12: The White Queen
I didn’t know how to react. Judging from the dropped jaws in the audience, I wasn’t the only one.
The changeling queen shivered in place, her eyes darting around, and then her jagged horn lit up to shoot a blast at the ceiling right above us. That knocked everyone out of being stunned. I heard screams as I threw myself to the floor, only managing by luck to avoid the falling masonry.
“Stop!” Luna cried out as the changeling took flight, fleeing through the throne room’s new skylight. In a flash the younger princess took wing to follow.
I warily pulled myself up. Rain was pouring in from above, and all I could see were dark clouds overhead. A light flashed somewhere out in that swirl, but I couldn’t tell if it was lightning or the distant flicker of battle magic.
All hell had broken loose, alright. What seemed to be a whole company of Royal Guards arrived to stampede around in every which direction, as if somepony had knocked over an anthill. I don’t think they themselves knew whether they were attacking or guarding or fleeing, but they certainly weren’t enforcing any kind of order. Several of the petitioners there to see Princess Celestia were huddled against a wall, crying and trying to hide behind the drapes. Others had already booked it. The whole story would be halfway to Griffony by dawn.
“You!” someone shouted from behind me. I turned to see a big earth pony, and my memory hazily filled in his face as the guard who Ruby had distracted. From the looks of it, he had managed to browbeat a shell-shocked contingent of soldiers into some semblance of order. “You were with that changeling. You’re under arrest!”
I bent down to pick up my hat, putting it on over my rain-slick mane but not attempting to move from within the downpour. I glanced over to see all the documents that I had worked so hard for, given up so much to obtain. They lay scattered across a puddle, the ink slowly melting away as the paper turned to mush.
“Yeah,” I said. “Okay.”
We only got as far as a few hallways over before they decided to lock me in a guest bedroom for the time being. Given the ponies still yelling and running in all directions, they didn’t think the floor was secure enough – and I didn’t blame them.
I probably could have jimmied the window to climb out that way. From there I presumably would have needed to shimmy across a half-hoof-width ledge, over a sheer drop the height of the entire mountain, through a driving rain, all to make it to the next bedroom over. And then hope I could get in through that window and out through the door.
Instead I took the opportunity to sit on the bed. For once I had plenty of time to think, and I needed all of it.
A half hour later, the door slammed open again and a unicorn stallion in partial guard armor was hustled in. “Loyalist scum!” he yelled at his captors. “The reign of the sun is over! Do you really pledge your service to a changeling queen?”
“Nope,” the guard grunted. “We serve Equestria.”
The door slammed shut behind them, and the stallion didn’t waste any time in rushing over to bang his hooves against it as he kept shouting.
“You will regret this, all of you! You will be first against the wall when the revolution prevails! Sic semper lunaris!”
“Thus always to Luna?” I said.
He whirled, noticing me for the first time. “What?”
“That’s what you said.”
“No I didn’t. I—” He blinked. “It doesn’t matter! My compatriots will be here shortly to free me. We will prevail, and Princess Luna will depose the pretender and usher in a new dawn to Equestria.”
“Dawn?”
“Fine, night. A new night.” He glared at me. “They’ve locked you up too. That means you must be one of us, right?”
I gave a wry smile. “I’m not sure who ‘us’ is. You’re part of a Lunar conspiracy? At this point I’m surprised there was a coup planned at all. But then again, it looks too fake without some ponies set up to take the fall.”
“What are you talking about? Of course it’s real. There’s… there’s hundreds of us.” He had started to trot in circles, eyeing the window.
“I see. And how many have you personally spoken with?”
He stared at me, anger flashing across his face. “You’re just trying to get me to name names. You’re a plant, aren’t you?”
“If so,” I said, “I’m pretty bad at my job.”
“Well I’m not talking.”
“Was there more than one, the one who convinced you to join the revolution? Was it even somepony you personally knew, or a guard from some other division, someone you never bothered checking up on to see if they really existed, at least under that name?”
“Not talking!” He couldn’t keep the panic out of his voice, but he had said enough.
