Chapter 9
Celestia’s nose itched.
She would very much have liked to scratch it, but at the moment she found herself unable to move in the grips of her sister’s magic.
Luna swam past her, through the corner of her peripheral vision, and pushed a large suspended piece of stone wall to the ground. The piece was as big as Celestia’s entire body and had been on a trajectory that would bring it to meet its end against her right shoulder. It would have probably dislocated the joint, braking a few ribs and her foreleg, had not Luna frozen time within the bubble of their shield.
Luna glided through the super dense magic field like a seapony in water, her wheeled harness left in midair where the shock wave had just started to lift it. She drifted closer, pushing debris away from them as she went. When Luna reached Celestia’s side she reached up and gently scratched her sister’s nose and lit her horn to start a mental sharing between them.
Oh thank Faust! That was bothering me. Celestia tried in vain to smile. How long am I going to be stuck like this?
About five—relative—minutes, give or take. Luna shrugged, looking back at where the wall had once stood. I managed to contain everything, I think. But it will take a few minutes to convert all the energy of the explosion and redirect it. I suspect that the changeling caused the crystal rods to continue building a charge for their defensive spells but denied them a discharge conduit. Now I have to keep this up or we let ten blocks of the south ward get vaporized.
I’ll wait. I’m sure our subjects will appreciate your quick spellcrafting to save their lives and livelihoods.
Luna nodded and shared a smirk with her sister. I expect there will be a great deal more moon lilies at the gates in coming weeks. But while I have your captive attention, fill me in on what that thing meant about a ‘prophecy.’ I thought we’d left such things in the past where they belong?
Celestia mulled over that, but kept her thoughts out of the telepathic sharing with Luna. She wasn’t sure how much she needed to share, or if the changeling spoke of what she highly suspected it had. It is from a very long time ago. Do you recall your self-banishment from the Everfree?
As if I could forget that. Luna scoffed and folded her hooves over her chest. I assume this prophecy came about then, when you told me the shapeshifter, Chrysalis, first appeared? That’s more than a thousand years ago at this point.
Yes. Celestia paused as she considered her phrasing. I must admit, Luna, during that time I was a different mare. I did things I am not proud of and I’m glad history has seen fit to mostly forget my transgressions.
I remember. Luna looked away, up into the night sky where the redirected, destructive magic was being channeled harmlessly toward the stars. I don’t feel nostalgic for those dark days, Tia. I went into self-exile for a reason.
I know. However, during the time you were gone, I thought I might have to replace you. The nobles were very antsy about me absorbing your former duties and the power that went along with it. So, I had my guards search for potential new Princesses. Celestia wished she could kick herself physically as hard as she was mentally at the moment. Admitting this particular folly to her sister was not something she had ever planned on actually doing.
I made up this prophecy about the rising of a new Princess. Had my servants spread it around for months while I gathered the possible potentials. Through force of will alone, Celestia narrowed her brows in the time stop. And out of their ranks rose Chrysalis, though she had a different name back then. She was a true prodigy, Luna. One in a million, for sure. If that changeling was telling the truth, it would seem she is still chasing after that promise I broke to her.
Luna shook her head slowly. You and your apprentices, Celestia. I’m glad Twilight Sparkle has managed to evade your lecherous reach and escaped into Cadance’s arms! You chased poor Sunset Shimmer away to the south too! She chuckled. It doesn’t surprise me that you tried to replace me and it ended up blowing up in your smug face.
I will remind you that Sunset is on an official mission to Seavannah. As far as I know, she is still busy with that. However, you sound less...angry than I was expecting.
Luna rolled her eyes. It was a millenia ago, Tia. You were a different mare then, as was I. Besides, now that I know all the various assassination attempts and failed coup d’etat we’ve dealt with over the centuries are all your fault. All for creating a monster and promising it too could be a princess one day...I can’t help but feel a smidgen of sorrow for you. And this Chrysalis creature.
Thank you.
Luna nodded and the sharing was silent for a time.
So...in all these years, have you and Chrysalis gotten frisky? Knowing each other for so long...it’s bound to have at least crossed your mind. It’s not like there are that many other immortals out there. Luna snickered and leered at her sister. That might explain her unhealthy obsession with you, Tia.
