Lessons in quirks

by Mike84

Chapter LXVI

Rainbow Dash startled Twilight from these considerations. She nudged her slightly and murmured: "This is a bit like in 'Daring Do and the secret scripture', isn't it? I mean figuring out the symbols and all. There is a bit of an egghead in Daring Do! It makes you all somewhat more awesome."
Twilight didn't respond, but she didn't have to, for in this moment Frank spoke up: "I think I got most of it. And I think this is the order in which it is to be read... back in the forest I had no time to mind the sequence and was just taking down everything that came to my mind."
He tapped the topmost symbol on the new sheet of paper. It was something that looked like a bell and a pretzel.
"Fillydelphia", Frank explained. "The Changeling was there some weeks ago and...", Frank tabbed something that looked like a circle with wings, "...it was there that she stole the levitation amulet while switched to Ivory Tower."
"Ivory Tower?" Rarity asked.
"That's the name of the professor who they wrote lost the amulet."

Frank suddenly stared at the tabletop as if trying to see through it and when he continued it sounded like he was talking to himself rather than to anyone else.
"It was the talk on the campus for a while... I don't know... I may have picked up his name there. But I don't remember. I may have never actually heard the name..."
"Why did she steal that amulet?" Rarity asked. "Can't this switchling do levitation spells?"
"I think she can. I... I really don't know why she stole that amulet. There must have been a reason..." Frank cut a strained grimace. After some moments he sighed: "I'm sorry. I just don't remember. There must have been something, but I don't know anymore. It is gone."

"Maybe she stole it just to frame you later?" Rainbow Dash suggested.
"No", Frank discarded the idea immediately. "Definitely not. I recall she thought of me as 'the distraction from Fillydelphia' or as a 'convenient dummy'—"
"Convenient dummy?" Pinkie Pie repeated, half indignant, half amused.
"That were her thoughts", Frank confirmed. "She thought this just hours ago. The memory of the most recent events was clearer and I still have some of the images in mind. Not as elusive as the longer past or more general thoughts. Maybe it is also easier to remember the things I can directly relate to. I do not remember why she took that amulet, but she just used it to frame me because it was convenient at the time. It was not a long plan. I just happened to be there to be framed and the amulet happened to suit the purpose."

"What's the next thing?" Twilight asked, tapping the next symbol. Actually the symbol was clear enough and she had little doubt about the meaning of some towers at the steep slope of a mountain, but it was still so serious that she wanted to make sure.
"The switchling went to Canterlot", Frank confirmed Twilight's fears.
"To Canterlot?!" thundered Captain Crescent furiously. "How can such a thing walk there in broad daylight unnoticed? Are these foalish fair weather guards—"
"Captain Crescent", Princess Luna said. She hadn't raised her voice and kept her face straight, but still there was a cutting tone to her voice that silenced the captain of her guard instantly. Twilight was wondering if the outburst of the captain was in any way a retaliation for her own faux pas about the use of the term 'lunatic'.

"My apologies, Your Highness. Your Highnesses, I mean, I'm just...", Captain Crescent muttered.
"Proceed, Mr. Blanket", Princess Luna commanded.
Frank hesitated. "I'm afraid I cannot say anything more about this either. I only know that she was in Canterlot, but that is all the symbols tell me. I don't think she switched to anyone there. All I know is that she was in Canterlot, but I have no idea what she did there. I'm sorry", Frank added as there was an unwilling growl of Captain Crescent.
With an emphatically neutral tone Frank added: "I cannot even say if she came to Canterlot at day- or nighttime. But I think she didn't stay very long."

"Is that Cloudsdale?" Rainbow Dash asked, tapping the next sign which showed some buildings amidst clouds.
Frank nodded, earning himself a broad self-satisfied smile from Rainbow Dash, silently congratulating herself for her Daring Doish deciphering talents.
"The switchling went to Cloudsdale...", Frank continued and pointed at the next sign, a cloud in a circle, "...I'm not quite sure about this. I must have seen it and I think it has to do with Cloudsdale, but I cannot say what it means."

