Stories in Stone
Capricorn's Curse
By TDR
Purple Rain
[ Three years after the defeat of Tirek.]
The figures looked around nervously as they followed the Kirin Guard, neither had ever been to Canterlot Castle before and they certainly had never been invited directly by name.
The crowning of the new Princess of the Night had only been a few months ago and every one was still rather nervous about how Princess Twilight would do in the position. Most of the fears were based on if she was ready for the position, not if she was capable or not. The events of what had come to be known as the Great Hunt left little doubt for any one that she could handle herself.
Most were more worried about the ex Princess who was now only the Queen of Changelings. Partially as they didn't know what she would do now that she no longer had to care about Equestria, and yet still lived in Canterlot Castle.
The pair of earth ponies trotting through the halls following behind the silent black and purple armored Guard certainly had no clue about any of that, nor were they really thinking about it.
Mr. and Mrs. Shallot were just a pair of farmers who lived to the west of the Unicorn range on a small plot of land and grew onions and a few other crops. None of their products ever made it out of their local area, as it wasn't a big farm, nor were they really interested in expanding or modernizing their fields. In truth they rarely left their homes save for the occasional visit to Canterlot, Although after the War of Gods they had no reason to come to New Canterlot any more, in fact they had become even more recluse never leaving their homestead at all save for the occasional trip to the farmers market in small town near their farm..
The mare of the two, named Sweet, was a dusty yellow color with short cropped green hair that hung in bangs over her tired looking blue eyes. She was in her sixties, though she still got around easily enough and had no issue working in the field with the younger mares. She wore a simple brown dress that quite possibly was the fanciest thing she owned other than her wedding dress, and that still sat in a box, sealed away in the attic of their homestead, the white gown never going to be anything more than moth food at this point. Her cutie mark was of three small purple balls made up of many tiny star like flowers.
The stallion, Chives, was a reddish brown hue with a black mane that had faded mostly to gray and seemed to have put forth very little effort put in to making it tidy. He wore a charcoal suit, much like his wife's, that might have once been nice but had seen better days. He wore the ill fitting thing with no small amount of protest, not caring who it was who called them to this city, but his wife's argument won out and he wore it.
He walked with a slight limp, though he kept the same speed as the Guard with out any real effort. The injury was an old one from his youth, though it still pained him occasionally now. His cutie mark was of a simple iron plow. His brown eyes were partially hidden under his brow, unlike his wife who was only confused at why they were here, and wished to be home already, he completely hated it. He had a reason of course. Canterlot had taken some one he cared about away from him for a time, and had then taken them away forever. Still one did not ignore a direct order from the Princess, or at least some one using her seal.
But upon arrival, it turned out it wasn't the Princess they were going to see.
The Guard led them to a rather unassuming door deep in the halls of the newly rebuilt Canterlot Castle. There were still things being worked on and they could hear the noise of construction echoing down the still mostly empty halls.
The armored Kirin knocked on the door his black ears perking at the faint response from beyond it. With a small flourish he pushed open the door, ushering the couple inside before closing it behind him and returning to what ever duty was interrupted by their arrival and escort.
The room it self was a rather subdued affair. On the far wall from the door they entered there were a number of book shelves between a pair of doors leading out some where. There were two windows to their left that looked out to the Royal Gardens and showed a number of what looked like Guards darting around tending statues for some reason. The windows let in the sunlight and were the rooms only source of light, though it was enough to see everything clearly.
The wall to their left held more filled book cases. The carpet on the floor was a blueish gray and was soft under hoof after the marble hall way they had trotted down. A small wooden desk sat near the middle of the room with a pair of high backed chairs in front of it facing the desk. A few other chairs like them were tucked in the rooms corners as if ready for more than just two visitors. Another chair was on the far side of the empty wooden desk , though this one was occupied.
Seated in the chair behind the desk was a platinum blue maned pegasus mare. Her fur was a blueish lavender gray in color and her eyes were bright aqua as she looked them over. The mare looked rather familiar, but neither of the earth ponies could place her.
“Mr. and Mrs. Shallot, welcome, please have a seat, I hope the trip was pleasant for you.” the mare commented with a soft smile.
