Chapter 14
Twilight had been alive for just under two and a half centuries. Forever in the eyes of some, a passing dalliance in the eyes of others. In the grand scheme of things, it mattered little how old she was in this moment, save for the fact that the quarter-of-a-millennia old co-figurehead of Equestria had never seen a party as grand as the one she now found herself in. The Grand Galloping Galas of yesteryears past? Funeral wakes in comparison. The closest competitors in her mind were Rainbow Dash’s birth-a-versary super combo, and Pinkie Pie’s bachelorette party. She chuckled to herself, unconsciously rubbing a forehoof along her rump. At least at this party I probably won’t need a tetanus shot, she mused.
No, it wasn’t likely that she’d need a tetanus shot here in the Crystal Empire. At least if the military intelligence that Equestria had gathered was worth its salt, there wasn’t enough spare metal available to civilians in this whole land to put together a wok, let alone a party cannon’s worth of dirty silverware. Of course, what the Crystal Empire does with all their metal is a troubling question of its own.
Something whirled past her carriage window as it stood idle on the promenade just before the stately crystal palisades that lined the party hall’s main entrance, followed by a gaggle of laughing foals. Whatever it was, it laughed too, streaming balloons and confetti in its wake as it whirled on past the coach house at the head of the line of carriages.
“You alright, Twi?”
Twilight turned with a jerk, seeing Spike looking up at her. She smiled, putting down her water glass on the tray beside the mostly empty pitcher.
“You’re all… quiet and contemplative,” Spike said matter-of-factly as he fussed with his cuff links. “And it’s freaking me out a little.”
Twilight sat back in her seat and sighed. “Sorry Spike. I just want tonight to go right, you know? Anyway, how are you holding up? Did you finish the poem you were writing for Rarity?”
Spike kicked his scaly heels against the bench seat across from Twilight and sagged with a frown. “No. Dragons are good at a lot of things, you know?”
Twilight nodded sympathetically.
He reached up and started counting on his stubby claws. “Eating stuff. Sleeping on stuff. Sleeping on stuff in the middle of eating the same stuff. Pretty much all the good things in life.”
“Pretty much,” she said with a soft smirk.
“But poetry? Words in context? That rhyme?! Like… What even rhymes with Empress?”
Twilight felt the carriage begin to move forward, pulling her back in her seat for a moment. Staring at the gilded roof, she rattled on. “There’s a few. Excess. Duress.... Oh, temptress!”
Spike stared at her with a raised eyebrow. “Uh… are there any good words that rhyme with Empress?”
Twilight smiled sheepishly. “I was never any—”
A loud whistle stole the words from her mouth and the two turned to watch a blue trail of fiery light stream up above the tallest tower of the Crystal Palace. For a split second, the bright blue light winked out of existence, only to explode into a thunderously booming bloom of countless blue sparkles that dazzled the eyes and reverberated in Twilight’s chest.
“Oh wow!” cheered Spike, now standing on his seat and hopping up and down as he gripped the window frame on his side of the carriage. “Fireworks!” He turned, still hopping up and down, and looked at Twilight with desperate eyes. “I know we gotta wait to be introduced, but… do you think that… I mean… Maybe we—”
Twilight shook her head and smiled, wrapping the small dragon in her magical aura. “Go on ahead. Maybe they need a hand lighting them?”
Spike nodded emphatically as Twilight’s aura gently rolled him out the door she held open for him. “Yeah! I bet they don’t have any hands over there yet!” He hit the ground running and waved back to her, ducking and swerving around slow moving nobles like a sparrow among airships.
Twilight waved back, then sat back in her seat. The carriage came to an abrupt halt. Time passed. And then it started again. And then stopped again. All the while, nobles, guests, and a variety of entertainment acts hoofed it past her carriage. More fireworks. More waiting.
A handsome crystal stallion opened the carriage door for her, and offered a white silk gloved hoof. Honestly, he could have looked like the backside of a hydra, but to Twilight, who’d rather burn down her mobile prison rather than spend another moment within its gilded walls, he had a face like the sun.
She took his hoof, a deep calming breath, and the first step down from her carriage. This was it. She had finally arrived at Rarity’s party. And she was going to fix everything. If she could.
If there was anything still there to fix.
The stallion on her hoof, Jeans, talked small pleasantries as the Head Valets of the Crystal Palace’s chariot house were wont to do. She smiled, as appropriate. Tittered, once. Nodded and moved with as much grace as she could muster up, and otherwise behaved every part the epitome of royalty, as was custom in such a gathering.
Her small march along the crushed red velvet carpet to the party hall’s buttressed entry way was met with ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ from the ponies around her, who rushed to the stanchioned carpet to catch a glimpse as she strode under the arch and beyond the guards, well-wishers, and photogs.
If the crowd outside was large, the one within was huge. Everypony who was anypony from all the known corners of the world and beyond was gathered in this room. Heck, she wasn’t even the only deity in the room right now.
Not that she knew that, of course.
No expense had been spared for the evening’s celebration. Indeed, Rarity had a birthday party every year, whether she wanted it or not. Time was cruel that way. But this party was measurably more extravagant than years prior. Where the Crystal Empire had the budget for all this, Twilight wasn’t sure, but it didn’t seem to matter to the happy faces all around her.
Every inch of the party hall sang of happiness and joy, and it was hard not to get swept up in it all. But Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Equestria and Goddess of Magic, fought against its influence. Not to be a stick in the mud, but to avoid the social and political pitfalls that letting her guard down might bring about. She knew that it was a game, of sorts, the way the Crystal nobles and Equestrian senators played it. And she was pretty okay at chess, but she knew this wasn’t chess.
This was snakes and ladders.
It didn’t take more than a second glance around the cavernous party hall to see that she was standing knee deep in a viper pit. She knew she shouldn’t have been thinking like this, to go into any sort of political gathering with a bad attitude was a great way to make things go from bad to worse, but Twilight couldn’t help but think that hers was a losing proposition.