"I can", Princess Celestia said. "This is the cutie mark of Cloud Head, one of the engineers in charge of cloud brewing kettles up in Cloudsdale. I talked to him when I was there. Same as everypony else, he couldn't explain at all what had happened there. It had been during the night that the cloud brewing kettles exploded there. Nopony had seen it happen and luckily nopony was hurt because of that. But there was not a single pony there who didn't say that the setting of the vents was something so elementary that it couldn't be done so wrong by mistake. With a dozen kettles blown up, everypony including Cloud Head was convinced that it could only be a deliberate sabotage, but at the moment there was not a pony either who didn't have the absolute confidence of everypony else there."
"Princess Celestia, did Cloud Head or any other pony suffer from any loss of memory?" Twilight asked. "I think everypony who was taken over by this attacker here lost his or her memory to the time he or she was under the attacker's control."

At this point Zecora chimed in:
"Forgive me if I interrupt
but I think you are mistaken
unless I misunderstood
Frank's memory seems not disrupt
although his mind was taken."

Frank gave a rather odd mixture of a nod and shaking of the head.
"She didn't quite take me over in the forest tonight. Almost did... but it was interrupted and I think this is the only reason why I do... or did remember some of what I saw of her mind.
Actually I was taken over by her. But that was last night, before the hearing", Frank tapped some scribbles further down on the page which indicated this.
"But I was asleep when she took me over and I was asleep when she left me again and it was also for a rather short time only. A short memory gap during the night would not be so conspicuous as during the day. Many ponies don't remember most of their dreams. But I expect her taking me over was the 'sudden and uncommon interruption' which you said you perceived in my dreams, Your Highness."

Frank was looking at Luna and for an odd moment Twilight had almost the impression as if there was a kind of staring match between the hobo student and the Princess of the Night. The odd impression vanished as quickly as it had come up when Frank continued:
"I think it was because she wanted to avoid drawing attention, that she only ever took anypony in Cloudsdale over when he or she was asleep and left him or her while he or she was again asleep. That way she could act very subtle. Also, I don't think she ever took anypony over for more than a few hours there, so the effects of the take overs on her victims were not so distinct. She always struck at night there, while for the day she left Cloudsdale, stayed aground, hid from the view of everypony, perhaps by taking over some animals to rest or maybe just taking on some appearance that wouldn't draw attention. Therefore, nopony in Cloudsdale would notice any memory gaps."

"You read all this from just this sign, Frankie?" Pinkie Pie asked, pointing at the next sign on Frank's paper, a crescent.
"I think so", Frank said, sounding slightly uncertain. "I think that is what it means. I only remember I had some very flimsy glimpses at all this. That crescent probably is the summary of her acting at nighttime only in Cloudsdale."
There was another odd momentary impression for Twilight, but this time it seemed to her that an expression of doubt flickered across Princess Celestia's face, as if she wanted to say or add something but stopped herself from doing so before she had opened her mouth.

Frank continued: "It seems like her success in Cloudsdale made her somewhat less careful. She stayed there until there were rumors that you, Your Highness...", he bowed slightly to Princess Celestia, "...were going to come to examine the sabotage there. When those rumors came up, she left and headed for Ponyville and here she didn't show the same cautiousness as she had in Cloudsdale. I think her original intention was to stay in the castle ruins in Everfree Forest for a while, but when she got the chance to take over a bird, she flew to Ponyville. I believe— I really don't know this for certain —she just wanted to explore a bit and didn't have any actual plan in mind there. But while flying around she took notice of the preparations for your party, Pinkie. To any changeling such a party must appear like a real feast. She then saw Mr. Rich working alone in his study with the window wide open. There was an opportunity and she seized it."
"Are you sayin' she didn't actually plan to go after Mr. Rich but just took him over because he happened to be there?" Applejack asked skeptically.

"Well... yeah", Frank said with a shrug. "I think I remembered what she did here in Ponyville better than what I remembered about what she did before. I still don't know it for absolute certain, but I'm pretty sure there was no grand scheme when she took over Mr. Rich. I think she just wanted to attend the party to feast on the plenty of positive sentiments among so thick a crowd that it would barely be noticed. She reckoned that confusion about loss of memory of the victim might be attributed to a heat stroke or something like that, so she considered the risk acceptable to take over Mr. Rich during the day. Maybe she realized his wealth only after she had taken him over or maybe she had guessed it from the appearance of the mansion. I don't know for sure. While she controlled him, she knew of course what he knew, but also that she wouldn't remember anything but what she herself did and learned while in control of him. During the party she therefore talked to quite a few ponies to get some more information on Ponyville and its citizens. Before she left Mr. Rich numbed with a sleeping spell at the spot where she had taken him over, she decided to take along the bags of money which were in his studies.

