"He said WHAT?!"
"What a big jerk!"
"Leave it to the most pathetic and rude of stallions to shovel such filth out of his mouth."
"I say you should have thrown him off seat into-"
"Alright, alright, let's all calm down." Twilight managed to calm down the reconvened groups of the Mane 6, Team Sonic, the Band, and the Cutie Mark Crusaders. She, along with Tails and Cosmo and the Master Four, had run into her family and her Mobius friends first after the day's competitions came to a close, getting to hear what happened with Nyx and how she was enjoying herself. Her parents, however, did not stay with them as they decided to pay a visit to Shining Armor and Cadance, who were both with Skyla in the castle nursery.
The next set of friends the alicorn princess's group found was two of the trio of competitors from the aerial relay. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were strolling down the corridor wearing their silver medals, giving out an occasional high-hoof to passersby offering. Scootaloo managed to spot the cyan mare's colorful mane from afar and ran up to congratulate their success in the competition, to which she received a hoof noogie as thanks. Fluttershy asked the inevitable concern about Spike, which Twilight only responded with giving him some time and space before she would try helping him herself.
But the topic was addressed again when the group finally found the Band and the other half of the Mane 6 outside the stadium. Rarity asked the same question and Twilight gave the same answer, with Applejack suggesting checking on him before getting dinner. The now reunited group made their way back to the castle to enjoy the rest of the day there, allowing themselves a hopefully more peaceful evening compared to yesterday.
It wasn't until they were all safe in the private confides of the castle when the topic of Tails and Cosmo joining the Royal Suite came up. Twilight and the couple told them what happened, from Celestia showing acceptance to Blueblood opening his mouth again. The others were not pleased to hear about that, and a few were showing their disgust of it before Twilight stopped the group ranting.
"I'm sorry, but I won't calm down about this, Twilight," Amy said, sounding furious. "That jerk has been giving you too much trouble. I'd like to give him a smack of reality from my hammer if he even tries-"
"Amy, take it easy!" Cream said, with Cheese adding his own "Chao-chao!" They tried what they could to keep their friend in check.
"Trust me, dear Amy, I would LOVE to have you do whatever you could to that obnoxious colt, but we can't make matters worse than they can be," said Rarity.
"But didn't you openly threaten him in front of all the Princesses last night?" Rouge pointed out. The white unicorn just turned her attention away and focused elsewhere.
Adding to that was Twilight, who said "She's right, but both Celestia and Luna understood the reasons. This isn't the first time they had to clean up one of his messes...
"Rarity is right too, though. All of this began with him making up lies about all of you who came to visit, so having any of you do anything to him will just prove him right. What Tails and Cosmo did, though..." She couldn't help but sigh in self-disappointment. "Tails did what I should have done from the start."
Although he didn't care for openly threatening a prince, the fox did feel guilty for potentially putting his alicorn friend in a tough position. During the entire trek over, he held hands with Cosmo, with the fillies taking turns in sitting on their hands and forearms like a swing. When this conversation started, he crossed his arms and having his beloved's hand shift to his shoulder. His eyes, however, made this more reserved pose mean nothing as he looked disappointed in himself.
He turned his head to where Twilight was and said to her "I'm sorry, Twilight, but part of what you said is right. You had every right to go eye-to-eye with Blueblood after what he was saying."
Twilight's eyes focused downward as her ears drooped down. Nyx, standing between her and Cosmo, walked up to stick her head up in the nook of Twilight's neck and tried to nuzzle against her. It did help the mare, just enough to look at her little filly with a small smile and wrap a leg around her back.
"Believe me, I wish I could," Twilight replied to Tails, "but I was conflicted. If I did anything I chose, I'd be disrespectful to everypony that I respected in that suite, especially my friends. Most of all, I didn't want to prove him right about anything, not if it meant disgracing my family."
"We understand," Cosmo said. "It's more important to you to set a right example to your family than fellow ponies and peers. You had one outburst about this, and I'm sure you'd have plenty more to stand up for Nyx and Spike, but..."
