//------------------------------// // Letters Home - 1 // Story: Beneath the Sea of Sand // by Meep the Changeling //------------------------------// Dear Princess Luna, Trixie writes this letter while fueled by a great fear. She does not presume to think you did not notice the reddening of the moon this morning at midnight. Yet Trixie has divined information of the horrors wrought this night she fears you do not know! In a place distant, barren, and evil, two mares performed a ritual spell and through foul magics Trixie knows not of, have revived the Dark Lord Sombra. Trixie knows this to be true, for she saw and felt the event through the eyes of one mare who was present. A mare she is mortified to have learned is her sister. Trixie does not know how she knows this, but she knows it to be true. She also does not know where or how her sister and her were separated. Nor has the event awakened any memories of Trixie’s foalhood. Please do not punish Trixie for actions she may have taken as the sister of an evil creature! Trixie remembers them naught and wishes no harm to anypony! Twilight tells Trixie this is not something you would do. Trixie apologizes for offending you. She doesn't not know you well. Trixie writes you so very little and has always liked the day more than the night. Please do not be offended Trixie hopes you take prompt action as the head of our military to mount a defence. She is certain we are all in great danger. Queen Phoenix wishes Trixie to add she will be happy to take in refugees if the need arises. Trixie hopes her warning makes this offer unnecessary. Sincerely, Lady Trixie Lulamoon, the Great and Powerful, Esquire P.S. Yes, Trixie must also write in the third person. Trixie is sorry. Royal Consort Lulamoon, We have had our Royal Orcal check your premonitions and they are indeed truth. We do not find issue with their source and will take swift and appropriate action to safeguard our Kingdom. With regards to the possibility of another war, even We must concede Our nation is too strained by the last two battles to survive another conflict. Because of this dark truth, We hereby lend Our support to Celestia’s decision to test Queen Phoenix as a potential ally. Under no circumstance are you to allow Twilight to leave the changeling city of Gaia, excepting on Celestia or Our own orders. Now more than ever We need the support she has promised will be ours. Yet We can not trust anyone blindly. Your current mission is now vital to the future of Our kingdom. Take it seriously, and find the truth by whatever means you can. Above all else, seek to live happily and in comfort. Should Phoenix's words be true, We simply need her promised supplies. Fear not, while Our nation is weakened and could be easily broken, Our armies are stronger than ever. The Crystal King will have a hard time of any war he makes upon Equestria this time. - Princess-General Luna Solarus P.S. From experience as the sister on a dark path, I urge you, if you have the opportunity, save her. P.P.S The floating silver machine which delivered this letter is wondrous! I desire to obtain as many as possible for military purposes. Please pass along this request as needed. Dear Celestia, Slight panic. It’s okay, have my girls and my friends. Will work through this. I know Luna will have shown you Trixie’s letter so I will be brief. I need to know what you need me to do. I could not beat Sombra. We won because of luck and Spike’s courage. I do not think we will be lucky again. Yes he does not have the preparation which went into his fortress in the Crystal Empire, but I did my research since then. I do not think I could face him in one on one in combat now that he is fully revived, and survive. I do not think my friends and I could take him as a group. Numbers become irrelevant when your opponent can animate the bones of every single creature which has ever died in any given location to serve as his army. I need to know how you defeated him the first time. I need to know what my orders are. Your's Truly, Twilight Twilight, As grave a matter as this is, there is a worse problem facing our kingdom and I allready have you facing it head on. Do not worry about Sombra, Luna and I beat him because we found his weakness and exploited them. They are not weaknesses he can change, the nature of his being has clear and strict limitations. While dangerous, we can drive him back into Tartarus. Should you find yourself in battle with him, his greed is his downfall. He seeks glory, he is delighted by battle. He will go for the biggest challenge and leave the minions he raises to fight everything else. These foes are easily dispatched. This allows a small group of powerful ponies to bait Sombra away from his forces. On his own, the fires of friendship and the light of the sun weaken him. You and your friends can and will prevail. I have seen no friendship stronger than yours in three thousand years. Additionally, if you can remove his crown, it can no longer amplify his magic. It’s arcanite, while I do not know a way to turn that to your advantage I am certain you do. As for the other threat facing our kingdom, the one I find truly more severe, Twilight, our kingdom is dying. When we threw the Tribunal’s evil grip from our land, we lost several major industrial facilities, many good ponies, and countless hectares of good farmland which we have only just now finished cleaning the residual dark magic from. When we fought the Arc we lost more farmland, we lost most of our population, most of our industry, most of our economy. While the other great nations of the world came to our aid in the war, they now conspire against us. Save for Neighpon and Zebrica, the political actions and treaties I have been forced to sign so my ponies do not starve are insultingly unfavorable. Right now we are surviving on greatly slanted trade agreements for what little we have, and foreign aid from Neighpon our of Emperor Nori’s own pockets. I should not have to tell you what this means for our future, but I will just to be absolutely certain you know my feelings on this matter. We need to repair our nation’s infrastructure. We need to repopulate. We need to get our farms up and running. If we do not, ponies will starve, our nation will die a slow death and be absorbed into other nations. In order to do that we need infrastructure, food, ponies to work on infrastructure and farms… As Sunset says, “it’s a catch twenty-two”. When Phoenix came out of the blue and informed she can provide an unlimited amount of resources to us and wishes to do so in exchange for food for her changelings, I saw it as a blessing from Faust. Though, the old adage “If it’s too good to be true, it probably is” also crossed my mind. Simply put, if Phoenix is on the level, the future of our nation depends on the resources she can provide. Do not worry about Sombra. The one thing our nation has at the moment is plenty of soldiers who have seen evil and want to keep our kingdom free of it. We can handle Sombra. Worry instead about learning what Phoenix is up to if anything, and determining if ponykind can happily live with the technology she will provide. Your mission is to see if her assistance will negatively impact ponyind so we can have a prosperous future instead of a bleak one. Take it seriously, but not in the sense of demanding the information outright. Take it slow, experience it. For old time's sake send me a letter when you learn anything interesting or of value. We have the present under control here in Canterlot. We need you to secure our future. Yours Truly, Tia <> Dear Princess Celestia, Tell mother she can relax and learn about Gaia by enjoying it. We have the spy stuff in hoof. She’s taking it too seriously, and will get us caught. Queen Phoenix is made of technology we are familiar with and I am trained to operate. We have already retrieved her plans, and are decoding them. It should take a week or two at most. - Scootaloo P.S. Yes, our trip through time is why we can do this. No we still can’t explain. Dear Twilight, I have been informed you are not relaxing and learning by experience but trying to learn through analysis. I know that’s what you’re best at but please, experiences over time will provide the information we need better than trying to force the answers to surface. We have enough time for you to work this out properly. It’s not a full blown emergency yet. Remember Smarty Pants? Don’t pull a Smarty Pants. Please. We need this to go smoothly. Yours Truly, Tia