The couple glance to each other and then back to her before moving to take their seats, the stallion stifling a small groan as he flexed his sore leg, old wound or not there was only so much walking he could take.
“ Can I get you anything? Tea? No? Alright I suppose I shouldn't delay and simply get down to why I had you summoned here.” The mare asked noting their head shakes.
“That would be nice. I really don't want to be back in this bucking city again.” Chives grumbled his wife shushing him before nodding to the pegasus who seemed unphased by the attitude or vulgarity.
“I understand your dislike of Canterlot, far too much has happened here and many lives were lost needlessly due to the greed and desire of others. We have much to do to ensure tragedies of that magnitude never happen again, but we cannot predict everything I am afraid. “The mare sighed leaning back in the chair, her wings folding tight against her back.“Now then I suppose I will start with the most basic, yet important question for you I have. What are your views on the currently freed Changeling race?”
The pair of older ponies blink at that, though Sweet frowned and looked away while Chives just seemed to get angrier.
“They should all be destroyed...” the stallion grunted.
The mare looked between the two frowning a little herself.
“Is that belief based on what they did to your family, or is it your own opinion? Please answer truthfully.”
Chives snorts though Sweet speaks up before he could answer.
“To be honest they weren't much of a concern to us, just some far off boogie mare, even after the wedding of Princess Cadence and that Shining Armor fellow it wasn't our concern. But after they attacked the last time.... well …. our daughter lived here in the city then and........... she was killed by them......”
The mare behind the desk nodded softly. “I am sorry to hear that. I understand her name was one of those put on the monument to the fallen.”
“Fat lot of good that does. Now is there a point to making my wife cry and if there is get to it so we can get on with our lives...” Chives snapped.
“There is Mr. Shallot and I am sorry for beating around the bush in this, but I needed that answer. The Changeling race as a whole is no longer what they were under the control of Queen Chrysalis. Most had no more control over their actions than a puppet on a string. The ones that did have been …... brought to justice to say the least. All that remains are a hoof full of natural born Changelings who barely know how to act with out their former Queen and larger number that were not born as they are now.”
“ If you're trying to play on our sympathy for them that's long gone.....”
“Dear shush...... Miss.... ummm”
“Luna. Just call me Luna.”
“Miss Luna, I don't know what you are hoping to accomplish by telling us this.....” Sweet begins.
“Sorry, I am getting to that Mrs. Shallot. Please bear with me. The ones not born as Changelings were turned into them by the hive itself in order to have more bodies for the war machine Chrysalis created. There are a number of races that have been changed and with Canterlot having been destroyed many records were lost and we are just now getting them back. We have been matching up who these Changelings say they are with the records to confirm them. Many of them are very old by pony standards, but a rather sizable number are much younger. Having only been Changelings for around thirteen years or so.”
“Alright so there's some young ones … so wha.....” Chives stops his rant suddenly, his eyes going wide as he nearly leaps out of the chair as he stared at the pegasus mare.” Wait... you.....you don't mean.”
Sweet blinks not quite having put two and two together yet. She glanced between the two ponies in a bit of shock and confusion.
“The great monument listing the names of those who died during the War of Gods is being taken down. Far too many names have been removed from it, the rest will go on what looks to be a much smaller monument. Spring Shallot is one such name that is being removed from the monument.” Luna stated feeling the swell of panic and hope from both of them.
“Where is she?!?! Where's my daughter?!?!? “ Chives demands rearing up and slamming his hooves down on the desk as Sweet also rose quickly to her hooves.
“Calm down Mr . Shallot. She is here. And I will bring her in to you, but you need to understand a few things first.” Luna placated. “First is that she is a Changeling now, and no longer a Earth Pony. In truth this changes nothing for her save the way she eats and some of the things she can do. It does unfortunately mean that there are a great many out there who do not trust her and might have issue with her very existence, hence my questions and a rather excessive background check that has been carried out on you two over the last few months. Two, she was considered a drone by the Swarm and thus she has little to no memory of the last thirteen years of her life. We have therapists who are working with her and others on coping with this loss of time, but neither of those are the biggest issue.”
Luna exhaled, her form shifting in a slow burn of green fire showing her body as the black carapased Changeling Queen she was. She looked over at the two of them after her change and smiled a little.