"But outbursts do not solve problems," Tails added. "I know what I did was worse than that, but it was going to happen at one point. If anything, you'll be spared of any consequences, Twilight, just Blueblood and us." He motioned one of his hands towards himself and Cosmo, and then everyone else that traveled with them. "Along with them, I'd imagine, as well."
"I think it's best we just cross that bridge when we get there," suggested Jason. The Master Four warrior of Darkness fiddled with a technological possession of his that was far advanced compared to Equestria’s modern-age technology. From what the ponies understood, it was called a ‘handheld,’ and he was sifting through the songs Nyx had suggested to Tails before with a pre-existing setlist draft. "Maybe some winding down would do us all some good. There's a big story to tell after dinner, after all."
Fluttershy couldn't agree more and said "Yes, indeed, I think that's a great idea. I don't know about anyone else, but I could go for a cup of tea."
"That sounds absolutely divine," Rarity agreed. "Who would like to join in on that?"
Everyone in the group threw in their thoughts of what to do and went their own directions from there. Fluttershy and Rarity led their little group consisting of Amy, Cream and Cheese, and Maria, with Shadow in tow, towards one of the closest kitchens in the crystalline palace. The Master Four, as reserved as they tried keeping themselves, decided to have a rehearsal session with the rest of their band mates, minus one, at the room they rehearsed at yesterday. Rainbow Dash decided to have a well-deserved nap before dinner, an idea that Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo liked a lot, so that group and Applejack went off to rest.
This left Sonic to go out for another run around the Crystal Empire and a fair distance into Equestria, Rouge and Knuckles being roped in a tour of the empire by Pinkie Pie, and the last group of the undecided. The group, consisting of the two alicorns and Mobian couple, stood in their own places for a few moments before anyone said anything.
"Twilight, about what we'll be talking about later," Tails said, a certain thought coming to his mind, "you weren't intending on using that potion again, were you?"
"Zecora's memory spell? No, not this time," Twilight replied. "The thought of you guys wanting to retell your story again during your stay never came to mind. Besides, most of us are already... Well aware, of what took place." She sighed at what she and her friends saw through that spell a few months back.
"Is the story that scary, Twilight?" Nyx asked.
The mother looked down at her daughter and answered "Not entirely scary, no. It can be... Well, you'll see."
"Is what happened to them worse than when I was Nightmare Moon?"
Twilight was speechless, unable to respond to that question so quickly. From her viewpoint, both events have their same levels of danger and tragedy, but compared to the events she witnessed first-hoof, she only saw the climatic events of Tails and Cosmo's history. To her own bias, having lost Nyx to the Children of Nightmare and her former self was the worst experience of her life. However, it was unfair to say that the story that included death and destruction wasn't as bad or worse, even if Nyx's history fortunately lacked the former.
"I... Well, uh... The thing is, Nyx... Uhm-"
Cosmo interjected with her own answer to the filly's question. "Let's just say that there are ways it was worse, but it's not like your past at all, Nyx. You'll just have to hear it and decide for yourself."
"Okay," Nyx replied. She looked at Twilight to ask another question. "So what can we do right now?"
"Well, something that we can relax to, but you can decide what we do," Twilight said.
The filly started to think of ideas. Given the choice of what to do for fun was always something she enjoyed, because it was only so often she was given the chance to. There were so many new choices since they were in the Crystal Empire, and with their relatives, too. But with everything going on with the dignitaries and Blueblood, and what she was going to learn from her new Mobius friends soon, her options were limited to ideas that didn't involve too much energy.
"I think," Nyx said, coming to her decision, "I think I want to just find something to read."
Twilight nodded approvingly. "Alright, what would you like to read?"
"Didn't you say one time that there was a book about the traditions and history of the Crystal Empire?"
"I did," said the mare, but her smile disappeared, "but I believe Cadance kept that book after the empire's return. She wanted to get it redone and fill it with more information and that from missing pages, and I'm not sure if it's been restored yet."