I shook my head, ignoring him as his pacing picked up in speed. I kept turning the whole situation over and over in my head, like one of wooden puzzleboxes that you had to know just where to squeeze before they’d pop open. My fellow prisoner had only confirmed what I already assumed – the revolution being a farce wasn’t a surprise. But something still didn’t add up in the details, in the motivations and actions. Unless…
The door banged open again. “You!” a guard called. “Out!”
The amateur revolutionary looked up hopefully, but the hoof was pointing in my direction. I languidly stood, stretching. “What for?”
“Captain’s moving you to a more secure location. Now move it, before I have to make you.”
I trotted out, finding the same big earth pony guard who had captured me tapping his hoof in impatience. “Come on,” he said brusquely. Two other waiting guards took a step forward as well, and he halted them with an upraised hoof. “Stay here. We need to keep this level locked down.”
“But the prisoner—”
“You think I can’t handle a single prisoner?” His eyes were cold as he looked me up and down, ending with a smirk. “Trust me, I’ll deal with it.”
The guards shared an uneasy glance but didn’t argue. I could hear the remaining prisoner already complaining about something through the door again.
“Stay alert,” he said, then shoved me forward. “As for you... Walk.”
He kept me in front, barking out orders to keep me in line and moving. Any attempt I made to delay or veer off to the side was cut off a harsh word and a rough hoof against my flank. He marched me away from the guards and down a maze of hallways, taking one branch then another until my head spun.
We wound up in a dusty corner, where even the magical lanterns that lit the palace were guttered. He kicked open a door, and I saw a back stairwell, one used by servants and even then apparently not often. “Go in.”
I shook my head. “I think I know how this goes. If you wanted to just march me to the dungeons, you could have picked a shorter way, and brought some other guards for backup. I don’t plan on accidentally falling down any staircases tonight. You can give me the shovel, but I’ve got too much self-respect to dig my own grave.”
“You’re smart, Detective.” I didn’t like the look of the grin he gave me. “Some would say too smart for your own good.”
“Tell me, then, before we end this. What’s your angle? A true protector of Equestria type, here to take out some revenge? Or are you in this up to your neck too, and trying to tie up loose ends?”
“What makes you think those are the only two options?”
“Call it a hunch.”
The guard took a heavy step forwards, towering over me. “You should be more trusting, Detective Slate.”
“Because that’s worked so well for me.”
“You know…” The guard flashed green flames, and I found myself face-to-face with Ruby Quartz. “I’d say on the whole, it kind of has.”
I let out something halfway between a laugh and a sigh. “Looks like I really do owe you one, huh?”
“Sure seems like it. Now let’s get the heck out of here.” She moved towards the stairwell. “This should take us all the way down to the gardens. Things are settling down, so it shouldn’t be too hard to sneak out.”
“No.”
Ruby froze, a hoof in the air. “What?”
“I’ve had some time to think, and I’m close to figuring this out – all of this. I’ve been a step behind the whole game but I can see the end of the road now. I’ve just got one more question remaining. And I’m not leaving until I get some answers.”
“Are you crazy?”
I shook my head, giving a wry smile. It took a while to explain everything, leaving nothing out. All my suspicions, all the hunches that seemed individually underbaked and overthought but which added up to a convincing conclusion.
“You’re sure about this?” she said, when I was finally done.
“As sure as I can be.” I waved a hoof. “Go, without me. I’ll see you again on the outside.”
A faint smile crossed her face. She leaned in close for a brief nuzzle and then pulled back red-cheeked. “You better. You still owe me.” With that, she darted down the stairs.
I waited until I couldn’t hear her hoofsteps any longer. Then I went up.
Celestia’s chambers weren’t too hard to find. I just kept going upwards, as high as I could.
She was waiting within.
She had gotten control of her disguise again, but the ethereal mane and tail hung limp, pooling on the marble floor where she rested. Her coat seemed greyer, sweat-slicked, despite the cool air coming from the open doors of the chamber’s balcony. I could still see nothing but clouds out there, hiding the night sky entirely.
When she saw me, a complicated mixture of emotions crossed her face. An anger fierce enough to physically push me back, a sorrow that sent a dagger through my heart, then the effortless calm I had seen before, tinged only slightly with resignation.
“Detective Slate.” Her words came steady, quiet. “This is a surprise. I was expecting somepony else, though I couldn’t say why.”
