Good grief Cadence, I was kidding about being a maid, not a gigolo, heh heh. It's good to see you." Shining smiled.
“Is that Sir Armor?” Manered called out from the isles of bookshelves.
“Yes." Cadence yelled back.
"What's he want?" Manered asked.
Cadence quirked a brow in Shining's direction. "I don't know."
Shining shrugged.
Cadence gestured at the books and scrolls all around her. "Hmm, you're here to assess our progress, write a report, and crack the whip if necessary, pursuant some bourgeoise efficiency."
“You're very joke-y today.” Shining noted.
“Well, it must be good to see you too.” Cadence said.
Manered chose that moment to emerge from the book stacks with more books balanced on his back. "Whatever he wants, here is more cosmic transit records, from Babyloneigha and Bard, for background star referencing."
"Ohh, Babyloneigha, Twilight was really bombarding me with Babyloneighian history a couple months ago." Shining grabbed a books and began flipping though it. "Oh... these are all in the vernacular." He set it back down.
Manered gave Shining an off look at the mention of Twilight. "Ahem, ah, yes, vernacular, liturgical, court languages, some hippogryph loan alphabets mixed in there, quite. Modern magical translation tools make it just survivable." The monk said. "You don't set out to make a mess this big and complicated, all the languages, clashing sources, different measuring units, of history and lies. A mess like this comes about when you have a very, very big puzzle."
It was a dire puzzle indeed: The Sun. Above Princess Celestia, above the folk faiths, above the pantheons of Ancient Alicorns, above it all, was the most ancient god of Ponykind, the Sun.
No fully divine entity was closer, more observant, more apparent in the lives of mortalkind. The Sun, vast and incomprehensible, an agency of unimaginable power, ruled over Equestria through her daughter Celestia. It was the sun's light that warmed the earth, those rays directing, so subtly, the course of mortal destiny. It was to her that ponykind and other select mortal races owed their marks, the manifest proof of divine will.
The Sun was acting unpredictably. It was not on a scale perceptible to casual observation.
The sun had her ordained course and patterns, a very deliberate path through the heavens that anticipated her will over mortal destiny, of rising and setting, longer days and shorter days, the tempo of Solstices and equinoxes. But that utterly predictable pattern was beginning to break and becoming un-predictable. By a measure of minutes, some days were overstaying their assigned length, and some were ending sooner. Now and then the sun could even be seen to halt in place, then hurry to resume her track across the sky. On balance, through that early Spring, leading up to the Summer Sun, the days were getting longer more quickly than they were supposed to.
The god of Ponykind, it appeared, had either lost her interest in consistency, or lost her mind. For a faithful pony, almost no greater disaster could be conceived. Such was Manered's secret message to Cadence on the throne that stormy night, and the reason Cadence had thrown herself into the project.
Shining wondered what the other solar monks thought. They knew the situation. Their faith to the Sun ran deeper than the state faith of devotion to Celestia as ruler of the pony nation. The solar monks dedicated their lives to recording everything about their god, to admiring her, and to contemplating her nature. While Manered was an eminently practical sort, Shining could imagine the more mystical monks becoming either despondent or religiously ecstatic at the unprecedented change in the solar pattern.
Shining only wondered about what it meant for Celestia. Was her strange mood the product of, or the reason for, the Sun's erraticism? Surely the two were related, somehow.
"We don't need that many background star references. After we met at the University, I stopped at the astronomy hall and spoke with some of my former professors and classmates. They said there was nothing out of the usual." Cadence said. "Unless there is a conspiracy in the heavens, our planet's rotation is still the same relative to the stars."
"How about the moon?" Shining asked.
Manered looked uncomfortable, grinding a hoof against the table nervously. "What about the moon? The less said about her the better. You won't find a reputable astronomer on the continent who is paying her any attention." He cleared his throat and looked away. "Please say no more about the moon in these halls."
"Sorry. I'll think more about what I say." Shining apologized.
Cadence shook her head. "Don't say that. I love to hear your suggestions." She side-eyed Manered. "What's the issue brother? Why we shouldn't we talk about the moon? Your monastic order has no doctrinal prejudice against her."
Manered could not meet her gaze. "True, princess. The issue is mine alone, of a private matter, and I can not speak on it. If you chose to pursue the moon I would be forced to abandon this work completely."
Shining gave the monk a flat look. "Are you really going to try to bluff a knight and a princess? Listen here, monk-"
"Shining let him finish." Cadence said.
Manered sighed. "I... Thank you princess. I would simply say that you should not bother with a line of inquiry where those who went before were unrewarded."
"What's that cryptic babble supposed to mean?" Shining demanded, feeling irritated now over being made to apologize.
Shining looked to Cadence, who was thinking to herself. After a few minutes, she just shrugged. "Very well brother. Somepony else may burden themselves with the mysteries of the moon and risk damnation. We're all doing our best." Cadence said. "And I guess some of us were chosen by the sun and stars to stray away from the guidance of her light."
Shining made a sour face. He would respect the princess's decision not to press the monk more, but he wasn't happy about it. "Sure, fine. Does ignoring the moon actually trim the amount of work ahead of you, princess?"
"Like the brother said, there aren't that many lunar records in Equestria anyway. I would rather not go down that route until we've exhausted everything else, including the star charts." Cadence said. "If even that doesn't help, we will have to look to the moon for answers anyway. Sorry."
"I completely understand. Only, if all other possibilities give us no reprieve, I will be of no help anyway." Manered nodded.
"Should that time comes, we may have to go begging to the moon." Cadence ruminated.
Shining still didn't feel right about it, but after a moment it occurred to him that it was because his idea had been been shot down so he was not in a position to help his friends whatsoever.
He picked up one of the few texts which was in a language he understood and turned it to a random page, but the words made no sense to him. What the hell were apoapsides, a perihelion, or the deferent-epicycle system? It might have well been in Babyloneighian. He flipped the tome closed and nudged it back dismissively. "So much for this visit. I'm a stallion trained to cross off pony bodies, not orbital bodies."
"A gruesome attitude to take on two accounts. You are to thank for us getting this far, Sir Armor." Manered said. "For one, I cannot commend enough how you've kept all that court drama away from us."
"We will find something for you to do, Shining, when we need some executive action." Cadence consoled.
"Don't confuse me. You're the executive, I'm the action." Shining said trying to stop his own dour slide with a joke. "Have any errands I could run?"
Cadence nibbled her lip, pretending to read from the book in front of her for a few moments while she thought of a way to let the poor stallion down diplomatically. "I'm sorry Shining, but this is tough academic work that you have to be trained for." She stood up and circled around the table to him. "Shining, you've already done a lot to get us started. I think you can exercise your best judgement on what you can contribute now." She smiled hinting at the regret of her next words. "But it isn't going to be here with me, pouring through these books."
"I'd just distract you huh?" Shining tried to act flirty but couldn't hide his depressed tone. "I'll have to think about it."
Perhaps Cadence was worried that Shining Armor's ego was hurt by his academic inadequacy- That was not so. Rather what upset Shining was the idea that apparently his best use would be distracting the odious nobles and bureaucrats, the very thing he had spent a month trying to disentangle himself from so he could help her. The second blow was the realization that their rendezvous at the university, where Cadence had been updating him on the research, was not to keep him in the loop for upcoming work, but mere friendly courtesy. "I'll do everything you need of me princess, including being absent. I can think of a few things to keep me occupied."
Cadence's scrutinized Shining Armor's blank expression. "You impossible stallion, you're not taking this personally again, are you? Good grief, you get set off by the smallest things. You treat these little inconveniences, little phenomenal facts of life, as defeats. " She pulled him into a quick hug with her wing, and just as quickly let him go. "Shiny I order you to tackle your work with every passion of your soul, with the confidence of the importance of your duty, and my respect your execution of it."
Her combination of aggression and compassion threw Shining off so much he almost forgot to be angsty. "Uh, if that's what you order, princess."
"Cadence." Cadence said commandingly.
"Yes." Shining agreed. That was her name.
"That I'm your princess is the least important thing between us, Shining. I'm your friend, and my name is Cadence." Cadence emphasized. "I'm ordering you to get out of your own head as a friend, not your liege." She glanced away. "By heaven, if rank could never come between us... but it is what the Sun has decreed. Now we get back at her."
"Huh?" Manered had the feeling he should be worried by her metaphor.
"I'll understand eventually prin- Cadence. It might take me months or years, but I'll understand. I swear." Shining Armor finally answered. "I know you'll figure this stuff out, and find out the cause of the Sun being erratic."
"We will figure it out." Cadence agreed. "You thank you for coming to see me..."
"But you have to get back to the research without me." Shining finished her sentence. "Okay Cadence, I'll see you later, maybe at the funeral?"
"May attend, but probably not." Cadence shook her head.
"Around the castle then, unless you summon me sooner. Bye princess, brother."
He turned to leave.
But before Shining could get out of the library, Cadence called out to him again. "Shining, one question. Was your sister actually obsessing over Babyloneigha months ago? Or was that another joke?"