The unseasonably cold air that hung around her ankles wasn’t helping either. Twilight could feel Rarity the moment she stepped down from the carriage. The mixed magics of the Crystal Heart along with Rarity’s curiously strengthened magical signature called out to her like alarm bells. Something big had happened today. Maybe it was good. But maybe it wasn’t.
And that mixed signature was everywhere in here, and it caused her to shiver. It was a feeling of masked warmth and implicit comfort, but it was not a suggestion. It was a command. Whether the spell was intentional on Rarity’s part, or an after effect of… whatever happened today, those who didn’t keep a clear head risked being shepherded into compliance with the force of the Empress’ magical presence.
Twilight craned her head up and looked at the Imperial Palace through the party hall’s clear crystal ceiling, half expecting to see Rarity frowning at her from a balcony, lit by fireworks.
A trio of fireworks went off as the grand clock on the wall struck the top of the seven o’clock hour, and the lights all died in an instant. Her escort stopped. There was no scream in the sudden darkness as Twilight’s racing heart anticipated there would be. Such was the power of Rarity’s calming presence among ponykind.
Just as the Goddess of Magic prepared to light the world around her with her horn, a new sound, a thrum of arcane power, filled the hall, and her vision was filled with light. Words failed her as the space around her and her temporary escort filled with a sea of refracted, rainbow-colored light. Prismatic reflections from a singular crystal chandelier, easily as large as a small house, swam and spun all around and bathed the massive hall in waves of light that mimicked the northern lights in the same way the sun might mimic a large bonfire.
Where the chandelier came from, or how such a large, complex crystal structure was moved into place and powered in an instant was beyond her understanding. And that was terrifying.
“That’s new,” she said, mostly to herself. Jeans agreed with her assessment as they continued on their way off a bit to the left. They trotted past the coat check and the first of several tables laden with gifts, approaching a small podium. Three steps up, and Jeans gave her a small, encouraging squeeze of the hoof before releasing his hold and bowing deeply.
And that was when the old Herald standing with her on the podium cleared his voice, softly, before announcing her arrival to the hall at large.
“Madames et messieurs!” he called out in a crisp, broad tenor. “Please welcome our esteemed guest, Princess Twilight Sparkle, of Equestria!”
A polite stomping of hooves went up among the assembled members of the party. A smile here. A raised glass there. The only bows came from the Equestrian nobles and delegates who took the train with her. A small percentage of the hall’s occupants, truth be told.
She turned to thank the Herald, but he had, curiously, turned away, and appeared to be very interested in meeting the next noble in line behind her. To her right, Jeans was also gone, hurrying back to his post at the carriage house, his duty now done.
A bit shocked by the cold reception, she absentmindedly made her way down the podium and headed for the table where her delegation waved to her encouragingly, when a scratchy voice spoke from just over her shoulder.
“Sure is some party, huh Princess?”
Twilight looked up and over and saw an armored silver pegasus with a cock-sure smile on her face. Time was funny. Ponies are funny. Sometimes, they get criss-crossed, and Twilight meets an old friend for the first time all over again. Like Silver Dash here, with her violet eyes and scratchy throat. If there was any loyalty in this room that she could speak of, without any doubt in her mind, it was in Silver Dash’s heart. Twilight was sure of it.
“I can honestly say that I’ve never seen anything like it,” replied Twilight. “How are you doing, Silver Dash? We missed your report this afternoon.”
“Oh, uh, yeah, that. Sorry, I was held up with some guard stuff… You know how it is,” said Silver Dash with a pained grin.
“Air units always were a problem,” commented Shining Star as she met the pair halfway from the Equestrian delegate's table. “Always in a rush to nap in somepony’s tree.”
“Oh yeah,” she said with smirk and a playful shove at Shining Star. “Nothing a pegasus likes more than goofing off. That’s why I volunteered to pull double duty tonight instead of hobnobbing with the Princess.”
Shining Star nodded, playfully. “Sounds to me like an excuse to catch a nap in the Truespring Grove.”
“Hey, even a unicorn can’t deny the innate tactical advantages of perching at the top of a tree,” replied Silver Dash as a look of mock indignation splashed across her face.
“Ah yes, the...” said Shining Star as Silver Dash landed in front of her with a drop. “Sap. And the leaves. Very important.”
“Don’t forget the branches,” said Silver Dash, scuffing the other in the shoulder with a playful punch. “We need them for beating off all you ground-pounders.”
Shining Star giggled, raising an eyebrow at her old friend’s comment. “Do you now?”
Twilight choked back a laugh of her own as she watched Silver Dash’s smile falter at her verbal misstep. “You know what? Forget I said that.”
“Fair enough,” conceded the Captain. “How’re things in the Empire?”
“Pretty good, Captain,” said Silver Dash, a flash of recollection on her face. “Oh, speaking of which. Commander Onyx requested your presence. Something about a ‘joint guard service initiative.’”
“Now?” asked Shining Star with a quick glance at Twilight. “I’m sort of on duty at the moment.”
“That didn’t seem to stop you from ditching me for the fairgrounds with Spike this afternoon,” the purple pony said slyly.
Shining Star rolled her eyes, and turned with a quick salute to Princess Twilight. “Well, in that case, I better see what Commander Worrywart needs.”
Silver Dash and Princess Twilight watched Shining Star wade off into the jubilant crowd, as a brilliant streak of orange zipped in from across the hall. “There she is,” came the voice of Sky Marshal Firefly as the now recognized orange streak landed next to Silver Dash, draping a wing over her, and putting a smile on Twilight’s face.
“How you hanging in there, kiddo?”
“Jeez, I’m fine, mom,” said Silver Dash with an eye roll.
“Mom?!” balked Firefly, with a stutter in her step. “I’m not your mom, I’m your boss. Is it okay if I care about how you’re holding up so far from home?”