A switchling can still cast at least the basics of the own magic such as levitation spells even when in control of a being not usually capable of this. Dr. Quircs mentions this in his book too and also that the degree to which magic casting is still possible varies depending on what kind of being is controlled. He doesn't go into much detail there, but he also mentions that larger beings like ponies will last longer while under the control of a switchling, while a bird for example would suffer sooner from the effects and could therefore not be controlled as long without risk for both, the bird and the switchling. This may also be why she took over Mr. Rich rather than just attending the party in the body of a bird, in which case she would have also been limited to eavesdropping rather than being able to ask questions herself."

Fluttershy cut a face as if the mention of this caused her severe pains.
Frank took a sip from his cup before he continued: "While she was levitating and then teleporting the money bags to the edge of the forest, she was seen by Mr. Rich's servant. She realized how suspicious this would look, but she knew of the servant's loyalty to his master and felt safe enough by just impressing upon him never to tell anypony about it. After she left Mr. Rich, she once again managed to take over a bird to get to the edge of the forest where she had teleported the money. She left the bird there and in her original form, expecting for nopony to see her at night in Everfree, she brought the money to the castle ruins and cut the bridge over the surrounding chasm."
"So there would be even less of a chance of anypony stumbling across the money?" Twilight asked.
Frank shrugged. "Probably."
"Probably?" Applejack asked. "Frank, how much of what you are telling is what you think and how much of it do you know for certain?"
"It is confusing", Frank admitted. "I think I know most of what she did do in the last days very certain. As I said, those memories are clearer than those to Cloudsdale and before. I know I had the memories to what she did very clearly in mind when I took this down in the forest."
He tapped the original sheet of paper.

"I don't have those images in my mind anymore now, but I remember them as if somepony had described them to me so I could imagine them very well. I know what she did. I don't always know why she did it. I know she cut the bridge beyond easy repair, but as for why she did it, I guess it is as Twilight assumed. I suppose she didn't often think very deliberately about her intentions, same as we usually wouldn't when everything seems clear to us and maybe that is why I am less certain about some whys as I am about the whats."

"So, what did she do next?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"After a short rest in the castle ruins, she took over another bird, returned to Ponyville and attacked Miss Cheerilee." Frank said, pointing at a sign on the paper that was clearly supposed to be Miss Cheerilee's cutie mark and that looked, cheerful as it was, somewhat out of place between the other more obscure symbols.
"But why?" Rarity asked almost desperately. "Why would this thing attack poor Cheerilee? You don't know about that, Frank?"

"Actually, I think I can make a good guess about this", Frank said. "During the party she had gotten a good idea about the popularity of Miss Cheerilee and her own love for her students. Taking over Miss Cheerilee was like another feast for her and since consuming such positive emotions is also the basis for the magic of switchlings, it boosted her powers as well. There is yet another reason though. Same as her success in Cloudsdale had made her somewhat less careful, her easy success with Mr. Rich further increased her recklessness. She was ready to start something more in Ponyville rather than just going into hiding. But while not in control of a citizen of Ponyville, she knew little about the town or the citizens. Therefore she let all the students in Miss Cheerilee's class write about their homes and relatives. All those written student reports were a formidable source of information she could resort to after she had left Cheerilee and her memories behind. She left Cheerilee numbed with a sleeping spell and hid the students' texts outside at a place where she could easily pick them up later as whoever she would take over next. The hot weather suited her purpose too. Almost nopony was out in the streets so she could even just take on the appearance of somepony with little risk of this being noticed. However, there was a robin near Miss Cheerilee's place which she could use to look for a suitable next pony victim."

"A robin...?" Rainbow Dash echoed, her eyes widening. "You mean that was..."
Frank nodded: "...the very one who landed beside us while you visited me up there."
He pointed towards the ceiling. "Of course she couldn't take either of us over while we were both there, but she learned a lot by just listening to us and also figured out that not only had the theft of Mr. Rich's money stirred up more attention than she had expected, but also that I was suspected of having done it. She was not happy about that attention and decided that it would be a good idea to increase the suspicion against me to misdirect any investigations that might draw more attention or even come to some correct conclusions. When Inkhorn came up to us, the switchling learned about the hearing to be held and she also heard my request to you to strike my tent. After you left, she flew right to the castle and, leaving the robin and just taking on an inconspicuous unicorn pony appearance, she teleported herself and one of the money bags towards the green where she put the money into my sleeping back after making sure that nopony was there to see her. She then took over a thrush and eavesdropped on Mayor Mare, Inkhorn and Featherscribe, learning among other that he would be in charge of the persecution during the hearing.