"Yes, it fancy of hers for a while." Shining shrugged, but noticing Cadence's concerned look continued, "Hey, it was just one of her passing obsessions. By the next day she was lecturing me about moveable-type presses. I'm pretty sure it has nothing to do with what's going on with the sun."
"Damnible things, those type presses. They cheapen the written word and congest the libraries. " Manered grumbled, his words slightly forced, as he arranged the books around their working space. "Not every inane thing is meant to be committed to paper. Now the money-loving print shop masters are the arbiters of what is historified. They're even getting royal contracts! Absurd, just absurd. What sin abounds."
While amusing, Manered's gripes were not interesting to Cadence at that moment. "What sin abounds..." She reached out to Shining with a wing, not nearly reaching him.
"Shining Armor, you have to be certain about her. You always felt like it was your responsibility to get between Twilight and I, to keep us off each other's throats. This isn't university anymore and she and I have grown up since then. I would never use anything you tell me against her, ever. She is our princess's esteemed agent and a lady of the realm now."
"Yeah..." Shining said, his voice catching in his throat. "I know she is." It felt like a lie, because he was not so certain how grown up his sister really was.
"However, if this buisness with the sun's patterns is magical, Twilight would be the first to know. She might have even gone down the same research path as us." Cadence tapped the tome of Babyloneighian astronomical observations. "You should even consider the possibility that it relates to her elevation to First Student."
At that last sentence, the first think to leap to Shining's mind was the obvious tangled political implications, just as quickly pushed away.
"With the utmost respect princess, I will let you do the considering for the both of us." He said emotionlessly. "I don't want to get in the way."
Princess Cadenza gave him a gave stern look.
"With the utmost respect, Cadence, and so on." Shining repeated, trying to smile. "Please keep yourself busy and don't go after my sister."
He ducked out of the room.
Cadence was silent for a while, seemingly counting until Shining would fully depart the monastery, before she turned to Manered. "It's Twilight Sparkle, isn't it..."
Manered looked away.
"Now, Lady Viscountess Twilight Sparkle, élève premier, a masterless little scholar who never leaves well alone." Cadence put on a pained smile for a few seconds, then sighed. "I heard she consulted you about something. Did she cause this?"
"This? Yes and no. Lady Sparkle may have caused something, but I do not think she has caused our sun to err." Manered said solemnly. "It is useless to muse unless you hope to chase her to her exile."
"I won't be doing that. No, I plan to respect Shining's wishes." Cadence said. "And I plan to keep you too busy for your own conniving, Brother Manered. How are your friends doing in their own exiles? Regretting not taking the castrato option?"
"Oh princess you are being very cruel. It's all water under the bridge." Manered protested, his voice subdued.
"Don't be too taken in by how I dote on dear Shining. Provoke me and I will provoke back. I had to live in a tower for years because of you hooligans." Cadence grinned. "Go on then boy, you handle that stack of texts and I will take this one. If the Maredian script is too dense for you I will assist."
"Very well princess." Manered said demurely and settled back into the reading. He wasn't comfortable about having drawn Princess Cadenza's (somewhat bemused) irritation, but at least he hadn't been pressed more about Twilight Sparkle or the Moon.
By god, it would be a political catastrophe if Sir Shining Armor or Princess Amore Cadenza found out about Twilight Sparkle's research into the Nightmare Pretender. Worse still, it occurred to him, was if the Fancy Pants-Lyra Heartstrings-Twilight Velvet espionage connection was found out. Being a monastery librarian was too stressful!
Shining had a few hours before the funeral, so once he descended the Mountain back into Canterlot he circled the Old Town to the north castle grounds. There, overlooking part of the gardens, was his sister Twilight Sparkle's old residence.
The squat freestanding tower had much more glass in its design than the main keep of Canterlot Castle, with a gold dome incorporating a small observatory. Shining stared up at the grand telescope through the window, pondering Cadence's words.
"Maybe Twilight did happen upon something important." Shining mumbled to himself.
He tried to think back on the day Twilight left. Had she said anything important about the sun? Or perhaps the day before she left, the day of Foaly Flux's stupid party. Twilight had acted hurried and impatient, but she was always like that with family nowadays. Was there anything to suggest she was intruding on a grave secret on the nature of Celestia and her mother?
"But Cadence is right. The timing of the promotion makes me wonder too."
Shining circled around to the front door. The tower was locked of course, and fiddling the bolt with his magic was of no use- Twilight had shut up her abode both physically and magically. The glass windows were likely warded too.
No ingress- So, unless Twilight or Celestia appeared before him and gave up the secret, there would be no way to know whether Twilight knew about the Sun's erraticism.
"Fine. On to the next thing." Shining grumbled. As usual, chasing down a lead didn't satisfy him or make anything better, it just created a new specter to worry and feel bad about.
If he had a thousand lifetimes, maybe Shining could teach himself not to agonize over things outside his control.
"Forget a thousand lifetimes, I bet he wished he'd had just one full lifetime to live out." Prosser snickered.
The funeral was an immediate disaster, on account of the deceased's failure to show up.
Canterlot was not, strictly speaking, well supplied with temples. The Equestrian faith had a very disorganized hierarchy of clergy, since the dogma channeled the precepts of faith through the institutions of the empire, not any distinct ecclesiastical hierarchy. There were only four official clergyponies: The unicorn prelate, the pegasus prelate, the earth pony prelate, and the alicorn prelate herself Princess Celestia. There was only one official cathedral, Canterlot Castle.
The folk faiths and monastic orders, with their idiosyncratic interpretations of Celestiaan doctrine, were tolerated and coopted. Those unofficial institutions of faith had some power, and so it was that Fancy Pants's funeral had been held in a stately sect temple in the Old Town. There, under the domed roof high above, the priests would preform their daily rituals for the masses. Only, there weren't too many ponies attending anymore. There was a time when the empire was new and faith in their god's power was strong, throngs of ponies would pack the aisles and naves, begging Celestia to elucidate their destiny. Now the cathedral was lucky to be half full on holy days.
Shining Armor usually steered away from the smaller temples. As a vassal of the princess he was very close to the high priestess herself; no need for the passionate interpretations of the priests. They even made him a little uncomfortable, how in their strong marble edifices, tall ceilings, and exquisite stained glass they mimicked and channeled the imagery of Canterlot Castle, as if to stake their own claim to divine symbology. Now Shining didn't really feel anything.
His apathy was in contrast to Illustrious Valor, sitting several pews ahead of Shining. The little dark mare was absolutely squirming, looking in every direction and taking in every detail of the temple. But why? She had been in the castle from top to bottom, so what did she get out of the mimicry? Twilight Velvet, beside Iillor, had to swat the younger mare a few times to not make the bench squeak so much.
"But I can not stir so much feeling in myself?" Shining looked to the far end of the temple, where a stylized rendition of a sun princess was depicted in stained glass. The alicorn had many weapons around her, with which she was smiting monstrous figures intruding from the edges of the frame: It was probably Celestia the First, destroying the enemies of ponykind before the founding of the empire.
Dusty sunbeams, their colors through the glass, drew the viewer past the glass princess to the mighty star beyond.
Guilt and rapture were not so forthcoming though, with how the rest of the funeral was proceeding at the front of the temple.
Most of the temple staff hadn't shown up, and a few castle staff were looking around for directions. Allegedly Captain Hauseway and Vizier Seacrest Blackhorn had arranged the event as part of official council buisness, but now they were nowhere to be seen. The Unicorn Prelate was drunkenly passed out on the front pew, and Councilor Prosser preferred to snicker than give any leadership to the confused staff.
At the center of the temple, a stern black coffin. Horrible rumors were swirling about the state of the body within.
It was a waste of time waiting for somepony to get the act together. So, Shining Armor decided to be among those trickling out of the temple. He had lingered a socially adequate amount of time to have 'payed respects'.
Rising from the pew, Shining avoided the stares of the others as he made his way to the exit.
Unexpectedly, there was somepony waiting for Shining Armor at the exit. It was the lad Sel Lech Sabonord, wearing a poorly fitting city guard officer uniform. "Hello there Lord Armor. I hope you're having a wonderful day."
"Uhh, it's been decent. Some frustrations but nothing bad's happened so I can't be too cross." Shining said. Why was Sel Lech talking to him? "If you're looking for my mother, she's inside near the front."
"No sir, I was waiting to talk to you." Sel shook his head. "It's preferable not to talk about this around her ladyship."
Shining sighed. "This is some politics nonsense isn't it."
Sel Lech adopted a concerned expression. "It isn't exactly nonsense, sir. I have been told that the Imperial Council has me on a short list of candidates to replace Barley Bale as captain of the City Guard and watch."
"Oh." Shining was not very involved in the ongoing investigation into Barley Bale's death, nor the search for a new watch captain. Shining would have guessed that Sel Lech had been shortlisted by Seacrest and Hauseway, but now that power in the council was swinging towards Prosser it was likely that Sel would be dropped. It was stuff he was tired of thinking about. "I hadn't heard that. Good luck."
Sel Lech cocked his head "Sir, you're on the Imperial Council. Surely you could put in a good word for me."
