The Mare from the Moon

by Evilhumour

Chapter Nineteen

“What do you mean you’re going away, Twilight?” Spike said in surprise, speaking for all the others in the room several hours later. Snöflinga’s operation had gone well, but he was still asleep for now, and Starlight had come back from visiting Sunburst with the stallion and Flurry Heart joining her.

“Just what I said,” Twilight told him. “Princess Celestia wants to meet Cadance and I and take us somewhere for a while.” She stretched one foreleg out, placing her hoof against his shoulder. “It shouldn’t take more than a day or so, though I expect Princess Celestia will want us to stay a bit longer. We’ll be back soon, I promise.”

“But where, you can tell me that at least, right?” Spike asked.

Twilight’s eyes fluttered and she thought of what she could say and what was appropriate for her to say. “I am going to someplace called the Valley of Alicorns; it is considered hallowed grounds for alicorns and that is one of the main reasons why you cannot come.”

“So when am I to-” Spliced began only for Twilight to turn on her.

“You’re not coming either,” Twilight said sharply.

“But I am one-”

“Not in the sense that counts right now,” Twilight kept her tone firm, unwilling to bend even a fraction. Knowing what she did about her destination, it would be a mistake of catastrophic proportions to bring Spliced along.

Spliced frowned at this and raised her hoof as if to make some complaint only for Starlight to snicker. She whipped her head to glare at Starlight, and seemed about to start arguing with her again only to look back at Twilight and wisely keep her mouth shut. Looking at her former student who looked mollified by Spliced’s display of self-control, Twilight cleared her throat.

“As such, we will be leaving shortly; Spike, Starlight, please come here,” she waved them over and then whispered two different strings of nonsense words directly into their ears, one for each of them. “Remember them; when we come back and if I do not immediately repeat those words to the both of you correctly, send off a letter to Discord immediately telling him a false sun has risen. He will be authorized full control of Equestria at that point and he will be your best chance of…” Twilight paused, a frown on her face as she was getting close to saying something she couldn’t tell them. “If it is not me, then Discord is everypony’s best chance.”

“So when are you going, Twilight?” Pharynx asked in a grumbling tone; Twilight remembered that he was still in a cranky mood after one of their nurses had snapped his picture after he’d left the operating room and then run off with the camera, transforming back into her true changeling shape before flying out of the castle and, if Twilight was correct, heading straight back to the hive. She had a feeling that Pharynx would be having words with his brother after he got back himself.

“Soon; Celestia and Luna are coming here to hear Snöflinga’s story and then we’ll be leaving,” Twilight said as she tilted her head towards the room where the sleeping windigo lay. After they got back and if he was well enough, Cadance was going to assign an expedition to explore the cave where they’d found him, another to hopefully find where the Fires of Friendship were supposedly first ignited because if his friends really were the founders of Equestria he might know, and one to the migration grounds of his tribe.

Snöflinga definitely was of that time and of their dimension; a quick test of his necklace had placed it at being the right age and a test of his background magical signature matched their own. Only Spliced’s was different as she was from another dimension.

Speaking of the other alicorn… Twilight saw her gazing curiously at Flurry Heart, who was currently peacefully resting on Cadance’s back. Cadance’s eyes flashed as she saw Spliced looking at her daughter, but she made no move to caution Spliced away just yet, since she was only looking. And even though she was not Flurry Heart’s mother, Twilight felt an urge to scare the mare away from her niece. The idea of Spliced with Flurry Heart just did not seem right to her, especially with what Cadance had said earlier. However, Flurry Heart herself hadn’t seemed bothered by the other mare’s presence; when Sunburst and Starlight had brought her into the room with all of them, the little filly had merely burbled in Spliced’s direction and waved her wings out before cuddling up to her mother; she hadn’t seemed scared or upset at all.

Thinking back for a moment, Twilight also considered her niece’s reaction to their other visitor, and how she had seemed very happy when Pharynx passed by her, but he’d just glanced at her and kept going. Though Twilight swore she’d seen the faintest traces of a smile at the edge of his mouth as he’d done so. She wondered if Thorax had mentioned to his brother of how Flurry had been accepting of him right from the beginning, before any of them besides Spike, and if that might have had something to do with it. Come to think of it, she was pretty sure the only one Flurry Heart had ever reacted to with any outright negativity was Chrysalis.

