Back in my tower room, I'm lying on my bed, relishing the feeling of a mattress under my weight. I haven't had this for quite a long time, after all, barring that one town that the Effigy demolished. Despite myself, I shiver. I don't think I'll ever get over that moment. [1]
A knock at the door startles me and I jolt upright. It's been about a week since I was brought to the Lunar Sanctum, as the princess of the night insists is her palace's name, and over the course of this time, I've been entertaining some rather deep thoughts about the nature of my relationship with Celestia, and what I would have to lose by forfeiting her for Luna. The conclusion? Not that much. Though I faithfully served the Princess for a long time, there's no lost love between us.
See, my mother was her foremost propagandist, and I'm certain that Celestia knew for quite a long time that I was a magical prodigy for quite some time before my mother died from a highly experimental medical procedure to repair her horn, which had been shattered a few months prior by a mugger in one of the dark allies that were so common in the city beneath the Solar Citadel. She had escaped with her typewriter, her most precious possession, intact, but the same could not be said of her magic. For those few months she'd had to rely on somepony else to transcribe her words and, an admittedly highly paranoid mare, she only trusted me.
So I guess I'd been indoctrinated on Solar propaganda since I was very young. During that time, Celestia probably noticed how quickly I typed, or how accurately, or both. She must've seen something in me that she decided to foster, and once my mom died, she took me in as a student (my father, or so I'm told, died in a teleportation accident).
So I mean, what choice did I really have? She certainly didn't ask all nicely, with please and thank you. No, she marched up to me and announced, I quote, "You're going to be my student now. Now, go and begin to prepare for your first lesson. You have one day," than marched right off again. [2]
In those first few sessions of training, I saw a few things that I never, never want to see again. The worst was the basic combat training lesson, only my second time learning from her. She didn't teach me pressure points and bones on a dummy. No, she brought in a terrified little pegasus and had me snap her wings in far too many different ways, magically sealing them back together afterwards. Though Celestia dulled her pain, leaving just numbness, it was still way too far. She was such an innocent little filly, too. No anger in those teal eyes, only terror. [3] Her beautiful fur was more bloody red than yellow by the time I finished with her. I wonder if she's still alive; I never saw her again.
So yeah, suffice it to say that, now that there's a viable alternative, I don't have much loyalty to the solar regent, when all is said and done. In fact, my faith in her has gradually been winding down since I started this little journey.
So I guess it's not much of a surprise, to me or to Luna, when I approach her in the banquet hall at dinner and tell her that I'm in.
"Excellent!" she crows. "With you on our side, we just may be able to...stop my sister!" I smile uneasily at her for a few moments before breaking the newborn silence.
"So, uh, Luna," I begin clumsily, "what exactly is it that you want me to do for you?"
She grins. "Well, Twilight Sparkle, what I want you to do for me is simple: go home." I'm momentarily befuddled before she continues. "I need a spy, Twilight. The perpetual day on the Solar side of Equus makes it impossible for me to use my Oculi. I need eyes on Celestia, and you would be perfect. See, she doesn't actually know that you know about her scheme to kill you. If you return with the fake chalice, she'll be forced to let you back in with honors." Her grin widens and I realize something: she's enjoying this. A lot. [4]
---
[1]: Unbelievably, I eventually did. It took a great deal of thought (and perhaps some therapy), but I stopped having nightmares about that particular night a little while ago.
[2]: Originally she was a massive stickler for being on time, with pretty harsh punishments for tardiness. Once I started staying up really late, though, she let up a bit.
[3]: I will never, never forgive myself for going along with this. At the time, it was to please my teacher, and in doing so, I subjected a poor, innocent filly to more horror than she'd ever felt before by miles.
[4]: That's Luna, alright. Princess of the night and queen of subterfuge go hoof in hoof.
---
Cut to a couple hours later and I've been outfitted with the fake Chalice. It had initially been enchanted with some sort of magic that makes spells slip off, so I have no idea how Marks levitated it, but regardless, it's been nestled firmly in my diligently-reproduced saddlebags. As I'm escorted to the border in a sky chariot all-too-similar to the ones that Celestia uses, Luna begins to speak again.
"You're going to need to make the fake escape convincing. Act stealthy, but when you hear the alarm, start running. The guards will launch some spells at you, but they'll all miss as long as you keep running in a straight line. Once you reach your side of the border, tell the guards that you need to speak with Celestia immediately."
I nod, digesting the plan of action as she continues. "You'll have a contact in the city. I won't tell you who it is, in case the guards manage to get it out of you somehow, but trust me, you'll recognize them. They'll report to me every week with what you tell them about the goings-on in the Citadel. So, that's about it," she chuckles, stepping from the chariot as it lands. "Good luck, Twilight Sparkle."
So now I'm on the other side of that barren wall that I first sneaked through. My thoughts? The terrain is still hostile and unforgiving, but at least I have the capacity to appreciate it now.
Luna leads me to the very same wall door that I snuck in through when this all started. The irony isn't lost on me, and I chuckle. This definitely isn't how I was expecting to go through it again. I lay my hoof on the door and close my eyes, and Luna speaks one more time: "Alright, Twilight, this is it. Once this door opens, you're officially Celestia's prized pupil again, and you need to be in-character all the time. Are you ready?"
I breathe deeply for a few moments, and then my eyes snap open. "Yes," I murmur, with quiet conviction, "I'm ready."
I nudge the wall-door aside and begin to sneak back to the borders of home. About ten feet out from the wall, a great bell tolls on the Lunar side, and ponies begin to shout. I break into a fast gallop, bolting back to the Solar Dominion as spells of ice and lightning splash to the ground beside me. Solar guards, seeing me coming from about a mile off, sprint towards me, throwing up great domes of magical force that repel the offensive spells. Among what are perceived as friendly hooves, I can slow my pace somewhat, breathing heavily. As soon as we're out of spell range of the great Lunar wall, I turn to the captain of the guards.