Why would I do a thing like that, Shining thought to himself. How had the young noble decided to seek out Shining, of all ponies. "You want me to advocate for you." Shining said. How was he going to let the starry-eyed lad down? Shining had no interest in meddling on the Imperial Council, especially not for Sel Lech, Twilight Velvet's pawn. "Okay, uh, why? You actually want to be city guard captain?"
"Well, yes. I think it would be interesting. My family didn't have the connections to make me an an IHG squire, nor enough money to send me out to squire for a country lord. That's always constrained me to the role of a courtier. But I never admired statesponies or spymasters, but rather ponies like your father with inspiring gallantry and strength of character, borne of the confident skill as soldiers."
"My father's a good duelist but he isn't exactly a soldier. Besides, the captaincy isn't about literally battling crime. It's about politics and administration." Shining deadpanned.
Sel Lech shook his head. "That was the folly of Barley Bale and Hauseway. They act like secretaries when they should be acting like knights, leading from the front, and putting the spirit back in the rotting institutions. I think I have a youthful energy and élan I could break the city guard away from the politics, and bring back the civic honor that service has lost of late."
"But why do that? I don't-" Shining Armor was baffled. But, thinking on it a bit more, he saw how Sel Lech's words fit into the speeches Twilight Velvet had made about the dignity and unity of Canterlot and the unicorns broadly. It seemed like Sel Lech Sabonord was still loyal despite the rallying point of Seacrest getting away from her.
Or was Sel Lech, like Seacrest before him, trying to get out of Velvet's clutches by seeking a sort of imperial patronage. Shining hated himself for getting curious. Fuck politics! "You're going to get harassed by the cliques in the Estates and noble courts. Either you appease them, or you're cooked."
"How can it be that the late Barley Bale appeased them and was still cooked?" Sel Lech prompted.
Because he was stupid, Shining thought. "Barley Bale had a base of support in the Inner City lodges, built on patronage and graft, and he had powerful sponsors, but his ambition outran them both and he was caught without his backup. And what kind of backup will you have? You don't build a durable power base off of rhetorical appeals to honor and a 'glorious' past. Not in Canterlot."
"I don't share your pessimism, Lord Armor, but I understand it. It can all be done better." Sel shrugged. A total non-answer.
Part of Shining respected Sel Lech's drive. Yes, Sel was one of Twilight Velvet's creatures, he'd had a much longer history in Foaly Flux's court. "Well-" It wasn't Shining's job to dissuade Sel, but he couldn't in good conscious help him either. "Plainly, I'm just not in favor at the Imperial Court right now. I would hurt your came more than I could help it."
Sel's expression shifted to one of concern. "Surely not! I thought Councilor Prosser was a friend of yours and he is ascendent in the Council right now."
"I don't think the councilor knows what a friend is." Shining said. Nor me for that matter, he thought. "You would have better luck going to the councilor directly." Shining nodded back towards the entrance to the temple. "He has been on decent terms with Lady Velvet so he might be open to your solicitations."
Sel shrugged. "I thought of that, yes. Only, I'm a touch more fond of you, Lord Armor, for aforestated reasons. I consider you a stallion of the utmost honor and worth, and I respect your opinion even if I do not agree."
The words seemed sincere, which pleased Shining despite his the leaden cynicism that had been growing on his soul. "Thanks." He paused, thinking. Oh, what the hell. Cadence had ordered him to do what his heart felt right. For a brief deluded moment Shining dropped his cynicism and let himself believe that Sel Lech had what it took to be a diligent reformed for the city guard captaincy. "If you wish to run the risk, then we will go speak to the councilor together."
Sel Lech's eyes lit up. "Oh thank you sir! I- I'm already imagining it. You are a good friend indeed and if I am made captain you would have my eternal camaraderie."
Sometimes bad comrades were worse than no comrade at all, Shining thought. "Sure." He trotted back towards the temple. "Come on then."
"Uh, oh? Right now?" Sel hesitated, then galloped to catch up. "There's a service going on, isn't there? I..., uh..."
Shining grabbed Sel's shirt in his telekinesis and pulled him through the door, and up the darkened aisles. A few more ponies had left since Shining had dipped out, but Twilight Velvet and Iillor were still lingering around, as were some castle staff, a couple local nobles, and a few scattered mares that might have been Fancy Pants's various girlfriends. Crucially at that moment, Councilpony Prosser was still lounging off to the side, snickering and joking to nopony in particular.
"Goodness." Sel Lech huffed, pulling himself free of Shining's magical grasp. "Not so dear after all, sir."
"And not a captain yet, young sir." Shining quipped back. He led Sel up past the dark casket, to where Prosser was. "Good afternoon."
Prosser was dressed more reservedly than one would have thought, but less than would be hoped. Yes, his attire was all mourning black, but it was a rendition of a noble's hiking clothes, short pants over pantaloons, a cloak over a tunic and collar; That is, offensively stylish for a somber occasion.
The councilor sat up and doffed his cap a few times. "Oh hello, oh hello. Solemn times to reflect on life, and its end, do proceed here. While the world spins on, we mourn for he for which it stopped, our dear Fancy Pants." He couldn't keep a smile off his face.
"Show a little restraint. Even my mother is being more respectful than you." Shining Armor grunted.
"Why? Life is sad and then we die? Fancy Pants is probably in a better place now." Prosser said. "Of perhaps several different better places, since all that could attend today were a few limbs and bits of his torso."
Shining felt queasy and Sel Lech audibly hissed in disgust. Was it true? Had Fancy Pants's body really been mutilated and (mostly) stolen out of the morgue? It disgusted Shining in several levels, not the least because it could have somepony covering up their tracks in the murder, erasing a detail that Shining had missed which could have revealed the true killer.
"All of us end up in about the same state after a hundred years mouldering." Shining mumbled.
"Hey, don't think I'm not offended about it too. But what do you expect me to do, eh? The City Guard already said they'll look into it. I can either be a miserable asshole, lamenting everything going on, or I can try to find the ironic or amusing side of things." Prosser said. "For example, imagine all the things those thieves could be doing with the greater part of Fancy Pants's body. They've got his head, spine, and private parts, so-"
"God damn, shut the hell up. I didn't come to-" Shining pinched his nose and unwound with a few deep breaths. Damn Manered and Cadence, thinking this was his forte! "Councilor, let's digress. Our mutual acquaintance here with me, Sir Sel Lech Sabonord, wishes to put himself forward as a candidate to the position of Captain of the City Guard and watch of Canterlot."
"Does he? Eh, why not. I'll talk to Lord Seacrest Blackhorn about it and we'll get you a uniform." Prosser shrugged.
Shining Armor stood absolutely still, trying to decide if Prosser was joking or not.
Prosser leaned back into his chair. "Sir Sabonord, come by the castle tomorrow and we will see about putting your appointment to an Imperial Council vote."
"Right." Shining glanced back at Sel, who seemed just as surprised. "Should he go talk to any of the other councilors?"
"If he wants." Prosser shrugged dispassionately.
So that was it then? Did Prosser really have an iron grip on the Imperial Council? ... probably not. What was more likely was that after the rapid changes in leadership, the councilors had stopped caring, stopped deliberating, and were content to shuffle through Prosser's action items unopposed. After the tongue-lashing from Princess Celestia, Hauseway must have completely retreated from the castle, probably to reinforce his status among his noble patrons and in his clique.
So...
Feeling untethered, Shining drifted away from Prosser and Sel without a word. Was it for the better or worse? Did it matter? He wanted to find his way back to the barracks. Maybe he would yell at the knights for a while, refocus himself while he disciplined them, until he thought of something else to do that day. Something useful? Was there anything he could do?
"I'm out of here for real this time." Shining murmured.
Or not. Nearing the exit once more, Shining almost collided with a group of ponies who were just then entering the temple.
A few of them were soldiers, unicorns with foreign styles armor and unfamiliar crests on their flanks: A mountain peak with a sun setting behind it. Leading the pack were two distinguished ponies:
In the very lead, a distinguished unicorn with a severe gaze, a small mustache and sideburns.
To his side, a fairly young earth pony colt with long hair.
“You.” The older unicorn locked eyes with Shining. "Are you the pretender vizier?"
"Beg your pardon?" Shining could see the stallion was at least a little important, maybe a middling Canter noble house.
"How much more clear can I ask it? Are you the pony who illegally occupies the seat of the lord vizier of Equestria?" The unicorn asked, his tone demanding. "Or perhaps you are that other one, a certain..." At a glance, one of his followers produced a letter for him, which he quickly read down. "Twilight Velvet? Are you Twilight Velvet?" He rolled the scroll back up. "Nay hardly. I jest. That is a smart uniform though. Greetings, Sir."
"What the hell? Who are you ponies?" Shining Armor uttered.
He felt a hoof on his shoulder. Two ponies, Velvet and Iillor, had snuck up on his and were standing to either side.
"Greetings, Lord Duke. Welcome to Canterlot." Twilight Velvet said. Matching the unicorn stallion's imperious glare with an impish grin. "Or is it welcome back? Come and sit and we can all mourn for that worthy foe of yours, won't you, Lord Lightdowser?"
The dignified unicorn stallion, Sharphoof Lightdowser, Duke of East Unicornia, was not in the mood to humor the requests of strange mares with devious eyes. He felt the subject of a derisive inside joke, which was true, but perhaps not in the way he would have expected.