I swallowed the surge of feelings that her presence stirred up in me, even in her weakened state. “Princess,” I said in greeting. “I could say the same. Wasn’t expecting to find you here.”
“You and everypony else. That is, in part, the point.”
“Lucky for me, then. I’ve still got some questions. And who better to answer?”
“Ah.” She showed a wan smile. “Then I suppose this is when you demand to know what I did with the real Princess Celestia. When you expect me to monologue about my evil plan, that sort of thing.”
“Not quite.”
“Then tell me. What do you want to know?”
I rolled the thought around on my tongue before spitting it straight. “When was it that you went native?”
Her eyes widened slightly. I would have missed it if I wasn’t watching.
“Was it five years ago? A decade? It had to be before Luna came back. See, at first I thought that discovering you were a changeling made everything else add up. Luna’s arrival would have put you in danger, with an unexpected sister to have to fool. So you concoct an elaborate scheme, eliminate a few ponies by framing them as changelings, plant the seeds of a Lunar rebellion. But only a surface-level one. You always meant for that plan to be found out, to have someone blow the whistle. In the resulting panic, a few inept conspirators take a fall, and you pin everything on the Lady Moon herself. There’s your reason to get rid of her. To send her back to the moon.”
“I would never—” Celestia spoke up.
“I know. All that makes sense, except for one thing… Why turn and frame me, then?”
I paused, but Celestia kept quiet, her eyes narrowed.
“You said it yourself. An accusation against a Princess is big. Any room for doubts just leaves a door open to trouble, and yet you went out of your way to paint me as a changeling. You don’t muddy the waters, if you’re about to land the big fish. So why do it, if having a clear reason to remove Luna was your goal?”
“Because that wasn’t my goal.”
“Because you were trying to protect her instead. You had nothing to do with any of this, did you?”
A chill wind blew in from the balcony. I barely felt it, solely focused on the mare in front of me.
Celestia took a deep breath. “Four hundred years.”
I blinked. “I’m sorry?”
“You asked me when I went native. It’s been about four hundred years, give or take. Back when I was a young student of the real Princess Celestia. Long before she even appointed me as an advisor.”
Her gaze swept over to the balcony, at the storm clouds past the railing. But I could tell she was looking somewhere far beyond.
“I’m sure you’re aware of the Great Griffon War?”
I frowned. “The outlines, sure.”
“Alicorns are long-lived, you see, but far from unkillable. It was the eve of the war’s most decisive battle when a griffon assassin struck, managing to get into the Princess’s own bedchambers to mortally wound her. You could hear the shouts of pre-emptive victory echoing across the valley from the griffon hordes as the news spread that night. That was when the Princess, still dying, asked—no, demanded—that I take her place.”
I was silent, feeling the conviction of her words somewhere in my bones.
“When I led the army into battle the next morning, tears still streaming from my eyes, the griffons broke and fled before me, terrified by the spectre of the immortal sun.”
“That… that was centuries ago,” I said.
“I know.” She shook her head, smiling. “I still miss her, even now. I’d like to think I’ve done the best I could in that time.”
“But then, why the laws? The harsh treatment of changelings? Why would you, of all ponies, demand that kind of punishment?”
“Because it is me, of all ponies.” She let out a deep sigh. “Four hundred years is a long time for an alicorn. It’s an eternity to a changeling queen. I have only lasted as long as I have due to the entire nation of ponies freely giving their love to me each and every day. But even that power has its limits. How many times in the past few years have I fallen to threats that I should have easily bested? Nightmare Moon, Discord, Tirek… and Chrysalis.”
“The changeling queen that invaded at the wedding.”
“Yes. Chrysalis brought with her an entire hive of followers, their minds burnt to ashes and their bodies purposefully starved into an endless hunger. It was horrifying. It was far too late for any of them. Each and every drone was a threat to my little ponies of Equestria and I had to make the tough decision, act decisively and without compromise.”
“But then afterwards. You could have relaxed the laws. Changed things. You have that power.”
“Yes, and risk any number of questions myself. In my position I simply couldn’t risk a rumor starting about having been replaced by a changeling. It might start as ridiculous, nothing more than a rallying cry for fringe malcontents, but soon enough every pony in the nation would start to wonder why I wouldn’t just undergo a public test and prove myself.”