"Oh, okay." Nyx's eyes looked down and her ears drooped in disappointment. Reading was one of her favorite things to do, especially if it meant learning something new. She just wanted some quiet time, nothing but a book and good company.
"Don't look so disappointed, Nyx," Cosmo said to the filly. She kneeled down to be closer to Nyx's level. "Maybe you'd like to do something else in the mean time?"
Nyx looked up again and spoke with a down tone. "I don't know. I thought I'd try to cheer up and read something and learn something new."
An almost devious grin crossed the Seedrian's face, for she came up with an idea of her own. "Well, you don't have to read to learn something," she said, getting up and giving Twilight a small wink. The alicorn caught on to what she was trying to do, and return that expression with a caring face. "Maybe you'd like to learn about somewhere new... Somewhere you've never been to before...
"Maybe you'd like to learn more about Mobius, or the Seedrians, or maybe... I know, how would you like to know about other worlds beyond Equestria?"
The filly's turquoise dragon-like eyes opened wide and her ears perked up as she looked up at Cosmo. "You mean your home worlds and everywhere beyond that?!"
Cosmo chuckled and replied "I thought you'd like to hear about that."
"But," Nyx said, backing her excitement towards confusion, "weren't you going to tell everypony about that later?"
"Well, not necessarily everything," Tails said, showing his approval of his idea. "Our plan is to just talk about the first time period Cosmo and I spent together. There wouldn't be the time to talk about every single detail of every little thing," he began to try to lure Nyx with a few topics, "such as our home world, Mobius, or Cosmo's clan called the Seedrians, and so much more-"
"Yes! Yes! I want to know that!" Nyx said, jumping up and down in newfound joy.
A strong laugh came out of Twilight, for both her daughter's happiness and excitement for the idea itself. She knew quite a lot already about these topics, but she never went in full detail about it when discussing all her interdimensional friends to Nyx, nor did she know all there was to learn about her newest group of friends. "I guess we have something to do now," she said as her laugh faded out of her, "so let's go find somewhere to enjoy ourselves."
"Would you mind leading the way then? We can start as we go, and we still don't know the palace that well yet," said the fox, the latter half of his words said through a small laugh.
Nodding and starting to walk in front of the others, Twilight led them to one of the living rooms that would most likely be available, up on the next floor of the castle. Nyx managed to get herself between Tails and Cosmo as they followed along. She began to ask what was going to be long series of questions about anything and everything the couple was willing to share, prepared to mentally ingest new information of new subjects of all ranges.
It was going to be just what the doctor ordered for the second most inquisitive pony everypony knew, and a great warmup for the couple to tell their history later on.
/)∞(\
Princess Celestia made herself comfortable on a large pillow sitting in a private chamber of the castle. She was there for quite a while, and she was beginning to feel uncomfortable, but not from sitting for so long. All the centuries spent on her throne helped her with that physical challenge.
Princess Luna was lecturing and scolding Prince Blueblood for his actions, and not just from his time in the Crystal Empire. The alicorn was ripping him apart in every possible way for everything he has said about Twilight and her family ever since the second reign of Nightmare Moon. She showed no hesitance with her temper or disapproval for what he's said and done, almost too much at times. It was all because that after what happened in the Royal Suite earlier, she flat out explained to her older sister that because the result of Nyx returning to Twilight's care was of her choice and judgment, she took control of the situation out of Celestia's hooves.
Although Celestia agreed to this plan, she began to feel regret for that decision. There were moments that Blueblood's words or out of place, and Luna's tone began to revert back to her royal Canterlot tongue. Somehow, the unicorn showed no falter to her growing anger as arguments heated up again and again, neither side holding back.
But regardless of the heating atmosphere and personal discomfort, Celestia trusted Luna completely. She was responsible for Nyx's judgment and sentencing for living a normal life with her family in Ponyville, and so it did make sense for the Princess of the Night to take charge of a subject she had control of. If anything worried the grand white alicorn was being where Blueblood will end up from a princess's wrath.