"You more properly fit the description of Twilight Velvet." The duke's eyes shifted back to Shining. "So you could be her relation, Lord Shining Armor, Knight of the Imperial Household Guard."
Shining Armor said nothing.
"I see you need no appraising of the situation here." Velvet said. "So, will you stay for the service? We can talk at length afterwards."
Duke Lightdowser was not done assessing his adversaries yet. He lastly turned to Iillor. "You would not be Twilight Sparkle." He conspicuously twitched at the sight of her hornlessness.
"No, I wouldn't be. But don't count me out when it comes to magic." Iillor shot back. "So don't push her ladyship too hard."
Lightdowser did not dignify the threat, turning back to Velvet. "I am not amused that I had to find my way here from the skydock."
"Don't remember the city layout? Oh well, we'll be there for you in the days to come." Velvet shrugged. "Now, let's not despoil this holy threshold with bitterness. Will you come in for the funeral, or won't you?"
Lightdowser pondered in silence for a moment, then nudged the earth pony colt beside him. "Do you wish to see Fancy Pants, Risky?"
The young colt nodded sheepishly.
"Very well." Lightdowser grunted. He nodded to his knights, who withdrew back into the street. "My son wishes to see the late vizier so we shall." He said, a subtle venom to his voice. Taking his son Risky's hoof, he stalked up the aisle and took an empty pew.
Shining Armor slowly turned to his mother, his expression blank. "You."
"Good afternoon Shiny. Did you enjoy the air up on the Mountain?" Velvet winked. "Yes me, yes me. But aren't you happy? Rumor had it that you came up with the idea of inviting a well-resourced country lord to seek the viziership. Barley Bale intimated as much to me before his death."
"This is so outrageous. Completely, totally..." Shining huffed, annoyed beyond words. "That was when the viziership was EMPTY. As much as I don't like that vacuous idiot Seacrest Blackhorn as vizier, I accept him-"
" 'Cuz you installed him." Iillor chuckled.
"But if a headstrong lord like Duke Lightdowser is here to rouse for the position," Shining hissed. "the imperial institutions will be PERILOUSLY weakened by a battle for the viziership."
Velvet snorted, shaking her head. "As a pony with the power to command violence of frightening proportion, don't you think it is in your hooves whether that battle is literal or metaphorical, Shiny? Either prepare yourself, or finish the battle here and now."
Shining Armor looked past Velvet, to the duke and his son waiting in the pews. "What a tasteless joke. Even if these temples bore me they are sacralized to our princess-"
"What is more important? The vacuous norms and shambling traditions of this empire, or the pragmatic defense of your princess's heritage." Velvet interrupted. "Trust me, nothing would honor your princess more by shedding the necessary blood in this place."
"... ... No. I will not. Good luck with this madness of yours." Shining left the temple, for real this time.
Iillor watched the swag of Shining's tail as he cantered out of sight. "That poor boy. He probably thought you were washed-out of politics after Seacrest was snatched away from you." She giggled.
"Quiet. Go sit down and don't antagonize the duke any more." Velvet ordered.
After a moment's consideration, Velvet closed and locked the temple doors, then circled around the entire hall to the front where Prosser and Sel Lech were chatting. "You've had your laughs. Start the show already." She growled at Prosser.
Prosser, still riding high off of his little victory over Shining Armor, only spared Velvet a smug glance. "Lady Velvet, good to see you. You didn't return my wave earlier. Hey, if you want to work out joint custody for Seacrest, that will have to be negotiated with him in attendance. We could split him, like 'ol Pants. Which hemisphere do you want, front or back? Left or right?"
Velvet tapped her hoof impatiently, once, twice, then knocked off Prosser's hat and grabbed him by the back of his neck with her telekinesis. "Councilor, you can rely on your inviolate empire to protect you from my poor naive son. Can it protect you from a determined and bitter pony?" She forcibly turned his head towards Duke Sharphoof Lightdowser. "A pony like him, who's come to Canterlot to revenge himself on everything we care about, everything quintessentially Canterlot?"
Prosser struggled violently for a mere moment before calming himself, to try to control his wincing under Velvet's grasp and to see what she demanded he see. "I don't recognize him." He admitted.
Velvet released the squirming councilor. "Start. The. Funeral." She ordered. Her eye flicked to Sel Lech. "Introduce yourself to the duke. Be very friendly, Captain Sabonord."
Sel Lech smiled apologetically to Prosser and trotted away in the direction of the pews. After a few more seconds of glowering over the councilor, Twilight Velvet returned to her seat.
So a few minutes later, after running around to finally wrangle all the clerks and priests, Prosser was at the podium. Curtains were drawn over several of the windows and incense piles were lit up. Organ music began to play from overhead.
"Thank you, everyone who has gathered today, under the smiling sun of our beloved princess (metaphorically speaking), to honor the late vizier, Fancy Pants." Prosser droned monotonously, a last bit of mockery of the event. "A most special thanks to the departed, and what of him could make it."
Prosser paused, nodding the room to invite a chuckle or two, but there was nothing except the organ music.
"Okay, bad joke? It's not so bad, just that we had to divide the budget for this event for the one we'll hold when we find the rest of Fancy Pants. Heyy, that one wasn't as bad, but really, no judgement, if the thief is present, please return the corpse bits."
Twilight Velvet, legs crossed, was splitting her attention between Prosser's eulogy and the back rows where Sel Lech was trying to chat Duke Lightdowser up.
Iillor, however, was back to vibrating anxiously, a nervous half-grin as she glanced around the darkened temple. "Musician's Guild mares in the naves. They got in after you locked the door."
"Tunnels under the city, or through the roof." Velvet grunted, not sparing the earth mare a glance. "They're just observing, unless Phyte herself shows up. Control yourself."
Iillor scratched her chin, eyes still darting around. "Yeah, yeah, staking it out to see if Pants's killer returns to the scene of the crime. Or something else..."
Just shut the hell up, Velvet was tempted to reply. She was having some regrets allying with the nightmare, who was ruled by erratic impulses and inscrutable intentions. Her full utility had not been realized... yet.
“Fancy Pants was my friend for as long as I remember.” Prosser was saying. “Which is to say that life before him was not even worth remembering, so dear and so distracting he was to me. He brought a sense of purpose to my life, and made me realize that sometimes it’s not just about the individual, it’s about the group.
“With ‘ol Pants there to guide me, I learned that arresting one pony at a time was a waste of resources. From the first he lead by example, and revealed to me the path to arresting the masses. Politics, Pants always said, is the tool by which ponies bind and divide. And although I don’t think it was politics that binded then divided him, I’d like to think that it was the spirit of politics that spurred that move.”
"Nope." Iillor snickered softly.
"These are trying times, little ponies. Fancy Pants was fighting the good fight against the forces of obscurantism and utilitarianism, until it mercilessly crushed him. It is up to you... Or, maybe not you, but somepony, to take up this most noble cause until another brutal murder ends that fight." Prosser stepped away from the podium. “Okay, I've never attended one of these before. Does someone else speak now?"
"Yes."
Duke Lightdowser stood up and trotted up to Prosser and the casket. All eyes in the temple were upon him now.
Sharphoof Lightdowser- Now that he was drawing attention to himself, everypony silently asked themselves who the stallion was. By ostentatious Canterlot standards, the duke was remarkably plain, in only a dark tunic with his family sigil embroidered on each side. His coat and mane were two slightly different shades of yellow. His eyes and mark were green, his mark taking the shape of three blades of grass.
But the stallion had the cultivated, purposeful disposition of a ruler. He took the time to look at every pony in the crowd, his thin frown and slightly narrowed eyes betraying an analytical distrust of the crowd, as though they had been assembled against him.
Sharphoof pushed his short mane to the other side of his horn and launched into his somber speech. "Thank you, Councilor. Your reputation for virtue among the provinces seems well deserved." His deep voice was in direct contrast with Prosser's. He turned to the gathered mourners. "And thank all of you for coming. It is more than Lord Pants would have expected. My knowledge of Sir Fancy Pants dates back about a decade, when I was the other contender to the position of vizier of Equestria. He was a better politician, and he won out." He shifted weight between his legs. "Canterlot is loath to acnowledge its defeats. Fancy Pants's death was a loss, not only for this city, but for all Equestria. His unfortunate passing has signaled to me that it is time for me to return to Canterlot to serve my empress. With every effort of my soul, just government can be preserved for ponykind." He leaned onto the podium, signaling a shift in the speech. "Villainy has been flourishing without a princess-risen vizier. I can be that vizier, noble of soul. I have already secured the assistance of other interested parties such as Admiral Rain Gnash of Cloudsdale, to excise the cronyism and hooliganism that runs rampant from top to bottom in Canterlot."
"At least Prosser's jokes were funny. This is just a stump speech." Velvet rolled her eyes. Since she had closed and locked the doors, the audience for the kick-off of Duke Lightdowser's Canterlot blitz was just a few confused priests, a couple genuine mourners, and his own son Rusty who rapturously followed his father's words.
"Wow, another stuffy demagogue here to exploit that your princess is truant." Iillor said coolly. "I'm baffled by this one. Let me stab him with the dagger."
