Lingering Lunacy

by Jadu

IV: Reconaissance & Fine Acting Never Hurt Nopony

Luna awoke in the solace of the statue garden shortly before dawn, gazing sleepily at the peculiar shadows the shrubbery threw in the fading moonlight. In a panic she jumped to her hooves and shook her head violently. The moon! If she didn’t lower it before Celestia woke up, there would most certainly be questions asked, not to mention a possible panic roused in the citizens of Equestria who thought Nightmare Moon had returned and was prolonging the nighttime hours.

Well technically, the cause of Nightmare Moon had returned, but nopony else knew that.

As Luna stretched out her inky blue wings and took off toward the castle, the gravity of Chrysalis’ secret presence pressed into every fiber of her being. The wedding was quickly approaching, and the Queen of Changelings was now impersonating Princess Cadence and keeping the real one sealed in the Caves. The only saving grace she had, Luna thought as she alit on her balcony and spun around to face the western skies, was Shining Armor’s shield. For the time being, Chrysalis had evidently abandoned her plan of bringing her entire army of drones in for feeding and was going to hog all the love Shining had for Cadence all for herself.

“Noctem aurora iam cedere. Sol et luna attollat requiescet.” The moon settled slowly below the expansive horizon as Luna lowered her head and murmured in the long-forgotten tongue, its pale light fading from the dewy grasses of Canterlot. She hovered a few feet off of her balcony just to be sure the moon had gone to its proper position when Celestia stepped silently outside.

“Good morning, sister. I was wondering when you’d come home.”

“You noticed I was gone?” Luna remarked, still hovering in midair.

“I always do. I always have,” replied Celestia, now standing alongside her sister. An uncomfortable and piercing silence passed between the two for what seemed like the longest of times, and Luna felt as though an icicle punctured her chest. She still had yet to fully realize just how much Celestia had done for Equestria alone for a thousand years, but what little she did know made her heart sink. She would never be able to measure up to the white alicorn beside her; even getting rid of Chrysalis by herself wouldn’t stack up to all of Celestia’s deeds.

“We…we still will be able to have the wedding, won’t we, dear sister?” Luna ventured, feeling much like a quaking little foal as she so often did these days.

“Of course we will. Cadence asked the very same question yesterday, do you not remember?”

“I do. I guess my mind was just in a different place.”

Celestia looked up at her little sister and leaned her head against Luna’s side. “I know this whole situation is troubling to you, but I assure you that Shining Armor’s shield is virtually impenetrable. There is no way any threat could make it into Canterlot unless they were already inside.” Luna felt the piercing icicle sensation again.

“Is there something I can do today? I don’t feel much like sleeping just now,” Luna asked.

“I can’t think of anything at the moment. We have no court audiences until after the wedding, and Twilight and her friends are taking care of the rest of Cadence’s plans. I’d like you to be as well-rested as possible before the big day.”

Luna took this as her cue to leave, grumbling as she padded softly back to her bedchamber. Her first order of business was to take a shower; one might think sleeping in dew-streamed grass through the whole night would get one clean, but it didn’t. The next thing to do, she thought, was to find out just how well Chrysalis was doing in her role of Cadence.