"There was a thrush at the window of Inkhorn's office when you were there yesterday", Fluttershy said. "I saw the thrush when I came downstairs after I had heard your voices."
"That was her", Frank confirmed. "And after you had all left the room, she took over Inkhorn."
"But why?" Twilight asked. "What was the point?"
"I don't know for certain", Frank admitted. "I think she had intended to take over one of the town officials anyway to see if she could learn anything useful for further actions in Ponyville. Perhaps she took her over at that point to also keep you away from me because she believed that this might make the job more difficult for the defense in the hearing..." Frank shrugged.
"Inkhorn was kind of insistent on us leaving all of a sudden", Rarity remembered.
"And it explains why she thought that she had fallen asleep during her watch while we were there", Applejack pointed out. "That's what she said when we talked to her earlier."
"In the body of Inkhorn the switchling also overheard you saying something about a possible suspect, Twilight", Frank continued. "And when then you asked for a name from the register of Ponyville's residents, she quickly grasped that he was your suspect and decided to just fuel your suspicion by pretending for your suspect to be not recorded."
Twilight pursed her lips. The memory of her disgrace at the Rich Mansion the previous evening still gave her a sting.

"Your conviction that I was not behind the theft and your investigations worried her though", Frank continued. "Maybe that is one reason why, switched to an owl, she tried to take control over you last night, but I presume the idea of taking control over a Princess of Equestria by itself also played a role. In any case, Owlowiscious thwarted this attempt. She was lingering with the owl for much of the night. This, her use of magic against Owlowiscious and the injuries from the fight with Owlowiscious left this owl nearly utterly drained of any happy or cheerful emotion."
"And the affection, care and love of others is what will help the victims of a switchling?" Twilight asked.
"According to Dr. Quircs, yes", Frank confirmed.
"It did seem to do a lot of good to poor Cheerilee to have the kids and Big Mac around", Applejack said.
"But other birds usually shun owls", Fluttershy whispered. "She was very weak when she arrived at my place and nothing I did seemed to really help her."
"She probably needed the care of a fellow owl", Twilight said soothingly, noticing Fluttershy's tone of unwarranted self-blaming.

"What did this switchling do next?" Princes Luna asked after some moments.
Frank tapped the respective symbols on the sheet of paper and said: "After the attempt to take over Twilight had failed, I think she wanted to plant some more fake evidence against me and also decided to take it upon herself to play the part of the persecution in the hearing to present me as the culprit in the most convincing way she could. She left the owl at the town hall and came through the open window while I was asleep and took me over."
"Which left your dreams a void", Luna said. "I was alarmed when I saw this, but I didn't know the meaning of it and visited Twilight's dream to let her know about this."

A momentary frown passed through Frank's face, but whatever misgivings it signaled, he kept for himself as he continued: "Able to see my memories, she realized that, unlike herself, I didn't even know where Mr. Rich lived and were likely to point this out in the hearing. So she had me write the words 'Rich Mansion' on my map in my own script to make me appear like a liar in the hearing. She placed the map in my saddle-bags rather than in the pocket of my shirt from where she had taken it. She also put the amulet she had stolen in Fillydelphia in my money bag as further incriminating evidence. Before she left me, she also took some notes on memories of mine that could be useful for her, but that she would not remember after she left me again. She then left me and, once again after having taken over a nocturnal bird, headed for the place of Featherscribe and took him over."
"But why did she?" Rainbow Dash asked confused. "If she had you taken over, couldn't she have just stayed with you and let you confess anything during the hearing to make absolutely sure?"

Frank hesitated for some moments, then he shrugged.
"I don't know why she didn't. I suppose she could have. Perhaps she thought that such a sudden confession would have appeared unlikely, especially with the certainty that I would have withdrawn it and told about not remembering the hearing at all after she would have left me."
"But that would have been a matter anyway, wouldn't it?" Applejack asked. "Ah mean, if Featherscribe wasn't Featherscribe throughout the hearing, we would have heard about his loss of memory tomorrow, wouldn't we?"