"Don't lay a hoof on him or I'll kill you." Velvet warned. "Don't touch the pegasus either."
"What pegasus?" Iillor asked.
Velvet rolled her eyes. "Weren't you listening? Rain Gnash. Oh whatever, you'll meet her soon."
Duke Lightdowser's speech continued.
"I am more than familiar with the culture of corruption in Canterlot, as doubtful much has change since last I was here. Who better than I can recount how patronage and self-dealing can influence a lord, a councilor, or even a vizier. But now I see it every city in Equestria, where networks of conniving courtiers and low nobles run the house while the lords and ladies waste away with petty indulgences." He tapped the podium. "This has to stop, as it should have been a decade ago at the last vizier selection. It will be MADE to stop, through the proper use of policy and the steady hoof of a devout vizier."
If only Shining Armor had stuck around to realize the implications of his mother stealing his idea: Invite a powerful landed noble to take total control over the imperial administration. Where Shining Armor had imagined it would control the chaos, Twilight Velvet counted on the exact opposite.
Though... tuning out from the speech, Velvet wondered how successful she would be if she put her full effort into the cause of peace. Would she be even half as successful as her son, or even a dullard like Hauseway? Maybe her soul was asymmetrical, and only useful for malign purposes... a true villain born! Or was that just some other voice, an evil spiritual force (a god, even!) in her head that was distinct from her... allowing a detachment of mare from agency. Velvet had accepted, to a certain degree, that she was not the most virtuous of ponies... But was she incapable of virtue? She stared at Iillor for a while, as the nightmare pretended to look elsewhere- Perhaps she was not as different from the monster as she fancied herself.
What was so now would not be so forever. Velvet the mare would be vindicated All concepts of virtue would collapse down into a single dimension that apotheosized her own values into a new zeitgeist. The true treasure of victory would be Twilight Velvet becoming a good pony.
"The guildmares are gone, escaped through the rafters." Iillor mumbled.
Velvet's attention returned to reality. "Hm? They off to report the situation to the Mistress. Hmm." She reflected on the holy symbology around them for a few moments longer. Bless me ye terrible goddess. "Then we've stuck around long enough." Velvet left her seat and Iillor followed her out of the temple. Duke Lightdowser's speech was muffled as the doors creaked closed behind them.
Iillor let out a sigh of relief. "About time. Any more bored and I would have started some shenanigans in there."
"I don't care. You heard Shiny. There's madness to do." Velvet said.
She paused for a moment. In the cramped plaza in front of the temple, walled in by stately baroque row houses and trafficked by all the well-to-do ponies of the Old Town.
Dwelling in her dark mood, Velvet wondered at what their fates would be if she triumphed. How would the ponies she claimed to be championing suffer or prosper? If she was truly only capable of evil, then perhaps their suffering was inevitable and inescapable.
"Yeah? What do you want from me?" Iillor snapped, impatient at Velvet's introspection.
"The aforementioned pegasus admiral, Rain Gnash, will be arriving soon to rendezvous with Duke Lightdowser. You will greet her at the skydock. Take Blueblood with you, and Aurthora if she wishes." Velvet ordered. "I have to make some arrangements, so send a dragonfire message to the Chateau la Garde if there are any issues."
"Uhh, okay. Are Blueblood and Aurthora already at the gatehouse?" Iillor asked. She could tolerate a couple thoughtless errands, especially if they involved Shining Armor. Was she going to tolerate this?
"No, so go fetch them from the Black Horn Council hall." Velvet said. "Is that clear enough? Am I going to have to have my maid accompany you to hold your hoof?"
As condescending as Velvet was being, Iillor was discerning to the intent that she be the lieutenant on that task. "So, why do you think I would care about some pegasus?" She posed. "How does she feature in your plots, ehh? She going to be bothering Shining Armor, or maybe Phyte?"
Despite her mood, Velvet cracked a devious grin. "Just get going. If you can not be bothered to have a dream of your own, I will not make you privy to mine." She turned and trotted off.
Iillor glanced back at the temple. "Maybe I should make it my ambition to put up a nice shrine or temple to my goddess... Nah, too much work, and she wouldn't appreciate it." She set off too.
Cadence dropped the book she was reading.
Manered looked up from the records he was slowly deciphering, regarding the princess with concern. "Is everything okay, princess?"
Cadence was concentrating on something he couldn't perceive, perhaps something magical or far away. Her expression was calm but she was immensely tense, making the table and chair vibrate with her.
Then just as quickly she relaxed, letting out a soft sigh. "No, brother, nopony can answer affirmatively to that question, and perhaps not for the next hundred year. Something very bad is happening in Canterlot."
Manered felt a chill. "Is her highness's condition so bad? Can you sense it? Are we too late?" He had not wanted to contemplate what failure meant.
"For many things, yes." Cadence said evasively. She took a moment to rub her eyes, "but maybe not too late to save Celestia. Let's continue." then went back to reading.
Up on the Southern Watchtower, Celestia had felt it too: Like a muon streaking down from the atmosphere at the speed of light, a particle of magic lanced down from the space, passing through the monastery, the junior princess, and the Mountain underneath her, and out the other side of the planet.
Celestia slowly woke up from her mindless contemplation of the horizon, to interpret what she had just seen. Her eyes tracked the path of the magic had taken, back up into the sky, up, up, up... right up to the afternoon sun.
"She doesn't understand your language. She lacks the book for it." Celestia said quietly, holding back the urges to snarl and scream. "I am your sole interpreter on this earth. Do you have a reason to be displeased with me?"
With the enthralling moods and unwelcome visions assaulting Celestia, perhaps the Sun was jealous, for it seemed other divine entities were intruding on her avatar.
"Do you think I want to be like this?"
The sun had no answers for Celestia, simply shining down on her the same as if she were any other pony.
But Celestia knew what impossible things roiled behind the light, an impossible godly inferno of intent.
Or perhaps Celestia did not understand as much as she thought. Could it be... Where for all history the same emanations of phenomenal reality had shone down from the sun, was it possible for something else to happen? That was to say, was it possible for the sun not to shine?
"Or are you trying to confuse me, keep me uncertain before our Summer Sun? I will not go quietly." Celestia asked, as much to herself as to the sun. "Just stay away from Cadenza."
But the south horizon was captivating her again. The thought did not progress.
The to-and-fro of mortals should have been of the keenest interest of the empress of ponykind, but so much was passing unnoticed by the apathetic alicorn, and it was doubtful she would have done more than stare at any messengers: Duke Lightdowser had been moved into Canterlot, so now came the pegasus.
A thick cover of clouds rested just under the level of Canterlot's plateau, lapping up against overhanging skydock that hung off the southwestern wall.
From their vantage point atop the skydock gatehouse, Blueblood, Iillor, Aurthora, and Molar spotted a portion cloud begin to bulge.
"Would that be them?" Blueblood asked.
"Who the hell knows. In this much light, your eyesight is probably better than mine." Iillor shrugged. She gestured forward. "Let's go greet them.
They made their way down through the gatehouse to the dock. The bulge in the clouds grew to the size of a house, then popped in an airy instant. A large, sleek transport airship, rose higher, turning and showing off its full profile against the white horizon. Five more shapes burst out from under the cloud, ponies. The pegasi flanked the airship as it made its graceful approach to the skydock.
"Somepony's been in contact with the Canterlot factor." Blueblood mused. "This weather was designed for that dramatic entrance."
Aurthora shrugged and Molar was mute to that assertion.
Once settled against the skypier the airship extended a ramp to the ground. The pegasi escort landed in formation atop it, and held a collective salute. They were clad in light armor and electric blue capes, embroidered with golden thread in the shape of stylized lightning.
"Wow, Wonderbolts." Aurthora noted.
The Wonderbolts: Cloudsdale's greatest knights- Or at least what passed as a knight in pegasi culture. Their presence, more than the advance airship and the weather, betrayed the identity to this visitor from Cloudsdale.
Another dozen Wonderbolts led a column of disembarking civilians, clerks and the like. They oohhed and aahhed at the mighty city walls and the towering fortresses and castles.
Blueblood eyed these strangers with suspicion. Did the pegasi intend to stay?
"I should have asked Lady Velvet what the buck this admiral looks like." Iillor remarked. She approached one of the Wonderbolts, still frozen in their salute. "Hey, which one of you is the big shot?"
A throaty chuckle, and a creak of the disembarkation ramp, announced her: "Was the Lady Velvet more impatient than I was led to believe?"
A green pegasus sauntered down the ramp, a Wonderbolt on either side. Admiral Rain Gnash was overweight, not morbidly so, but enough to slightly stretch the whirlwind mark on her flank. Her short red hair framed a pair of purple eyes. She loosely wore a jacket of the same color as the Wonderbolt uniform, and a rapier hung at her waist- If one looked closely, they could have spied the symbols of the IHG upon the weapon.
"She's the most impatient patient pony you'd ever meet, and I'm even worse." Iillor eyed Rain Gnash up and down. "Because I have to wait on her, and her target."