Silver Dash nodded, pushing herself out of the one-winged embrace. “Sure, sure it’s fine. I’m just razzin’ you is all.”
“Kids. Got no respect these days,” replied the Sky Marshal with a wink at Princess Twilight. The three ponies began walking again, and Firefly continued her questioning. “Speaking of the old gal, how’s your mom doing?”
“Better, ma’am,” said Silver Dash, stiffening up a bit. “The treatments are rough on her, but she’s holding strong.”
“Of course she is,” said Marshal Firefly with a nudge. “She’s a Dash, and if there is one thing I know about your family, it’s that you just don’t know when to give up.”
“Y-yes, ma’am.”
Twilight smiled at the exchange as the group continued towards the Equestrian delegates table at the far end of the party hall, occasionally flicking an ear back to listen, but otherwise, she was left to her thoughts as they approached their table, such as why it was located against a wall, between the bathrooms of all places.
The table itself could, technically, seat four if you tried really hard and everypony was very friendly with each other. That didn’t do much to address the fact the tiny table had seven chairs and place settings. Not to mention that it actually needed twelve chairs and place settings..
“An insult, is what this is!” groused the irritated voice of General Shears, waving his bubble pipe around like a bludgeon.
The waiter, wearing a visibly strained smile, pleaded with the old veteran. “I assure you, sir,” he said with all the civility of a pony late for his lunch break, “no offense was meant. The table assignments clearly say this is the right table size for your party of two, an—”
“Twelve, party of twelve you rock-headed fool, learn to read!” cursed Senator Underhill as he ripped the seating chart out of the waiter’s hooves. “And why in Equestria are we located between the bathrooms, so far from the Empress’ table?”
“Probably so your racism doesn’t fall on the ears of anypony important, south-flyer!” spat the waiter accusingly as he turned in place, threw his bow-tie to the ground, and stomped off through the crowd to the kitchen.
The good senator made to follow, snarling as he stomped, with flapping wings. “Don’t you walk away from me while I’m still talking, bo—”
An imposing purple figure landed like an avalanche in front of the Senator before he could make any more of an ass of himself. With piercing gaze and wings spread wide, Twilight stared down into the now cowering visage of a pony she’d known for years. A pony who had been one of her most trusted advisors.
Had.
“Enough,” she said with her displeasure on full display. No half measures, no niceties. Her word was law, and he acquiesced.
* * *
Tonight was the night.
Commander Onyx held his breath for a moment, letting it out slowly as he tapped his hoof against the glass surface of the hallway table. He was stressed, far more stressed than he should have been for a birthday party. But it was Empress Rarity’s birthday party, which is why the palace grounds were jam packed with guests of all shapes and sizes from every corner of the map. It was hard enough being responsible for the safety and security of one country's leader. But tonight, he was the unspoken steward of at least a dozen! Who knows what dark plots or dastardly schemes could—
"Commander Onyx," came the voice of one of his officers. Onyx looked up and nodded at the mare to continue. "Equestrian Captain Shining Star, of the Arcane Guard is requesting permission to see you."
"Granted. Please show her in, Looking Glass."
Onyx pressed a hoof to his jacket pocket, the comforting weight of the little box putting a smile to his face. One that didn’t last long as he caught the sounds of Captain Shining Star trotting towards him.
Onyx stood up from his chair, meeting the mare half way, and offered her his hoof. “Captain Shining Star. Thank you for meeting with me at such a short notice.”
“A pleasure, Commander,” she said, shaking his offered hoof without hesitation, and with a practiced smile. “However, I am on duty right now, so let’s skip the pleasantries and make this quick, if you’d be so kind.”
"Understood, let me grab my notes, and we'll head into the Command Center." Moving quickly, he shuffled his collections of notes, memos, maps, and dossiers into a folder, before rushing over to get the door on the other side of the room for the Captain.
“Excellent,” said Captain Shining Star. “What exactly is it you wanted to talk about?”
“I thought that since we are both here to serve and protect, it would be best if both of us were on the same page for security tonight,” replied Onyx. “I have the details mapped out, and it could help decrease tensions between our Guard units.”
He motioned towards the end of the hall. At the end was a small foyer, leading up to a dark crystal door flanked by a row of windows. The seal of the Imperial Guard, the Crystal Heart on a shield, marked the front of the door.
“This is the Department of Security, basically the Imperial Guard’s Command Center,” explained Onyx as he held the door open for Shining Star. “This is where we coordinate the Palace and national defenses, escort the Empress, and handle other administrative duties for the Guard. Though… it’s a bit of a mess at the moment.”
“I see,” replied Shining Star. And indeed it was quite the sight. Stacks of cardboard boxes covered desks, chairs, and otherwise empty corners. A few fake plants continued their jobs at collecting dust, but nothing else really seemed to be working. Save for a couple of ponies sitting around a large table, drinking coffee, shuffling papers into folders, and talking amongst themselves. “You didn’t drag me up here to help sort through boxes, did you?”
“Sadly, no,” said Commander Onyx with a wry laugh. “On top of all the excitement of the day, we, that is to say, the Guard, are scheduled to move into our new headquarters.”
Shining Star cocked her head at that, her ears flicking forward in sparked interest. “Move to new headquarters? Outside of the palace?”
“The Empire is expanding, Shining Star. The Empress instructed the Crystal Council to see to building us a new guard complex by the palace. We’ll have better training grounds, His and Hers barracks, and… I’m getting ahead of myself. This way please.”
Onyx lead the Captain through the maze of boxes and unused desks, greeting each of the secretaries as they passed. He did take a certain delight as he noticed the carefully neutral expression of Shining Star began to falter; a slight dip of her lip into a frown, and a twitch in the eye. It was all there.
“When is this move? I didn’t notice any new construction.”
“Tomorrow afternoon.”
Shining Star balked. “T-tomorrow? But… I mean, where? Into what buildings?”