Frank shrugged again: "Probably. I really cannot tell for certain what she was thinking, but I'm not even sure if she herself knew for the entire time. Within less than two days she had taken over and left the minds of four ponies and at the very least five birds, maybe even more, with very little time to rest and for her own mind to settle down again. Maybe, just maybe, some of her decisions were more erratic than in Cloudsdale where she never took over more than one pony within a day and also for much shorter time spans than was the case with Mr. Rich and Miss Cheerilee."
"She still did quite a performance as Featherscribe during the hearing", Rarity remarked.
Frank nodded but said: "But even there she made a spontaneous decision that caused her great trouble later on."

"What's that, Mr. Blanket?" Mayor Mare asked.
"The claim that I attacked Inkhorn in the morning. It was a relatively spontaneous decision of her when she realized how uncertain ponies were about whether or not I was guilty. She thought that nothing would be as likely to turn everypony against me than the claim that I had actually tried to attack someone. It was thoroughly made up. Miss Mayor, I suppose you did meet Inkhorn in the town hall before she left this morning?"
Mayor Mare looked surprised, but nodded: "Yes, I did. She was looking rather worn out. As could be expected after the long night watch."
"But even so, wouldn't she have mentioned to you if I had tried to attacked her before?"
"Most likely she would have", Mayor Mare admitted. "It did sound odd, but I think that in the... intensity of the whole hearing it didn't strike me as so strange. I guess I thought that Inkhorn had just forgotten to bring this up... but an assiduous official like her..."
Mayor Mare looked down at the table top.
"I suppose I should have noticed this as strange", she said meekly.

If Frank Blanket took any satisfaction from this admission, he did not let any show upon his face as he continued: "There was another thing that happened during the hearing that she had not planned and that actually scared the switchling. She was quite relieved that no further attention was paid to it at the time."
Frank made a short break and reached for the water cup. He was looking uneasy as if he didn't like what he was going to tell and suddenly Twilight had a good idea of what he was referring to.
"The spell?" she said. "The disillusion spell I cast upon you during the trial?"
Frank nodded, but still took a sip from the cup which he kept a little longer in his mouth than probably necessary before he continued.

"Dr. Quircs didn't write anything about this, but I suppose having been taken over by a switchling leaves something upset in your mind that caused for this spell to be so... unpleasant."
"Unpleasant?" Rainbow Dash asked bluntly. "You collapsed and were screaming!"
Rarity jabbed Rainbow Dash, earning herself an annoyed, "Well, he was", whispered so loudly by Rainbow that everyone could hear it.

Princess Celestia and Princess Luna were both looking rather attentively. While Twilight had mentioned this in her earlier letters, she hadn't gone into any detail about Frank's reaction.
Frank just nodded. "It hurt. I suppose that it would have hurt Mr. Rich, Miss Cheerilee, Inkhorn or Featherscribe as well. I actually wonder what effect this spell would have if cast on somepony currently controlled by a switchling. If she knew, I do not remember. I also don't know if this is a lasting thing or if a pony will react normally to the spell after some time passed. I mean, this was just a couple of hours after she had been in my mind."

"Should we give it a try?" Princess Luna suggested, lowering her head slightly.
"No!" Frank shouted and ducked low. Only after some moments, when it was clear that Luna was not going to cast any spell did he straighten himself, looking rather embarrassed.
"Please don't! Not now, it... it really did hurt a lot and also she was trying to take me over in the forest just recently. If you cast that spell I am sure it would be just like it was during the hearing, or worse.
"I think we can do without that", Celestia said and Luna raised her head. "Please continue, Mr. Blanket."
"The switchling was not happy with the result of the hearing. Your announcement that you would continue to look for the actual thief really annoyed her. If I remember correctly to what I did remember in the forest, you said that you were going to talk to Inkhorn while Featherscribe, controlled by the switchling, was there?"

"That's right", Twilight confirmed. "And Featherscribe was very much trying to talk me out of this."
"The switchling was", Frank corrected. "She was worried. If you talked to Inkhorn while she was herself, her memory losses would become obvious and also the lie about the attack. The switchling didn't care much about this if it happened later, at a time when she would be gone... yes, I think I remember that she intended to leave Ponyville as soon as she could. The hearing convinced her that she had drawn too much attention. For the moment however she had maneuvered herself into a very uneasy situation. The hearing had not put an end to your investigations, she knew that you were going to talk to Inkhorn, she herself was posing as Featherscribe with no excuse to leave the town hall and she couldn't just leave Featherscribe there either. In case you talked to Inkhorn and she blew the claim of me attacking her, the switchling was aware that Featherscribe would certainly be asked next and if by that time she was still be around, things could get tricky for her."
"Featherscribe did appear somewhat restless in the afternoon", Mayor Mare said. "I thought that he was just agitated about the whole hearing and that he took it all a bit too personal."
Twilight nodded with a grim smile. She liked the idea that, with all the trouble this attacker had caused, they had at least succeeded to give her some hard time in return.