The pair of them both looked shocked, though the panicked hope was still there, even Chives anger was muted by the other emotions.
“The biggest issue is that she needs a family that loves her to help her get herself back on track with her life. I am not saying it will be easy for any of you, but I am suggesting that it will be much easier if she is around those who love her no matter what she looks like now. This is why I needed to gauge your reactions at first. It does no one any good to reunite families when all it will cause is strife simply due to something that was neithers fault.”
“My Daughter, Miss Luna....Please...” Chives demanded though gritted teeth.
Luna smiled softly again, looking to the door behind her on her left. The soft click from it announcing it's opening. The Shallots both tense looking at the door as a short and some what stocky Changeling with brown hair and gold eyes hesitantly steps though the door. Her gaze shifts between the two earth ponies there and then to Luna still seated behind her desk who nodded.
“Spring..... is that … is that you...? Sweet begs inching closer.
The changeling mare nods “ Yes... it's... it's me momma......”
Both the mare and the stallion rush forward nearly tackling the mare as all three of them burst into tears at the reunion while Luna looked on.
The Queen of the Changelings sighed softly to herself as she watched the reunion. If only all of the reunions were like this.... still more might be.... she only had.... seven hundred and twenty eight more to go.
====================================================
[ Current Day, 1100 hours, first day after the appearance of the island. Crystal Empire. ]
Talon sighed softly trying not to squirm in his seat. The chair was uncomfortable and clearly designed for some one smaller than he was. Of course it wasn't as if he couldn't change the size of the chair with his powers, but given his lack of control over his abilities trying to make the chair just a little bit bigger might result with it shrinking to nothing, or growing so big it broke the room. Glimmer wouldn't deal well with either of those outcomes and so he sat uncomfortably, with Mr. Tibberhouse the hedge hog to one side of him, and General Floof Bottom Gertrude the Third to the other. Honestly he was curious as to how Glimmer recalled the names of these creatures, Floof Bottom just looked like a pink pony with two too many legs.
Then there were the hats.... he didn't need to get started on the hats again. Everything had a hat, his was a corsairs hat that one of the sky sailors from his dad's ship had let him borrow, it was far better than anything Glimmer would give him. Glimmer herself had a ridiculously fancy crown that looked like some kind of green mushrooms for some reason.
He sighed taking a small bite out of a cookie chewing slowly wishing it was something a little more substantial but lunch was still and hour away. He turned his attention to the host of this little tea party, the Princess on the other side of the table. Every one called her a Princess though she wasn't a God, something he himself forgot more often than not with how she acted. Her magic was also quite strong even as young as she was , but like him she had limited control.
Right now Glimmer looked kinda bad. Normally he would clearly point out when some one looked like crap, his mother called it a 'lack of a filter', his father called it rude. Still when it came to speaking with Glimmer he listened more to his mother when dealing with her, girls knew like or something. His parents had dropped him off just after dawn and had left immediately after talking briefly with Emperor Shining Armor and Empress Cadence.
It was just another hint that something was going on, much like Glimmer's appearance. Granted that didn't explain why she had her brother Shin locked in a toy box on the other side of the play room with a number of things piled atop it to keep him from doing more than looking out a small hole in the side of the box that was used as a handle. Talon was too terrified to ask why at this point, or to interrupt the inevitable arguing between the siblings.
“Let me out!” Shin hollered his voice muffled from the things piled on top of the box.
“No, this is pay back for you coming into my room again last night....” Glimmer snapped.” Also so you stop hanging off us while we have a tea party.”
“But it's dark in here, I'm scared of the dark.....” Shin protested.
“No you're not, you don't even have a night light in your room.” Glimmer grumbled.
“I said sorry, let me out or .. I'll tell Momma!” Shin yelled.
“And you'll be stuck in there even longer next time.....” Glimmer turned to glare at the pair of cat like eyes staring at her from inside of the toy box.
“So that's how it is... now we see the violence inherent in the system … HALP HALP I'm being repressed!!” Shin shouted.
Glimmer slaps her forehead with a hoof dislodging her crown.
“Will you shush?”
“Nope.”
What do you want?” Glimmer sighed finally.
“Cookies!” Shin countered.