Rain Gnash received the immediate sense of the earth mare. "That's nice, but I didn't come to talk to Canterlot thugs. I let the meat work it out amongst themselves." She stepped past Iiilor to Blueblood and Aurthora. "Nice welcoming party. Next time, consider working in a pegasus instead of two horns and two hooves."
Despite his general confidence in his own geniality, Blueblood was intimidated by the grand mare. Though she was only a bit older than him, Rain Gnash and her farther had been prominent figures in castle politics during his youth. It had been nearly a decade since the Cloudsdale Clique had left Canterlot, but now they were back!
So, how was Blueblood going to play the conversation? "It will not be so difficult now that you all have returned, nay? And how welcome too!" He laughed. "Lady Velvet welcomes you unreservedly, and so do we. Sometimes in Canterlot it's not enough to wait for a good opportunity. We must make opportunity.”
Rain Gnash's expression shifted into an unimpressed smirk. "Sure. Or perhaps I didn't care to come around. Some really sincere begging does change my mind, from time to time."
She pivoted away from Blueblood and advanced up the skydock, the clerks Wonderbolts filing behind her.
"Uhh..." Blueblood watched her trot away before making an effort to follow. "Lady Velvet had every desire to be here if pressing buisness hadn't occupied her. In the meantime I can accommodate however I can!"
However Rain Gnash wasn't all that interested in the welcoming committee. “Captain Spitfire!” She bellowed.
The Wonderbolt who Iillor had been bothering jumped into the air and landed into pace beside her admiral. "Admiral!" She saluted again.
Rain Gnash gestured towards Blueblood with a wing. “I’m assigning you to liaison with Lady Twilight Velvet and her bunch. Lady Velvet is, in turn, our liaison this godawful city.”
“Very good m’lady!” Spitfire affirmed.
“Of course it is."Gnash waved away the captain, before calling out for a second pony. "Fleet!”
Another Wonderbolt, with all blue, stepped forward. “Admiral!”
“Find that ass Duke Lightdowser. See if he's scoped out the city. We will want a coordinated plan of action ASAP. I'd be damn stupid to try to take on this city unprepared.”
“Indeed it has, Admiral.” Fleetfoot launched into the skies, circled once, and darted over the city walls into Canterlot.
Aurthora, having watched this in silence, finally spoke up. “You would surely let us know if you harbored disrespectful intentions for our sacred city, Lady Admiral."
Rain Gnash laughed to herself. “Ah, no dainty threat, like I shouldn’t make an enemy of you lot. Because between us big bitches, honestly, buck all you inbred unicorn pissants." She shook her head, matching Aurthora's frown with a grin. "Alas and alak, this is where my princess's capital is. I swore proper oaths to do the right thing. Sometimes, the right thing is reminding malefactors that 'ol Cloudsdale’s air force isn’t just for show.”
Blueblood nodded agreeably. "Oh. Very good, honored Admiral. Was there anything else?"
"Nope." Rain Gnash picked up her pace, getting away from the welcoming party and passing into Canterlot through the skydock gate.
"Hmm, I remember her being nicer." Blueblood rubbing his chin contemplatively. "Do you think it's too late to ask Lady Velvet to switch me and Sel Lech out? I'd much rather parley with the duke."
"Do what you wish. I think it is imperative we put the Black Horn Council and allies on high alert. We do not want our paramilitaries pounced on unprepared." Aurthora said grimly. "This is exactly the situation we prepared for: A foreign force conspiring to tear down Canterlot's ancestral honors."
"I'm not sure it's exactly what we prepared for, considering how they came to be here." Blueblood shrugged.
They both turned their eyes on the lone pegasus left watching them from down the dock.
"It's my honor." The Wonderbolt named Spitfire saluted again.
Iillor trotted up. "Yeah don't talk to them. They're not meat." She said with a too-wide grin.
"I've been ordered to liaison with your mistress, so I'd ask you take me to Lady Twilight Velvet. At your leisure, of course." Spitfire said, her tight expression conveying how much it was not actually at their leisure.
"We will get to her, trust." Iillor nodded. "Come along then, my winged friend, and welcome to Canterlot."
"Jerk. You've only been here for a month." Blueblood grumbled.
Iillor gave him a wink, then led the party back into the city.
“It’s nice of you to see me Shiny.” Night Light coughed.
As safe as the Canterlot dungeons were, it was not the most homely or hygienic environment. The Twilight-Bright patriarch worried every day that he might be wasting away, losing his keenness, maybe even losing bits of sanity in the bare and cold prison.
Shining didn't register his father's greeting at first. He stared blankly. "Huh? Oh yeah... I well, ahem, Are the guard treating you well?"
“I think they’re friends of yours, because they keep apologizing to me. I tell them that it’s nothing to be ashamed of to do your job, unless you think it’s wrong.” Night Light said. “The prisoners bother me a bit. That is, it's not what they do, but who they are. They're decent ponies and I don't understand why most of them are here. Still, there's the occasional bad pony." His eyes wandered to the cell across from his, its occupant hidden beyond the light of the firefly lanterns. "Some ponies you might have even heard of." He looked back to his son. "Then there is me, who is worst of all, right?"
Shining idly wondered if his father was trying to guilt him. Maybe if he weren't so exhausted from the funeral he would have called Night Light out. "No, you're not the worst. Nopony, especially me, thinks that. I’m sorry I couldn’t come down to see you sooner."
Night Light looked concerned. "Oh? How is everything?”
“Uh, well, politically. The city is still mostly calm.” Shining said quickly. “But things feel so strange, like I can't describe, like we are sleepwalking towards... a precipice. I don't know exactly, but I have a very bad feeling.”
Night Light shook his head. "I meant with you, Shiny. Are you sleeping well? Eating well?"
Far from feeling comforted by his father's concern for him, he felt blown off. "Maybe I would be if I didn't have to think about all that stuff I mentioned. For better or worse, it's my duty."
“Do not worry when you don't have to. With you and your mother out there, I doubt very much that the situation will get out of hoof. You have very good swordsponyship, and she has an impeccable mind.” Night Light said confidently. “How is Twilight Velvet?”
Shining grimaced internally. “I hope you're not expecting me to check-in on her while you're here. I'm sure she's fully applying herself." If he started explaining he'd be there all afternoon.
Night Light chuckled. “I get that sense. She visits, but doesn't share everything. Maybe it's good that there's nothing noteworthy."
There was a LOT noteworthy. "I'll stick to your euphemism that she's fully applying herself. You probably know more about what goes on in her head than I do." Shining grumbled. "You're the one imprisoned, not her, so you're who I'm worrying about right now.
"I don't want you to worry. I'm as glad as can be that you came to see me down here, but I'm not at any risk." Night Light promised. He adopted a pondering expression. "It's probably for the best I'm down here. On the Canterlot streets I would be a target of ponies trying to get at Velvet. While I'm squirreled away in Celestia's dungeon she can focus on other things than me."
"Don't say something so silly father!" Shining said, slightly aghast. Would somepony really go after his family members the way they had Fancy Pants or Barley Bale? It made him feel queasy to even think about it. "Nopony has any reason to want to hurt you. I had to be humble before my captain and princess, but you have royal guarantee of safety."
"It is illegal to do crimes but they happen anyway. Murder is a sin but some ponies see it as a legitimate way tool of political competition, and ultimately, domination. When an empire is on the line, is killing one pony so alien? You've killed ponies while enforcing the law, which you felt as the right thing to do in order to preserve the justice of the empire. Revolutionary violence is the preemptive violence of a regime yet to be born." Night Light said. "Tell me, how intolerable would the world have to be for you do conduct your own revolutionary violence, Shining? Are you always going to be doing it on behalf of others?"
Shining was shamefully reminded if his coup in the throne room, dismissing Cadence's court at Hauseway's orders. "Since when were we talking about revolutionary violence?" He asked.
"It's what I tried to tell you during that play-duel in front of the gatehouse: Everything changes. Feels like a lifetime ago. Oh, no matter." Night Light let out an airy laugh. "My rambling is not that important. Like I said I don't want you to worry or get hurt."
"Ditto." Shining said vacantly. "Are you really going to stay in here? Like, for as long as you can?"
Night Light’s light mirth died. “It might be that my freedom comes with sacrifices. You have to think about what kind of suffering you would be willing to accept, personally and to our world, in order to free me."
"What's that supposed to mean? Please stop talking about suffering and death." Shining balked.
Night Light paused, working up the words. He reached through the bars and pulled Shining closer.
"You're a knight, Shining. Violence is your vocation; Instrumental violence on behalf of ponykind's government. But when you defended your captain against me, you placed yourself irrevocably in the path of a world-historical transition. I really believe that, and I told you as much." Night Light continued. "Sometimes even very smart ponies don't notice how the world is changing around them, because the way it changes is too large for just one pony to see. That makes it impossible to defend against, but also impossible to fight for. But there's going to be an inflection point, and soon. We kill the old zeitgeist, metaphorically and literally."
It was not the kind of thing Shining expected to hear from his father, a practical and serious stallion, but rather like something his mother would say. "That still doesn't mean anything to me." He said. "Are you talking about somepony coming to harm you, me, or the princess? I'm not going to let any of that happen. That's a promise."