And that meant paying visits to the girls.

~~~

Her first stop was to Rarity’s room. As she flapped up the spiral staircase to the guest lodgings, Luna was turning a certain thought over and over in her mind. When Chrysalis first possessed her mind over a millennium ago, the changeling queen hadn’t been subtle. In the depths of her tortured memory, Luna could remember her anger exacerbated, lashing out fervently at Celestia and her subjects. Somehow the Night Princess found it very hard to believe Chrysalis had managed to refine her acting skills such that she could pantomime as a princess in the short year since her exorcism.

Luna came to a halt in front of a pair of oak doors on the top landing, raised a blue-shoed hoof, and solidly knocked three times.

“Come in!” a voice from within shrilled. The princess obliged, and when she nudged open one door with her foreleg, the sight within made her eyes grow as wide as saucers.

The mess was a disaster zone that Discord himself would have been immensely proud of. Cloth of every color and texture burst forth from a multitude of open trunks; others bulged ominously with what Luna figured had to be even more material. Spools of thread and ribbon lay helter-skelter on the tiled floor, some unraveled for several feet, and some impossibly knotted together. Half-dressed mannequins in all sorts of poses were placed in the remnants of a semi-circle, a couple tipped over on their sides with garments askew. And in the middle of it all stood a very bewildered and sleep-deprived Rarity, hovering over her sewing machine and working it feverishly with her magic.

“Pinkie Pie, if it’s you again, I swear I’ll—oh!” Rarity exclaimed once she glanced up from her work. “Princess Luna! I’m so sorry, I had no idea you’d be visiting! Here, let me open some curtains for you.”

“I had no idea I’d be visiting, either,” Luna mumbled as the white unicorn threw open the heavy purple panels and allowed the midmorning sun to stream into the cluttered room.

“Coffee! Can I offer you some coffee, Princess? Absolutely marvelous beverage, really, has kept me going some nights on big projects.” Before Luna could respond, Rarity had thrust a mug full of the piping hot drink toward her, and the princess could do nothing but smile and politely take a sip. What felt like pure caffeine buzzed right through to the tip of Luna’s tail, causing her to cough and her eyes to fly wide open.

“Rarity, are you sure this is just regular coffee?”

“Oh of course it is! Well I mean, it’s espresso, but really, what’s the difference?” the white unicorn shrugged, reaffixing her orange glasses on the bridge of her muzzle.

“What’s the diff--?!” Luna was about to shout, but she suppressed her indignant outburst. Now was not the time to impress upon anypony the fine knowledge she possessed as a coffee connoisseur, and particularly not in the Royal Canterlot Voice, with which she offered delivered lectures in anger. She continued to sip on the large mug of espresso, with each one sending a jolt through her entire body as soon as it hit her tongue.

At any rate, she was able to watch as Rarity returned to her sewing machine and cranked it up as high as possible. Her normally lusciously coiffed mane was kinked tightly like a beauty school perm gone horribly wrong. Luna could see that behind the neat little glasses, there were unbecoming dark shadows under the unicorn’s eyes that couldn’t possibly be mistaken for runny mascara. And her hooves weren’t quite as deft at pushing the white satin through at a steady pace past the needle as they ought to be. The princess was perfectly aware of what sleep deprivation could do to a pony—she’d walked in enough dreams of those on the verge of hallucinating—and she could see Rarity was succumbing.

“Rarity?”

“Yes?”

“Don’t you think you should maybe stop and rest for a while?”

“Stop and rest for a while!” Rarity shrieked incredulously, looking up at Luna as though she’d suggested to lop her own horn off with sharpened pinking shears. “Forgive my rudeness, Princess Luna, but you have absolutely NO idea what it’s like to make a bridal gown, and the amount of work it takes! Not to mention that I’m making the dresses for the bridesmaids as well as the dresses for myself and my friends. And they have to all be done in two days!”

“Rarity, I—”

“Do you have any idea how hard satin with an overlay of tulle is to work with? Do you?!”

“Rar—”

“DO YOU?!”

“RARITY!” Luna roared, her indigo wings flying out to the sides in agitation. “BE SILENT AND LET ME SPEAK!”
Once Rarity had snapped her mouth shut, the Night Princess trotted over to a particular mannequin that had caught her eye. Its featureless face was inclined slightly to the floor in a demure pose, and a crown of blue and pink flowers circled its head. The dress itself had a frilly light blue neckline and gathered in the center of the chest with a large oval brooch, from which two slender straps on each side ran back over the front legs. After gathering again at a waist ornamented with light curlicues, the skirt flounced over the flanks in three dramatic pearly layers fringed in gold.

“Isn’t this Cadence’s wedding dress? You’ve done a lovely job,” Luna remarked, circling the mannequin for the third time to examine it closer.

Rarity pinked slightly. “Yes, yes, it is. I’m so glad you like it, but she…requested something different.”

Luna raised her head as well as an eyebrow. “She didn’t like it?”

“She didn’t say exactly that, but she just…wanted to go in a different direction, that’s all!” the white unicorn relayed with more than a hint of false satisfaction. “And who am I to refrain from granting her every wish? This is the wedding dress for a princess, after all.”

“What did she say she wanted done differently?”

“Let’s see,” Rarity murmured, summoning a steno notebook from beside her sewing machine. “Cadence wanted more beading and a longer train on her dress, and she wanted the bridesmaids’ dresses to be a different color.” She flicked a hoof to a trio of mannequins, one of which was partially buried under a tipped-over heap of material Luna couldn’t quite identify. “She didn’t specify what color she wanted them changed to, but I’ll try my best to satisfy her.”

“And you’re all right with all of this work?”

“Oh, absolutely! Think of how much publicity this could bring me. I, Rarity of The Carousel Boutique in Ponyville, designer and tailor of the wedding gown for Princess Mi Amore Cadenza!” A heavy sigh exuded from deep within Rarity’s chest. “That is, if I can even get everything done in time. I suppose I could just doctor up my friend’s Gala dresses from last year in a pinch…”

“You’ll do no such thing.”

“Excuse me, Princess?”

“All of these things will get accomplished, but you are very much sleep-deprived, Miss Rarity. You can’t possibly expect to do your best work in such a state,” Luna said firmly.

“But I must work.”

“You must rest,” the princess implored. She brought her magic up to her horn, focused it on the massive pile of fabric and notions cluttering Rarity’s bed, tossed it off to the side, and turned down the covers. “Take it from the Night Princess, who knows a thing or two about sleep.” Luna threw in a wink for effect.

“Oh, I suppose you’re right, Princess,” Rarity yawned, slowly meandering to bed and crawling in. “B-but only a f-f-few hours’ nap, then I’ll be back to work double.”

“Of course,” Luna nodded, pacing backwards toward the door. “Nighty-night, my little pony.”

“Nighty-ni—ahhhh,” the white unicorn sighed as she nuzzled the feather-filled pillows and drifted into much-needed slumber.

