Half the Day is Night

by AugieDog

Chapter 9

The others had gone on talking--"planning strategy," Twilight had called it--but Fluttershy couldn't focus on anything but the upcoming party at some strange stallion's house. It made her stomach tighten, and her breath got so loud and raggedy, Applejack had finally suggested she go lie down for awhile.

Pinkie had volunteered to take her back to the Night Palace, but Fluttershy hadn't wanted to be any trouble. Panic building, trying to think of something soothing she could do without bothering anypony, the picture and the words had just popped into her head: "I'll just...just go out into the garden," she'd said.

To be honest, she'd been hoping for an excuse all day to get outside. The palaces were very pretty, of course, but nothing about them breathed the way a flower or a tree or a bird did. The stones of the walls sat around tame and shaped and settled, not like real stones, all funny and lumpy and friendly. The buildings looked like the guard ponies, she realized as she hurried past the two standing outside the sitting room door: stern and kind of scary, like they didn't really want her there.

Fluttershy picked up her pace, the scent of fresh air and growing things tugging at her; down the stairs, around some corners, knowing the way even though she hadn't used these corridors before, galloping now almost, blushing at the stares of the ponies she passed in the hallways, she gave one final burst of speed and came out into--

The sunlight of a late fall afternoon, so crisp it seemed to rustle against her like freshly-dried blankets. She breathed a silent 'thank you' to Princess Luna for the feeling, closed her eyes and just felt the whole day caressing her skin, a breeze as smooth as milk and twice as tasty, damp earth somewhere ahead calling to her. She soaked in it, her heart settling for the first time since this had all started Saturday morning, opened her eyes, and stepped through the little gate into the palace gardens.

Everything had been trimmed back for the approaching winter, of course, the loam sleepy under her hoofs, many of the trees and bushes already with their leaves run off--though the untrampeled ground made Fluttershy wonder if the unicorns used magic to help the foliage get ready for its winter nap. Still, she found herself gasping with nearly every step she took, the aromas and the colors and lovely murmurings of the branches and twigs as they--

"Eep!" somepony squeaked off to her left, and Fluttershy jumped into the air, ready to head for open sky if it was--

A little unicorn filly a slightly darker yellow than Fluttershy herself, her eyes gray, her mane and tail a purple so deep it was almost black. No cutie mark showed on her flank, and she seemed every bit as terrified as Fluttershy: "Please don't throw me in jail!" she wailed.

"Jail?" Fluttershy blinked down at the filly. "Of course not! Why would I ever do that??"

"'Cause I'm trespassing!" Tears welled up in her eyes. "I ought to be in school right now and my brother says if the guards or the gardeners or the princess catches me, they'll throw me in jail for sure!"

"Oh, I'm sure they wouldn't!" Fluttershy reached a front hoof for a leaf of the fern they were standing beside and bent it down to the filly. "Dry your eyes. I won't tell anypony you're here."

The filly wiped her nose on the fern leaf, then jumped back like she'd been stung. "But you're one of the princess's advisers or something! I saw you and the rest of them this morning with the princess, and I've seen you somewhere before, too! I know it!"

And as much as Fluttershy wanted to hide, she couldn't help asking, "You mean you've been here since this morning? But...but it's past lunchtime now!"

"I know." The filly hung her head. "I just...I just wanted to--" She looked back up, her horn glowing with sudden fire. "Everypony says such awful things about Princess Luna! But I know she's not mean anymore! I can see in her eyes how sorry she is, but my mom and my dad and my brother and at school, they all just...they don't understand!" Her horn sputtered out, and she sniffed. "I just wanted to...I don't know. To tell the princess that I...that she...that she wasn't all by herself is all. I guess..."

Fluttershy's heart beat faster, but not with fear for a change. "That's very nice of you," she said. "And in fact--" She settled back onto the ground. "If you don't mind too much, may I ask your name?"

The filly blinked. "I'm Juniper Borealis, ma'am, but--"

"And can you use the magic of your horn to untie this ribbon from my mane, Juniper?"

"Ribbon?" Juniper's eyes got even bigger. "But...you were all wearing those ribbons! Even the princess!"

"That's right." Fluttershy smiled her gentlest smile, the one she used when animals were hurt or scared or confused. "And if you wear it around your horn, even if you can't get close enough to the princess to talk to her, she'll see it. And then she'll know you're her friend, too."

