“Luna… you don’t have to do that… I’m sorry,” Princess Cadence admitted to her.
“Yes I do Cadence. You’ve made it perfectly clear you don’t trust me, that most of Equestria doesn’t trust me. And you’re right! If I watched the thrown while you were out searching for her, everypony would suspect me. Just because of one very bad mistake I made.” Luna cried “All I want is the same love that my sister gets… I don’t want to be hated anymore!”
Cadence gave Luna a half-hearted smile. Given the situation it was the only type of smile that she could show. “Luna…” she said leaning over and nuzzling her neck. Luna looked up to meet the soft eyes of her niece. “Luna I’m sorry… I guess I’m just not over the Chrysalis incident yet. It was wrong for me to instantly blame you for this. It is a bit suspicious, but as much as Celestia said you had helped her during the lockdown, I should have known better than to jump to conclusions,” cadence said to her, tears forming in her own eyes. She wrapped Luna in a hug, “And no matter what, I’ll always love you, Aunt Luna.”
“There’s the Cadence I know and love,” Twilight said watching the two princesses. “But what now? Princess Celestia is gone, and we have absolutely no leads as to who took here or why, let alone where…”
“Well, this could be something that Chrysalis is trying. I wouldn’t put it past her to try to take revenge on Celestia.”
“If that were the case though, why just Celestia? You and I were the ones responsible for revealing who she was, and it was you and Shining Armor that actually stopped her. She’s have more reason to come after us than Princess Celestia.”
“Hey! What’s that up there?” Rainbow Dash asked as she flew up and grabbed a piece of cloth from a broken window pane.
“Hmm, I don’t know. I haven’t seen any materials like that here…” Cadence admitted.
“Hey Rarity, you’re the fashion designer here, what kind of cloth is this?” Rainbow inquired tossing the fabric to her.
Rarity caught it with her magic. “Hmm… this appears to be some sort of silk. It’s definitely not of a quality that I have ever seen before, nor would I want too. It’s absolutely atrocious. I know for a fact that I would never use something this poor in any dress I made.” Rarity said turning her nose up at the fabric. “It’s obviously from nobility, but there’s no way that I could picture Luna in something as low quality as this. This completely rules her out even if there were still any doubts.”
“That still doesn’t help. The only thing it proves is that Luna isn’t involved, but it doesn’t give us a direction to go in,” Applejack stated.
“Actually, it does. We know that whoever it was, it was a pony of nobility,” Twilight stated.
“Anypony could have gotten ahold of a fabric like that. They may not have gotten it the right way, but they could still obtain it.” Applejack pointed out.
“Well, yes, I suppose that’s true, but seriously this? I wouldn’t even steal this…”
“Hey, what if we asked around Canterlot to see if anypony here recognizes the fabric and who may have an article of clothing made from it,” Ice Storm stated.
“Forgive me dear… but I don’t think we’ve been introduced.”
“Rarity, there will be plenty of time for pleasantries later. Right now we have more important things to worry about,” Twilight interrupted.
Ice Storm huffed. “Hmph… well, In case you missed when Luna said it, my name is Ice Storm. I was on my way to make sure Luna was okay after the storm, and the first thing I hear when I get in here is everypony yelling at her!”
“Ahem… I… was actually the only one yelling at her… and for completely the wrong reasons…” Princess Cadence admitted once again.
“Still, Luna is my mentor, and the only real friend I have here in Canterlot. I don’t like how everypony else treats her, and I will defend her honor until the day I take my last breath. That being said though,” Ice Storm slinking back into a hunch. “I would like to find out what happened to Celestia as well. I may not find her as appealing as Luna, but she’s still my princess. If she’s in trouble, I wanna help.”
Twilight gave in with a smile, “That’s very noble of you. I’m Twilight Sparkle. I would go into more, but right now, like I told Rarity. We need to find a starting point.”
“Well, we know that the kidnapping just happened today.” Cadence started.
“We also know that whoever took her had more power than my sister could have imagined. More than I could imagine actually, being able to actually take her away from us. No one could have expected that!” Luna said tearing up again. “I can only hope that the elements will be enough to bring her back to us… We can’t lose her! If that happens… I’ll never be able to show my face in Equestria again… It would be like being banished again, but worse…”
“No.” Cadence replied lifting Luna’s snout up. “I would never let that happen,” she added pulling her into a hug. “But we aren’t going to find out anything if everypony stays here and tries to wait for the answer to fall from the sky. Luna, before you go though, I’m going to need a lot of help. I don’t even know how to do the sun or the moon spells let alone even have the strength to be able to do any of it.”