“Hi Cady,” Shining Armor said as he came into the room. Then his eyes drifted to her back. “Hey there,” he greeted Flurry Heart. “How’s my little foal?”

Flurry Heart giggled and waved her hooves up at him as he levitated her up, her wings again spreading out. Twilight smiled as she saw her niece being hugged, then glanced over at Spliced, whose eyes were wide as they went from Flurry Heart to Shining Armor, then to Cadance, and back. She kept silent, but Twilight could practically smell the smoke coming from her ears as thoughts whirled in her head.

Apparently Cadance had noticed too, because she gave Spliced a look. Nervously, Spliced turned away, but her ears were still flicking as she did so, and Twilight couldn’t help but wonder just what she was thinking about.

“So!” Shining Armor moved Flurry Heart around to his own back. “Since our guest is still asleep and the doctors are keeping an eye on him for now, what say we find somewhere else to sit down and enjoy ourselves while we wait for him to wake up?”

Cadance nodded. “I’ll lead the way,” she said, marching out of the room with the others trotting after her. As Twilight brought up the rear, she couldn’t help but watch Spliced, who seemed nervous about something, but she wasn’t sure what.

A little while later, the nine of them had gathered in the royal suite, and Shining Armor was happily holding Flurry Heart while they chatted.

“So,” he was saying. “Aside from finding Snöflinga, things have been relatively quiet around here. No ancient tyrants returning, no incursions by Chrysalis - and believe me, after the last time, we’re keeping an eye out for her,” he said in a low tone. “We are getting ready for another Crystal Faire, but that’s still a ways off. And given your involvement in the last one, we’d love to have you two and all of your friends up for it,” he told Twilight and Spike.

“We’d be honored,” Twilight told him with a smile.

“Question,” Spliced suddenly spoke up. “What’s a Crystal Faire?”

“Oh, that?” Spike puffed out a bit. “It’s this festival where we all celebrate to lift the spirits of the Crystal Ponies. The positive emotions they emanate help strengthen the Crystal Heart so it can protect the Empire, like it did when Sombra tried to take over again.”

“I see.” Twilight could tell she was barely refraining from rolling her eyes, and she decided to speak up.

“It’s true,” she said. “The Crystal Heart is the very same piece of Cosmic Spectrum stone that Princess Amore used to create the Crystal Empire in the first place thousands of years ago. It absorbs and re-emanates both positive and negative emotions, and if it’s powered by positive emotions, it can be a powerful defense against evil forces like King Sombra.”

Spliced looked intrigued. “So it’s an amplifier that works best with a positive charge?” she asked. “That makes a lot more sense than I was expecting.” Then she looked around. “And who’s this… Sombra?”

“He was a unicorn who became corrupted by dark magic and overthrew Princess Amore, trying to turn the Empire’s power against the rest of the world until my aunts defeated him,” Cadance spoke up. “At least, that’s what we know. There are rumors about his origins, but nothing confirmed yet. What we do know is that he was somehow able to make the entire Empire vanish into thin air for over a thousand years, and it only returned when he’d gained enough power to feel ready to take control of it again and prepare for a second attack on Equestria. This time, once Twilight and Spike found where he’d hidden the Crystal Heart during his takeover and Spike got it back to me in time, we managed to fully empower it and made him dissipate for good… at least, I hope it’s for good.” She looked at Shining Armor, who laid a hoof around her.

“Ouch.” Spliced shook her head. “I hope you’re right; he sounds like a nasty character.”

“He was,” Twilight said. Then she thought of something. “Speaking of nasty characters, didn’t you say you had a possible way of tracking down Chrysalis?”

“Right!” Spliced’s eyes brightened. “Like I told your aunt back in Canterlot, we’d need to use a thaumatic blanketing array set to the hive’s biological and thaumatic markers. It would not only allow us to track her, it would reveal her true form, and then you could use a thaumatic dampener to neutralize her thaumatics.”

“Thau-whatsits?” Pharynx asked.

“A fancier name for magic, if I’m not mistaken,” Sunburst suddenly spoke up. “I was told it’s the one her people use, apparently.”

“Right. As long as it works.” Pharynx sat back, satisfied.

