//------------------------------// // Chapter 5: The Mysterious Stallion // Story: A Mirror of many Faces // by Jyuuma //------------------------------// Despite the clear sunny day, Canterlot was a big mess. It had been a couple of days since Celestia asked Twilight and her friends to assist them on the crisis that Equestria was going through, and she anxiously awaited for her response, hoping she had better luck on her side, without the worries of the many reports of strange events and missing ponies that still kept coming. Luna had returned that day, informing her of their findings at the old library in the Castle Ruins, and promptly began to browse the Canterlot library, with a slightly better idea of what to look for, though she still wasn’t sure if she’d be able to find straight answers to their pleas. Other than that, things had remained the same, with several reports of missing ponies still arriving, certainly stressing the Royal Sisters, and the entirety of Canterlot, some distressed families would actually try to force an audience with them. But it would all be for naught, and maybe even make things worse, if the Sisters could not appease their people. They still would try to attend to a few that seemed to be particularly persistent, but after the first hundred or so they talked with, it all felt the same. “Let the next one in, please.” Celestia asked to one of the guards nearby. “Immediately, your Majesty.” The one guard replied as he went out of the door. The Sisters had organized the throne room to attend the few lucky ponies that managed to get an audience with them. Most of them were quite polite in front of them, though they could still see the despair in all of them, and they had to try harder and harder to hide their own doubt as the morning dragged on. It was so, until a particular stallion entered the room. “The Princesses will hear you now.” The guard said to the stallion, guiding him into the room, and walking to one side of the door afterwards. “Thanks.” He said calmly as he began to walk towards Celestia and Luna. As he approached, they took attention of his features: His coat and horn were of a light gray color, his black mane was combed back, his beard was properly trimmed, and he had purple eyes, which carried a serious expression. His cutie mark seemed to be that of an orange-ish half sun, as if representing the dawn of a new day. On his back he was carrying a saddle bag as well. “Good morning and welcome to Canterlot’s Castle.” Celestia softly greeted the visitor. “Your name and request please.” Luna followed her sister after her greeting. They tried to make it subtle, but they certainly had rehearsed those exact lines as the morning passed. “Of course.” The stallion replied, giving a small respectful bow before raising his head again. “My name is Bright Dawn. I’ve travelled from a faraway land in search of my missing siblings, whom I haven’t heard of in nearly 2 weeks.” He said with a composed, yet still worried tone. “I must, however, apologize in advance for my request, as I understand my case is not the only one you have to deal with on these times.” Celestia shook her head gently before she looked at the unicorn before them. “Please, do not let that worry you.” She replied. “While it is true that many ponies have gone missing, do not doubt that we are doing our hardest to locate and bring each and every one of them to their loved ones.” Luna smiled at her sister for a moment before she looked at the stallion as well. “Could you describe your siblings for us?” she asked him. He nodded, opening his saddle bag and bringing out two scrolls, passing them to Celestia and Luna’s grasp with his magic. “They are my youngest brother and sister, Midday Skies and Misty Evening. They were visiting this land, and had promised to return after 3 days. It has been, however, almost two weeks since then, and I caught news of the many other missing ponies and couldn’t help but worry, and attempt an audience with the authorities.” He finished, bowing down gently again. They opened the scrolls as he finished, which were pictures of the stallion’s siblings. The first photo was that of a young stallion, about the age of Twilight, with a blue coat, white hair, and yellow eyes, and in the corner there was a symbol of a sun covered by a cloud, likely his cutie mark. The other photo was that of a younger mare with a yellow coat, light blue mane and eyes, and in the corner of the picture was her cutie mark, a symbol of a small crescent moon with mist lines slightly covering it. As Celestia and Luna casted their magic on the scrolls to make copies of them, they couldn’t help but wonder about their whereabouts and, most importantly, their well being. They were definitely not the only young ones that had gone missing in this mess, and it wasn’t that they weren’t worried about older ponies, but the younger ones were always on a higher priority on their respective books, particularly on Luna’s mind. “We’ll…do our best on finding your lost siblings, thanks for bringing them up to our attention.” Celestia said to the stallion, trying to keep her confidence up, even though deep inside she remained uneasy. While there were no confirmed good or bad news, both sisters knew they had to be prepared, physically and mentally, for the worst. They just hoped it wouldn’t get to that point. Bright Dawn bowed down gently once again. “I’ll continue looking on my own as well, but I’ll really appreciate your help and concern, your Highnesses.” He continued, still on a respectful tone. “With that said, I’ll get out of your way. Thanks again.” He finished as he turned around and walked towards the doors. Just as he was about to leave, though, Celestia spoke up for a moment, stopping him. “And…Bright Dawn, right? Thanks for putting your confidence in us.” She finished. The stallion smiled softly at her and her sister, nodding gently as he left the room. Silence remained for a few seconds, before Luna spoke up. “…What was that about?” Celestia looked at her, a bit confused. “What do you mean?” “Well…don’t get me wrong, dear sister.” Luna continued. “While we are indeed worried for all and every single one of the missing ponies, and their loved ones as well, we’ve been trying to attend the ponies who came for an audience with us as fast as possible, so we are able to return to the rest of our duties sooner. Paperwork won’t finish itself, and we aren’t left out of the search missions ourselves, after all.” Celestia stared at her sister for a couple of seconds, then looked down and raised her hoof to her chin, as if in contemplation. “That is true…still, I couldn’t help but feel something about this particular stallion, as if he knew more about this situation that what he seemed. I just felt it right to add something along the lines of that statement.” Luna began to contemplate as well. “I do admit…there IS something about that particular stallion. I can’t quite put my hoof on it though…” Both sisters remained in