//------------------------------// // Chapter 12: Party Time! // Story: Light of the Moon // by Aligon //------------------------------// Princess Luna stood on the tallest tower of the castle, smiling at the moon. She knew for a fact her mother was smiling back at her. She always knew. Unfortunately she couldn't smile at her aunt without burning her eyes. Sighing she got up from her perch and flew downwards, landing swiftly on a balcony. Fang Fury stood near the balcony's edge, Luna smiled at her captain. "Princess, you were with her again, weren't you?" (Fang) Luna sighed. "Yes, I was." (Luna) Fang turned around to her princess. Luna grew tense her gaze. "Princess, you know what this means. Having the Magic Leader be the zaldia queen?" (Fang) "Yes I do, but I don't think she is ready for that spell." (Luna) "But she could create-" (Fang) The zaldia bat was cut off by a silver armored zaldia bat running towards them. He quickly stopped and bowed to Luna before speaking to them. "Princess Luna, I have come to inform you that Princess Cadence has declined Celestia offer. She said she had the Crystal Empire to run." (Guard) Luna looked towards the moon with a smile. "Princess, what does it mean?" (Guard) The deep blue alicorn flared her wings, startling the guard. Fang looked towards the moon following her princess's gaze. The silver surface seemed to smile back at the ponies below. Twilight smiled at the room she entered. They decorated the entire ballroom in her colors and invited all the Noctis guards, her family, and many nobles from around Canterlot. Starlight stood by her right in his silver armor minus the helmet while Night Star, wearing the silver pendent and disguised as a unicorn, stood at her left. Many ponies turned in response to her appearance, but the music had stopped. Twilight was a zaldia at the moment and nopony expected to see that. Even her friends stopped to stare at her. The moment seemed to last forever until three alicorns came up behind her. "Hello everypony." (Cadence) "Greetings, mares and gentlecolts." (Luna) "Good evening everypony. I will make an announcement later tonight, but for now enjoy the party celebrating Princess Twilight's three week anniversary of becoming apart of the royal court." (Celestia) This calmed ponies down and they returned to what they were doing before. The royal sisters wandered off into the crowd while the pink alicorn stayed with Twilight. The sister-in-laws stayed with each other until they met up with the unicorn in purple armor. "There's my two favorite mares." (Shining) Twilight stood still as her brother circled around her, taking in her new appearance. Starlight did his best not to hit the stallion. "Wow, even your eyes are different," he said stopping in front of her. "And I still believe it was the best decision." (Twilight) "Shiny! How was your train ride?" (Cadence) "It went well, except for the colt that mistook me for a farmer." (Shining) "A farmer? How can anypony mistake you for a farmer?" (Twilight) "Because of big and strong he is!" (Cadence) This caused the mares to laugh leaving Shining in confusion on why that was funny. To change the subject he turned to the filly next to Twilight. "So who's this little filly?" (Shining) "Oh this is my apprentice, Night Star." (Twilight) "Isn't she adorable Shiny!" (Cadence) "Yeah, she is pretty cute." (Shining) The blue-maned stallion watched as his wife lifted the pink filly and squeezed her in a tight hug. The couple had been hoping for a foal of their own for a while, but they weren't graced with one yet. Cadence finally released the filly who quickly hid under Twilight. "She's really shy with new ponies." (Twilight) Starlight spotted his younger sister among the sea of ponies. She was currently hovering a few inches next to the rainbow-maned pegasus. The siblings caught each others gaze, Midnight sent a toothy grin to her brother. Starlight kindly returned with his own. She tilted her head to her left and winked. The bat-winged stallion got the message, take a chance. He couldn't do anything at the moment though, Twilight was occupied with her family. The only thing he could do was make sure she was safe. After an hour or so, Shining Armor and Cadence were on the dance floor. Twilight was speaking with Scarlet Quill about some book, he didn't really pay attention to the conversation. Night Star was hiding under his belly from the prying eyes of ponies. The zaldias attending the party were mostly grouped away from the day walkers as they called them. They were currently standing on the edge of the group when a hoof tapped his shoulder. Starlight turned his head to see a cream-colored head and bright yellow mane. "What do you want Flame." "Look moon lover, I'm just here because my commanding shouted at me for trying to blow a hole in the castle. If you will let me, I would like to apologize to the princess." "If you're gonna do that then you should call her by her proper title." "Proper title?" Twilight was just discussing the theory of quill styles affecting the