“So you chose to send innocent changelings to the stars.”
“Detective Slate, the world is not a simple place. All I can do is what I think best for Equestria as a whole.” A haunted expression crossed her face. “Though apparently, my course of action has only prolonged the inevitable.”
I shook my head. “This looks bad but it’s not the end. Do you really think Luna wouldn’t understand if you explained everything? This can be papered over: changeling queen driven out of the country, real Celestia rescued, you come back into the picture.”
“No.” Her head dipped down towards the floor. “I’m afraid it’s too late for that. You saw what happened when a room of my ponies momentarily lost their confidence in me, how I couldn’t even maintain the guise I’ve worn for centuries. I’m too weak now, and growing weaker by the minute as doubt and fear radiates outwards from the palace. Even if everypony were to miraculously accept me as I am, I think it is far too late.”
“What are you saying?”
She looked up at me with an incalculable sadness. “I’m dying.”
“No,” I said, feeling as if somepony had punched me in the throat.
“Yes.” She gave a dry chuckle. “And to think, when you arrived, I expected that was your reason for finding me. To kill me yourself.”
“No,” a voice called out from behind me. “That’s why I’m here.”
I turned to see Rising Star leaning against the doorway. “Hello, Slate,” he said.
“Turn around and walk away, Star,” I growled out.
“Afraid I can’t do that. I’ve got a job to do, and even if it’s apparently a foregone conclusion, I’d rather just go ahead and make sure. Better safe than sorry, as they say.”
I took a step forward. “If you plan on touching her, you’ll have to go through me first.”
“Good news,” Star said, grinning. “Turns out that’s part of the job, too.”
“And what exactly makes you think you can beat me?”
“Us,” Celestia said. I heard a rustle behind me and glanced back to see her painstakingly pulling herself to her hooves.
“Oh, I don’t know,” Star said. “Probably this.” His hoof reached up to the collar of his black shirt, touching a black clasp inset with a ruby. “Alicorn Amulet. A friend helped me retrieve it from the magical artifact vault.”
“No,” Celestia whispered. “Nopony should have access. Nopony that would help you. Unless— Stonecastle?”
“He sends his regards, Princess. And a special message for you, Detective Slate, though I don’t think it’s appropriate to repeat those kind of words with a Princess present. Suffice it to say that he’s going to have a permanent limp, and he seems to think you’re the one responsible.”
“You can both go to Tartarus, as far as I’m concerned.”
“Aw, Slate, don’t be that way.” I couldn’t see anything past his shades, only that stupid grin below. “I thought me and you were bros.”
I hit him with the biggest spell I could work up, a laser that made a screeching sound as if someone had thrown the handbrake on the Friendship Express at full throttle. The beam of light left an afterimage floating in my eyes, but when the halo cleared, Rising Star hadn’t even moved.
I tried again, and again, putting on a light show as I threw bad spell after good in an attempt to get anything to stick. His amulet just flashed, the gem glowing softly as it effortlessly neutralized my magic.
“That all you got?” Star asked.
I gritted my teeth and charged him. He waited until I was steps away and then casually reared up and back-hoofed me with such augmented force that I cartwheeled across the room to slam into a dresser.
“Stop!” I heard Celestia shout, and I heard the discharge of more magic, followed by her crying out in pain. I tried to twist my head to see, but the room was still spinning.
“Wait your turn, Princess. I wanna deal with the Detective first. He and I have got some personal issues to work out.”
I shook my head, trying to think of another spell but my horn was already burning with overexertion, and the details kept slipping out of my dazed mind. Star loomed into view, and I forced myself to sit up against the cracked wood of the dresser behind me.
“You think you’re so smart, Slate,” he whispered. “You think you’re hot stuff. Well, who’s laughing now?”
I squeezed my eyes shut, and then opened them again, trying to get them to focus right as I stared at some point over Rising Star’s left shoulder.
“It’s not…” I paused, coughing and feeling wet blood fleck my hoof. “It’s not about who’s laughing now. It’s about who gets the last laugh.”
“Oh yeah?” Star sneered. “And what, you think that’s gonna be you?”
“No,” I said. My brow furrowed in confusion as the blur behind Star finally sharpened and I realized what I was looking at. “Probably her.”