Night Light sighed and retreated away from the cell bars, laying himself out on his cot. "I'm fine, clearly. But change is bearing down on us, and it's starting to take it's toll. Frie Fellowship, Fancy Pants, Octavia and Lyra, Barley Bale, and some other ponies whose names I don't remember. Sometimes, life and death is just a series of meaningless events." There was a trick of inflection, implying an instated 'but' at the end of Night Light's platitude.
It was ALL leading up to something.
Thoughts churned violently in Shining Armor's head.
From the breadcrumbs and hints he had, things came into some focus for Shining. He didn't want to confront the possibility that his parents were involved in some kind of real and dangerous conspiracy against Equestria... but between their actions with Seacrest Blackhorn, the new connection to Duke Sharphoof Lightdowser, and now Night Light's hints... Shining had face it: Twilight Velvet was not just seeking power within the imperial order, she was somehow in a dire plot to upend it.
But wait- Prosser had explicitly said Fancy Pants had not been killed on Velvet's orders, and knowing the murderer's identity would put him in great danger. That could mean it was Lightdowser who had plotted the late vizier's murder, so he could step into the spotlight. Seacrest Blackhorn's unexpected appearance had disrupted that plot, though, which would put Velvet at odds with the duke. Unless... Prosser was lying, but he had been so adamant... so who was on who's side? It made NO sense!
Shining abandoned the fevered theorizing and retreated into firmer mental firmament, and to the stability and constancy of his duties. "The safety of the princesses comes before anything else, even a vizier." He said quietly.
"I am a faithful stallion. Your mother too. Only very stupid ponies would try to unnecessarily involve the alicorns in these mortal games." Night Light said. "Cadence is a good mare and a real sweetheart. I doubt any of the schemers milling about Canterlot would dare hurt the princesses, Shining."
"The most outrageous dares are the most enticing." Shining said, feeling ridiculous as he said it. He felt so much more unmoored than five minutes before, much more unsettled than an hour ago, and much more frightened than he had been that morning. What a miserable day. Life was treating him so unfairly! "I should go. I have so much to think about."
Night Light nodded. “Of course, Shiny. Thank you so much for coming to see me." He lay back on the cot. "Canterlot needs you more."
"I'm not a Canterlot guard. I'm a knight of the princess." Shining said. "I just... I do what I can."
"That's a good attitude. And Shiny, before you go, I want you to promise something.”
“Promise what?”
“Promise that if things get worse up there, as in violent, you won’t risk yourself for me. I’d ask you not to risk yourself at all, but I gave up that right when I let you become a knight.” Night Light said somberly. “I’m not worth near as much as you are Shiny. I-” His voice cracked. “It was unforgivable, what I did to you, my only son. I attacked you! Oh heavens... I've let sin consume my mind more than once. I’m not perfect Shiny, and I’ve let emotion take me to the brink. I’ve nearly done inexcusable things. No, no, I HAVE done inexcusable things. One day I’ll have the courage to let you return the pain I've caused you.”
Shining wished he could pass through the bars between them and hold his trembling father, for both their sakes. “You know I forgive you, or I'd never have come.” Would he have the courage to forgive himself he let everything go wrong?
“NO! Not just at the gate, Shiny! Ever since Twilie left...” Night Light squeezed his eyes shut. “Come back soon Shiny. I'll have more to say. I love you.”
“I love you too.” Shining Armor mumbled. He turned away from the cell and made his way out, slightly in a daze.
The unicorn wasn't left alone with his thoughts for long. The IHG knight at the dungeon's guard station flagged him down. "Sir Armor, a couple senior knights were looking for you. I told 'em you were spending time with your venerable pa and showed 'em the door."
"Uh, thanks I guess." Shining mumbled, then continued on to the ground floor. He needed time to think but he would not get it.
As expected a contingent of IHG knights were waiting for him in the grand hall. "Sir, there's pegasi in the city!" One of them blurted out.
Another knight knocked the first on the head. "And I'm a pegasus dumbass. What he means, Sir Armor, is that there's Wonderbolts in Canterlot. A few of them are watching all the entrances to Canterlot Castle, and we're getting city watch running in from the Old Town and Inner City saying the Wonderbolts are surveilling the plazas, lodges, and guild halls."
"Wonderbolts. " Shining repeated idly. "Wonderbolts?" He said again, more alert. "Oh shit."
The instrument of Duke Lightdowser's clique, the means by which he intended to project power and muscle into Canterlot politics... That definitely meant involvement from Cloudsdale!
Alas if Shining had hung around the service a few minutes longer he would have heard Lightdowser say so himself, and used the advance warning to prepare. "Put all castle guards and staff on high alert. Send runners to the Old Town to retrieve the officials still at Fancy Pants's funeral." He paused. "That includes the new Captain of the City Guard, Sel Lech Sabonord."
Twilight Velvet burst into the main hall of the Chateau la Garde, startling the petty nobles and courtiers hanging about and chatting.
The maid looked up from the tea service she was providing. "My lady, is something the matter?" She asked.
Velvet galloped across the hall. "All of you louts get out! Go to the Black Horn Council Hall and arm yourselves, then await Blueblood's or my next order." She pulled a pushed a few of the ponies as she ran past, the disappeared up the stairway.
"You heard her ladyship." The maid nodded, and after confirming all the guests were hurrying their way out, followed Velvet up to the higher floor.
The maid found her mistress pouring over correspondence and notes in the bedroom. "Need anything Lady Velvet?"
"For you to be silent... but for a moment." Velvet whispered. Her eyes raced down the page, then back to the maid. "Everything is moving too fast and too slow at the same time. We're so close. So so close." She paused. "How is our mare in the basement doing?"
"Atrophying, crying out for her friends, barking at me." The maid reported. "I do not think she would be of much use as an assassin anymore, if that's what you were planning."
"Certainly not. For one, Octavia is the servant of the bitch we need to kill. She's better used as she is now, as a carrot for Lyra Heartstrings. Will she survive long enough, is the question." Velvet asked.
The maid stared blankly.
"That bad? Well..." Velvet's voice trailed off, eyes going back to her notes. "Hopefully we can keep her alive a little longer."
The maid considered this for a moment. "There were several guild mares among those visitors you shooed out. The Guild Mistress's noose is tightening." She softly cleared her throat. "If Octavia dies, Lyra Heartstrings may go back over to Phyte. This whole household is done for. They may even target your daughter."
Velvet nodded. "Phyte is the biggest hazard. There were guild mares watching the funeral too. We've survived her so far. By now, Phyte knows that the Duke Lightdowser is in Canterlot. It's time to go on the offense against her, and pin that Star against her position. If Phyte clings to Celestia, I can skewer her with the Wonderbolts. If Phyte abandons Celestia, I can skewer her with the IHG."
"That seems to me to be a very careless attitude to take towards a Star. You are still a mortal and even her desperate flailing can smite you." The maid remarked.
Velvet wasn't listening. "If Phyte vacillates, I can skewer her with both. Stars are not so easily finished off." She sighed and pushed away the papers. "Conventional weapons, or magical ones... maybe if Octavia dies we can put a bomb in the body and let the Guild Mares bring it in. Or, leveraging Shiny, we force Celestia into a position where she has to burn Phyte out."
"Those are all terrible. I note once more, my lady, that such a course of action borders on recklessness." The maid said.
Velvet grumbled but let the comment sit, simply reading in silence for a few minutes longer. Apparently satisfied, she shoved the papers back into the desk. "Why are you chiming in now?"
"It all previous times, your ideas were good, my lady." The maid nodded.
That drew a dark, irritated laugh. "Has some of your devious wit grown back? Took you long enough." Velvet rubbed her eyes. "You wouldn't dare criticize me if you didn't think you had a better idea." The two mares locked eyes, Velvet's portending a petty vengeance against her insubordinate servant, the maid's ever calm. "Very well. Show me some of that old magic. If you keep me from Phyte's grasp I might even love you again."
"Those words please me, Lady Velvet. Rest a while, will you not? Such a godly brain must be burdensome." The maid said, ever-so-slightly smirking.
Velvet rolled her eyes. "Yes yes. Go make some tea and bring it up, then get over to the Old Town and it all things out."
"Octavia-"
Velvet interrupted. "I'll pop down to the dungeon to heal Octavia if I remember." She said "Actually, forgo the tea. Just get to the Old Town. Now go. It's not like I need to be tucked in."
"Very good Twily." The maid bowed and withdrew from the bedroom.
Velvet shook her head. One of these days, when apotheosis wasn't on the line, she wouldn't rely on that mare so much.
The maid found Iillor, Blueblood, Aurthora, Molar, and an unfamiliar Wonderbolt crowding around a single table at an Old Town street cafe. The unicorns were sharing useless Canterlot gossip while the earth ponies and pegasus sipped their drinks.
Iillor noticed the maid's approach first. "Oh phooey, the nag with the orders finally shows up to spoil the useless sitting around I just love doing."
"Control yourself. Be worthy of the trust vested in you." The maid rebuked her. "Where is Sir Sabonord?"
"The castle, I believe. Some IHG hunks swept through here a while back pulling staff out of their lunch breaks." Blueblood said.