reader's mind when the sun Lieutenant came up to her bowing. The purple mare gave him an icing glare as he raised his head. "Yes Lieutenant Iron Flame." The cream unicorn gulped as he noticed cat-slit eyes watching him. If what that guard said was true then he better not insult her or else those beady eyes would tear right through his throat. He kept his eyes level with the royal mare so to seem less of a threat. "I would like to sincerely apologize to you, Queen, for attempting to destroy the home of you and your fellow zaldias." Most of the eyes widened at the Celestial Guard. Twilight's draconic eyes studied his face until speaking to the unicorn male. "You, Iron Flame, are forgiven, but you have to now spend the rest of the evening with..." Twilight turned to the crowd of zaldias searching for a volunteer to take the offending stallion. Unfortunately nopony wanted to spend the rest of the night with the guy. Suddenly a pink hoof went into the air, Twilight couldn't help but smile. "Pinkie Pie." Iron Flame looked over to see a pink earth pony wearing the torso piece to a Lunar guard armor. (Though it seemed it was more for a pegasus stallion than a earth mare.) "Hi I'm Pinkie Pie! Tonight I'll be your guide to the magical world of bat ponies!" The bubbly pony grabbed the unicorn by the hoof and pulled him off to who knows where. Scarlet giggled behind the purple queen. "You must tell me what that was about." The red-maned mare smiled at Twilight. "Another time, right now I want to check on my apprentice." She passed two zaldia horns laughing about the Lieutenant. Starlight smiled toward his queen, who gave a smile in return. Twilight lowered her head to check on Night who was still under the stallion. "Twilight." Starlight lowered his head to be at her eye level. "Yes?" "Well since we missed that dinner thing, would you like to dance?" Twilight stared at him while her mind processed what she heard. But she felt bad for missing the dinner it wasn't to hard to answer. "Sure." They stood on the dance floor moving to a great party song. The song stopped and was replaced by a slower one, that's when everypony who didn't have a dance partner trotted off to do something else. Twilight placed her front hoof around his neck as he did the same. The moved with the music unaware that the other dancers had stopped to watch the pair. Midnight and the other zaldias watched their queen dance with the guard with joyful thoughts. Shining and Cadence leaned against each other believing Twilight found somepony special. Rarity went through wedding dresses in her head, just in case. It was only when Twilight noticed the watchful eyes that they stopped dancing. She was blushing red when Starlight opened his wings. He whispered something to her and she nodded. She almost forgot the demonstration. Now was a good a time as any. "Attention everypony, please prepare yourselves for the children of the moon will begin now." Then she disappeared in a flash, bats flying away from the spot. The zaldia bats immediately took off, circling the room. The zaldia horns made a circle in the center and began displaying conjuring magic; bringing dancing skeletons, flying bats, shooting stars, and the shining moon. The zaldia hooves marched around the horns displaying their changed front hooves that left cracks in the title as they walked. They continued this until the bats swarmed in a tornado in the center of the circle Another flash came inside the tornado then the guards stopped, not moving an inch. A purple form was within the group now, her horn glowing. The glow grew until it was the size of Sprout's apples, It took the shape a tall, lean zaldia queen. Her coat was light purple, mane of deep purple & bright pink, and eyes of yellow. "Praise be to Blue Moon." "PRAISE BE TO BLUE MOON!" The zaldias shouted with all their might as Twilight appeared in a shower of stars. She landed softly in front of the three princesses. Celestia smiled widely. Luna had tears in her eyes. And Cadence was in awe of the unicorns' magic. The youngest alicorn turned and bowed to the purple image, followed by the rest of the zaldias. The Blue Moon image nodded and exploded in a shower of blue crescent moons. The music began again as the demonstration of zaldia magic ended. The queen of bats brushed a hair back in place as her guard returned to her side. Luna was the first to speak. "Twilight Sparkle, that was a truly magical performance. I my mother would be happy to know she is still remembered." "I don't think a mare like that could be forgotten. After all the research I did, I can conclude that she is a astounding queen." Luna nodded thinking of when she saw her mother raising the moon. Candace nodded as well then turned to Starlight. "It was quite impressive tornado." "We have practice making tornadoes without causing destruction." "I believe it's time I gave my announcement." Celestia turned away to an awaiting podium. Once she was ready she tapped the floor twice gathering the ponies attention. Smiling she took a deep breath and spoke.