The demon among us

by Captain Ravioli

The investigation

Princess Celestia looked towards Canterlot from her balcony, from there point she could see ponies going around, minding their business, however, she could see them moving with wariness, eyeing each other, she even saw a stallion jump back in surprise when he bumped somepony, Celestia could relate to them. Three days have passed since both the sun and the moon changed color and both the royal guard and the princesses have been on high alert, expecting something to happen.

“But nothing. “ Celestia whispered. “Still nothing. “

She put a foreleg on the back of her neck, trying to massage her tense withers to no avail, she just lowered her head and sighed before going back to her room. Said room was surprisingly spartan, it barely had any amenities but a desktop, a small bookshelf on one side, and her bed, covered in pillows next to a perch where her pet phoenix Philomena was perched at the moment and a chimney on the other. Currently her desktop was riddled with books, some open and covered with notes. She sat on a pillow in front of it.

Celestia frowned as she began to read to herself.

“Alright, there are two kinds of magical interference, “ she opened a book and read a part of it, “The indirect way, whiiiiich... “ she read a small hoofnote on the page, “Can be caused by either unicorn flares or strange phenomena, “ she changed the page with her magic, “Said interferences affect the immediate surrounding area and stop after the unicorn stops or the phenomena ends, “ She closed said book and opened another, “The direct way…“ she trailed off as her frown increased, “Is deliberately caused by an unicorn or a magical artifact with the intention of interference,“ she opened another book, “These can be stopped by either forcefully stopping the source of interference or by forcefully removing it, however,“ a bead of sweat began to form on her forehead, “In order to do so, the affected needs to be more skilled or powerful than the affecter,“ this made her more tense so she decided to close the book and refresh herself.

Celestia entered her bathroom and walked towards a big mirror on her vanity table and she took a look at herself: everything looking fine –Mighty fine if she could say so– except for the bags around her eyes, and after glaring at them for a while she closed her eyes gave a deep sight. As she walked towards her desktop she reminded herself to call the maidens for some coffee.

In her room her sister awaited, she was carrying a grimace on her face.

“Greetings, sister. “ Princess Luna to her said in an even tone.

“Hello, Lulu, didn’t hear you enter. “ Celestia answered.

Luna turned her back on her as she began to roam Celestia’s room, stopping in front of the perch where Philomena was, after looking at her of a while she extended a foreleg for Philomena to stand on. The phoenix looked at said foreleg warily before jumping towards it. This caused Luna to smile softly, her grimace returning shortly after.

“What are your findings, Tia? “ She said without looking at her.

“Long story short: somepony is doing it of using something to do so. “

“We came to the same conclusion, Tia. “ Luna was still not looking at her, “Sister, you know that the act of moving the celestial bodies requires an enormous amount of power, and by proxy changing the color of them also does.“ Luna extended her wing and used it to caress the phoenix in her foreleg for some time before speaking again. “If somepony is using an artifact to cause this, we will simply retrieve said artifact, but, “ she lowered her head, “If somepony is causing this… we must be ready. “

“And we are sister, I have sent my guard to sweep the country looking for an anomaly; I assume you did the same.“

“And you would be right, but I am afraid nothing noteworthy has been found. “

“Same here. “

Both sisters remained silent, the only sound the happy chirping of Philomena while it nuzzled Luna.

“I do not like this Tia. “ Luna broke the silence. “We have faced many enemies in the past, enough times to recognize when somepony is taunting us, mocking us by tainting the source of our cutie marks. Yet what worries me is that this… enemy has not made a move against us, or Equestria. That means she or he is expecting us to make our move, add that we do not know anything about her… or him and…–“ Luna finally turned her head towards Celestia “–I do not like this sister. “ she finished in an almost pleading tone.

“I don’t like this either, Luna, “ Celestia picked her tone, Luna probably wanted her to have a solution, just like she had a solution for any problem that arose in Equestria, “And you are right, the enemy probably wants us to make a wrong move before attacking, but we will not blindly do anything, that’s why I tasked Princess Twilight with finding a way to locate our enemy, “ Celestia smiled, she knew that Twilight would do that, and more, “And by knowing her or his location, we will act. “ she looked at Luna with her own hopeful eyes, “How does that sound sister? “

“That sounds... acceptable. “ Luna let Philomena go back to its perch, “I only hope that she finishes her task with haste, for our subjects grow weary of this situation, “ Luna walked towards Celestia “Now, in other matters…“ Celestia raised an eyebrow, she didn’t remember anything of importance that required her attention.

“You should really get some sleep, sister. “