Celestia was glad the frozen time within the dense field of magic kept her from blushing.
Six years ago
“Twilight! Wait up!” Spike huffed and rasped as he pumped his stubby legs to catch up with the teenage unicorn. His sister seemed to ignore him, trotting around the corner of yet another tall shelf of moldering old tomes.
Spike rounded the bend a second later only to see Twilight clamber over a pile of dusty stones and loose rubble that littered the middle of the aisle. This deep into the subterranean archive, in the Canterlot catacombs, the walls and ceiling still showed signs of the damage the city had taken in the last war. The tile and plaster was cracked and missing in places where the natural stone peeked through. High above the row of shelves here, a section of the ceiling was missing. The ancient mosaic painted there depicted the legendary Everfree City, the missing section most likely displaying the many sprawling gardens it was rumored to have possessed.
Spike gasped as he pulled his chubby form over the now faded skree that had fallen long before he had been hatched. “Twilight...don’t leave me behind…” Twilight flicked an ear in his direction and looked back at him. She grinned, hopping in place as she waited for him to catch up.
“I’d never leave you behind, Spike.” Twilight chuckled. “If you want, you can climb up and I’ll carry you.”
“No!” Spike blushed. “I mean, no, thank you. I’m a big dragon now, Twi. I don’t want anypony to see me getting hauled around like a baby.”
“Oh who is going to see you down here?”
Spike opened his mouth to give a well-reasoned response when his thunder was suddenly stolen by the only other pony in the archives with them.
“I’d see, and I would tell, like...everybody in Canterlot.” A pink pony with a tri-colored mane tied up in a bun stuck her head out from behind a shelf three rows down. “Auntie says I’m a gossip.”
“Cady!” Twilight jumped in surprise, giggling as she turned on her friend and classmate. “Wow, you suck at Dewey Decimal Hide and Seek. The rules explicitly state that you, as the Hidee, are to evade the detection of the Seeker, which is me, while staying within the area of the library as designated by a range of randomly generated Dewey Decimal organizational numbers.”
“Maybe.” Cadance grinned. “Or maybe this aisle over here is where Auntie Luna hides her romance novels.”
“In the military expenditures section?”
“Who would ever think to look there?” Cadance pulled a slim book from the shelf and flipped it open with her magic. The pages held the ledger for navel costs from three hundred years in the past, but as she scanned down, the neat hoofwriting of numbers gave way to the skilled cursive tale of forbidden lusts on the high seas. “Jackpot!”
“Why are you always reading that stuff?” Spike scratched his head with a claw as he blinked at Cadance.
“Oh Spike, you’ll understand one day.” Cadance mock swooned and fanned herself with the book. “Romance. Is. The. Best.”
“Personally, I like the books Princess Celestia wrote on energy inversion and thermo-theoretical principles.” Twilight grinned at Spike before she looked at Cadance with a sneer. “Bet that’s why I get better marks in class than you.”
“You’re just Auntie Celestia’s pet student, that’s all. But at least you’re cute, Sparkle, so there’s hope for you yet.” Cadance snapped her new treasure trove of navel and naughty lore shut, turning around toward the entrance to the catacomb library. “I believe you found me, so now it’s your turn to hide and I better not find you in the spellbook section again.”
Twilight stuck out her tongue and—
She felt warm and cold. Twilight could hear the wind whistling through her mane and feel cold rain hitting her ears but the rest of her body was warm, sheltering her from the elements. Something soft cushioned her as the outside world shifted and shook.
She thought she heard a deep voice a lot like Spike’s, but it was muffled. She couldn’t understand the words before the wind stole them away. Twilight wanted to lift her head and find Spike. They had to make sure Cadance was alright before the monster got her.
She was just so tired. Twilight didn’t let go of the soft, warm thing that cradled her, and sleep took her again.
Six years ago
Cadance sighed quietly and quietly repeated the numbers to herself again. The shelves in the archive were all labeled and organized by a numerical system that she barely understood. Or at least, they were labeled when the wooden shelves weren’t collapsed and rotten. The end cap next to her was fortunately still standing under the weight of its wealth of dusty old tomes and had a badly faded number still painted on it. She smirked, narrowing her eyes to scan for her prey now that she was in the right section of the archive.