“Ahh, here we are,” said Onyx, ignoring her question, and pointing beyond the pair of armed guardsmares standing before a set of stairs leading up to a set of double doors labeled ‘Operations Center’.
“We’re not meeting in your office?” asked Shining Star.
“We are not,” he replied, pushing the door open and the two walked in.
The Operations Center was more of a cavern than a room. A wrap-around balcony lined the entirety of the main floor, and iron spiral staircases offered access between the two at regular intervals. Massive windows sat on the southern side of the room, giving a perfect view of the courtyard and the main entrance into the Palace.
Tables and chairs, chalk boards, and everything else needed for planning and coordination once filled this room, but no more as the boxes indicated. Still, the room wasn’t totally empty as a single large crystal table sat in the middle of it all. On it was a crystal model of the Palace. A few crystal ponies and a unicorn stood around another table made of Zebrawood. Each of them in guard officer uniforms and looking between maps and other papers. A window near them was open, and a pegasus was just letting himself out, leaving after giving a report.
Onyx and Shining Star walked up to the crystal table, Onyx brushed his hoof over the table, causing it to glow slightly. “We’ve posted units at every entrance. Patrol teams consist of three ponies each, mind you, and the few unicorns we have are all on overwatch duty,” said Commander Onyx. “There are four pegasus flights on patrol, with two more held in reserve.”
The model shifted itself as Onyx spoke, causing Shining Star to take a step back in alarm. The crystal palace before her melted away like water, pouring back into the table as the model realigned itself into a scale replica of the party hall before she could say a word. Magical floating iconography of some kind, consisting of wings and horns, appeared over different locations in the hall, indicating the different unicorn and pegasi units he’d just spoken of.
No longer awed into silence, she moved forward and tapped a hoof against one of the small intricate tables in the party hall model. It was as hard as a rock. “What manner of magic is this?”
“It’s a crystalline reflection table, built by the Empress Rarity herself as part of her Crystal Projects,” replied Onyx. “The table can reflect the location of certain individuals, such as the guards I mentioned. Or, let’s say we wanted to know where Princess Twilight and the Empress are at.”
The model shifted again; this time, bits of crystal floated up from the table and merged into the model. Unlike the other crystals, these ones showed the cutie marks of the two immortals. The six pointed star had Twilight in the ballroom, while three blue diamonds had Rarity a few rooms away in the parlor.
“But the melting and reformation of crystal? How? Crystals are as durable as steel and resistant to magic,” said Shining Star as she looked at the model from a different angle, then under the table. “One moment these act like water, the next they are solid as a rock.”
“Come now, Captain, I can’t give away all of my secrets tonight,” replied Onyx with a smile. “Rest assured, Princess Twilight is perfectly safe. Even though this table is still a prototype with its maiden voyage being tonight. Which is why the Lieutenant over there has been coordinating information being gathered from outside and comparing it with what is on the map.”
“Incredible,” muttered Shining Star, as she prodded the table top with a hoof.
“When it works,” muttered the unicorn Lieutenant as he approached the two. “Sir, a few members of the plainclothes teams aren’t appearing correctly.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well... sometimes they just up and disappear completely from the reflection table. But we can see them below and coordinate accordingly.”
“Sounds like there may be a few bugs in the table,” said Onyx with a frown. “Make a note of that for the Empress.”
“How many plainclothes units do you have stationed?” asked Shining Star. A few new crystals rose into the model, giving off a gray glow.
“Three squads. Two in the ballroom, one in reception,” replied Onyx as he read the model.
“And I bought a pair from the Arcane Guard,” added Shining Star. Two violet colored crystals, in the shape of the Arcane Guard insignia rose up, positioning themselves next to Twilight. That didn’t stop the frown on her face as she looked at the guard positions. “Had I known, I could have brought more of my Arcane Guard.”
Onyx turned to her. “Known what?”
“That your guard forces were so shorthooved here in the Crystal Empire.”
Onyx bristled, and turned away once more. “The Empire is able to protect its own.”
Shining Star frowned at the realization of her slight against the Commander. “Er, tonight. I mean shorthooved tonight. Surely the majority of the guard is celebrating the evening’s festivities, Commander, I—”
“Don’t worry about it, Captain,” he said, gruffly. “It's been a long day and I’ll be the first to admit that I’m in a lousy mood, but it’ll take more than an off color comment for me to throw the first punch between the two of us.”
Shining Star chuckled dryly. “First one’s on the house, promise.”
“Captain, if I may, this whole... situation… between our two countries has me nervous,” said Onyx in a low whisper so the other guards didn’t hear. “Not tonight, but everything. These strained relations between Equestria and the Empire.”
Shining Star nodded in response. “It has many ponies on edge. More than I’d like. For months there’s been saber rattling in the Senate, calls for sanctions and border patrols come from the fringe element at least once a day in Canterlot.”
Onyx let out a sigh and sat back. “What can we do?”
“Do? We can never give up hope,” replied Shining Star, rising to her full height. “Hope is what gives us courage to do the impossible. It gives us the strength to go through the darkness into the light.”
"Wow. I... uh. Hope, huh? Hope. Yeah, I could use some of that," replied Onyx.
“Don’t we all?” agreed Shining Star.
“No war?” he asked, as he stood up and lead the Captain of Equestria’s Arcane Guard to the door.
“No war,” she said with a smile.
He turned with a short nod and a small smile. “Thanks.”
“My pleasure, Commander Onyx. Will that be all?” she asked as they once again passed through to the command center, down the set of stairs, and past the armed guardsmares.
“Mmh? Yes. Thank you again for your time and efforts tonight. I hope you have a quiet evening.” Turning to address the guards he’d just passed, he said, “Brick, Boomer, please escort the Captain here back to the party hall before returning to your posts?”
The two mares nodded gruffly before Shining Star interrupted, “Oh, don’t worry about me, Commander. I’ll just head out the way I came in.”
