When the Moon saved the stars

by kittypetro

Staliongrad

Chapter 10
Staliongrad

Spike was freaking out. He knew he had promised to tell Princess Luna anything that could help, but so far he hadn’t bothered because it was obvious what was going on.

The unicorn had taken over, asked a bunch of questions about the whereabouts of Princess Luna and threatened anypony who dared to question her authority. But this… Spike looked out of the window, seeing the different ponies walking by. Changelings… Ever since the wedding Spike had been careful around the changelings.

His nose had managed to recognize their smell, which was almost the same, but not quite the same as the one of a pony. If Starvoid was asking the changelings for help, it meant problems.

Spike took a deep breath. All right… time to send the princess a letter. Turning around Spike stopped up. Writing a letter without dictating from Twilight or one of the others… it felt weird somehow. But he trusted Princess Luna, and he trusted that she’d keep her word. Walking over to the desk he pulled out a quill.

“Dear Princess Luna…”

…

At the mountains Gilda landed near her friends.

“Nice helmet” Luna said approvingly, as Gilda landed and adjusted the thing out from her eyes.

“Yeah well it will probably take some time getting used to, but I’m not complaining.”

Gilda sat down next to Trixie and Vinyl. Trixie was polishing her medallion, Vinyl looking over the detail work of her flute.

“So how was your trial?” Vinyl asked.

“Had to fly through a volcano… it was a lot harder than it sounds like, the warm air currents kept trying to smash me up into the roof.”

“All right everypony, we are halfway there” Luna said smiling, turning to Zecora, Derpy and Big Mac. “You guys are up, you know what to do.”

The three nodded and closed their eyes. They had barely closed their eyes when Derpy opened them again, her eyes a complete white.

“Whoa” she muttered, falling backwards. She turned to the rest of the group. “Does anypony know of a place in Equestria that currently has snow? Because I saw ponies… and snow… and most of the ponies was wearing funny hats.”

“Oh I know that place” Vinyl said smiling. “Staliongrad, Octavia comes from there.”

“Yeah well staliongrad is a part of Equestria” Luna said nodding. “But it’s southeast from here, near the dragon kingdom border.”

“Well at least we will be able to get out of Griffin kingdom” Gilda said shrugging. “Ponies inside the borders are not that welcome here; I’ll look forward to not having to worry about being butchered in my sleep for associating with you guys.”

“Then let’s not dilly dally” Luna said, rising from her place in the group where she had been sitting. “However we should try to be quick about it… Zecora, Big Mac, can you handle another trip by air as long as it’s not an open carriage?”

Zecora looked towards the sky before taking a deep breath. “Although a trip I’m hesitant to take, if it can help you all, it’s a trip I’ll make.”

“Eeyup.”

“Very well, what we have left of our bits we can use to buy a trip by carriage to staliongrad for everypony” Luna said, taking out the bits from her saddlebag.

“However I am not sure what to do when we get to Staliongrad and needs to go further.”

“Let’s worry about that later” Trixie said rising up herself. “Let’s just get going, being out in the open like this makes me nervous.”

Gilda led the way, the group ending up in a small town with a few carriages. Luna walked up to a scruffy looking griffin, standing by a moderate size carriage with a roof handing over her bag of bits.

“We need a ride” she said with a smile.

The griffin scowled at her. “Tough luck pony, I don’t care.”

Luna opened her mouth, but was stopped by Gilda who walked up to the fellow griffin, staring him down. “Listen buster I’m going to ask you a few questions. Question one, do you know who won the griffin dive race a week ago?”

The griffin’s eyes went wide.

“Y-you’re Gilda?”

“Correct… next question, what do you think I’ll do to you if you don’t help my friends out?”

The griffin simply gulped, then made way to open the door.

“Come on in everypony, keep the money, the honor to fly the Griffin dive champion and her friends is all mine.”

Luna took back her bag of bits and entered, Gilda being the last one in. She turned to the griffin.

“We’re going to Staliongrad. Get us there the quickest way possible. Try anything stupid and I will know about it, understood?”

The griffin nodded and Gilda stepped in to sit down next to Zecora who tried to look everywhere except outside.

Luna looked at her. “So… the griffin dive… I didn’t think they still did that.”

“What’s the griffin dive?” Vinyl asked curiously.