Twilight was in here somewhere. This section housed the oldest books on history during the times just after the founding of Equestria. If she knew the egghead well enough, Twilight would lose herself in a book quickly enough. Then she’d just have to get the drop on Spike to capture them.
But first, she had to find them.
Cadance spotted Twilight soon enough as she tiphoofed down the main walkway. The unicorn was sitting at the far end of one aisle near the wall with a huge book open in front of her. Spike was sitting on her back and keeping watch. Cadance took cover in an adjacent row where she could sit and still keep an eye on them. Spike looked sleepy so all she had to do was wait until her target was completely comfortable and distracted.
From her vantage point, Cadance studied Twilight Sparkle. She’d known Twilight for years and the filly was her secret weapon in her Auntie’s grueling classes. Twilight absorbed knowledge like a sponge and loved to help her “struggling” classmate. It wasn’t really cheating, Twilight helped her with studying and staying on topic. Auntie Tia was right about one thing though, she was a gossip and couldn’t stay focused to save her life in spell class.
Auntie Luna just thought she needed the right thing to focus on. She had given Cadance her new hobby of studying ponies, drakes, and diamond dogs. She learned about them from mannerisms and speech patterns. Take Twilight for instance, it took no great deduction to see she liked books, but it wasn’t the reading that drew her, it was an unquenchable thirst for information. Cadance could tell by how her eyes twinkled when she learned something new, the way she would inhale sharply and how her face would light up.
Cadance felt she could watch Twilight all day.
The rain was worse. At least, Twilight thought it was. She couldn’t accurately tell. Her eyes refused to open and her ears felt like they were stuffed with cotton. Twilight groaned as she was rolled over and two strong arms closed around her middle.
Something warm gripped her hoof gently and Twilight tried to squeeze it in return but her body wasn’t responding. She felt that really should bother her more but it was getting harder to think, harder to find the energy for thought. The cotton in her ears was invading her mind and the rain was worse than ever.
Twilight felt herself fading fast into unconsciousness. Was Cadance safe?
Six years ago
Twilight looked up from the tales of a younger Canterlot and the early political wheeling and dealing the Royal Sisters engaged in when Spike started to snore from her back. She glanced back at the book in front of her before scanning the row she’d taken refuge on for any evidence of her hunter. Cadance wasn’t anywhere in sight.
“Wow, she does suck at this game.” Twilight smirked and put the book away before standing up slowly to not wake Spike, and let blood return to her tingling hooves.
She walked slowly back to the main passage and looked up and down again for Cadance. The young princess was nowhere in sight again and Twilight started to worry. The archive was huge, comprised of several large catacomb chambers and even some natural caves with shelves carved directly into the walls. Could Cadance have gotten lost? Did she give her the right numbers for the area she would hide in?
If she somehow lost the Princess, she’d never hear the end of it from the Royal Sisters. She’d probably be banished!
Twilight was about to start a systematic search pattern when she heard the dainty snort of a sleeping Princess. It was a sound she had become very familiar with from their classes. She shook her head, following the noise a short distance until she spotted an unconscious alicorn mare half way down a row of shelves.
She shook her head and trotted over to Cadance and nudged her with a hoof until she woke. “You were supposed to find me, not the other way around.”
Cadance yawned and smiled sleepily up at her. “Well, you are my Prince Charming, come to wake a sleeping Princess.”
Twilight looked at Cadance in silence for a moment. “Weirdo.”
The rain had stopped. The wind was still, or gone, and it was silent. Twilight felt mild curiosity at her lack of concern for herself and her disconnected state. She was just so tired and her leg ached in an off-hoof way. She was getting colder, the cotton in her ears was more like ice now. Twilight really wished the warm, soft thing would hold her again.
Six years ago
Twilight blinked at Cadance. Her lips felt funny. Her heart felt funnier.
“What was that for?”
Cadance giggled and pranced away, heading back toward the entrance again now that it was late. They would be expected at the dinner table by the Royal Sisters within the hour. As she reached the stairs, Cadance looked back over her shoulder. “Prince Charmings always get a kiss when they wake Princesses.”
Twilight watched her go and felt even funnier in her heart. “But...but Cady, I’m not a stallion! Hey! Wait up!”