Glimmer grumbled softly righting the tiny crown on her head with a hoof, her magic gripping the plate of cookies from the table, floating it over to the side of the toy box before the hole only for what looked like a red octopus tentacle to squeeze out of the hole and grab a bunch of the cookies before pulling itself back into the gap.
“That better not have been your tongue!” Glimmer snapped yanking the plate away.
The long tendril like appendage sticks back out of the gap and wiggles along with the sound of a very loud and rude raspberry. Glimmer growled louder as Talon tried not to chuckle at the absurdity.
Any retort that Glimmer was planning to make was cut off as the large door to the play room burst open with a loud thud, swinging wide and smacking into the wall at the end of its swing with a crash.
Glimmer tensed up at the noise as Talon glanced back his wings ruffled a little from the double thuds.
Standing in the door way was a orange scaled and gray furred Kirin filly, one fore claw lifted up still, having kicked open the door. The platinum blue haired filly's mane and tail puff were a mess, though that was mostly because she had spent the last ten minutes of the chariot ride with her head out the window. Behind her on either side of the door were a fairly amused looking black scaled Kirin colt and an annoyed looking zebra filly with red stripes.
Behind those two was a tall smirking orange pegasus mare with a short purple mane and a much shorter white and brown spotted earth pony who had face hooved at his little sister's entrance.
“Dawn what did mom say about kicking in doors like that?” Pip asked with a small sigh as the trio wandered into the now open door way.
“Not to enter a room like Daddy does when he goes to see Auntie Celestia.” Dawn responded.
“And what did you just do?” Pip demanded.
“Entered the room like Pepaw Rose does when he goes to visit auntie Celestia.” Dawn answered flatly.
Pip was about to respond to that, despite Scootaloo's decent into full fledged laughter behind him, though he instead opted to shut his mouth for a moment and phrase himself carefully.
“Right, well, try not to do that either..... “The exasperated older brother of the Kirin finally stated. Pip looked over at the other two in the room scanning the place curiously. “Hey Glimmer, Talon. How are you two doing? So where's Shin hiding thi.......”
The short colt had made it as far as half way through the door when a loud crack against his rump made him flatten his ears and turn his head back to glare as his mare friend who had decided to slap his flank with a hoof.
Scootaloo had opted to try and appear innocent by studying a random spot on the ceiling.
“You know what, you all play nice I need to have a word with Scootaloo here.” Pip grumbled, glaring back at the giggling pegasus
“And by 'word' he means smooching...” Scootaloo added sticking her head through the doorway behind Pip getting a chorus of ewww's from the foals before Pip pushed the cackling mare out the door closing it behind him with a thud.
Rynthia shuddered at the thought of what her brother and Scootaloo were headed off to do, though she made her way further into the room, her eyes locked on the rustling toy box.
Glimmer was focused soly on Dawn as the Kirin filly took off her saddlebags setting them by the door. Clearly the pink pegicorn was waiting for Dawn's usual chaotic antics and was tensing up for her to make a dash for the tea party or something.
Dawn was not even paying the slightest bit of attention to Glimmer and seemed to deflate a little when Pip left. The Kirin filly trotted a good dozen more steps into the room and flopped down on the big carpet near the rooms small, cold, fired place. With out so much as a word to the others she gripped the rug rolling it over her self as she curled up in the middle hiding herself from view.
“Ummmm” Glimmer questioned glancing over to Rynthia as the Zebra filly peered into the small hole looking at the trapped Shin.
“So what did you do this time?” Rynthia asked the Changeling.
“Shin did nothing. Shin is innocent of this crime.” Shin protested.
Rynthia rolled her eyes pushing the piled toys off the box only for a large green tiger to bounce free of the box and pounce her to the ground.
“HI RYN!” Shin shouts huggling the prone Zebra filly his tail whipping wildly.
Elusive shook his head a bit offering a small nod to Talon who returned it. The Hippogryph fully expected the Kirin colt to bring up a new idea for something that they should build or create, though he seemed more subdued than usual.
Usually Elusive would have an idea or a plan to put something together when Talon was around, be it a couch fort, a model zeppelin, or a water balloon catapult. The little Kirin had better control on his magic than any of the rest of them and could easily put things together with it, but he needed Talon to add his input to make sure that the idea would actually work.