Aurthora nodded. "The response to the Wonderbolt's appearance has been unexpectedly active. I don't know what Sir Hauseway is thinking. He is usually more coy about preventing panic."
"I ain't seen any panic so his calculation was better than yours." Iillor teased.
The Wonderbolt cut in. "Are you Lady Twilight Velvet?" Spitfire asked the maid.
"Is she dressed like a noblemare?" Blueblood snickered. "Maybe that's what Cloudsdale nobles look like, but this mare-" A very severe glare from the maid informed him of the wisdom of ending that sentence there, which he did. "Err, she speaks for Velvet."
"I thought you spoke for Lady Velvet." Spitfire said impatiently.
Aurthora shrugged. "What did you expect. Your Admiral is jerking us around. You getting the same treatment is simply fair play. Discourteous I know, but alas."
"Be silent and listen." The maid snapped. "You are to go to the Black Horn Council meeting hall and rendezvous with the paramilitaries. Proceed immediately to the Musician's Guild Hall and put it under your protection."
Blueblood leapt from his chair. "What the hell? Are you devil-possessed? There's no way Lady Velvet ordered that!"
"I echo Blueblood. That is an outrageous provocation." Aurthora's voice quivered
The maid tapped the table. "It must be done. Immediately. Your lady's life is on the line. Do you understand?"
Iillor let out a sinister snicker that slowly built into a laugh. "I think I understand. We're going to protect the Musician's Guild hall. Hear that lad? We're going to go, urgently and without delay, to protect the Musician's Guild hall."
"I hear it obviously. Why are you saying it like that?" Blueblood stared.
Aurthora nudged him, a knowing look in her eye. "No, I understand too now. It's of the utmost importance. The Musician's Guild Hall must be protected."
Blueblood ground his teeth as he tried to understand the situation. "Am I the crazy one? We'll be butchered if we try to go against them." He released his tension with a sigh. "Fine, you lead, Aurthora."
"Mis Iillor will not be joining you right away. She will be coming with me to the castle to find Sir Sabonord." The maid said.
Iillor rose from her chair. "Shame that. Good luck at the Musician's Guild hall guys." She nodded.
"Buck me, this shit gets worse every day." Blueblood mumbled. He and Aurthora bustled down the street towards the council hall, Molar in tow. Spitfire, glancing back at Iillor briefly, followed the unicorns, sputtering her own curses.
Alone now, Iillor leaned in to whisper to the maid. "Two guild mares watching from the upper floor of the shop across the street. A Wonderbolt was on the roof directly above us. They've just taken off to report."
"Heard everything, have they?" The maid asked impassively. "My-oh-my, it would be unfortunate if the IHG and city watch were also tipped off to the situation sure to develop at the Musician's Guild hall."
"I bet those dumbass Wunderbolts thought Blueblood was cringing from a confrontation with them, rather than the guild mares." Iillor snickered.
The maid let them in the opposite direction from Blueblood et al., to the base of Canterlot Castle. Across the plaza, at the great doors, Shining Armor was addressing a contingent of IHG knights. Off to the side, Sel Lech Sabonord, Councilor Prosser, and a few city guardsponies were arguing, intermittently breaking huddle for one of them to talk to Shining Armor.
"The boys looks good in that crowd." Iillor followed Sel Lech with her eyes, then to Shining.
The maid tutted. "Keep your hooves off of him, nightmare." She abruptly stopped in the middle of the plaza. "You must handle it. If Shining Armor sees me he will know Lady Velvet's involvement."
"Uhh, he known I've been working for her for weeks." Iillor pointed out.
"Yes, but because it is you, Shining Armor will let himself be deceived, as he has over and over again." The maid said wryly.
Iillor shook her head with a playful ruefulness."Jerk. I'd love to have a crack at you after I wring that nasty Star out."
"I will be waiting." The maid turned on her heel and trotted out of the plaza.
Turning back towards Canterlot Castle, Iillor noted that most of the IHG knights had dispersed or withdrawn into the castle. Shining Armor had gone over to talk to Sel Lech and the city guards.
"That cheeky maid got more than she bargained for with this showdown she's cooked up." Iillor was, despite herself, feeling a hint uncertain and anxious about the prospect of violence. Walking into a confrontation that somepony else had prepared was extremely unwise- Nevertheless Iillor was just impatient, daring, and bloodthirsty enough to imagine a positive outcome. The prospect of carnage excited her. What could go wrong? It's not like the ponies could permanently damage her.
"But maybe just maybe I'll get a good shot at Phyte." Iillor allowed herself a goofy grin. She would need to pick up the dagger from where she'd hidden it.
"Mis Iillor!" Sel hailed her as she drew nearer. "Smiling like that, I'm assuming you're carrying good news?"
Iillor straightened up and overcompensated with a strained frown. She was going to mess the damn thing up if she didn't fool Shining Armor. And indeed she had Shining Armor's attention, as the whole group faced her expectantly.
"You're very mistaken." She said gravely. "I think the Wonderbolts are about to attack the the Old Town."
Everypony groaned or gasped (for various reasons) except Shining Armor. "Be more precise. What did you mean and what did you see? This is no time for misinterpretation." Shining demanded.
She'd gotten him. The maid was right: Shining couldn't help but credulously believe Iillor. "A dozen of the uniformed pegasi, Wonderbolts I guess, were converging on one of the guild halls in the north end of Old Town, you know, near the gardens." She said quickly. Hopefully her lies would be born out. "I think I saw some other armed ponies heading in the same direction. I guess, umm, even if the Wonderbolts aren't going to do anything nefarious, the militia or whatever is planning on confronting them anyway."
Sel Lech went pale, immediately intuiting which militia Iillor was talking about. "Oh gods." He gasped. "Surely they're not going to the Musician's Guild!"
"I- I'm not sure. I think that's the direction..." Iillor feigned hesitance. "If I'm remembering the street layout right... then yeah, it was that blocky place with the columns, the Musician's Guild." She threw Shining an uncertain, vulnerable expression. "Is that bad?"
Ignorant about the true nature of the Musician's Guild, Shining Armor absorbed a completely different set of implications. "It's a voluminous building in the classical style. I could see why the Wonderbolts would plan to commandeer it. But if some proud guild vigilantes refuse to quarter them, that's huge huge trouble. We don't want a diplomatic quarrel with Cloudsdale at this critical time."
In the back of his mind, still assimilating so much memory through the new worries about violent factional infighting and the assassinations, Shining did wonder if this news was a set-up. By whom, he could not even guess.
To everypony's surprise, Sel Lech shook off his pallor and stepped forward. "If I'm going to be the Captain of the City Guard, it's my responsibility to stop lawless and unjust acts in Canterlot, and that means keeping the peace. Sir Armor, I know you're concerned about the castle. Your first duty is to the princesses, so you should remain here. I'll show you that youthful energy and élan I touted!"
There was never any chance Shining Armor would pass up a chance to play the hero. "Don't be silly. I'm satisfied with the situation here, so I'll definitely spare myself, and a lance of knights, if it has the least chance of securing the situation." Shining said. The opposite case, that running in with more soldiers and arms escalated the situation, did not occur to him. "Besides Sel, you haven't even been put forward to the Imperial Council yet. You're not really a captain yet."
"Ahh, so just a little closer to captain than you are, Sir Armor? See you at the guild hall." Sel Lech chuckled. He waved his group of guardsponies forward. "Come on then lads and lasses! Those Cloudsdale louts had better keep their wings off our innocent citizenry!"
The clump of ponies galloped off in a great rush.
Shining stood stunned for a few moment at Sel's last remark. It almost dissuaded him...
Until Iillor chimed in again. "Is that colt and a few part-time coppers really going to stare off fully armed pegasi? Hopefully at least one of the sides can be talked down."
Carried by his hubris, Shining was infected by her words, and immediately assured himself that he could negotiate with the Wonderbolts if nopony else could. "God, I hope you really were mistaking things." He muttered. He motioned to the nearest IHG knights by the castle door. "Gather everypony who's at armored station in the barracks. Grab some halberds and arquebuses too. Triple time!"
"Sir!" The knight saluted and galloped in the direction of the barracks. Shining ran into the castle to gather his own armor and what knights could be spared from the watch.
Throughout the exchange, Councilpony Prosser was silent, until he was the last pony in the plaza with Iillor. "Is this my reward?" He asked, broken-hearted.
Iillor's anticipation grew, and it was a great struggle to keep from showing her glee. The slow cracking of the political society of Canterlot, set off by her senseless act of violence during the killing of Fancy Pants, had nearly reached its end. "This has nothing to do with you unless you get in on it now. The kill already has many vultures circling. Don't want to miss out."
Prosser squeezed his eyes shut, maybe to suppress tears or to avoid the nightmare's smirk this last time. "Aye... But I raised the hart and loved it dearly. Please, reconsider. Are not dreams of chaos, held by the few, outweighed by dreams of peace, held by the multitude."
"If you thought you could balance a Star, a nightmare, the alicorns, Velvet, and the peace of Equestria, all by yourself, you're a fucking idiot." The facades of civilization and propriety would break down and let the mettle of ponykind truly be tested- The Nightmare of the Moon would be so jealous!