“Think of it as a test of maturity” Gilda said. “We all jump off a particular cliff. The longer you wait to fold your wings the more cool and awesome you are. Once you have gotten your wings out you have to glide through the valley avoiding all the dangers that has been sat up. The winner each year is looked to as the fiercest Griffin for the rest of the year and can more or less go knocking out others one doesn’t like without getting any trouble for it.”

“Does it really work like that?” Derpy asked looking over at Luna.

“Well yes and no” Luna said. “The race is a tad more complicated than she lets on, but that’s mostly because the griffins think of the dive as a sacred spiritual thing and the ponies have no business knowing much about it… but the prize for winning is more than simply bragging rights. It is true that when one win, you get a title for a month before you have to defend your title, but as long as you have the title of bravest diver, nopony would want to challenge you. But you also get diplomacy rights and can’t be arrested for the whole of that year as long as you are inside griffin kingdom borders.”

Gilda grinned. “It comes in handy every now and again.”

“I don’t doubt it for a second” Spitfire said with a huff. Turning around she faced Derpy. “So where in Staliongrad are we going?”

“Well there was this basement in a house in some sort of alley. I think I’ll recognize it when I see it.”

“We’ll take your word for it” Soarin said, looking out at the sky. “Hey your majesty, shouldn’t you raise the moon soon?”

“As soon as we land… for now I think the pilot has enough to worry about… besides if he figures out who I am and call to collect the bounty, things could quickly turn ugly.”

“Eeyup.”

Luna was about to close her eyes and relax, when a familiar pop made her blink, as a piece of parchment appeared in front of her.

“What is that?” Gilda asked.

“I told Spike, Twilight’s assistant to send us information if he ever found out something he thought we should know.”

Luna opened the letter, scamming through it. “Oh dear.”

“What?”

“Starvoid has asked for help in finding me and taking me back… she went to the changelings.”

“WHAT?” Everypony turned around in shock.

“She made a deal with Crystalis that she could feast on her prisoners the moment I am captured… the loyalists are freaking out because they don’t know who is a friend and who is a changeling in disguise, everything is chaos… speaking of wich.”

“Don’t tell me she’s freed Discord” Soarin groaned.

“No, she would try that, she’s not stupid, she knows he’s not going to honor any bargain, he’d be trying to create chaos the minute he got free… however I am starting to wonder if maybe we could use a little chaos.”

“So… are we going to free Discord?” Luna turned to Spitfire who looked unsure at her, as if wondering about her sanity.

“By Faust no, he’d make trouble for us too, and be a complete nuisance to deal with once this is all over. No I am thinking something more in the light of dividing and concurring... Does anypony have some ink?”

Luna got a quill and a piece of parchment from her saddlebag and started to write.

“Dear Spike, thank you for the warning. We could use some help and I implore that you get so many ponies as you can trust with you on the mission. Start asking questions and spread rumors. Make sure that the changelings start to doubt trusting Starvoid. Make them take some changes and see what Starvoid does, maybe the two can argue with each other for a while and save us some time. I wish you luck Spike, Princess Luna.”

Sending the message out with magic Luna looked out. “We are slowing down to land… now please try to not do anything stupid, we don’t want to be suspicious.”

Soarin looked around. Luna herself was in her disguise, but they had a griffin, a zebra, a cross eyed mare, a huge country stallion, a show pony and a dj pony with them. Turning to Spitfire he raised an eyebrow. She nodded. They couldn’t look more suspicious if they tried.

…

Spike looked up as he received a note, opening it and reading Luna’s message. Understanding what Luna wanted he smiled and exited the library. Following his nose he ended up near Lyra and Bon Bon, who looked unsure around them.

“Hey guys” Spike said with a whisper. “I have a task for you, from somepony very important.”

Bon Bon and Lyra looked at each other. “We’re listening.”

“We need to make the changelings doubt that Starvoid will be on their side when she no longer needs them… see that couple over there?”

Lyra and Bon Bon looked over to see a dark red earth pony mare and a golden pegasus stallion.

“They are changelings” Spike said. “I want you to casually walk by them, talking about how trusting Starvoid is a bad idea, make sure they can hear you… when you have passed those two, continue to the unicorn pretending to sleep under the tree. I’ll spread the word.”

Lyra smiled. “I love your nose sometimes Spike, we’re on the job, no worries.”

As Spike rushed off Lyra and Bon Bon rose from where they had been resting on the bench.

“Can you believe that Starvoid got help from the changelings?”

Bon Bon asked as they walked up towards the couple. “Yeah, I wonder how she threatened them to make them take the job” Lyra said.

“Maybe they came on their own.”