deep thought for a couple of minutes as they raised from their thrones and began to walk towards the gates themselves. Celestia shook her head just as they reached them. “Well, no real use to think too deeply about it right now. If there indeed is something special or strange about him, we’ll know in time. And besides, we can’t really accuse him of anything if we are uncertain anyway.” She pondered as the two of them left the room. “So…let me get this straight.” Twilight began. “You guys found old reports of earlier experiments on Teleportation magic in the old library?” It was getting late, but her castle was always properly lit by itself, regardless of the time of the day. Sitting around the large table at the main hall, both her and Fluttershy were discussing their recent discoveries over some tea, while Discord floated around the room, juggling random objects and turning some items in the room into random stuff as well. “…Yes, though most of it seemed like failed attempts.” Fluttershy replied. “Nothing too bad, but it sounded like it caused quite a bit of trouble in the past…but nothing like what’s going on right now.” “Yeah…from what I learned from my studies, earlier experiments only involved teleporting objects at first, not ponies or other living beings.” Twilight continued. “Missing items weren’t a real problem, it was when the live experiments began and…well, let’s just say the early attempts sometimes ended in disaster…not the funny kind.” Twilight added quickly as she saw Discord turning around with a small grin on his face. “Fortunately, injured subjects were treated immediately, so most if not all of them were still…complete, so to speak. I can’t really blame them for being mad at the whole mess still…” Twilight whispered, looking to the side, shuddering a bit. “It took a while for magical teleportation to become an actual thing…and when it finally became a more stable process, experiments went one step further, as you saw in those records.” She continued, as the two of them now turned around to see the Magic Mirror in one side of the hall, the device containing a portal to another dimension, a place that Twilight had visited before, but that she never fully explored. “For good or for bad, the portal is still set to open under very specific circumstances, but I’m still trying to figure out a way to activate it at will.” “Anyway!” Twilight exclaimed, putting those thoughts aside. “You guys also mentioned a strange pony in the ruins as well?” As she asked, she could hear Discord letting out a small, low snarl, before getting back to his juggling. “…We did, yes.” Fluttershy continued, a bit nervous. “We tried to talk to him but he just tried to attack us…if it wasn’t for Discord I…” Fluttershy trailed off for a bit. As she did, Discord continued. “I would just like to know what his deal was.” He said a bit annoyed. “I’m used to people being mad, or at least slightly unnerved, with me around at first, but most of them would just turn tail and run away…Not that I didn’t have my share of actual opponents.” He chuckled at the end, snapping his eagle hand fingers and making a little sun and moon float around it. “Then again, he went straight to Fluttershy, who was the first one to speak to him, and not towards me. I just retaliated in her defense.” As he finished, he snapped his eagle hand fingers again, making the small sun and moon poof away, as he was now wearing a shiny chestmail and shield, making Fluttershy chuckle and blush a bit, and getting a raised eyebrow and a small giggle from Twilight. “And for that I am thankful, oh my knight in shining armor~” Fluttershy recited in an overly dramatic tone, the kind that Discord was still getting used to, as he poofed the armor away and resumed his juggling, still chuckling gently. “Anyway!” Twilight coughed and continued. “Any idea about what he may have been doing there?” “…I’ll be honest, I really don’t know.” Fluttershy whispered. “He was, however, staring at the old structure where the Elements of Harmony used to be…wonder if he’s related to them on some way?” She finished. “Hm…I’m not sure, but considering the way you described him, I don’t think so.” Twilight continued. “Besides, it sounds like he’s not from the village anyway…most if not everypony in the village already know the Elements are no longer in the old ruins by now.” “It does worry me, though, that he managed to escape Discord’s magic somehow.“ Twilight pondered. “If he managed to evade him like that, what else might he be able to do?” She finished, on a worried tone. The three of them remained silent for a few moments. All that could be heard was a gentle humming noise, apparently produced by the castle itself, mixing up with the noise of the objects Discord was still juggling. It wasn’t till Twilight looked up towards a nearby window that she, once again, realized of the time. “Oh gosh, I forgot it was this late.” Twilight blushed a bit, looking at Fluttershy and Discord. “Guys, I really appreciate your help and I’m so sorry about keeping you up this late. You can stay the night in the castle if you wish! I reckon it sometimes gets lonely with just Spike and me here.” “Don’t worry Twilight.” Replied Fluttershy, waving a hoof at her. “It was us that came here late to begin with, though we do felt the news we had were urgent enough.” “And at any rate, while we do appreciate you offering us to stay the night, I’m afraid we still have a few things to do back home before we actually hit the hay.” Fluttershy continued. “Don’t get worked up about it, we do have a method of fast traveling.” Fluttershy finished, turning around and looking at Discord, who looked back with a little grin, snapping his eagle hand fingers, making the objects he was juggling before vanish in a flash. He was now inside a taxi, in the driver side, wearing a uniform as well. “Ready to go~” Discord said, doing a thumbs up sign with his lion hand, as one of the taxi’s back doors opened for Fluttershy. As she walked towards the taxi, she turned around for a moment to talk to Twilight. “We’ll keep our eyes open for anything that could help find the lost ponies. Please let us know if you find anything new as well. Take care and good night.” Fluttershy finished. “Once again, thank you so much, and sorry for keeping you up for too long.” Twilight replied as Fluttershy stepped into the taxi, the door closing by itself as Discord pushed on the horn, and with another flash, the two of them disappeared. Once again, silence filled the room as Twilight was by herself in the main hall. Letting out a little sigh, she stood up and began to arrange her stuff before heading to sleep herself. This day had certainly been more eventful than what she expected: The unexpected visitor that had stalked on her earlier, the news that Fluttershy and Discord had brought to her, and the mysterious stallion that attacked them in the ruins. If anything, she was left with more questions than before. Just what in Equestria was going on?