The room settled into silence for a moment, until finally Spliced, her eyes fixed on Flurry Heart again, looked at the others. “I’m sorry, but… could I have a word with you three in private for a few minutes? This is kind of personal, and it involves your daughter…”

Cadance and Shining Armor exchanged glances, and then Cadance nodded. “Twilight comes with us,” she said.

“I have no objection to that.” Spliced rose, and as Cadance accepted Flurry Heart from her husband the little filly looked at Spliced and burbled again.

Spliced said nothing, but followed Shining Armor out of the room, Twilight and Cadance right after her.

Once the five had settled into a room, and Twilight had erected a sound-scrambling field around them all, Spliced gazed at Flurry Heart. “I’m sorry if this seems insensitive, but I have to ask if I can perform a quick identification scan on her thaumatics,” she said. “A very basic one, just to confirm something I’ve suspected since I first laid eyes on her.”

Cadance gave her a wary look. “Can you tell Twilight how to do it instead?” she asked frostily.

Spliced closed her eyes for a moment. “I can,” she said quietly. Then she turned to Twilight and began carefully explaining what she had in mind.

After a moment, Twilight nodded. “I know that spell,” she said. “It’s one that doctors used in the old days if a patient had been so badly injured that they weren’t sure what their tribe was anymore. But their magic was still the same, despite outer injuries.” She looked confused. “I’m not sure why you’d want to cast it on Flurry Heart though.”

“I promise, I’ll explain everything,” Spliced said in a strained tone. “And it will make sense in the end.”

Cadance still looked worried, but she nodded to Twilight, whose horn lit up. For a moment, Flurry Heart glowed, but it soon faded, and Twilight nodded at Cadance.

“Perfectly healthy for an alicorn,” she reported. “All four kinds in relatively even amounts; a little higher on pegasus magic, but certainly not harmful.” Then she looked at Spliced. “Okay, why did you want to know?”

Spliced looked down. “Well, it’s her wings,” she said. “They’re far larger than I’d expect for a foal of her age, even one of our kind. And she has higher amounts of pegasus thaumatics. That implies an increased thaumatical precedence, and… well, since one of her parents is an - alicorn, it says to me that the father-”

“Had to be a pegasus and not a unicorn like I am, is that what you’re saying?” Shining Armor asked in a dangerous tone.

Spliced gulped and nodded. “Genetically, it just makes sense, and I am sorry if bringing this up offends you, but I felt you needed to know the truth.”

Cadance and Shining Armor exchanged glances.

Then their lips twitched.

A moment later, Twilight was glad for the sound-scrambling spell she’d put up, and wished she’d had time to put one up around herself too, because her brother and sister-in-law were laughing hysterically.

When the two had calmed down, Cadance had something of a smile on her face. “Oh, that… I needed that,” she said as she tried to catch her breath.

Spliced cocked her head. “What’s so funny?”

“Miss Genome, do you really think you’re the first pony to imply that Cadance was with a stallion besides me?” Shining Armor asked as he wiped a last few tears of laughter away. “Hay, Cadance’s sort of cousin Blueblood took me aside and tried to convince me that I couldn’t possibly be Flurry Heart’s father after the first time he met her! Of course, he was also trying to tell me, in his own snide way, that I must be less of a stallion if my wife was stepping out on me like that, and that it’s not surprising for a non-unicorn to act that way. Didn’t matter though, we both knew better.”

Spliced looked at them. “But… it’s the only logical explanation…” she said faintly.

“Spliced Genome.” Cadance shook her head. “I won’t deny it, Flurry Heart does come from pegasus blood.

“But she gets it from me.”

Spliced’s eyes widened, then she felt a hoof on her shoulder and turned to see Twilight looking at her, a faint smile on her face. “Spliced, you remember how I said I used to be a unicorn, but ascended and became an alicorn?”

Spliced nodded curiously. “I still don’t know how that’s possible…”

“Oh, it’s very possible,” Cadance said. “And I couldn’t have been prouder of her when she did it.”

“Me neither,” Shining Armor added.

Twilight blushed, then turned back to Spliced. “At any rate, I wasn’t the first to become an alicorn like that,” she said. “When I ascended, I got my wings… Cadance got her horn.”