The amazement that blossomed over Juniper's face pushed the last of her tears away. "You...you really mean it?"

"I do." Fluttershy lowered her head.

Another moment, then Juniper's horn blazed up again. Fluttershy felt some tugging at her mane, and the ribbon came away, Fluttershy's mane falling forward to half-cover her face again. "Wow..." Juniper breathed out, her eyes focused upward, the ribbon slowly wrapping her horn and tying itself into a bow. "That's--" Her gaze came back down, and she jumped back with a gasp. "You're Fluttershy! From the magazines! I knew I'd seen you, but with your hair back, I wasn't sure! But it's really, really you!"

Fluttershy forced her smile not to waver. "It is me. Now, will you help Princess Luna by wearing your ribbon?"

"I will!" Juniper's face lit up, her every tear vanished. But just as quickly, the wrinkles returned to her brow. "But...what will you do for your ribbon?"

"Oh, don't worry." Fluttershy patted Juniper between the ears. "My friend Rarity has lots of them. But you'd better get home, Juniper, before your parents get worried."

"I will!" Juniper cried out again. "And thank you, Fluttershy! Thank you so much!" The little unicorn reared up on her hind legs and waved her front hoofs in the air. "I've got a red ribbon! I've got a red ribbon!" She spun then and dashed for the garden's gate.

***

Twilight couldn't help smiling as Fluttershy breathily told them about her encounter in the garden. "So you're right, Rarity!" she finished with an excitement that Twilight rarely heard from her. "We can help the princess by being us!"

Rarity was nodding and rubbing her chin. "And the ribbons will make lovely tokens to pass out as well." She raised her voice. "If that's all right, Pinkie Pie?"

Pinkie had built two book towers by now and was busily constructing a tunnel to connect them, something Twilight would have disapproved of, but, well, the books here, she'd already noted, were copies of old agricultural manuals used by young unicorns to practice the techniques of magically working a quill pen. "It's great," Pinkie said, absently waving a hoof. "Lemme just get this flying buttress nailed down, and we can go cut 'em."

She set a few more books out, and Pinkie, Rarity and Fluttershy left, heading for Rarity's workroom. "We'll meet back here just before sundown for the procession to the Night Palace," Twilight told them, then turned to Rainbow Dash, still lounging against her cloud. "If you'd like to sit in on our meeting with--"

The cloud vanished, Dash sitting forward and shaking her head. "Meetings and me are allergic to each other." She stood, stretched, flared her wings, and jumped into a hover. "I've been wanting to take a turn around town, give it a look from the air. I'll be back for the big parade, though!" And she shot out the window, Applejack grabbing her hat to keep it from blowing off.

"Allergic," Applejack muttered. She blew out a breath. "You an' me, then, I reckon, Twilight."

The clock said twenty minutes to three, and Twilight settled deeper into the cushion, determined not to spend the time sunk in worry. Just because she was about to interrogate two ponies her parents had known for years, whose houses she'd been to, whose children had been her first playmates--but never her friends, she realized, smiling at Applejack, dozing on her own cushion beside the window. For all that she'd grown up with Ory and his sisters and that whole herd of Daybreak foals, she hadn't really known them, hadn't really known anypony till all the events that had brought her to Ponyville two summers ago...

A light knock startled her from her thoughts; the door opened, and one of the white and gold armored guard ponies stuck his head in. "Minister Sparkle? Lord Daybreak and Lady Stargazer are here."

Twilight blinked at him, looked at the clock, saw it still showed nearly a quarter till three. Applejack had roused herself by this time, and the quizzical look she gave Twilight summed up Twilight's own thoughts. "O...K. Show them in, then, please, lieutenant."

He bowed, pushed the door the rest of the way open, turned to face the hallway, and the two unicorns came trotting in, Lord Daybreak looking older than Twilight remembered, the white streaks in his steel blue mane wider than before, but Lady Stargazer seeming quite chipper, a sporty red shawl around her shoulders that set off the blackish-green of her coat quite nicely. Twilight stepped forward with a smile she only partly felt: "Lord Daybreak, Lady Stargazer, may I present my friend Applejack?"

Applejack had also climbed to her hoofs, gave the two a slight bow, the open suspicion on her face ruffling Twilight's mane a little, but "Pleased to meet'cha" was all the earth pony said.