Granted after the water balloon Catapult, Mark six, saturated several blocks of down town with it's test firing he was a little leery of Elusive's plans. Sure it was fun and the design was reworked for Guard use, but the number of complaints and broken windows had both of them grounded for a month.
“Hey Glimmer. Shin keep you up all night or something?” Elusive asked taking a seat at the table after moving one of the stuffed toys away. The Kirin didn't even try to go for the cookies, something was wrong.” You look terrible.
“I look terrible?” Glimmer stuttered. “What the heck happened to you three? You all look awful too.... well in Dawn's case , more awful than normal.”
“Shush 3P, I dun wanna hear it.” Dawn growled rather aggressively from her little rug cocoon .
Glimmer's expression softened considerably as she glanced at the bundled Kirin then to the others, looking worried.
“So what happened?” Glimmer asked, a great deal calmer and with more concern in her voice. As mad as she could get at the others she still rather liked them all.
“Nightmares.” Rynthia stated pushing the Shin tiger up off of her as she stands only to have a smaller house cat version of the Changeling tiger land on her back and curl upon it batting at her fluffy hair.
“Cookie?” Shin offered the zebra with one of his paws though the filly shook her head.
“Nightmares...” Talon asked glancing over to Elusive who nodded in response laying his head on the table.
“It began about a week ago, though the effects of sleep loss are just now beginning to …... tell, appear...?”Rynthia ponders.
“Show.” Glimmer offered causing the Zebra filly to sigh.
Talon looked at Glimmer and her rather haggered appearance then to the tired looking Rynthia, the half asleep Elusive and then over to the Dawn burrito on the floor. The only one not showing signs of sleep deprivation was Shin..... granted Talon didn't know what that would look like on some one who could be anything they wanted.
“How bad.....?” Glimmer asked.
“Ponies died.......” Dawn growled from in the carpet.” Aunt Tia..... Mommy and daddy.......Pippy everyone....
“The results of my linage coming true....” Rynthia adds getting a few confused looks from every one but Talon and Shin. The Hippogryph knew about the lore behind Zebras and Gods. Shin just seemed to but upset over it and hugged the Zebra filly harder.
“Same..... I dun wanna be like my real mom was....” Shin muttered getting a bit of a look from the others again.
“I've been getting chased through my dreams every night by Kirin..... I know they're not bad , but it's just terrifying.....”
“I dunn wanna talk about it.....” Elusive grumbled. “ It embarrassing and horrific. Also Dawn if you say anything about it I'll tell mom who ate her red velvet cupcakes!”
Dawn had poked her nose out from under the rug though with a snort and a small splattering of sparks she pulled it back under.
“I regret my dreams are filled with an excessive amount of insects.” Talon comments. “ I am … not fond of bugs.”
“That would explain the anthill thing last summer.” Elusive commented.
“Not my finest moment.” Talon agreed.
“Wait Shin's practically a bug, if you're afraid of bugs how are you okay with him?” Glimmer asked glancing over at the pouting purple Persian cat perched on top of Rynthia's back.
“He's not buggy, he's my buddy.” Talon corrects suddenly getting jumped on by an over sized green hamster launched from Rynthia's back.
“So everybody's had bad dreams?” Dawn asked unrolling from the rug.
“Yeah, real bad ones. Since like last weekend.” Glimmer commented.
“Like wise” Elusive commented as Rynthia nods.”Which is very odd as mother is guardian of the dream realm and I never get nightmares when she's around.
“Mom used to be, but my dreams are normally nightmare,....... less,.... without..” Rynthia snorted.
“Free.” Talon adds as Rynthia rolled her eyes.
“I don't think it's just us.” Shin states suddenly though a mouth fully of cookies. “The other foals in school seem kinda out of it too.”
“Pip said that nightmares were going around.” Rynthia added. “ Like a sickness moving about a … village.... city?”
“Town.”Shin stated.
“Dreams don't work like that.” Talon pondered. “ This is something else. Think, was there anything in the dreams that stood out? All I had were bugs.”
Not that I recall. There was just a bunch of horrific, Kirin chasing after me.” Glimmer shudders. “ No offense Elusive.”