I heard the faintest of sounds as Princess Twilight Sparkle’s hooves touched down on the balcony. Then a wave of force slammed into Rising Star, tossing him like a ragdoll first into one wall, then reversing and sending him flying into the other.
He got shakily to his knees. His shades had cracked in half at the bridge and he spat as he threw them to the ground. “You think you can stop me? I have the Alicorn Amulet.”
Twilight Sparkle looked like she had leapt out of one of those stained glass windows, perfectly still, head high, wings upraised. Then one of her eyebrows quirked upwards. “I think you may be taking that name a bit too literally, if you think it can stand up to a full-fledged alicorn’s magic. Particularly one who is very upset right now.”
Star answered with an attack, shooting a ray of light out of his own horn as the amulet lit up. It splashed harmlessly against the magenta bubble of her shield.
“Now it’s my turn,” Twilight said.
She tilted her head gracefully, and a spiraling blast of rainbow magic surged out, something elemental that I couldn’t even begin to understand, but could still see clearly even through closed eyelids. It slammed straight into a shield of black that Star had erected, knocking him a hoofstep back as it impacted.
“You… can’t stop me! Not with this!” he cried out, as the rainbow kept pouring forward. Twilight smiled, and the beam doubled in size.
The gem on the amulet had begun glowing with the approximate brightness of the sun. “The Alicorn Amulet is all-powerful!” Star yelled. “I— Ow!” The entire neckpiece had turned from dull red to bright white, the edges outlined in blue, the color of metal superheated in a forge. Star pawed at the clasp, and let out a yowl of pain as soon as his hoof touched the surface. He reached up, tearing at his collar, trying to get the jewelry off.
With a rip, the shirt gave way, and the amulet clattered to the ground.
The rainbow faded away, leaving Twilight standing opposite of Rising Star. He stared, open-mouthed at the alicorn, then at the amulet where it was smoking against the floor.
Rising Star took off running.
Twilight’s wings beat once, drawing her up into the air as grim determination set her mouth into a line, but a single word caused her to stop short. “Twilight,” Celestia said.
I stood up myself, ears still ringing, and watched as Twilight floated down to Celestia’s side. The older alicorn lay curled up on the floor, looking even more drawn than before. Tears flowed from her eyes. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t want things to end this way. I wanted to tell you.”
Twilight cast one more glance towards the door, then turned her attention to Celestia entirely, drawing her into a hug. “I know,” she said, so quietly that I could barely hear. “I’ve known for a long time. And can’t you feel it? I still love you, Princess.”
Celestia rasped out a laugh. “Even now you call me by my title?”
I turned away from their embrace, suddenly feeling like I was an intruder in something very private. They needed words, and not ones meant for my ears. I slowly walked to the door, limping slightly as all the injuries from the past few days seemed to catch up to me at once.
“Wait,” Twilight called out. I looked back to see her and Celestia watching me. “Where are you going?”
“I’ve got one last bit of unfinished business,” I said. “It’s time for this story to come to an end.”
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Ah man, I'm loving this.
Why can't I up vote this twice? I like this story a lot and it's now time to see how it ends. :)
Everyone is changelings.
Celestia? Changeling.
Twilight? Changeling.
Slate's breakfast? Friggen changeling.
You know you're doing something right when this has no dislike.
... I jinxed it, didn't I?
I can't say for sure whether this is your best story yet as it's been at least a week since I read all of your other posted stories.
Be right back...
6230873
*looks at the likes/dislikes*
What did you DO?
Hmmm.. Yeah, this is gettin interesting.
... wow... this was a BEAUTIFUL chapter.
Also, saved by fuckin' Twilight? Slate's gonna have one hell of a story for the grandfoals when he's old and gray.
I'm both excited for the next chapter, and sad that it's going to be over soon.
Oh man, we almost went an entire chapter without a betrayal! Thank goodness for Stonecastle.
(Seriously, though, this landed the twist. Love it. Can't wait for the last chapter.)
6231340 WASN'T ME I SWEAR!
I love Celestia-conspiracies like this. I had some pretty similar ideas in a writeoff story, but I wasn't able to use them very well myself. Not accusing of stealing or anything, I just like that we probably arrived at the same conclusions based on what's in the show.
You said 'handbrake.'