Onyx nodded. “Very well, then. Please escort the Captain to the exit of the Command Center.”
“Right this way, Captain,” said Boomer in a voice that would brook no argument.
Shining Star sighed, but nodded, following the two mares out the door through to the briefing room.
Commander Onyx let out a sigh of relief as the door closed behind him. He wasn't sure how much longer he could be in that mare’s presence. She was a good mare, and a good Captain from what Silver Dash said. But there was something about her that kept him on edge.
He frowned again, thinking about whatever it was that set him off, when it finally hit him as he walked down the stairs. It was her smile. It was the smile of a politician. Always ready to show up, but never revealing its owner’s true intentions. Onyx shook his head and pushed his feelings of discomfort to the back of his mind, finding relief in the comforting weight of the small box in his jacket pocket. He had a lot riding on that little box.
He paused at a mirror at the bottom of the staircase. Commander Onyx almost didn't recognize the tired-looking stallion who gazed back at him. He looked older than he remembered. Funny what a day could do to you.
Onyx sat down and set about fixing what he could. The collar of his white dress uniform needed an adjustment. His medals were straightened out in their row upon his chest, and the red sash of his office was slightly puffed, standing out but without covering up his rank pins or the Imperial Guard Crest. He ran a hoof through his short mane before heading towards the parlor.
His mind wandered as he walked down the hall, wondering mostly about the future and the path he was on. Today had been a lot busier than he wanted. Somewhere on his desk lay a bill of divorcement. Regret soon followed as Onyx thought of his two colts. Two colts he had failed. Ironic that in his effort to be in every way the opposite of his own father, he had succeeded in becoming him.
Onyx shook his head out of the funk and marched around the corner with purpose. Even if he himself felt lost wandering the halls from the Command Center to the parlor, the last thing he needed was any of his Guard seeing their Commander off balance. Reaching the parlor, the guards at the door snapped their Commander a salute.
“Commander Onyx, sir,” said one of the guards.
“At ease, Garnet Tower. Is Ra— the Empress inside?”
“Yes sir, sir. Everything seems to be fine.”
“Especially if you count Lady Sapphire,” muttered the other guard with a wink.
Onyx looked at him with a frown, but didn’t press the issue. It’d been an emotionally draining day for not just him, but all the ponies working in the palace. He needed to remember that. Such off color comments were usually left for sharing within the rank and file, and not expressed up the chain of command. But for now, for once, for goodness sake, he was going to let it slide. “Thank you gentlecolts. It’s almost time for the Empress to make her appearance at the party. Please go take your positions at the hall.”
Leaving him to his duty, the two guards marched back towards the hall. Onyx approached the door, hearing the muffled voices of the mares inside. He raised his hoof to kno—
WUB WUB
In that instant, the whole world seemed to shake mightily. Onyx, stopping dead in his tracks, looked up at the shaking chandelier and the dust settling around him.
"Good heavens, what was that?" asked a voice by the door.
"Oh no... I think that was the music? I'll uh... I'll be right back!"
The door slammed open, smacking Onyx upside the back of his head and sending him sprawling to the ground. Cursing to himself, he furiously blinked away the tears as the fuzzy outline of a dozen blue diamonds danced above his head.
“Commander?” The face of Merry Sapphire quickly filled his blurry vision. “What in the stars are you doing standing behind the parlor door?”
“Sapphire, did you hit somepony? These doors are solid mahogany, I... Oh my! Onyx, darling, are you okay?” Now the concerned face of the Empress filled his vision. Onyx nodded, waving the two mares away with a hoof while he kept pressure on his muzzle with the other. Somewhere down the hall, he could hear more thumping, not as world-shattering as the first mighty thump, but still, there were many more.
“Come on, darling, let’s get that looked at,” said Rarity. Onyx felt the tingling sensation as magic enveloped and lifted him into the air. “Sapphire, what happened?”
“My Lady, I am so sorry, I just kicked open the door, and—”
“It’s quite alright, dear. I get the picture. Go and see if you can do something about that dreadful racket before it brings down the whole palace, won’t you?”
Onyx felt something soft beneath him as the field disappeared. Opening his eyes, he could make out the parlor room; relatively simple with just a few couches, a table, a bookcase, and a few pictures along the wall. He was on one of the couches. Rarity’s voice came from somewhere behind him. “Onyx, move your hooves and let me see.”
Onyx shook his head. “I’ll be fine,” he managed to say. “Just… unexpected.” Truth was, he felt like a minotaur had punched him in the face. Onyx craned his head and looked around for his assailant. But Lady Sapphire was nowhere to be seen, having already run off down the hall.
“I had no idea the door could actually swing into the hall like that,” said Rarity. “We’ll need to do something about that.”
She then stepped into his view. She was wearing a black evening dress in the same way a rainbow might wear a cloud. The dress was a simple silk affair, save for the slit along her right back leg that started at the calf and rose along the Empress’ frosty white crystal coat until its apex, just high enough to tease her cutie mark.
Her hair was done up in the back in an elaborate bun, leaving her ample curls in the front to sway about as she moved, glistening in gorgeous geodesic glory. Not a strand out of place. And with a turn of her head, Onyx thought he noted the faint, yet pleasant fragrance of spiced chrysanthemum in the air.
She wore a slender silver crown, hammered and tapered in the shape of budding magnolia branches, though the little buds themselves were pink pearls of tremendous rarity. Nothing was out of place, and nothing was left to chance. The dress was splendid, the crown ornate, but both paled when matched with the unnatural beauty of the Crystal Empire’s living savior.
Onyx realized he was staring and, with a blush, forced himself to look somewhere else. Anywhere else.
“Darling, are you okay?” she asked. Onyx felt her frozen hoof touch his forehead. “Do you have a fever? You just turned a few shades of red there.”