Spliced’s eyes darted back to Cadance. “So you were born a pegasus…” she said faintly. “Oh my goodness, I am so sorry, I just...” She shook her head. “This world just keeps astounding me.”

Cadance smiled. “It’s okay,” she said softly. “You genuinely thought you were doing the right thing, and you asked for privacy when you did it instead of blurting it out in front of a crowd like some ponies might…” Her face darkened for a moment.

“Oh yeah,” Shining Armor said. “Remember that one guy who thought he could make a name for himself about a month after she was born, by bursting into the palace ballroom during this whole big gathering we were having and yelling about you being a ‘scarlet mare’? You left him hanging upside down from one of the chandeliers, covered in banana creme and with a dunce cap glued to his head.”

Twilight shook her head. “I still don’t know how he thought he could get away with that,” she said. “Seriously, breaking into the Crystal Palace, which was full of Guards and two of the most powerful ponies in the entire Empire? And once you finally let him down, he admitted he wasn’t expecting somepony to try and stop him!”

Spliced shook her head. “Okay, I’ve heard some dumb things in my life, but that… that’s just absurd.”

Cadance nodded, then eyed her. “Well,” she said carefully. “Is that really all you wanted to tell us?”

Spliced nodded. “And I am so, so sorry for it,” she said. “I just… let my scientific side get the better of me again.”

“Promise not to mention it to anyone, pony or otherwise, and we’ll let bygones be bygones,” Shining Armor told her.

Spliced promised, and once she’d gone through the words and motions of a Pinkie Promise (with dire warnings about what would happen if she broke it), Twilight canceled her sound-scrambling spell, and the five returned to the living room.

“So,” Starlight said when they returned. “What was all that about?”

“We can’t say,” Spliced told her. “I Pinkie Promised.”

Starlight seemed disappointed, but nodded. “Right.”

With that settled, the conversation turned to other things.

---

It was much later in the day when Celestia and Luna arrived, the two princesses arriving without pomp or flair although there was still a small noise raised by the servant to attend them. It would be known tomorrow that four of the five princesses would be leaving for reason known solely to them and that this would be a test of sorts for the regents to see if they could actually handle ruling the nations.

It seemed that their arrival had also coincided perfectly with Snöflinga’s waking up from his medically induced slumber, giving even more credence to the rumors about their innate sense of timing. The windigo was a bit confused when he had woken up but Snöflinga quickly settled down once Twilight was able to do her spell again and he could talk to them, although he was annoyed that he was told that he had to learn their language with Sunburst being his instructor. He had claimed that as an adult, he didn’t need to sit in front of somepony who wasn’t even an elder to learn from him.

Of course, this just got Celestia laughing and she patted his head, saying that one could never be too old to learn, which just got a scowl from him.

They had decided against eating in the formal dining room and had more of a camped in meal with Snöflinga so he could tell his story and have his first food in over several thousand years. He had pulled a smattering of different foods onto his plate; both vegetables and meats, all of which he had devoured with a ravenous appetite that had seemingly went to immature levels of eating before Twilight had realized that utensils had not existed back then and thus using his hooves was what was proper for him.

After he had filled himself, Snöflinga had looked at them all and tapped his left hoof on the tray, eyes to the floor.

He suddenly whipped his eyes towards Celestia, as he no doubt was aware that Celestia was in charge. “You wish to hear about my friends; why?”

There was a hesitant pause before Twilight timidly said, “They were the founders of our nation; along with -”

“So they did it,” Snöflinga grinned to himself before he frowned and looked at her. “Along with who?”

“Whom,” Twilight corrected him, with everyone giving her a dirty look.

“Who are you talking about, mare,” Snöflinga glared at Twilight. “Because if it’s who I think you’re talking about, I-”

“Watch your tone, Snöflinga,” Shining Armor glared at the windigo, who glared back with his fur standing up. “That’s my sister you’re talking to.”

“Shining, I can handle myself,” Twilight said sharply before looking at Snöflinga. “I am referring to the leaders of the tribes back then, Princess Platinum, General Hurricane and Chancellor Puddinghead; I’m not sure if you know them but-”

“I know who those monsters were,” Snöflinga spat angrily onto the floor, a thin sheet of ice coating the tray on his lap. “They do not deserve such titles, those Ymir-spawned bastards!”