“Our love for my sister will, and my love for you will give you that strength. I can give you the moon spell,” Luna said to her, her horn lighting up as she connected it to Cadence’s. “Though you’ll have to look in Celestia’s room to see if she has a backup copy of the sun spell. Just in case something like this happened.”
Cadence nodded to her. “You know what we have to do now though, right?”
“You mean what I need to do. I’m not going to let your name get tarnished because the first time that you’ll ever have to make a public announcement is the one like this. I’m already hated… I will take the brunt of this… so that you don’t have to.”
“Luna, you don’t have to do that…”
“Yes I do,” she stated matter-of-factly. “I’m not going to let you take a hit of this caliber on your first day. It’s going to hurt but… I’m used to getting hurt at this point.”
“Luna…” Twilight said as she walked out onto the balcony.
“Please Luna… don’t to this to yourself…” Cadence pleaded.
“It has to be done…” she said sadly turning to the crowd beneath her. “Citizens of Canterlot… I wish that what I had to say was news of peace and rejoice, but the truth is the complete opposite. I already know the reaction that a majority of you are going to have…” She started a number of ponies mumbling to themselves under her trying to figure out what she meant. “My subjects… it is my biggest regret to inform you, that my sister… our beloved Princess Celestia has been kidnapped!” She yelled over the crowd tears pouring from her eyes knowing the reaction that was going to come.
Almost immediately, the crowd was in an uproar. It was the very reaction that Princess Luna both knew was coming and she feared the worst. It only proved that her subjects had no faith in her at all. It was a reality that hurt more on its own than the very fact that her own sister had been kidnapped. “I was already expecting a reaction like this, and believe me when I say it hurts more to hear such accusations than you may think. Which is why I’m not going to be the one taking control over Equestria. I cannot in good conscious take over the thrown in my sister’s absence while I’m still hated by most in Equestria. Princess Mi Amora Cadenza will be the new ruler of Equestria until Princess Celestia can be found and returned to us safely. I will be accompanying the six ponies that wield the elements of harmony. Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Pinkamina Pie, Rarity, and Applejack have agreed to help us find our beloved princess. I only hope that… that we aren’t too late…” she said hanging her head.
The entire crowd went silent as she started to head back inside. They were still in shock of everything that just happened. The princess of the night wasn’t taking over? But she was the next in line it was her duty to fit into that position. All the ponies in the crowd looked to each other as the realized the hurt that they had placed in the princess.
“Come girls, it’s best we leave as soon as possible. If there’s one thing that I know for sure, it’s that Celestia isn’t here in Canterlot. We would have found her already if she was.” Princess Luna stated.
“Huh? How?” Twilight asked.
“The magic of an Alicorn has a very special signature and each signature of magic is different,” Cadence started. “Just as your magic has a different feeling than Rarity’s over there, the magic that we three share is very different and very noticeable.”
“I don’t understand though, I can’t detect Rarity’s magic at all, not even when she’s using it. Unless I’m looking at her of course and I watch her use it.”
“It’s something special amongst Alicorns. When we’re close we can detect each other, which is why we can be someplace rather quickly if there is anything wrong,” Luna explained. “Something I don’t understand though, whom ever took Celestia was able to mask her signature or strike before she was able to even react. I didn’t even feel anything wrong until after she left and I couldn’t feel her anymore.”
“Luna, did you at least get a direction?” Twilight asked.
Luna just shook her head. “No, but the time I had even known what was going on, she was gone. The only thing that we have to go off of at the moment is that fabric.”
“Like I said, we should ask around Canterlot. Hopefully somepony recognizes the material,” Ice Storm suggested again.
“That is a good idea, though who do we start with? I mean, going around asking questions like that to everypony could also cause more anger as well. They might mistake our questioning as an attack on them, and think that we thought they were responsible.”
“But didn’t everypony make that same decision on you?” Ice Storm asked confused. “Why should we care about how they feel if they don’t give a hoot at all about how you feel when they do things like that to you!”
“Because it’s better to show them love than anger. If I react violently to their outbursts, I’m only proving them even more right in their thoughts.”
“Oh,” Ice said realizing what she meant.
“At the very least we should see if Shining Armor has any information. He’s the Captain of the Royal Guard after all. Surely one of the other guards had to have seen something and reported it to him!”
“Good idea Twilight!” Cadence said with assertion.
“Yes, yes. He would be perfect! Why we should go there immediately!” Rarity agrees with a hint of enthusiasm. All eyes turned to her. “What? He is out best chance to get any information after all.”
“Right, right… come on everypony. Let’s see if he knows anything that can help us,” Twilight said as she ran to the door with the others following close behind.