“Hey” Dawn snapped.
“Some offense Dawn.” Glimmer corrected.
“What?” Dawn blinked.
Shin shook his head as Rynthia thought about it.
“So no correlation..... Bugs, Kirin, monsters, and self doubt and fear.....” Talon grumbled.
“And a big scary monster guy!” Dawn added.
“A what?” Talon asked as Dawn darted over to the toy box digging around for some crayons and running back to the table pushing all the plates and saucer's aside much to Glimmer's annoyance as she tossed a sheet of paper on the table and started to draw.
“A big scary monster thing. Black scales burning hair.....”Dawn hastily drew as she spoke.” Dragon wings and a spiky horn like this.” Dawn continues to sketch the rough image. It was fairly easy to see the thing was supposed to be an alicorn of some kind, though Dawn's liberal use of black made the image seem even more warped and distorted than the thing probably was. Still the other foal's eyes grew wider with recognition.
“That..... that looks like the Kirin that were chasing me.......” Glimmer muttered.
“I think that might have been who opened the door that let in the bugs.....” Talon commented.
“He looks like I looked.” Shin whimpered.
“That was the chef who gave me that thing.” Elusive growled.
“That was one of the bodies still standing.....” Rynthia gasped.
“We all saw this?” Talon muttered.”This is no normal nightmare.”
“So we need a smart pony.” Glimmer commented.”
“Ummm.” Talon muttered.
“Oh you know what I mean with magic......” Glimmer placated.
“Sissy?”Dawn asked.
“Yup.” Rynthia commented.
“You mean Berry?” Shin asked as the other two nodded.
“Oh no....” Elusive rolled his eyes dropping his head back to the table.
===============================================
[ Manehatten, 2300 hours. Last night.]
“Tonight......... hurricane.........”
The lights flashed madly as the guitars and drums beat down on the last chorus of the song.
“I want you......... hurricane...........”
The crowd was screaming as the lights flickered and beams of multicolored light danced across the stage and the crowd.
“To tell you........ I love you.........”
“Love you.....”
The back up singers echoed the line, the group of five looking little more like normal unicorns and a pegasi mare with the instruments. The all wore faux leather jackets, chains and spiked or really bushy manes giving the group a some what punk appearance.
“Tonight........ hurricane.............”
Sweetiebelle stood at the front of the stage, belting out the remaining lyrics to her last song for the night. Like the others she was dressed in punk attire, though her mane was currently super fluffed and it felt like it weighed more than she did sitting on her head. She didn't even want to think about how much hairspray she had used.
“I want................. hurricane................”
This was only their second show as the main act in something beyond what was set up by the ESO. Playing for the charity organization was all well and good, but Discord had decided that they needed to show they could carry themselves without the support the ESO gave.
“To hold you once more................”
Sweetiebelle had agreed, which brought them to this point.......
“Touch......”
…..a whirl wind of a concert, with two local bands leading off before them. The other bands were alright, but they didn't have Button Mash in the control booth like she did.
“Burning touch........”
What started as a simple concert like their first one, had turned into a near impossible stage show with magic flares, strobe lights and smoke machines. The back drop changed every time the tone of their music shifted and the sound system seemed to become a living thing as the stallions hooves danced over the board.
“Give me touch.............”
The crowd had gone from mildly entertained with the first two bands, to completely losing their shit by the time the Rarities had gotten to their second song.
“Burning touch!”
Sweetiebelle and the Changelings shout out the last line as the song dies out suddenly, and the lights go dark.
The roar of the crowd was deafening, and as she made her way back stage she could see her band mates nearly vibrating with the flood of love energy they had absorbed from the crowd. Despite just coming from a nearly hour long performance the five of them looked ready to run a marathon with how they were bouncing around.
Sweetiebelle grabbed a bottle of water with her magic splashing it over her face and smearing the make up that had already started to run from her sweating under the lights. She glanced enviously at the other members of the band and how easily they changed outfits.
She had been right that the budget saved was sizable, of course what was saved from costumes and make up went into Button's props, not that she minded yet, two shows on their own and they had nearly doubled the crowds from when they toured with the ESO. She didn't regret the few years with the charity organization and she still had ties to both them and Coco Pommel's company, but she had agreed with her manager Discord, that they needed to break away to be able to grow.
