Kingdom of the Moon

by PheonixCircle

Departure

Luna arrived just on time in Canterlot. As soon as she had left the goblet's portal, somepony knocked at her doors. "Princess Luna, your sister asked for your presence. She said it isn't urgent, so you may exclude yourself from this meeting, but it would be better if you came. You are a ruler of our country and so you should also decide what happens here."

Luna answered him that she would come in a few minutes. The messenger, probably one of her sister's guards, left with a word of acknowledgement. Luna sat in the middle of the room and thought about the meeting. She had remembered just in time that she wanted to attend to this one and needed to rush at the meeting in Westbrucke. Something she could regret as far as she knew, but this meeting was also important. She wanted to be part of the kingdom once again and this was one step towards her goal.

She remembered the theme of this meeting just after she had left her room. As she was walking down the hallways, she was preparing her decisions and answers and thought of the different points that she had to mention and counter. The ponies of Equestria weren't scheming as much as the royalty was in the past, but they could still corner a princess if their needs were endangered. Something she had learned in the short amount of time she had returned while watching her sister handle the daily businesses of the realm.

But as the meeting began, her mind was beginning to focus on Winterwald and her own kingdom. The battle for Flankrium was drawing closer and she couldn't attend to it. Too long was the journey to the south and too dangerous for the goblet to be taken with the army. She could only hope that her people would be victorious. And that the priestess and the prince would find the other goblets so that Luna could visit the other villages and help them on their way to unity and prosperity.

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As Luna was attending the meeting back in Canterlot, priestess Moonprayer sat in the church and watched the flames dancing over the goblet. She had never noticed that this flames weren't simply blue. White dots appeared at the same spots and it was like watching the night sky just outside the town gates.

The priestess looked at the flames while thinking about the task she had to fulfil with the prince. What should she take with her? How much provisions would be needed? Would she need to carry a weapon?

She almost giggled at the last thought. She was a unicorn and her weapon was the magic she carried deep inside her. She had trained some offensive spells in the last few days. While she wanted to be prepared for the upcoming battles, she had hoped that she wouldn't really need them. But she wasn't so sure any more now that she had to go with only the prince as her companion. She wanted to be of more use than just the healing spells she had used in the past decade to heal minor wounds and sicknesses.

Her thoughts drifted into a possible future she imagined where she was saving the prince's live and healing his wounds from battling a shadowy creature, a massless form changing it's shape and size. She smiled when the prince entered the church. She hadn't noticed him and squeaked when he was talking to her, immediately blushing upon the sound she just made.

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The prince noticed that the priestess sat in front of the goblet and walked towards her. "How are you?" he asked almost whispering. She made a strange little sound when she realised that he stood there and he couldn't hold back a smile, thinking that even her squeaking sounds were as lovely as a birds tweet and her blushing face was worthy of being drawn and hanged in the halls of his ancestors.

"I am fine," the priestess answered "just nervous. I never went into the unguarded parts of our realm. Is it dangerous out there? I think it has to be extremely dangerous." She looked at him with eyes full of expectation as she thought he certainly had visited these parts.

"The unguarded regions are dangerous indeed. I don't know how dangerous the place we are going to visit is, though. I never ventured further south than a mile, mostly east and west. There are some lovely places in these regions. If we have finished our business with Flankrium and Osttor, would you like to accompany me to these places?"

"I'd love to." the priestess answered a bit too loud. Her cheeks got even redder than before and both smiled. They looked each other deeply into the eyes. He felt struck by a strange feeling he had in the past every time he saw his mother, but this time it was different. Stronger than his feelings for his mother, yet more dangerous and exciting. He had to focus on his knees to prevent them from shaking.

He noticed that the priestess's eyes were half closed and that she had approached his faces with hers. He began to approach her too and was ready to kiss her, when hooves knocked at the churches gates. They looked at each other, and he demanded to know who was knocking. He noticed how harshly he asked when the guard looked at him in a strange manner.