"I need to be taken to Ce—to the Princess right away." I demand, slipping up faintly. I'd grown used to calling her Celestia when I dwelt in the Lunar Sanctum. Calling her Princess again would take some getting used to. The captain eyes me oddly, but acquiesces, hastily shoving me into yet another sky chariot. [1] It's not long before my eyes are greeted, for the first time in many days, by the sight of the solar citadel.
As the chariot comes to a quick stop just in front of the drawbridge, I nod at the two guards that pulled me here and smile at them. They don't seem to notice how glassy the smile is, though, because they returned it wholeheartedly and fly off once more. I gulp, levitating my saddlebags off of my back as I step through the gate, heart pounding in my ears.
The throne room is just as I remember it. For a moment, I picture it encrusted in ice and chuckle to myself briefly before abruptly stopping. Out from behind the throne has stepped the solar monarch: Princess Celestia.
"Well, Twilight," she begins, voiced laced, it's now clear to me, with restrained amusement (and not the good kind), "I see that you've returned. Tell me," she nearly sneers, "did you retrieve the Chalice?"
I'm proud of what comes next: I pull my part off beautifully. After so many years of doing it normally, playing the part of the devoted student is comforting, almost. I feel like I'm playing a farce of my past self. Smiling proudly (and in a mildly vacuous fashion as well, as I used to), I levitate my saddlebags over to her. "I'm sorry, Princess, but I can't levitate the Chalice by itself. It repels magic."
She opens up the saddlebags and, to her credit, does an excellent job of concealing her surprise. "I must admit, I didn't expect you to succeed, though I certainly hoped you would." What a laugh. She smiles, and from here, it almost seems genuine."Well, Twilight Sparkle, it is good to have you back. You may spend the rest of your time, until you sleep, as you see fit. [2]
Well, I take full advantage of what she said. As long as I can spend the rest of my time freely for a while, might as well do some espionage, am I right? For starters, Luna needs to know about the Solar military, so using my authority, I access the army records to see what kind of force she's—we're—up against. As far as I can tell, Celestia has under her command three corps of ground soldiers, about 15,000 ponies each, and three battalions of combat mages. [3] The First Battalion is composed entirely of battlemages. Unsurprisingly, Celestia has a certain fondness for fire, so while there are a few listed that specialize in electrical attacks, or other assorted elements, the First Battalion is composed mostly of fire mages, the greatest of which is one "Firelock," who also happens to be the commander of the battalion. If Luna can come up with a sufficient amount of water mages to counter them, they could cripple the magical offense of the Solar army.
The Second Battalion are combat medics, who have quite a great knowledge of restorative and sheild spells and use them to keep soldiers fighting long after they should've died. My brother aspired to be a member of this branch, if I'm not mistaken, before he was assassinated. They even have a couple less moral spells. The most commonly used in the past has been a spell called Nerve Numb, which renders soldiers unable to feel pain, so they can keep fighting until they cannot physically move. They are led by a healer who only refers to herself as Flit. A few notes have been made about looking for insubordination or treason in her, but as there's not been any confirmation, I can only assume that she still leads them. [4]
Finally comes the Third Battalion, and perhaps the most insidious. The are what are collectively referred to in the Dominion as Intellemancers, mages specializing in working with the enemies' minds. They specialize in three distinct branches: Illusiomancers, who can create massive illusions to fool enemies; Imperiamancers, who enter the enemies' minds and use them as pawns to fight their own allies; and finally, Inquisiomancers, who use their mental abilities to discover enemy plans, diversions and strategies. There's not really a great way to counter them, because it takes a lot of time and effort to learn how to shield one's mind against magical assault, but it takes a lot out of the Intellemancers to keep it up for any duration. If we could take out their leader, who demands to be called Doctor, we might be able to cripple their efforts.
Committing all of that to memory, I quickly excuse myself. If I stay in there too long, ponies might get suspicious, and if they dig too deeply, I don't know what they'll find. I still haven't recognized anypony as my contact, and I'm starting to become nervous.
With that done, I grab a quick bite to eat from the kitchen and walk slowly to my chambers. [5] Flopping down on my bed, I suddenly realize that I'm utterly exhausted. Casting a quick magical charm to activate the windows, I sigh in contentment as the windows darken. I haven't been able to reveal it to anypony, but after being in Lunar lands for so long, the sun sears my eyes. Pulling the covers over myself, I relax and prepare for sleep.
Creak
In a flash, I'm standing up. My window's open now. What? How? The wind is cold, and I begin to slowly backtrot towards the wall, when I catch a twitch out of the corner of my eye. Breathing deeply, I turn to the intruder, horn already charged...
What.
I sigh. "You know, if you wanted to exact revenge, you could've done it more easily elsewhere, Dash."
The Stormwind Valkyrie comes towards me, a cocksure grin on her face. "Please, nopony in this city can catch me. Anyway, that's not what I'm here for.
Well, color me surprised. "Well, what then? Spit it out!"
She chuckles. "Didn't Luna tell you? I'm your contact."
Thanks a lot, Luna.
---
[1]: I don't know if I've said it yet, but I hate those things.
[2]: I must say, I never thought that I'd ever hear Celestia say something like that.
[3]: I always wince when I read about this kind of thing. According to historical records, each army used to be massive. I'm talking a few million strong on either side when the war started. Then the war went on...and on...and on. Each battle chipped away a little bit more, and now there are so few left on either side that it must be a farce compared to what it used to be.
[4]: When I meet her, things get really, really crazy. I never expected anything like this to be the direction her life took. Trust me, you'll get it.
[5]: Say what you will about the Solar Dominion; they still make the best food.