~~~

The situation for the other four ponies wasn’t nearly as dire as Rarity’s, yet they all seemed to carry the same theme. Each had worked especially hard on a product to initially present to Princess Cadence. Although she hadn’t outright rejected anything, she’d behaved rather snippy and gave condescending and undercutting remarks to what the young mares had presented.

“Twi did say Princess Mi Amore Cadenza threw my hors d’oeuvres in the trash after she said she ‘love-love-loved’ them,” a flour-dusted Applejack said thoughtfully when Luna went to visit the newly-built outdoor kitchens. “Then again, they weren’t th’ best apple pastries Ah’ve ever made. If Granny Smith was here, she’d make the absolute best!”

“I see,” Luna nodded absentmindedly, observing the rest of the newly hired kitchen staff buzz about, chopping fruits and vegetables, arranging plates, mixing batter and whipping frosting.

“She was just tryin’ to spare mah feelings, Ah reckon.”

“They weren’t really that terrible, were they?”

“Well, why don’t ya try one yourself, Your Majesty?” And for the second time that day, Luna had a food product thrust at her with vigor, this time in the form of a freshly baked lattice pastry with a green apple slice perched on top. “That’s from a batch fresh outta the oven, no change to mah recipe.”

Luna brought the pastry delicately up to her mouth and took a politely small bite like her sister Celestia would have done. Her blue-green eyes flew wide open as a sumptuous blend of cinnamon, apple and vanilla danced across her tongue, and it was all she could do to not devour the rest in a hasty gulp.

“Why, these are the best I’ve ever had, even counting ones from the royal chef!”

“Aw shucks, now you’re just saying that.”

“No, I mean it,” Luna replied, her tone serious as she turned to walk out of the kitchen doors. “Continue doing what you have been, Miss Applejack. I’ll see to it that Princess,” here she had to refrain from rolling her eyes “Mi Amore Cadenza finds these suitable for her reception. And if not, then she can simply refrain from eating them.”

“Thank ya, Princess Luna!” Applejack cried, waving her toque as the indigo alicorn trotted away toward the castle.

Fluttershy had encountered Cadence’s meanness more directly. “She yelled at one of my songbirds during rehearsal yesterday,” the yellow pegasus told Luna after dismissing the majority from their wooden choir perches. “He was singing a little off-key, but she berated the poor bird for ten whole minutes.”

