Sisters in All but Blood

by scifipony

Chapter 3 - Power in Reality

Minuette would fetch a magic detection and removal device from her father's factory. Twinkie would get counter spell books and Lunettes anything she could find on the nightmare pony. Harps and Hearts had researched Nightmare Nights in a folklore course and would pull reference books. Spike would pack while I found my brother.

My BBBFF (Big Brother Best Friend Forever), Shining Armor, had just graduated the Academy and had earned his commission as a lieutenant in the royal guard. Finding him at the headquarters in the castle proved difficult, until I found an old sergeant who took me seriously when I waived the scroll with official seals before her nose. I found him out of uniform at The Hey Burger Joint just outside the bailey gate in downtown Canterlot, sharing a meal with his off-duty comrades. It was still strange to see his blue and indigo mane clipped short for his helmet, but his coat was perfect white and his hooves shiny blue. His magenta eyes alighted on me. He smiled as he pushed his beer away. "No more of your little stories while I'm not here, Crystalline, okay? I'll be right back."

I went and sat in a red leather booth. As I took off my saddlebags, he joined me and said, "Too much studying?"

The weight thumped loudly on the yellow Formica top. I launched into today's revelations.

He gave one of those half-grimace half-smile looks you give your little sister, I suppose, when she's told a whopper.

"Ughhh! I'm serious."

"Celestia is in danger?"

"Equestria's in danger. And I need someone to help me inform her guard."

"I'm not sure I believe you, so how will they?"

"I should've shown you this first…" I levitated out the scroll and and unrolled it in front of him.

His red magic took it. He read it, flipped it around, brought the seal to his eye. "Is this real? It's bad news to be caught with counterfeit—"

"Did you notice my name in big swooooopy calligraphic letters and her signature in real ink?"

"Did you make this—?"

"No! It's hard to believe the princess made me a crown representative, but she did. And if something happens to her..."

He clopped his hooves on the table and swore, "Sweet Celestia!" He glanced at his hushed friends who now stared at us. A waitress, dressed in yellow that clashed with her purple coat, curved discreetly away from our table. In a near whisper, he said, "You'd be the primary suspect.”

That implication silenced us awhile. Then I thought of what Lunettes had implied. “Cadance would fight me.” She was the other alicorn in Equestria.

“Twily, we’re commoners. Mom was an itinerate laborer and Dad a stevedore that taught themselves to read. They migrated to Canterlot during the reconstruction. As far as the peerage is concerned, we’re practically peasants. They would force Cadance to fight, or if they don't like the smell of Cadance's earth-pony village upbringing, they'll appoint a regent of their choosing to challenge you.”

Cadance was the world’s best foal-sitter. She'd attended upper school with Shiny as if she were a normal unicorn without wings, always trying not to be treated special. She had taught me that the only good things to have in your life were the things you earned.

What had I done to earn this?

I said, “You believe me now?”

His forehead was sweating. “What I am is worried. It just sunk in that the princess assigned many of the royal guard around the city for the holiday, and she's not going to be here. The rest are on normal duty here in the castle. Crystalline was just complaining that the princess was only taking carriage guards to Ponyville—pegasi. And the princess denied her request to attend her on the journey.”

“Shining, you make it sound like she is isolating herself. Remember, she scoffed at what I found—”

“—but made you a crown representative.”

“Her only crown representative. Perhaps, with her out of the city, I could order more guards to Ponyville?”

He rested his head on the table and sighed, something I'd seen him doing when he thought about difficult things, like when he and Cadance broke up for a week, or when I blew the wall of my room into the street with my chemistry set thanks to rubber pellets he'd bought me. “It’s not going to work. We studied command structure documents in the academy, and this one—” he tapped his blue shiny hoof on the scroll "—is limited to the orders she gave you. If she is isolating herself, and directing you to Ponyville, alone, she will have registered her wishes with the provost." He got up. "I will go find out."

"Wait. I'll be leaving from the castle courtyard in a half-hour."

"It won't take me ten minutes to track her down."

"And if it is true, and the princess planned this out, could you convince some of your friends to come to Ponyville?"

"There's just a few of us on leave. Just a moment." He trotted over to his friends with the scroll in his magic. At first there were smiles and congratulations, then silence. The white spike-maned albino unicorn Shiny called Crystalline nodded, flipped down her sunglasses and galloped out the door. I met Shiny at the door, where he tucked the scroll into my saddlebags and briefly embraced me. "I'm going to request leave from the provost, Twily."