Sweetiebelle smirked at the thought of the Draconequus. He wasn't here now, having going with Pinkie Pie to her folks place for a visit. She had never seen him so nervous as when Pinkie dragged him off to the rock farm.
Still the Hurricane tour would have it's manager back in about four more shows. He would meet back up with them before they crossed over the ocean to Japony.
Despite every ponies disbelief that Discord would do the job properly, he had more than proven himself capable and exstreamly shrewd in his dealings and plans. Oddly he never seemed to add to the usual chaos of the music scene and simply seemed content to enjoy the madness that was already present.
He did take a cut of the profit himself however, not much but it still seemed weird at first until one realized that he was saving it up for something, likely something for Pinkie Pie with how much he doted on her.
Pinkie Pie had slowed down a little in the last few months since Sweetiebelle had seen her last too. She had put on some weight as well, no surprise with how many sweets she ate, still that took forever to catch up with her she had to be in her thirties now. Sweetiebelle felt fat from just one doughnut, not that it stopped her from eating a whole box when she was hungry however. It just meant she had to work it off.
Button Mash was kinda the other way around. While sweetie had slimmed down a bit more as she finished growing, Button had bulked up. Not with fat as many expected, the brown colt was built like a boulder now and would probably give Applebloom's brother a run for his money in the muscles department.
None of their equipment was light and Button carried and set up nearly all of it himself for every show they had with the ESO and now completely by himself with the tour. That constant exercise clearly showed and Sweetiebelle couldn't help but giggle at every pony who had taunted him for being out of shape when he was younger. He had mares drooling over him now. But he was of course oblivious and Sweetiebelle wasted no time in showing whose colt friend he was.
“Belle.” A voice crackled though her head set.
Speak of the pony....
“Yeah Button, what's up?” Sweetie asked.
“I've got the Storm Cloud idling outside for you, though the crowd is still screaming for more.” Button comments. “None of them have left... in fact I think a few more have shown up from some where. What do you want to do?”
Sweetiebelle blinked looking back at the Changelings behind her. The five of them had some how been convinced to join her band at the start and now she couldn't imagine doing this with out them.
“They want more?” the blue maned Carol asked
“They want more.” The pink maned Melody agrees.
“I'm game.” Shanty the green maned Hippogryph Changeling grinned
“So what do we do?” The green bodied and maned Aria asked."This is our second show today. That thing at the new Platinum school this morning then this. We've been working all day..."
The only male in the group, despite his currently looking and sounding like a female grinned, pushing his orange mane behind his ears. “What do you think we are gonna do?”
“ Encore?” Aria shrugged.
“Encore.” Sweetiebelle agreed. “Button line me up another set. B-2 spread this time.”
“On it.” Button stated.
Sweetiebelle slicked her sodden hair back with a sigh tying it into a long pony tail as the others turn back towards the darkened stage and screaming fans.
She was tired, sore, hot , and looked like she fell asleep with her makeup on. Two concerts in one day and then the flight across the sea was murder. But the stage called her and the fatigue was pushed aside for later.
Sweetiebelle wouldn't have this any other way.
============================================================
[Current Day, ? ]
It was gone.
The presence was gone.
That stifling insufferably repressive presence was gone.
Dead or sealed away, it really didn't matter much at this point which had happened, though if it was the latter action needed to be swiftly taken before it returned. She needed to act now and if this worked she would be able to claim an even more power than she had thought she could attain Something long kept from her.
She had spent a number of years trapped here unable to do anything after that ungrateful child trapped her here. But after even this short of time she found she could feel the lines of power crossing this place, faintly at first, though with years of practice she had a better command of what she could do.
She couldn't do much as she could feel the presence of one of the Goddesses brushing over her prison every night as if checking up on her lingering about as if waiting for her to move. But now that that presence was gone she could act.
The Book of Orbsah that had never been named would have grinned had she the features left for it. Her prison of glass trapped her on the lunar surface. Her warden was gone and she could freely tap into the power of the silvery celestial orb without fear of discovery or repercussion. She could possess the moon itself and use it to dominate the lands below.
The Goddess Avianna would rise again.