Celestia only waited until the second subject of her former pupil's honored guests would come up. It was technically not the jurisdiction for either sister, but with Twilight spending needed time with her friends and family, she would stand in to deal with the prince about that. She just needed to wait and see what he was going to do to add unneeded stress during the Games she didn't ask for.
"For the hundredth time, you can't trust her!" Blueblood began to argue as loud as his worthless voice would echo. "She will bring trouble for everypony in those stands! She'll recreate her brainwashed army and overthrow us all!"
"And as I said a thousand... Five thousand... No, it must be over nine thousand by now- you speak nonsense! Nyx has surrendered herself and accepted her consequences! She no longer has the power, or the means, to repeat her mistakes again! She is nothing more but Twilight's filly and-"
"NO! She's no daughter of a no good princess!" Blueblood lashed back. "A wretched monster should NOT be mother by a wretched cu-"
"SILENCE!" Luna began to exclaim in her former tongue again, immediately seething her angry side back inside again to prevent an outburst. "You will NOT speak of Twilight Sparkle that way again, even if she's here to deal with you herself." The prince winced at the thought.
"All you have done is disgrace yourself, your aunts, your superiors, and everypony and everything Equestria stands for." Luna spoke as she circled around the unicorn stallion. "Your actions here in the duration of the Equestria Games gives us all headaches, and the fact that you were succeeding at one point leaves me livid. I may have put my judgment on Nyx to face what ponies think and see of her, but you are of royalty. You do not have to agree, but seeing you degrade her in every manner is not acceptable."
"But-"
"No buts, nephew!" She cut him off fierce enough to have her mane wave in a way to match her anger. "Argue however you will, but there's nothing you can say to change anything."
Blueblood fell silent for a moment, bowing his head in a defeated appearance. He was just hiding his gritting teeth and narrow eyes for a few moments, and trying to think of the next best argument he could make. From his perspective, it was clear that his aunts were too ignorant to see through the monster ponies like him knew Nyx is. He decided to reinforce his views of the filly with his views of Twilight's friends.
"Well, what about those monsters that Nightmare Moon is spending time with?"
From her seat, Celestia raised her head with narrow and furrowed eyes. He just opened the door for her to intervene and give her words of wisdom and discipline, but she didn't get the immediate chance. Luna, having a similar stare that she wore for the entire conversation, spoke up first.
"What about them? They are only visiting for the Games, just as Nyx is doing."
"They're freaks from a place we have no idea about, and they have strange powers that could be a threat to ponies!"
"To ponies, or more specifically, you?" Luna asked coolly.
Blueblood put a hoof to his chest as he said "Well of course for ponies, especially for me! For all we know they could turn out to be alien conquerors that want to enslave Equestria under a new empire of their own-"
"FOALISH!" Luna bellowed out at him. "The guests of Twilight Sparkle have been nothing but respectful and open-minded to the circumstances YOU caused! They show no reason to conquer Equestria. They only wish to befriend everypony."
"Not in the eyes of everypony, and you know that as well as I do!"
"You cannot speak on behalf of Equestria. You do not know how everypony thinks, nor can you think that anyone can force a single mindset for an entire nation!" Luna seethed.
The prince then seethed out the words that never had a place to be said: "Says the princess who was once Nightmare Moon and tried to make ponies suffer everlasting night! That threat of a filly will brainwash those freaks to do her bidding just as you would have to get what you want!"
The princess found herself speechless for the first time since the arguing began. His words, regardless of how true they were, left a painful sting in her chest as her entire being boiled with anger. What he said, what he meant, was out of line. As she tried to collect her train of thoughts for words to lash out at him like a barrage of a thousand knives, the other alicorn in the room spoke up.
"Blueblood, you've got too far," Celestia lashed at the unicorn. She had stood from her once physically comfortable position to walk toward and have her turn confronting her nephew. "What Luna's actions were when she was once Nightmare Moon are different than the actions Nyx has made. Nyx's decision, regardless of right or wrong, were of her own to make, being her own pony then as she is now. You are in no place to compare Nyx to Luna like that.