Lady Stargazer gave a laugh. "Oh, now, Twilight, I'm not really Lady Stargazer anymore, so please, both of you, call me Phillipa." She nodded toward Lord Daybreak. "Unlike poor old Bucephalus here, I'm out of the government game now, and let me tell you, I feel ten years younger." Her hazel-brown eyes wrinkled with her smile. "But look at you, Twilight! Right here at the princess's right hoof! Just like we always knew!"

A snort from Lord Daybreak. "Wrong princess, though, and a damned nuisance this whole thing's been." But he smiled, his eyes dark blue and his coat the deep honey-gold of a summer dawn. "But Phil's right: it's good to see you again, girl. And good to meet you, Minister Applejack."

So many memories washed around inside Twilight's head, she found herself tongue-tied. Fortunately-- "Y'all're a little early," Applejack said, waving a hoof at some of the other cushions. "But we really 'ppreciate yer time an' hope not to take up too much of it."

Lord Daybreak nodded and sat, Lady Stargazer--no, Twilight corrected herself; Phillipa--Phillipa tucking herself onto the cushion beside his. "Hard to believe," she said, shaking her head, "that anypony would actually do something as horrible as dropping that beam on the crowd this morning!"

"Oh, they weren't," Applejack said, taking her own seat again.

"Weren't?" Twilight blinked at her friend. "Weren't what?"

"Weren't droppin' it on the crowd." Applejack shrugged. "Not really, I mean. Whoever done it knew there'd be plenty enough unicorns in the audience to stop it from fallin' even if Princess Luna didn't see it and stop it herself. They didn't want nopony gettin' hurt, after all."

For the second time in as many minutes, Twilight found herself speechless. Lord Daybreak, though, made several sputtering noises before finally getting out: "Didn't want anypony getting hurt?? Really, minister! You make it sound like some sort of foalish joke!"

"That it surely weren't, sir." Applejack sounded more serious than Twilight had ever heard her. "Can't rightly say what our culprit had in mind, but whatever they're playin' at, they wanted to let us know they could easily be playin' for keeps." She leaned forward. "I was actually hopin' to get any thoughts you two might have had 'bout all this. Seein' as how y'all know Canterlot inside-out an' sideways an' all."

Lord Daybreak nodded. "The Day Ministry is entirely dedicated to catching whoever's behind this foul deed. An attack on the Day Palace is an attack upon all of Equestria, and that it should happen at such a sensitive time in our history, a history we all thought was mere legend just over a year ago, well, it's the gravest threat I can recall during all my years as Day Minister! I only wish I knew a way to contact our princess! Surely she would return then and set this whole matter--"

"She would," came Princess Luna's voice from the other end of the room, and Twilight leaped to her hoofs again, bowed to the floor, the others doing the same. "And however much I would like to call her, Minister Daybreak, I don't believe Sister Celestia would consider that the best answer to the problem we've had set before us."

"Set before us?" Lord Daybreak straightened from his bow and blinked at the princess as she stepped lightly across the carpet to settle on a cushion beside Applejack. "Forgive me, your Highness, but you make it sound as if this were--"

"A test!" Eyes wide, Phillipa Stargazer took half a step forward. "Of course! Oh, I was a fool not to see it before! She needs to see how we all work together, and what better way to do that than to rig up this whole--!"

"No!" Twilight couldn't keep her voice down. "Princess Celestia would never do such a thing! I mean, dropping a huge metal beam on an unsuspecting crowd?? That's...that's--!"

"That's politics," Lord Daybreak muttered.

"Politics?" Twilight blinked at him.

Phillipa turned, cocked her head at Twilight. "And if there's one thing Princess Celestia is, it's a consummate politician. Watching her work a crowd, getting them to do what she wants while making them think it's their idea, pretending to involve them in decisions she's already made: everything I know about governing, I learned from her." She looked back at Princess Luna. "And I think you're right, your Highness. Calling her now would be a definite mistake."

"Quite so." Lord Daybreak gestured with a hoof. "After all, as Minister Applejack said, there's no real danger here." He blew out a breath. "That is quite the load off my mind, I have to say. If this is all just a test,--"

"But it isn't!" Surprised she had the self-control not to shout, Twilight still felt herself blush. "It can't be! I mean, I've been Princess Celestia's student since I was old enough to talk, and--"

"And I," Phillipa said, the kindness in her voice making Twilight's face get even hotter, "have been her student since your parents were young." She patted Twilight's hoof. "I know it's hard discovering that your shining princess, the ideal of all your thoughts and dreams, isn't really all that different from the rest of us." She stood, bowed to Princess Luna, and Twilight saw the princess was looking away, such sadness on her face, Twilight almost cried out. "It's one reason I'm glad you did away with the Night Ministry, your Highness. Your honest insistence that you could do your job yourself got me out of the grinder, and I thank you for that every afternoon when I'm not girding up for another trip over here to mix it up with the rest of the politicians."