“Yeah right” Lyra said, rolling her eyes as she walked past the red mare. “They must not know the story about her original banishment very well then. Who in their right minds would team up with a unicorn that killed a windigo just to get their powers…?” Lyra noted that the couple looked at each other worried, and continued on past the unicorn in the shade.

“I am telling you” Lyra said with certainty. “If this keeps up and the changelings don’t find anything, Starvoid will eat on their queen’s powers and show the changelings her dead body as an incentive to look harder.”

The unicorn’s eyes opened wide and she sat up, her head crashing with a low branch.

“OW.”

“You ok?” Bon Bon asked, in feigned concern.

“Yeah, just had a small nightmare… did you say something about Starvoid the cold eating a pony’s soul.”

“Well maybe not that drastic” Lyra said. “But we’ve heard that when she finds something or somepony with an amusing ability she traps them, drains their body of the power so that she instantly learns it, and then is she is happy with her new powers she’ll kill you. If one is unhappy she’ll keep you alive as a vegetable, kinda gross.”

Bon Bon nodded. “Yeah, two thousand years ago she apparently killed a windigo and stole it’s powers. Can you imagine having the ability to freeze one up like that?”

The unicorn shuddered. “Wow that’s horrible… oh look at the time, I have a friend I need to meet in a few minutes, sorry to disturb you.”

And with that the changeling in disguise turned and ran off, Lyra and Bon Bon smiling at each other.

“This is fun” Lyra whispered. “Let’s see if we can find Spike and ask him to tell us where to go next.”

…

Walking out of the carriage in Staliongrad, Luna’s group all said farewell to the griffin, Gilda giving him a long scowl as if to tell him to back off, before the group looked around.

Vinyl grinned. “I always heard a lot about this place from Octavia, apparently all the action happens at night.”

“Well” Luna said, looking around and making sure that nopony was around. “Then let’s get the night started.”

She let her disguise fall, and flapped her wings. “I’ll be right back” she promised flying up into the sky, landing on the rooftop of a church. Closing her eyes she grabbed the moon with her magic.

...

Starvoid looked up where she sat on the throne, as the doors opened up and Chrysalis came rushing inside. “Any news?”

“On the traitors, no… but I have learned a lot of things that makes me wary… Is it true that you killed a windigo?”

“Among other things, yes.”

Chrysalis sneered. “Among other things? And what else is on that list is I may ask?”

“What’s it to you?” Starvoid asked coldly, scowling at the changeling queen.

“I am just curious as to where my subjects lie in your plans… about what you will do the moment you no longer feel like you need us.”

Starvoid chuckled. “Afraid for your subjects… or afraid for yourself?”

Chrysalis didn’t answer, but simply scowled.

“You have no need to worry” Starvoid said. “My interests lie not in simple transformation spells.”

Chrysalis scowled but turned around and left, Starvoid taking a deep breath.

Close call… too close. She needed to look out for trouble, and make sure that everypony and every changeling didn’t dare question her or her authority. Looking out she noticed the time, getting up and branching out with her magic, putting on a small smile

“Evening my dear, how has your day been?”

Luna smiled. “You sound a little hurried Starvoid, anything the matter?”

“Just some diplomatic issues, nothing peasants like you should worry themselves about.”

Luna smiled. “The changelings aren’t that trustworthy then? I can’t begin to figure out why.”

“You had something to do with this? How the hay did you know about the changelings?”

“I have my ways Starvoid… but don’t you worry, we’ll see each other soon.”

Luna smiled as she let go of the moon, smiling in triumph, not realizing that in the back of her head, a magic that was not completely harmless had started to grow. Landing she smiled and donned her disguise.

“Spike works fast” she said to the others. “The changelings are already becoming suspicious. Now then, I say we go and get some food in our bellies, and then Derpy, you have a trial to find.”

Derpy nodded, and followed behind Luna who led the way to a small inn.

Author's Note:

While Spike isn't my favorite character in the show, by no means do I hate him. He kinda reminds me of my younger brother, back when he was cute, young and shorter than me... wow I feel old.

Anyho, I felt that I needed to give Spike at least one small scene. I mean let's be honest, his sister is trapped in the coldness of space, he has to do something to help out right?

Comments

[Frankie2]

It was nice to see Spike having some role in all this. I hope the dissension in the ranks grows. On to the artifact of Generosity.

[Dragon of Shadows]

don't you hate it when plans start blowing up in your face and when sh** starts to hit the fan lol