"Furthermore, our guests from different worlds have shown no signs of becoming hostile to us. Twilight has done her absolute hardest to prove that these new friends of hers can benefit Equestria. I would admit that there are some doubts I have when opening our world to so many more we have only just come in contact with, but your eavesdropping in Canterlot showed us you already know about that."
"But Aunt Celes-"
"Don't even bother." Celestia cut off the prince with a sharp tongue and a more furrowed expression to down on him with. "You have done nothing but degrade and look down on Nyx since Nightmare Moon's resurrection, and your treatment of Miles Prower, Cosmo and their company is no better. You have caused nothing but trouble from Canterlot to all the way here at the Crystal Empire."
The unicorn stallion crouched himself down as the white alicorn talked down at him and his actions. Her disapproving tone began to get at him on the inside, as he tends to be talked at in such a manner quite often. However, he refused to back down as he started to raise his head and return Celestia's gaze with one of his own.
"It's not safe anymore," Blueblood said. "It's not safe for us to have Nightmare Moon roam across our land and give those mutated monsters something to latch onto and want to stay."
"That, Blueblood, is not your decision to make," Celestia said back.
"Then whose should it be then? Who should decide what's best for us all?"
"I did," Luna said, returning his attention towards her once again. "I was the one who Nightmare Moon presented herself in surrender and for judgment. I was the one who decided to return her in the care of Twilight Sparkle as the filly she was reborn as; Nyx, the daughter of your new superior. I allowed her to have a life of her own that she did not once have."
The Princess of the Night leaned her head down to stare eye to eye with the prince, their muzzles barely a few inches apart. She stared at him with a fierce brow and angry growl, and he stared back with a fraction of immensity. "From all you've said, Prince Blueblood, you are questioning the decisions I had made. Tell me, do you truly believe that I have made a mistake with my judgment of Nyx Sparkle, and Twilight's judgment of our Team JAG guests?"
"Yes."
The answer she received came immediately. He truly had no remorse for what he said or how he was saying it to her. The two shared an icy stare at one another for a moment before she raised her head back up and kept her eyes shut for moments longer. When she did open them, she called out for guards to enter the room, almost reaching vocal levels of her royal Canterlot tongue.
Two of the Crystal Guards had opened the door a second after being called upon. Both were earth pony stallions with their crystalline coats and empire armor, but they were much larger and bulkier than most other guards. They were, in fact, the strongest and largest of all of those under Shining Armor's command.
"Your Highnesses," one of the guards said in greeting.
Luna walked passed the prince and stood between him and the guards. "Escort Prince Blueblood to the train station immediately. Have it ordered to have the Canterlot express send him back to our castle at once, by my order."
"What?!"
"His belongings are located at the Shimmer Inn. Stop there and have the staff gather them to take back as well," she added, ignoring the prince's outcry.
"Yes, Princess," replied the second guard. "Is there anything else you require of us?"
"No, that is it." Luna then turned her head back to say to the prince "You have overstayed here, Blueblood. You are to return to Canterlot where we will finish this discussion. Until then, I recommend you behave yourself accordingly."
"But... But that's not fair!" Blueblood began to throw a fit as if he was a young colt. "Send Nightmare Moon away instead of me. I don't deserve such treatment!"
"I'd disagree," Celestia told him. "If you're going to behave like a foal, then we'll treat you like one. There is only so much mess you can make that we can clean up tolerably. Now, go with the guards."
"But-"
"No buts. Go, Blueblood. Now."
Prince Blueblood looked at both princesses. They were both giving him a stare that come to a close second of the fabled talent 'the Stare,' and he ran out of things to say to break through to them. In his mind, his hating thoughts of the alicorn filly and interdimensional visitors only grew, for now they were getting him excluded from the remainder of the Games. That fuel could help him argue further, but it was clear that the two were in no mood to continue.
With a childish humph and stomp, he stood from his seat and began to walk for the door. He kept himself from showing a scowl at either alicorn as he walked passed them both. The two guards made an opening for him to walk in between them, turned around and began to walk alongside him out the door. They made their turn towards the closest descending stairs to take them out of the palace. The moment they were out of sight, the doors slammed loudly shut and locked tight.