"The saddlebags for you and the priestess are ready, my prince. They are in your father's tent. Also, the army is ready to leave and your father wishes to see you before they go. You should hurry, he said, as he want's to arrive at an abandoned castle south from here before the moon rises."

"We are coming." the prince answered. In his voice was the sadness of losing this precious moment. He turned to the priestess and smiled. "I have ordered for your saddlebag to be prepared as well. I hope you do not mind."

The priestess looked into his eyes. She was thinking about something, he noticed, but he couldn't guess what it possibly could be. She shook her and left the church leaving the prince behind. He asked himself if he had made a mistake as he left and went to his father's tent, where the meeting was a few hours ago.

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King Conglatius IV stood in the entryway of his tent when the priestess arrived. She seemed to be in shock but the expression on her face was not frightened, but pleasant, as if something good just had happened.

Shortly after the prince arrived. He looked disappointed ad seeing the priestess made this expression worse. The king looked at both of them and wasn't sure what to think of this. He never had seen his soon looking like this at a mare.It was as if he had fallen in love.

Conglatius IV discarded this thought as he approached his son. "How are you? Are you feeling strange or anything? Are you still yourself?" he asked, worried about the rushed action princess Luna took at the meeting.

"I am fine, father. She just let me dream and I saw the map the day before it got destroyed." The princes words were carefully spoken, to prevent his father from going concluding things there is no need to worry about.

"I am just worried, my son. You are the only heir to our kingdom and I don't want to lose you. If she had explained what she was going to do I would have allowed her to make you dream about it. I just don't understand why she had to rush it like this. This is all."

"I don't understand it either, father. But she must have had her reasons and that I am fine is all that counts for now. You should worry more about the soldiers you might lose in the upcoming battle. The need you fully concentrating on this siege. You know exactly what happens if you aren't."

The king looked at his son and nodded. He was right. An army led by a confused leader was an army endangered to wrong decisions and unnecessary losses. And this would lead to a drop of morale. The king sat down on a cushion that had remained from the meeting. He took a deep breath and ordered one of the guards to ready the army for marching.

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Half an hour later, the army stood ready at the southern gate. The prince and the priestess were prepared to leave as well and they were talking to the mayor and the king.

"You two be cautious. We don't know what might guard these goblets but it is certain that they won't be sitting on a table for everypony to take." the mayor said. "And come back healthy. You are our future and we need you back in one piece."

The prince and the priestess nodded. The prince wanted to say something but the priestess was fell in his words. "You come back in one piece, too. We might be the future but you are the present. And the present is needed to form the future to be better than the past."

The mayor and the king smiled and agreed. These words were as true as the mayors and all promised to come back healthy. Then the king ordered his army to march. The prince and the priestess stood there for a few minutes to watch them go the route to the south. Then they turned around and walked northwards, towards their own adventure.

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Princess Luna was sitting on the throne. She was bored by the meeting. There was nothing particularly interesting that had happened and everything she and her sister decided was accepted without any words of disagreement.

She had planned to watch the army and the priestess and her companion leave, but she decided against it. She had the feeling that she was already too late. The meeting reached it's end and the attendees left through the entrance to the throne room.

She looked at Celestia. Her sister looked back and nodded and both began to charge their magic to change the day to night. It was another day that had past since she had returned and another night came that she had to watch over her subjects.

As she was watching over the dream realm she thought for the first tine that her sister could be capable of sensing other ponies as she was.Not through their dreams but maybe through other means. Or maybe princess Cadance which was in charge of love. If she could sense loving pairs, she had to sense the priestess and the prince. Luna decided to ask her if she could and take counter measures as soon as she could.

She grew even more uncomfortable when she noticed the the priestess and the prince were missing. They had to be still awake. Luna growled and decided that this night, a few ponies were keeping their nightmares. She just sat there and looked outside the window. At the same time, her eyes were changing shape, switching between their normal form and the reptilian eyes she had in the past.

Comments

[PaintedWish]

The suspense. I love it!