He galloped across the cobblestone street, parting wagon- and hoof-traffic alike. In moments, he passed through the bailey gate, under portcullises that suddenly looked ominous.

I met Spike outside my ivory tower, loading my used junker of a wagon with notebooks and suitcases in the hot summer sun. He adjusted the harness behind my shoulder and across my chest, then gave the big four-wheeler a push to get me started. I was quite a sight, a runty purple unicorn sweating as she pulled a dilapidated earth pony's market wagon, and though nopony said a thing, I could feel eyes on me as I passed through the mercantile district and rolled past the townhouse mansions of the wealthy. Me, Twilight Sparkle, Crown Representative, theoretically first in line for the succession. When a wagon wheel caught in a rain gutter before the bailey gate, I almost cried. An earth pony guard trotted up and pushed the wagon forward as I lifted the heavy thing with my magic back on to the road.

The girls came running when I entered the courtyard. Hearts magicked me out of the harness, saying, "You could have asked your friends for help, you know."

That was actually a foreign concept, I thought tiredly. Nice idea, though.

She pulled it the final distance to the three chariots, each staffed with two white pegasus carriage guards. As we loaded up, I learned that many of the books everypony looked for were already on branch loan to the Golden Oak library. Nothing slightly schizophrenic about that, right?

The pegasi were insisting we leave when Shining finally showed up.

Between breaths, he said, "It's worse than I feared. Provost has specific orders about what you are doing with your commission through dawn tomorrow, 'to satisfy the peerage.' Nopony is assigned to a Ponyville detail, and everypony is assigned here as if it were a normal day. Leave was cancelled for a bunch of ponies I thought would be free. I have half-convinced my superior to substitute me for a royal courier this evening, but he may decide…" He shook himself hard enough to flap his mane. "I will be there, little sister. You are in the service of the princess, now, Twili; assure her safety!"

He turned and rushed back through the open castle doors. I heard him faintly say, "And your own."

Harps whispered, "It is a conspiracy."

Author's Note:

Yeah, I favor a grittier reality. I've also got this thing about wanting to explain away the plot holes in the first two episodes. Silly me.

I hope you like this third installment. Two more are in cleanup, and when I get enough sleep, I'm going to continue writing new chapters.

As always, I request a critique from any willing reader. Since I am writing and posting prior to finishing the story, I'd certainly like to fix plot holes and other such embarrassments. Please be specific, and write what you thought I said so I can properly evaluate my story from your POV.

Please follow me to be informed when I post new chapter updates.

Comments

[Doppler Effect]

I'm really liking your take on filling in the plot holes. You've done a really good job of having similar events to canon but with a clever explanation for why. Have to laugh at "specific orders about what you are doing with your commission through dawn tomorrow" in this context too. Someone in the peerage is going to have a heart attack when they parse that against "the night will last forever!".

I'm enjoying the nice, slow progression of Twilight towards friendship as well - in the previous chapter she more or less called the rest her friends because she couldn't think of a better way to phrase it when directly asked, and here she's having to be told that she can look for help from her friends. All in all, a pretty good way of setting up that she's not really friends with these ponies before this point and letting her properly make friends with them during the story.

Just a few small typos: one instance of "Candance" instead of "Cadance" in this chapter, and one instance of "must of" instead of "must have" in the previous one.

[scifipony]

6198029

setting up that she's not really friends with these ponies before this point and letting her properly make friends with them during the story.

Thank you for the timely critique. This is exactly it--taken from my subconscious, blasted across my consciousness. I'm cleaning up chapter 5 now; you've made me realize I was beginning to veer from the essential friendship lesson. Consider me back on course! And I have a new perspective about how to write chapter 6 where Twilight deals with the aftermath of her failures.

I am in your debt.

[Doppler Effect]

6198189
Glad to help.

[John Tannius]

Twilight is obviously their friend, she just hasn't figured out the opposite is also true.

[Emperor]

Man, I'm almost beginning to wonder if Twilight's going to be the Element of Magic in this story, or if it'll be somepony else. I always delight in seeing fics where Celestia plots things out and Twilight ends up as a different element (Celestia doesn't really plot much here, but she still does set things up).