Perhaps she used too much force in her magic to shut the doors, but Luna cared little for that thought. Her anger was still seething out of her behind gritted teeth for what that so-called prince was saying to her. Clearly her disrespectful treatment bothered her, especially when it concerned about a matter that was from her own decisions. She stood still in her spot as her eyes fixed on the crystal floor under her hooves.
A hoof then rested on her shoulder, snapping her out of her angry trance as she turned her head up to see her sister looking at her with a concerned expression. Her big sister barely got involved in the argument to help support Luna's argument, but she was aware that she trusted enough to handle some matters on her own. That, however, never stopped Celestia for caring for her younger sibling.
"You said the right things, Luna," Celestia said to her in a sooth tone. "Blueblood is sadly a very hard-headed stallion."
It took a few seconds, but Luna replied to her sister with "I've come to see that myself." She then walked her way over to one of the room's windows and looked out its panes at the Crystal Empire in its evening hours. It wouldn't be long until her royal responsibilities would have to be enacted for another night, but that was not her focus.
Silence fell for a few moments before Celestia stepped forward and stood behind her sister, her taller stature looking out at the empire over her. "Luna, what's on your mind?"
Luna took a deep, long breath before replying to her big sister. "I was the one who chose what to do with Nightmare Moon. I chose to return to her the life she was robbed us because of my sins, to be cared for by the mare she calls her mother, all with the consequence of facing her own sins and take responsibility for them. Harsh it could be to do to a filly, I understood it would not be easy for her, but not so serious that 'royal' blood would object to her so childishly.
"I can't say much about Miles Prower and his company and beloved Cosmo. That is under Twilight's responsibility. They, however, see purity in Nyx that I believe she possesses greater than I ever could have in all my years. She earned their respect for who she is, not what or who she once was..."
Celestia arched an eyebrow at her sister's words. "Yes, that is true..."
"But," Luna continued, "as hard as she will try, Nyx will have to regain respect from ponies who still have ill opinions of her. Not everypony will accept her, or my decisions for that matter, but there is something else.
"I think we have overlooked something about Nyx, my sister. Something that should be brought to light now."
"And what would that be, Luna?" Celestia asked.
"She has shown vigilance for other ponies. She has a spark of bravery that can develop into a greater strength. As far as I can tell, Nyx's actions to repent herself as once being Nightmare Moon can be a greater benefit to Equestria than just a part of my casted consequences."
Luna then turned herself around to ask a question. "Celestia, there are two things that have crossed my mind. First, Nyx’s adoption to Twilight Sparkle is now indefinitely legal since Twilight’s coronation. And second, is it true that pure-blooded alicorns automatically earn the right of royal title if they are proven deemed to be so, like how we were deemed all those years ago?"
It took a moment for the grand alicorn to think about that. It was a subject only touched upon once over a thousand years ago, during the times of several calamities and chaotic catastrophies. Back then, and until a millennium later, they were the only two pure-blooded alicorns to exist. It was decreed that alicorn ponies are the only race of ponykind to earn the right as being the highest-ranked rulers of Equestria.
But, it was never specific on the number of alicorns, including the pure-blooded ones.
"To my recollection, yes," Celestia finally answered. "I think I am seeing what you are getting at here, my sister."
"Perhaps, but what I'm getting at, Celestia, is that we have an alicorn who is overdue for her official coronation. I think it's time we have that changed immediately."
Celestia showed a content smile across her face and shut her eyes for a moment. Following that, she gave a Luna a confident and supportive stare. "Very well, Luna. You have my support in this decision, but only if you think it is best."
"I do," Luna replied confidently. An honest smile crossed her face for the first time since being the Royal Suite earlier. "We will have this happen between the conclusion of the Equestria Games and the closing ceremony concert. We will inform everypony that needs immediate knowledge of this after we hear the origin story of the bond between Miles and Cosmo..."