Lord Daybreak got to his hoofs as well. "Quite a productive meeting, Minister Applejack, Minister Sparkle, your Highness." His smile beamed, and Twilight could almost smell the relief rolling off him. "If we can keep up this level of cooperation, we'll certainly show Princess Celestia she's got nothing to worry about!" He bowed to Princess Luna, and she gave the scarcest bob of her head in return. "So!" he continued, looking at the clock. "Sunset in just under two hours! See you all there!" Almost a skip in his step, he headed for the door, Phillipa right behind him.

The only sound in the room after the door clicked shut was the ticking of the clock, and it took Twilight several of those ticks to find her voice. "You know Princess Celestia wouldn't do this, your Highness!"

"It makes sense," Princess Luna said softly, still not meeting Twilight's gaze. "She needs to know she can trust me not to go all Nightmare again at the first little crisis. And what better way to do that than to make up a crisis and--"

Twilight jumped the distance between herself and the princess, slid onto her knees in front of her, grabbed her hoofs between hers and stared up into her startled eyes. "Do you trust me, Princess Luna?"

A few more ticks of the clock, a few blinks, and the princess said, "Of...of course I do!"

"Then trust me on this. Princess Celestia wouldn't do this to you. She wouldn't do it to us. And she certainly wouldn't do it to all the ponies in Equestria."

Applejack's sigh made Twilight's ears perk. "I reckon it that way, too, ma'am. Them ruffians Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie caught, they don't seem to me the sort Princess Celestia'd turn to if'n she was puttin' any sorta plan together." Twilight turned, saw Applejack frowning at the door. "Them two as just left, though, them I ain't too sure about."

And as much as Twilight wanted to jump up and shout that they couldn't be involved any more than Princess Celestia was, she found just enough doubt in her to wonder...

"Very well." Princess Luna's voice was still soft, but she didn't sound nearly as lost any more. "Continue your investigation, Minister Applejack, but quietly. Perhaps we can lure the culprits out by making them think we're no longer searching for them." Twilight looked back, found she was still holding the princess's hoofs, the princess smiling down at her. "And thank you, Minister Sparkle."

Twilight moved to let go, her blush back, but the princess was bending her head, touching her horn to Twilight's, a sound like a crystal chime sending a wave of sweet warmth running straight out to the tip of her tail and making her catch her breath.

Then Princess Luna was rising, turning for the door, saying, "Four thirty, ministers, if you'd be so kind, in the hall of the Day Palace. Sunset's at 4:44 this afternoon." And by the time Twilight could get her hoofs back underneath her to stand, the princess was out the door and gone.

Comments

[q97randomguy]

Pinkie Pie is best architect.
What 'bout me?

[musicluvr1974]

What 'bout me?

Applebloom is best architect-in-training... or Wrench Wench.

[Swiftest]

Ah yes, I remember this part having been a bit irksome to me first time I read before as well. Applejack's conclusion came completely out of nowhere, having no way she could possibly have come up with that.

And I would have called how quickly Phillipa and Daybreak concluded the meeting a pacing issue, if not for the fact that the speed is also what raised suspicions on them.

Ah well, so far, it's pretty close to how I remember it. Able to spot a few technical errors (that isn't strictly grammatical), but not enough to deter me completely.

[AugieDog]

4575124

One of my several theories:

About earth pony magic is that it often manifests itself in an ability to notice things other ponies don't and then draw correct conclusions based on those observations--super-detective skills like Sherlock Holmes or Batman. I was playing around with that idea in all Applejack and Pinkie's scenes here and really get into it more in the next thing I wrote, An Infinite Number of Pinkies.

Mike

[Carnation83]

I actually can buy that Celestia would set something like this up. I see her as someone who is scary good at the chessmaster/batman gambit stuff. Why else does she have the Mane 6 do all the crazy stuff in the show when she could've helped?

[Xanni]

"consomate" is a typo for "consummate".