Once upon a time, a black-collared mare had asked the former Princess of Friendship; "If the Princesses are horn-less, then who controls the Sun and the Moon?"
And the red-collared Princess, bored of yet another dumb mare trying to hold some sense of independence after the Fall, had curtly replied, "Gravity."
She was right, of course.
Her horseshoes pounded on the stone floor of the city, the tiles cracking slightly as they tried to hold her enormous weight. Even with her disguise, reality hadn't been fooled as to hid that one aspect of her.
Well, she had never liked disguising spells to start with—probably one of the reasons why she let her gray wings out of the spell.
Everywhere she walked, ponies and caribou looked at her. Some of them tried to get closer, smirking, but were taken aback by the passive magic surrounding her. One of them, though, got as far as smacking her ass, to which she responded by crushing his skull with a twinkle of her horn. The scene had quickly devolded into chaos after that, so she forced all the people present to fall to the ground, and left.
There were a few females whose eyes turned bright with hope at seeing her walk, then there were mares who tilted their heads, and looked with a one-thousand-yard gaze at the respective stallion holding their leash, as if they were trying to look into the very fabric of time—trying to take a peek into their future.
A part of them—males and females alike—, though, looked at her with panicked and confused expressions. She even saw, by the corner of her eye, a white pegasus stallion wearing golden armor who soared to the skies the instant he set eyes on her.
She didn't delve deep into his reasons to fly away, but did took time to analyze the few things she had noticed so far; if there were armored ponies, then she was probably right on her search, and if he had flew away, then she was on the correct city. After all, nobody had seen or heard from her for thousands of years, that pegasus was probably going to advise his rulers of her sudden visit. Or he was a coward, unlikely as it was. Because armor meant army, and being in the army meant having courage to protect the country, right?
Godness, did she hope that that, at least, was still the same.
Because right now, she was very, very confused. Albeit she hadn't still sorted out every fact, she had already made a theory; her nieces had made a pact of peace with the caribou—she had tried, many times, to convince her sister to get rid of them. She had no luck, and her sister banned her from commiting genocide for fun in warning—and changed society considerably since she had visited it last. That would explain all the nakedness, but considering by the mares that seemed unwilling to be used, then the pact was fairly recent.
She clenched her teeth, why didn't ponies just stay on the 'huts and corrals' period? It was far easy to track royalty that way, just a matter of looking for the fancy, stony, tall structure.
But noooo, technological advancement had to happen. Every damned house looked like it could hold a council inside.
She inwardly cursed herself when she noticed that, had she flew after the white pegasus, maybe she would have a better shot at finding her nieces.
For now, the tracking spell would do. It was hard, really; the pulse she was getting was faint, a mere weak wheezing sound that indicated how near she was from her objective.
Her nieces' magical aura had probably changed over the years. She frowned, that didn't explain why they were... muffled. Like their power didn't have a way of catalyzing. Maybe she had landed on the wrong place, or they had decided to try her magical bomb theory.
Stopping for a moment, she rubbed her temples in annoyance. What if she was wrong? After all, the first place she had landed on was more to her tastes; hut-like houses with the government buildings looking distinctive. If it hadn't been for that strange white mare with purple hair inside—what she assumed was—a creepy little castle with ponies made of plastic everywhere, and her nieces nowhere in sight, then she would glady have searched in there.
But it turned out it wasn't the capital city, so she had to go—not before making a pulp out of a few males who didn't stop yelling things at her. She wouldn't let anybody insult her honor, even if they didn't know who she was.
An increasing on power levels on her tracking spell later, and she had a new route.
If—no, when—she found her nieces, she was going to have a nice, long and calm conversation about royal duties, why they should raise their respective celestial bodies and why it was a bad idea to lay their problems on her. She would break a chair or two, or maybe shatter a window—just to make her point, nothing serious, really. She wasn't allowed to kill servants after that incident. What a shame. Ponies once praised the ground she stepped on. To be seen by her was like an achievement that most ponies strived for—to be acknowledged like a nuisance by her and, subsequently, killed, should be like a gift from the Summer Lands, right?
Did ponies believe in the Summer Lands anymore?
She berated her brain for coming up with questions.
She sighed, her sister had never liked the way she guessed things out. Nor liked her bloodlust. Now that she thought about it, her sister hadn't liked her at all. Maybe that was why she had yelled at her something along the lines of 'Drop into the rotten mouth of death,' after she had crushed all her toys—and her pet, but that was a story for another day.
Well, she didn't like her sister, too. Mutual hate, good for the soul. In fact, her only reedeming quality was her fertility that brought to the world the most perfect criatures; Celestia and Luna.
She remembered carrying the two bundles of personified joy in her arms, cradling them and singing them ancient lullabies. She remembered the toys and gift that fell like rain when she visited the little fillies, and their adorable expressions of happiness. She loved them more than anything, and she would protect them from any harm with all the rage of a wolf protecting its cub. If she was there, nobody with malicious intent would dare to lay a finger on their hair—or breathe near them, for they would be anniquilated with a swift casting from her horn.
Peep!
Her heart leapt a beat. She was closer now!
With a smile on her lips, she looked up, the castle towering over her. It was time to pay her lovely nieces a visit.
And maybe solve the problem, too.
She should stop dwelling on happy memories.