“N-no, my Lady, I’m fine,” said Onyx as he pushed himself up and away from the Empress. He needed to think of other things. Early morning training, antique stores, bargain hunting, Grandma Crabapple in a corset… Rarity in a cor— Oh, ponyfeathers!
“Princess Corset is here!” he blurted out. “Twilight. I came to get you. For the party. Because you’re needed there. Now. At the party.”
“Oh, I see. Excellent, and you’re here to escort me?”
“Yes ma’am,” said Onyx as he kept his eyes anywhere but on Rarity.
“Then look at me.”
And he did. He met her gaze, but the power of her heart, and the intensity of her eyes robbed him of his ability to do so for long. In a heartbeat, his eyes fell to her lips. Her throat. The silky shimmer of the black dress that raced along her frame.
It didn’t take any particularly astounding powers of deduction to understand the commander’s frame of mind. Even the most unobservant of ponies would probably have picked up on it, what with his blushing and the way he was worrying his left hoof against the elbow of the right.
Too bad for Onyx that in the realm matters of the heart and emotion, the Crystal Empress read him like an open book, in an almost literal sense.
“Well, Commander,” she purred. “What do you think?”
“Y-you… Stunning, your Majesty.”
She smiled, and rose up to clap her forehooves together with a genuinely pleased laugh, and Onyx couldn’t help but laugh himself. There was something new about the Empress. Something wonderful. Her smile was back. A smile he’d missed for a long time. And there was life in those eyes. Life. It made his heart race.
“Thank you, Commander,” she said with a sigh of relief. “I feel… Good! Why, I feel better than I have in decades. All it took was a bit of reminiscing with a friend, and a good long cry. Oh, and I suppose banishing Sombra helped too.
Onyx balked. “Did… Did you tell her about—”
“Applejack?” asked Rarity as a bottle of brandy floated between them before pouring itself into a pair of small snifters.
“It is always difficult to talk about her death. But Sapphire… There’s something special about her. She treats me like a normal pony. It’s a novel thing, I suppose, not being worshiped constantly as some sort of immortal demi-goddess Empress. She listens. She advises. She tells awful jokes. And never once has she so much as cowered in my presence. It’s nice.”
Commander Onyx nodded, accepting the offered snifter. “I’m glad to hear that.” Raising his glass, he offered a toast of “To friendship?”
She smiled and lifted her own frosty beverage. “I’ll drink to that. To friendship.”
The pair of ponies tossed back their brandy, and shared a look of growing confusion, smacking their lips all the while. Rarity raised the bottle again, looking carefully at the label.
“Is this apple brandy?”
“No. Coltgnac I’m afraid.”
“But…”
“Why did it taste like apple juice?”
Onyx nodded.
“And why isn’t it even the slightest bit alcoholic?”
Again with the nod.
“I have no idea, but it’s been happening since this afternoon. To be perfectly frank, darling, I think it’s put me off the drink altogether. A pity, too. Taking the evening entirely sober is sure to put me rather out of my element.”
“Oh!” said Onyx with a start, pulling the jewelry box from his dress jacket. “I almost forgot. This is for you. Happy Birthday... Rarity.”
“Onyx,” she giggled, taking the box in her magical aura, and opening it slowly. “You sneaky boy, you di— Oh. Oh my.”
Onyx smiled at Rarity’s wide-eyed reaction. “It took a few months to get it right. I even had to… Well, I pulled some favors with the guard in Canterlot. Got an impression made from its branch in the tree in the Celestial Courtyard. I had to hunt through the library for weeks just to figure out what sort of stones and metals to use.”
Silence filled the space between them as Rarity gently lifted the necklace from the crushed velour lining inside of the box.
“Do you like it?” he asked, breathlessly.
“Do I like it? Onyx, I don’t know what to say.” In her shimmering blue magic was an exact reproduction of the lost Element of Generosity. “It’s practically perfect. You even got the clasp in the back right. Snowflake, if I didn’t know any better, I would swear that this was the real thing.”
“You know I, uh. I’ve had that for a long time too. A few years, actually. I’d just been waiting for the right time to give it to you. Well, right for me, at any rate. Does that sound selfish of me?”
She rolled her eyes and tsked. “Darling, if any pony in this whole wide world of ours was going to accuse you of being selfish, it certainly wouldn’t be me.” She finished with a dry chuckle as her magic unclasped the necklace and eased it into place on her neck, and she smiled at the familiar weight of it.
“How does it look?” she asked, puffing out her chest, proudly.
“Beautiful and ageless. A memento of simpler and happier times.”
She leaned in, surprising him for a moment, and kissed him on the cheek, her ice cold lips sending a thrill down his spine. “And better times to come,” she said with a wink. “Now come along, Commander. The party needs its guest of honor!”
* * *
Blueblood sighed as he looked into his drink with a complete lack of interest. This wasn't quite how he imagined his Friday night going, hiding up in his office and what not. But he supposed it could be worse… somehow. He couldn’t quite fathom how, though.
With another sigh, he turned his attention from the glass back to the squad of changelings working in his office. He used that term lightly; ‘panicking’ was more appropriate as his lesson in discipline was still fresh in all of their minds. Three undisguised drones were busy assisting a fourth get fitted into some sort of device made of a haphazard wooden frame, twine, and an old reel-to-reel projector.
Blueblood looked over at the only changeling in the room that was still in her disguise. Sandy Gale, as it, or rather, she had taken to calling herself. The tan pegasus was... his eyes narrowed for a moment as he realized she was back to being a pegasus. He made a mental note to punish her continued insubordination. But for now, he needed the flighty featherbrain.
Quietly, Blueblood slipped out of his chair and walked over to the other changelings to get a better look at the device. Upon noticing his approach, a few of them hissed at him, circling back and away. Two others continued working, not caring that he could easily do to them what he did to his former butler. The one in the contraption cowered as best it could.