“Snöflinga,” Celestia’s voice cut in, with warmth literally emanating from her words that melted the ice. “Please explain what you mean by that. Those three are widely known in Equestria to this day, and while I will admit that Platinum and Hurricane were not the nicest of ponies, and Puddinghead was overly eccentric, they are still an important part of our history… albeit as leaders who made a number of mistakes before and after Pansy, Smart Cookie and Clover came together to ignite the Fires of Friendship.” Luna’s quiet grumbling at the first two names could be heard in the background.

“Well you got half of your information right, at the very least,” he snorted, crossing his legs as best he could. “I was actually there, I know what happened.”

“Then tell us,” Luna said. “I’m particularly interested in hearing your opinion of her.”

Snöflinga glanced at her. “You have something against Platinum; I can taste the annoyance and aggression you have for her.” Snöflinga then licked his lips.

“From the moment we met, I could tell she was a spoiled rich brat and still harbored tribalist tendencies, and that’s just for starters,” Luna replied. “And even after that little… incident not long after we got our castle set up, when she apologized for her rudeness, I never quite felt like she was being honest with me.”

Snöflinga snorted and shook his head. “Oh trust me, you will hate her even more when I am done.”

“I never said I hated-” Luna began only for Snöflinga to tap the tray.

“I’m a windigo, remember?” Snöflinga said as he leaned in towards her. “I feed on negativity and right now you’re really giving off that overwhelming sensation of… bitterness, right changeling?”

Pharynx gave him a frown at being called ‘changeling’, but nodded. “I can feel the animosity you’re giving off, Princess. She must have really cheesed you off at some point.”

“That is putting it mildly,” Luna grumbled. Then she looked at Snöflinga. “Very well, continue with your story.”

“Well it began all this ago, in your old homelands up north,” Snöflinga began to say.

---

“And that’s the last thing I remember before I woke up in your medical wing,” Snöflinga concluded.

Everypony blanched at the story, looking very uneasy at what Snöflinga had to say.

“If what you say is true,” Celestia said delicately. “Then-”

“It is, true,” Snöflinga snapped.

“We will need to be absolutely positive before we act on this information,” Luna said. “Once you are healthy, we will mount expeditions to see the verity of your claims.”

“I can go now,” Snöflinga said as he tried to push himself upright, only for Cadance to push him back down.

“No, you still need to recover,” Cadance said, giving him a stern look. “You’re still not well enough to get up and you still need to learn our language as Twilight will not be there constantly to translate for you.”

Snöflinga snorted at this, looking off to the corner for a long while before sighing and nodding his head. “You’re right and besides, they would be so angry with me if I got myself killed by doing something stupid like that.”

“It sounds like something they would do,” Spike said with a chuckle.

“Agreed,” Celestia said with a smile before looking at everypony again sternly. “Again, you cannot breathe a word of this until we can confirm it without a doubt; I can only imagine how Cloudsdale would react to the news that Hurricane was truly like that or most of the earth ponies for Puddinghead.”

“What about Platinum?” Spliced asked.

“She already had a reputation of being snooty, and unicorns are normally the first ones we’d think of when it came to being triblist, so this wouldn’t be a stretch.” Spike said with a wave of his claw. “Er, no offense intended to the unicorns or former unicorns in this room, of course.”

“Trust me, we know what you mean, and I agree,” Twilight told him. “Even I’ve picked up on recognizing that kind of thing over the years, and you know how oblivious I used to be.”

Across from her, Sunburst nodded in agreement. “Same here.”

“Of course, some of them are more tribalist than others,” Shining Armor spoke up. “Especially when it comes to their own families…”

Cadance laid a hoof on his shoulder. “Let’s… not bring my semi-cousin and his attitude into this, shall we?”

Shining Armor nodded. “Yes, dear.”

“Speaking of Blueblood, Shining, while you will be busy with the Crystal Empire, do note that you will be acting as co-regent in Equestria both to ensure the diarchy is not forgotten and to stem any possible action he tries,” Celestia interjected.

“Is that really a concern?” Spliced asked curiously. “I mean, I know this guy’s a jerk from what I’ve heard from all of you, but an outright coup? Is he really that much of an idiot?”