“No!” Luna exclaimed.

“Yes, I’m afraid so,” Fluttershy nodded. “I brought him to dinner last night to show my friends, but now he’s so humiliated he doesn’t know if he wants to sing in the ceremony at all.” She gestured furtively to a tall, dull-red bird sitting alone on a perch and turned away toward the corner. “Come on. Come meet Princess Luna!”

The bird chirped dully, staying turned away.

“Oh, don’t you see, Princess? He’s sulking!”

“That I do see,” said Luna, looking troubled and approaching the perch. “Come now, it’s all right. I won’t make you sing.” She gingerly offered a hoof up to him, and the bird eyed her suspiciously before waddling onto her hoof. “He could have a sore throat, Fluttershy.”

“Maybe…” the pegasus mused. “I have some very sweet nectar packed away that he can drink.”

“Feed him a small, warmed spoonful every two hours,” Luna stated as she smiled up at the songbird, who sat up a little taller at the prospect of nectar. “And he may be well enough to sing in the wedding.”

After leaving Fluttershy to feed her songbird, Luna visited Pinkie Pie in the large western hall where the reception would be located.

“Aren’t you so excited for the wedding Princess Luna I mean I’ve been excited before but I’ve never been to a royal wedding and that’s just super-duper-alley-ooper exciting! And Cadence came by yesterday and I showed her all the games and music and dancing and she said it would be great if we were celebrating a six-year-old colt’s birthday which is such an absolutely terrifically awesome compliment I’ve never received such a nice one all my life!”

Pinkie took a deep breath, and Luna was finally sure she was going to get a word in edgewise. Not being overly familiar with how the pink party pony spoke, however, meant Luna was completely incorrect in her assumption.

“Twilight said last night that Cadence was being a meanie-pants but I don’t think she was being a meanie-pants I mean how can you be one without wearing any pants? Anyway she said that the princess really wasn’t complimenting me and that comparing my plans for the reception to a colt’s birthday party was really an insult but I don’t think Twilight is right I mean why compare a party to another type of party if you didn’t think it was fun right? Besides if things get boring I can always bring out the party cannon ooh I know do you wanna see it?”

“Um…what?” Luna asked, shocked that Pinkie had finally seemed to bluster out of breath.

“Do you wanna see my extra-big super spectacular splenda-riffic party cannon?” Pinkie gushed.

“Um—“

"See, look!” Pinkie cried, evidently making the choice for Luna by wheeling the large blue canister out of seemingly nowhere. “If I want things to get exciting I just light the fuse back here and BOOM!” The party animal’s pink mane and tail puffed out suddenly and curled up in an ever bouncier fashion than before as she jumped into the air to illustrate the explosion. “PARTY FOR EVERYONE!”

At that point, Luna quietly excused herself and left, Pinkie’s boisterousness causing a minor headache to blossom in the princess’ temple.

Rainbow Dash was the only one who hadn’t seemed overly concerned about Cadence and what she thought. Luna found the colorful pegasus lounging around on the clouds above the Royal Guard Academy fields, and she sat on a cloud next to her.

“I haven’t really been paying a lot of attention to the princess lately,” Rainbow Dash shrugged. “I’m too busy working on getting ready to do my Sonic Rainboom.”

“Doesn’t that usually involve flying?” Luna innocently asked.

“Yeah! But today is my day off to rest my muscles. Can’t be too worn out or else I’ll just be weak. And who wants a weak Sonic Rainboom at their wedding? Oh, that’s right. Nopony!”

“So you haven’t spoken to Cadence at all?”

“Nah, she came over yesterday while I was doing wing push-ups. I showed her a few moves, some loop-de-loops, cloud-kicking, all that. Didn’t seem to care one way or the other, she just said it had better be good. And I’m going to be better than good! I’m going to be…”

Rainbow Dash leapt up and proceeded to spell out the word “AWESOME” in big puffy letters with clouds she shaped on the spur of the moment with her wings. Luna was quite impressed; the cyan pegasus really was as fast and talented as the rumors said.