Blueblood, like most ponies, did not have many kind things to say about changelings. They were smelly, brutish, and stupid to a fault. But, on the other hoof, they did have some redeeming characteristics. As a whole, they were vicious. And evil for the sake of being evil. Plus, when they were given proper instruction and motivation, changelings could be quite ingenuitive.
He watched as two changelings slapped the projector apparatus until it started spinning a reel of film that was fed rather humorously between the ears of the changeling in the apparatus. A band of magical runes lined the wooden frame of the device, mostly focusing around the eyes and the head of the drone.
“So explain this thing to me again, what is it called?” he said, turning abruptly to face the ‘pegasus’ in the room.
“I don’t think it’s got a name,” replied Sandy Gale, flinching a bit at his presence. “We’ve never actually made one of these before. But, it should allow you to see what other changelings see, as if you were a part of the hive.”
“Then shouldn’t I be hooked up to this?” he asked as he prodded the device with his hoof.
Sandy Gale stared at him, blankly. “No, it wouldn’t work. The film reel is fed in through one ear and out the other, recording the sights and sounds that another changeling nearby is experiencing.”
“Not the Hivemind’s thoughts?” he asked.
“No, that’d be too much information,” replied Sandy as she shook her head. "You wouldn’t understand it.”
He frowned at her.
“N-not because you’re a stupid pony foodbag, or anything!” She took a breath before continuing, calming her nerves. “That’s because even we wouldn’t understand it, as it appeared on the film. There’d be too much to see and hear all at once. We sort of tune out the unnecessary stuff. This thing doesn’t give you that ability.”
“Ah,” he replied, placated.
“Anyway, after that the film rolls through the projector, and you can watch it on the screen. Like a movie!”
“Which changelings can I watch?”
“Just the four in the party hall that this drone is focusing on. And again, only one at a time. But you can cycle between them.”
“How so?”
Sandy Gale stretched a hoof out and tapped the changeling on the nose.
“You… you’ve got to be kidding me,” said Blueblood. “You boop it on the nose?”
“It temporarily disrupts the feed,” she said with some defensiveness, “and tells the drone to cycle focus to another changeling, one of the other four in this case.”
“Only four?” Blueblood asked with a frown.
Sandy noded. “Inserting the changelings into the Empire has been a challenge. Each of the crystal ponies are hooked up to the Heart and agents can be too easily discovered since we can’t mimic or tap into that connection. So we had to target non-crystal ponies, and there were surprisingly few we could manage. Even fewer that are Imperial based and going to this party.”
“Where are they?”
“A couple in the plainclothes guard units, and a couple of the servers.”
Blueblood nodded. “Excellent.”
“My Grace, forgive my… ignorance, but is there a reason why you are here and not there?” asked Sandy.
“Because tonight is critical. It has to go just right. And, I don’t know if you haven’t noticed this yet, but I’m a very important pony. Leaders and well wishers from all around the world would want to chat and be seen with me.”
“I can only imagine.”
“It would be very difficult for me to control and respond to events without revealing my intentions if I were at the party, so it will be better served without my presence.”
“I… I don’t understand,” said Sandy Gale. “You hold onto the news of Celestia, the thing that could accelerate all of this.”
“Yes, and news of Celestia is a last resort option. There are others there to help keep things interesting, and agents on their own missions. Their work goes better when the boss isn’t standing over their shoulder,” continued Blueblood. “Besides, if I went and saw tonight’s events occur as I have planned, I don’t think I’d be able to keep myself from laughing maniacally.”
“Ah.”
“Exactly.”
Silence fell as they watched the changeling drones work. Soon enough, the light in the projector flickered to life, and images of the party at the Palace came on.
“Why is it so choppy?” asked Blueblood flatly.
“It takes a few seconds to warm up, just be pa— Oh, there we go,” said Sandy Gale.
Images came from the perspective of the changeling agent. This one was disguised as a unicorn waitress, walking around the party and stopping every now and then to offer a champagne flute from a floating tray to a happy party guest. Blueblood reached over and tapped the drone on the nose. Instantly, the feed changed to another changeling, though the image was choppy again at first. This drone was talking to a few ponies from Equestria that he recognized as Graham Belle and Wealthy Bits. He frowned.
“Graham is at the party?” he asked himself.
“Who?”
He dismissed her with a wave. “Somepony very important. You wouldn’t know him. How do I get sound out of this blasted thing?”
Sandy stepped up next to him and stepped on the drone’s hoof, causing its mouth to open. Sound began pouring through it, but not loud enough to make sense of anything. Blueblood watched as Sandy extended one of the drone’s wings and pulled it up a few times. The volume increased enough for him to be able to hear what was happening.
“—ope to speak with Auntie Rarity tonight. Seems odd that she just flat out refused,” said Graham Belle, the grey unicorn pushing his glasses up further on his face. “You know, my work’s had me so busy, the last time I saw her I was but a colt. Though, now that I’m older, I see the value in family. I really hope that she’ll see me. Perhaps she can tell me a bit abo—.”
“Damn,” cursed Blueblood, biting at a hoof. “Double damn. Why didn’t I know he was going to be here? He’s not on any of the guest lists. He wasn’t on the train… This could ruin everything!”
A new voice on the screen spoke, interrupting his train of thought. “You know, old boy, I’ve heard the Empire is in some financial difficulty,” replied Wealthy Bits. “A lot of discouraging nonsense and poppycock seems to be floating around the Senate. Goings on about the dangers in public investment in Imperial goods.”
“She could just open the telegraph operation to the private sector and let them deal with it.”
“No!” shouted Blueblood, before covering his mouth. Quickly, he turned to Sandy Gale in a panic “Can they hear us?”
Sandy shook her head. “No, it’s like a movie, remember?”
“Can they detect the signal?”
Sandy Gale rolled her eyes. “It’s not guerrilla radio. This is how the hivemind works. Minus…” she pointed at the rickety contraption behind them, “whatever it is we did there. Come to think of it, what did we do there? At any rate, no. If they could tap into the hivemind, you’d know, because this place would be swarming with guards, and we’d all be dead to rights.”