“No, but as with everything, appearances must be kept and we must pretend we’re concerned lest he think we're giving him too much room to act so he will act,” Celestia told her.

“This is why I stayed away from political science, too much double-talk and overly complicated relations,” Spliced said with a sigh. “Give me a good laboratory and a bunch of chemicals to mix together any day, there at least things tend to react predictably!”

“I quite agree,” Celestia replied. “Why do you think I founded my school for gifted unicorns? I found teaching the young ones to be so very relaxing and rewarding, and in many ways they are far more mature than the politicians I have to deal with most of the time.” She furrowed her brow. “Although there are some occasional oddities there… even with all my years of knowledge and practice, I still am wondering about how one of the students managed to get her head stuck in a flask. Even Miss Hackney wasn’t sure how, and she was the one teaching the class that day.”

Twilight nodded. “I was there too, but I didn’t see it actually happen - I had my nose in a book right then. And Lemon Hearts really doesn’t like being reminded of it, so I haven’t asked her since we all reconnected.” Glancing in Starlight’s direction, she saw that her former student was looking thoughtful for a moment, but keeping quiet.

Celestia smiled. “Still, it’s one of those things that comes to mind.” She looked more serious for a moment. “At any rate, I am trusting you with this, Shining Armor.”

Shining Armor bowed. “I’ll do my best,” he said. “And if all else fails, I know a few nobleponies who are actually trustworthy when it comes to advice.”

She leviated over a scroll over to him and gave him a more serious look. “These are the ponies that will be raising and lowering the sun and the moon while we are gone,” Celestia told him. “We shouldn’t be gone for more than three days but if things do not go well, they will be performing that job permanently and it will be your duty to find the next generation to perform the spell as Luna and I have placed certain spells that will prevent them from sharing the knowledge of how to do what we do.”

Shining looked at the scroll solemnly and placed it under his armour. “I will do my utmost to ensure that no pony but me and those I deemed worthy see this.” He then flicked his eyes to his daughter and then to Celestia who simply nodded her head.

“If that is everything, Twilight, please say your goodbyes as we are leaving as soon as everypony is ready,” Celestia said.

Twilight nodded her head and gave Starlight a hug goodbye, then nodded her head at Spliced before leaning in close to Spike and speaking a bit loudly, “Please make sure that they don’t kill each other, okay?”

Spike nodded. “Sure thing, Twilight.”

Meanwhile, Cadance was hugging her husband and daughter, and then walked over to them. “I’m ready.”

“Very well then.” Celestia as she stepped out onto the balcony with her sister, Cadance and Twilight right behind them. “We are off.”

With that, the four of them took off into the air.

Comments

[Asolem2]

“Not in the sense that counts right now,” Twilight kept her tone firm, unwilling to bend even a fraction. Knowing what she did about her destination, it would be a mistake of catastrophic proportions to bring Spliced along.

And which sense does count Twilight ?

I will admit, i half expected Celestia and/or Luna to give Spliced a warning/threat before they left

[FortunateKitsune]

8836438
Presumably the Equestrian sense. Spliced did say she was made immortal by her people, in order to serve her sentence. Celestia meanwhile moved sun and moon for a thousand years while ruling Equestria. Clearly there's some deeper difference between Alicorns and 'Pures.'

Though there's always the 'you get fried' option, where there's Protective Magic over the place that would treat her as an Intruder and kill her.

[Asolem2]

8836529

Clearly there's some deeper difference between Alicorns and 'Pures.'

A difference that seems to be shrinking every day, remember the natural cloud walking abilites an Alicorn has but a Pure doesn't, Spliced can walk on clouds now.

Though there's always the 'you get fried' option, where there's Protective Magic over the place that would treat her as an Intruder and kill her.

Actually after giving it some thought, i believe that there is something like spirits (souls without a body, not spirits like Discord) inside the Valley of Alicorns that can potentially possess others and grant them power, and they (Celestia, Luna, Cadance and Twilight) don't trust Spliced to resist the temptations of the spirits and fear what she would do with the power she would gain from them... of course we know that she would refuse an offer like that, as she has done so before.

Because, as she said to Luna:

"I don’t care to be beholden to anypony at the cost of myself.”