“Well, I’ll leave you to your preparations,” Luna said, jumping off her cloud and spiraling down to the grassy fields below.

~~~

All of her investigating so far had told Luna not much that she hadn’t already suspected. The princess sat alone for lunch just off the castle kitchens, stirring her coffee, munching on mini daisy sandwiches and mulling over what she’d learned. The only pony she hadn’t spoken to yet was Twilight Sparkle, and Luna found it odd that she hadn’t found her wandering about the castle with a checklist and quill in hoof. After all, Celestia had told the unicorn she was in charge of making sure everything went as planned. Intrigued, Luna left the remnants of her lunch behind—swallowing the last bit of coffee, of course—and went to find Twilight. She was almost certain her sister’s charge would be nestled among the annals of the vast castle library, no doubt rereading one of the thick-bound spell-books for the umpteenth time.

“Twilight Sparkle!” the indigo alicorn called out as she soared up and down aisles and aisles of shelves in the library. “Princess Twi—oh!” She quickly clapped a hoof over her mouth and reprimanded herself. “Foolish Luna, she’s not supposed to know about that until after the wedding and Cadence is established on the throne! I’d best be more mindful…TWILIGHT SPARKLE!”

Another five minutes’ worth of sweeping high over the bookcases confirmed that indeed Twilight was not there. Luna frowned and paced out of the library, puzzling over where she could be, when she bumped head-on right into somepony.

“Oh, I’m so sorry, Auntie, I didn’t mean—” Cadence gushed, then choked upon her words as she realized whom she bumped into. It only took a moment for Luna to gather her wits again before she lunged at her false niece, crossing their horns like dueling rapiers.

“YOU,” Luna hissed venomously.

“What about me?” Cadence smirked, the slightest edge of Chrysalis’ true voice slithering into her words.

“What do you plan to do? Why are you here?!”

“I would’ve thought that somepony as intelligent as you would have figured out—” Cadence cut off and jumped as a Day Guard walked past in clanking golden armor. She shot a flirtatious smile in his direction, to which he returned a confused expression to Luna, who could only shrug. Once he rounded the corner, she was back to her normal self.

“You’ve just placed yourself as the front contender for the Pony Awards’ Best Lead Mare in a Stage Production,” Luna deadpanned.

“I’d like to see you do any better.”

“I wouldn’t employ my acting skills to usurp a wedding.”

“You did it to usurp a country.”

Luna narrowed her eyes, cut by the insult but mostly annoyed.

“Well, I must be on my way. I’m going to get hitched tomorrow, and I simply must take the opportunity to have under-indulged guards ogle my engaged flank for one more day.” Cadence flipped her tail dismissively, and the low chuckle of Chrysalis rumbled through her pink throat as she sashayed after the guard. Seething with anger, Luna bit her hoof at the false princess before stalking off in the opposite direction.

Eventually she did happen upon Twilight Sparkle, who was in the last room of the suite she and her five friends had been given. When Luna pushed the oaken door open with a conspicuous squeak, the unicorn didn’t even look up from the book she was reading, her front hooves folded tightly under her chest. The way her violet eyes skimmed rapidly over the pages told Luna that Twilight really wasn’t reading to absorb, but to occupy only part of herself while the main cogs and wheels of her mind whirred in the background.

“Miss Twilight Sparkle?”

The sound of a different princess’ voice along with the unusually formal address than expected made Twilight snap her head up to attention. “Princess Luna?” She slipped a bookmark in between the pages of her tome and snapped it shut with a lavender aura of magic. “Aren’t you usually asleep right now?”

“I am, but I came to find you.” Luna edged closer to the bed. “From what I hear, you’re usually in the center of activity, organizing what everypony is doing. You organized Ponyville’s entire Winter Wrap-Up for the last two years according to my sister.”

“Yeah, well, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza seems to be managing the ENTIRE thing pretty well all by herself, if you ask me,” Twilight intoned mockingly, snorting with derision.

Now, Chrysalis, this is how you act. “Whatever do you mean?” Luna tilted her head, politely puzzled.