Blueblood frowned, as a quill and sheet of parchment appeared next to him with a pop of his magic. Frantically he scribbled down a missive, signing it with the mark of The Edict before it vanished out of existence with another pop.
He turned and stared angrily into the hivemaid’s fearful eyes. “If Graham Belle talks to Rarity, then you’ll all be the regular sort of dead.”
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Fix.
________________
Yay! Update.
Huzzah! This was a fun one to work on. Thanks for the opportunity!
Good job Sweetie Bell. Creating a lineage with the thorough bred ability of absolutely disrupting meticulous plans!
The whole thing with the changeling "projector" is strangely madcap and silly considering the rest of what's going on.
Go, Graham! Ruin Blueblood's evil plans!
The changeling projector is one of the funniest things I've seen in a while.
Well, it looks like things are starting to look up for Rarity at last. You're such a tease, postponing her meeting with Twilight over and over, though.
I want to know what's up with Graham now.
6117918 Of course he is postponing the meeting of Twilight and Rarity because the moment they sit down and talk for more than 1 second the entirety of the stories conflict will completely fall apart.
"Hi Twilight, why did you sign papers trying to destroy the economy of my nation and blackmail me?"
" I didn't, who told you that?"
"Blueblood"
"Ok, ill now arrest him for treason."
Story done.
I'm a bit surprised at how blatant the slight against the Equestrians is with that seating arrangement, unless Rarity had nothing to do with it... Even then, you'd think some protocol pony would be having a breakdown somewhere at having a dignitary seated so below her station. A diplomatic slap in the face is supposed to be subtle, and seating the Princess of Equestria at a tiny table by the restrooms is a pretty obvious, public F-U to Twilight.
Regardless, I'm really digging this chapter and the tensions underlying the party. It's going to be a lot of fun seeing this all come to fruition!
6117918
I know, and it's killing me too with Twilight and Rarity. Some of their meeting would have made it into the chapter, but it would have made it too long and was cut to be used in the next chapter. So double the Twilight and Rarity time for chapter 15. It'll be good, I promise. Mysteries will be solved only for new ones to pop up.
I like Graham. He needs a Hershey's wife so there can be the marshmallow (Rarity), Graham, and chocolate, and they can all meet up for some reason. It'll be called the S'more chapter
And the fact you think that way is no doubt why she was such a good target for subversion. Twilight needs to remember that just because she resembles Rainbow doesn't mean they're the same in all respects. That sentimental streak may be the death of her.
6120565
Needs a dragon. S'mores are best when they're engulfed in flame.
Is this Sandy not really knowing how titles work, or just a slip up? Cuz the title would strictly speaking be "Your Grace." Like Your Majesty, Your Highness, etc. The only one that breaks this is the generic "My Lord."
6131443
It's just her MO. She is a changeling, a special changeling, but still not a pony. She has certain habits, customs, and formalities that are ingrained in her from her culture that poke through so often. This is just a quirk that makes Sandy Gale who she is.
6120858
Who is to say that Rainbow Dash's loyalty was to Twilight anyway? Shouldn't the senator's visible self-importance concern Twilight a bit more. It's rather concerning when fear is what drives compliance.
Pinkie Pie’s bachelorette party required getting tetanus shots? Wow, must have been something else.
Probably not the best choice for Spike's poetry.
They just casually used some magic for the party that Twilight with 250 years of experience with the subject doesn't understand? Woah. Luna?
Err, we've got some bad news for you, Twilight.
Yeah, I can see where some of the other commenters are coming from regarding the seating arrangements snafu with Twilight's party. It really makes no sense for it to have happened intentionally without it getting escalated up to someone who would have stopped and rearranged things. Maybe if this is part of Blueblood's plot, but that just raises even more questions about how he would have accomplished it, or if it was intentionally set up by Sapphire or Rarity, and both of those options seem kind of unbelievable.
On the other hand, it nice that Senator Underhill just exposed his true nature in Twilight's line of sight. That ought to throw a wrench of some sort into Blueblood's plans.
Daaamn, Rarity. Apparently 250 years sometimes means you simply age really really well.
Hahaha. I suspect if Onyx started writing poetry right about now, Temptress might be exactly the right word.
Also, Rarity X Onyx, please. I so want to see it or even just the beginnings of it by the end of the evening.
That works for a start!
Changelings, how do they work?
So, Blueblood is stuck off watching where he cannot interfere? Here's hoping he and we get to see Graham Belle put his hoof right through the middle of the conspiracy's plans.
6289911
Well, I am working on the sequel. So somethings will happen, get better, get worse, be resolved, and left open.
6290313 This story is listed as incomplete...
6309536
Yup. Doesn't mean I'm not working on the sequel though.
Unless you mean it's been placed in a group somewhere saying it is complete.
6309547 Ah. I see. I have been waiting for the next chapter for a while now, though. I mean, I know authors have lives, but the chapters have HUGE gaps inbetween them. This is a great story so I'm sad.
So it's been a while, any chance of a update?
Pretty please?
orig05.deviantart.net/19bf/f/2011/290/e/6/e64620203f48645e6bf9b1223ab1bf1c-d4d6vrf.png
6425115
Gah, that image is so cute!
I mentioned this in a blog post, but what I'm hoping to do is have er250 completely done and through my editors so when I do update there won't be giant gaps like there are now. This is really important to avoid with the next two chapters because these are the ones everyone want to see and will make more sense.
Autumnschild has some work he has to get through, and that takes priority over this. It will be slow going in editing, we were about halfway through 16, but that's because it must be perfect.
So in short, I really apologize for the wait and appricate the comment and support. It'll be worth the wait, trust me.
“Sounds like there may be a few bugs in the table,”
I see what you did there.
This is how meltdowns occur in atomic reactors. The gauges give warning, but the operators ignore it.