Tapping a sequence of symbols that included the cutie marks of Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie and Inkhorn, Frank continued: "When she got a chance to leave the town hall under the pretense of eating something at Featherscribe's and Inkhorn's home, she found you two there." Frank nodded at Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash. "And she had to switch from Featherscribe to Inkhorn and back in a matter of minutes to keep up the pretense. This took quite a toll from her and probably from Inkhorn and Featherscribe too. She was getting somewhat scatterbrained... literally. I think she began to notice this herself. Nevertheless, she was still very calculating when fobbing you off with excuses about the earlier pretenses as Inkhorn and also when later on I confronted her, while she was posing as Featherscribe, with the book of Dr. Quircs."
Frank swallowed.

"I was rather excited when I read the book. The symptoms he describes about the victims suffering from loss... or rather lack of memory as well as draining of positive emotion matched the symptoms of Mr. Rich and Miss Cheerilee as you had described them to me. It also explained the symptoms I felt myself, though less prominent because I had been taken over by her for a much shorter time. And of course it was the explanation for the matters in the hearing that I couldn't explain myself, the amulet among my stuff, Mr. Rich's place marked on my map in my own writing and the claim that I had attacked Inkhorn. That's actually something I didn't think of at the time. I was so eager to let you know and also to exonerate myself that I didn't give any thought at all to the fact that the switchling was still around; that either Inkhorn or Featherscribe or both had been under the switchling's control and, as it turned out, still were."

"But that's somethin' Ah don't get", Applejack said. "If I get ya right, you were telling all this to this switchling thing posing as Featherscribe. Why didn't she just try to squash you for good right there, destroy that book and be off? Ah mean I'm glad she didn't...", Applejack hastily added with an almost apologetic look, "...but why in Equestria did she go to Twilight's place and pull off that show as a guard of Princess Luna? If she hadn't done that, chances are she might have gotten away with it."
"I don't know for certain." Frank said a little hesitantly. "But I think that by posing as a guard of Princess Luna and by making sure that she was seen in that appearance before committing the deed, she actually meant to... cast doubts on...", Frank cast a nervous look at Princess Luna and was visibly struggling to find the right words.

"You mean she meant to frame me too?" Princess Luna said with an icy and impatient voice.
Frank just nodded.
"She stressed her claim of being here on your direct orders several times", Twilight said.
"But why? This is so unlikely. Nopony would believe this, I think", Fluttershy said and for a moment an affectionate smile flickered through Princess Luna's face.
"I do not know", Frank Blanket said. "Maybe she thought that such a false trail linked to such a crime would cause a more severe rift than something less spectacular. Maybe her decision about this too was influenced by the stress her mind was under... though I think there was something..."
Frank squeezed his eyes shut and rubbed his forehead, giving every appearance of a pony desperately trying to remember something that had slipped his mind. But he ultimately sighed and shook his head slightly.

"I do not think there must have been something more to this", Princess Celestia said. "For it appears this was not the first attempt of this attacker to link crimes to my sister."
"What?" Princess Luna glared at her elder sister. "Whatever did you detain from us?"
"I didn't detain anything from you", Celestia said very calmly. "Mr. Blanket, you interpreted the crescent among the symbols referring to the attacker's actions at Cloudsdale as a sign that she acted only at night there. It may be so, but there is another possibility, for I have seen this symbol there. Several of the smithereens of broken cloud brewing kettles there had this crescent sign scratched into them."
"And when did you intent to tell about this, sister mine?" Luna asked hotheadedly. "Any doubts about...?"
Celestia gave her a sorrowful look as she shook her head. "None, Luna. Not even for the blink of an eye!"
She reached out for her sister with one hoof.
"I knew how you would feel about this and didn't mention it before while it didn't seem relevant to understanding tonight's events."
Princess Luna nodded curtly.

Author's Note:

Last edited on December 20th 2015.