“She’s been a total monster! Everything my friends have done for her, she turns up her pretty little pink snout and says ‘Oh, that’s so good!’ and you know she’s being completely dishonest. ‘Oh Applejack, I just love-love-love your apple pastries!’ What does she do? Throws them right in the trash when Applejack isn’t looking!”

“No!” blurted Luna in extremely convincing shock.

“And Rarity? Cadence takes one look at the bridal gown she made and immediately starts criticizing! Rarity works hard on everything she makes, and I know for a fact that she wouldn’t let any princess walk down the aisle in a less than fantastic dress, which there already was!” Twilight was now up on all four hooves, breathing hard through her nose. “But no! None of my friends see it that way! They all think that poor Cadence is just nervous about the wedding, but they don’t even know her!”

Exhaling deeply, Twilight resumed her previous position on the bed, levitating her book to the other side of the room. Luna took that to be her cue and blinked onto the bed to kneel next to the lavender unicorn.

“It’s almost like she’s not herself,” Twilight continued. “Like she’s somepony else entirely.”

Luna turned away for a moment and swallowed hard. Oh, Twilight, if only you knew how right you really are.

“I know Cadence like the bottom of my own hoof. She was my foal-sitter, and I spent years with her while my parents were working at the castle and Shining Armor was in Princess Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. She’s caring and kind, and she certainly accepts the gifts and favors other ponies do for her.” Twilight heaved a huge sigh. “She would have loved Rarity’s dress; it’s just her style. Pinkie’s reception plans would be absolutely fun and memorable, and she really would ‘love-love-love’ Applejack’s pastry. Fluttershy’s birds would sing beautifully, and Rainbow Dash…well, it’s a Sonic Rainboom. Who wouldn’t love that?”

“One would certainly be the best way to end a royal wedding,” Luna nodded.

“I haven’t talked to her that much since I became Princess Celestia’s personal student, but I don’t know. A pony can’t change that much in a few years, can they?” Twilight looked up, and the profound sadness that dwelled in those violet eyes hit Luna with full force. The unicorn really did love Princess Cadence, and the dramatic changes in her personality were evidently very hurtful. A few long moments passed before the dark blue alicorn knew what to say, but when she did, she spoke confidently and with purpose.

“I believe that, first and foremost, you should talk to Cadence about how you feel. But if you find you cannot bring yourself to speak to her, then go to your brother, Shining Armor. Tell him that you believe his bride is acting unlike herself, and that you don’t want him to marry somepony who you once thought you knew but didn’t. We can’t delay this wedding any longer,” Luna held up a hoof when Twilight was about to interject, “but it does help to go into the ceremony with a fresh understanding of where everypony stands. Does that make sense?”

Twilight sighed, her ears pointed backwards. “Yes, Princess Luna.”

“Don’t allow the anger and confusion to build inside you, Twilight. Take it from somepony who knows the cost of unspoken anguish, and the consequences that follow if not done so properly.” Luna jumped lightly off the bed and headed for the door, her blue starry tail flowing behind her.

“Princess Luna?”

“Yes?”

Twilight bit the inside of her cheek. “I was going to say…never mind.”

Luna nodded and closed the door behind her, letting out the breath she’d been holding for what felt like an eternity. Oh, Twilight, I hope you follow my advice.

Author's Note:

I found this chapter the most difficult to write so far, mainly because A Canterlot Wedding doesn't have a very clear timeline. Everything happens so quickly that the timing isn't well-established; thus, a lot of the days and nights run together. So in case you as the reader need a verification on when this story's events are taking place in terms of the show, we're close to the end of Part 1; specifically, this is the day after Twilight lashes out at her friends during dinner.

I think I've noticed some time discrepancies back in Chapter 2, which I'll fix so it makes more sense.

Other quick comments, since this chapter was the longest so far and I shan't plague you with a long A/N:

*Sleep-deprived/stressed Rarity was fun to write, maybe more fun than it should have been.
*Pinkie Pie...just WRITING her dialogue tires me out, she has so much energy!
*Luna/false Cadence faceoff=intense
*Poor Twilight...

As for what Twilight was going to tell Luna but refrained? You'll find out in the next chapter, but I'll leave you to make your own guesses for now.