84- Triptych
Everything was going wrong.
For Daybreaker, at least.
Luna forced her smile even wider as Daybreaker turned towards her. With a silent snort, Daybreaker returned its attention back towards the map of Equestria that lay sprawled before her.
“Nothing can be done?” Daybreaker spat.
“The changelings have retreated beyond our reach,” Captain Shining Armor replied.
Daybreaker had teleported back this morning, with Captain Shining in tow. Apparently they had news from the war front, and Daybreaker wanted every military advisor in the castle present. That included Luna, as she had led countless wars in the kingdom’s past.
“They’re right there! I could just fly over and smite them myself!”
‘Phasma was right. The changelings did have a backup plan, and I understand his hesitation to speak of it out loud.’
Daybreaker smashed a hoof down onto the table, right over the center of the Badlands.
“The vermin have scurried back to the cesspit from whence they spawn! They have at least revealed their location, their home! Yet now by doing so, they have put themselves out of reach?!”
The Captain nodded hesitantly, and then flinched when Daybreaker literally flared in anger. Her fiery mane blazed twice as large for a single second.
“How could this possibly be?! Right there! They’re right there! Months of hounding at their heels, and we finally have them in the open! Right! There!”
“The anti-magic field prevents any–”
“Damn the field!”
The changelings had fled back to their hive, and were now seemingly invulnerable to attack. An impossibly massive field was projected around the hive. It was impossible to see, but when one crossed it, pegasi would drop from the skies, unicorns’ spells would cease immediately, and earth ponies lost any control over the ground beneath their hooves as well as their famous stalwart strength.
“Months! That was how long we had their scent! Now, they have made their escape with my ponies!”
Daybreaker turned back to Luna, who grinned wider.
“Wipe that damn smirk off your face!” She did so in an instant. “I want a plan to break that defense. You laid waste to every defense under the sun, so tell me Luna, how do we crack the uncrackable?”
Daybreaker wasn’t mad. Mad was what ponies got when things didn’t go their way. Mad was what ponies got when the kitchen ran out of their favorite brand of chocolate ice cream. Daybreaker wasn’t mad.
She. Was. Angry.
The kind of angry that saw entire cities upheaved and thrown into the sun.
Luna pondered Daybreaker’s question. It wasn’t one she could answer truthfully, not when Phasma’s pon– people were in danger.
“First, we lay siege. A siege as they were in the years before an alicorn’s presence on the battlefield.”
‘Stall the fight as long as possible.’
Daybreaker nodded slowly and started to regain her composure.
“Second, we develop a plan of action. Test the barrier, find out any weakness.”
‘Sit on our hooves.’
“Third, we could attempt to send spies within, changelings who have been conditioned to protect us, but I suspect that their loyalties will forever be with their own ilk. Such a plan would… fall apart. So instead, we must lure them out.”
‘Set an impossible goal, an unfindable object.’
Daybreaker smiled, “Hmmm… Yes. Lure them out. Do you have an idea as to how that might be accomplished?”
Luna frowned and sat back into her chair. The generals and advisors gathered around the map table in the war room watched her as she thought.
“We need a prize worthy of fighting for. Something they couldn’t ignore.”
‘Phasma.’
“And just what could entice them?” Daybreaker asked.
Luna shrugged.
“I have not the faintest notion.”
Daybreaker tapped the arm of her chair.
“Bait… We need bait. Out,” Daybreaker waved a hoof dismissively and the ponies in the room immediately started to empty.
Luna left her chair and started to head back to her private quarters when Daybreaker held up a hoof to her.
“You. Stay.”
Luna paused and waited for the rest of the ponies to leave. As Captain Shining Armor shut the door behind him, Daybreaker gestured to the Badlands.
“How long can they survive during a protracted siege?”
“I do not know, sister.”
“What is creating this anti-magic field?”
“I… do not know, sister.”
“Will we be able to save my ponies?”
Luna bit her tongue. This was going somewhere, and Luna doubted that she would be happy to find its conclusion.
“How long will it take to finish rebuilding? How long will it take to clean up those detestable insects that have scurried back to their hive, that thing which looms far on the horizon? How long must I allow imposters within our midst to exist? How long must I suffer?”
Daybreaker stood up from her seat and started pacing around the map. She placed a hoof on the rim of the circular table and slid it along its edge as she walked.
“This is my Equestria. I bleed, weep, and sweat for it. From the very first brick, law, and bit, you and I built it from the ground up. After you betrayed me and tried to destroy our lives’ work, I continued. I kept placing bricks, passing laws, and exchanging bits. Now it is my life’s work, whereas yours is the trails of hoofprints on the moon, stretching for miles. Now you are back here, and my Equestria is once again close to falling. Canterlot! The insects breached Canterlot!”
Daybreaker stopped and removed her hoof from the table as she turned towards Luna.
“Maybe you’re my bad luck charm. Maybe I was better off without you. Maybe you should be returned back to the moon.”
Luna flinched.
Daybreaker's personality flipped, “Oh hahahaha! Do forgive me sister, I am under quite a bit of stress. You understand how Captain Shining’s failures test my patience.”
She walked close and ran a hoof under Luna’s chin, lifting it up.
“Chin up, Luna. I would never hurt you. Though you make me want to sometimes, with your petty, laughable scheming. I must hold myself to a higher standard, and try to resist your attempts to make me hurt you.”
Daybreaker slid her hoof back and looked around the war room.
“It is just as I remember it. Not a brick out of place. For the past thousand years, this room has remained unchanged. Not even its destruction in my duel against the Queen Vermin left a blemish on it that couldn’t be fixed.”
She turned her orange, fiery eyes back towards Luna. Luna remarked how they looked like an inverted version of Phasma’s.
“You’re just as I remember you, Luna. Foolish. Blind. Working against me.”
“I would n–”
“Lies.”
Daybreaker cleared her throat and straightened her peytral.
“Just as I remember you. Yet perhaps that is what I need. It was in my arrogance and lack of vigilance that Equestria rotted from within. Sins. Vices. Weaknesses. From high atop my throne, I simply watched as Equestria slipped from its once Harmonious posture. Maybe you should be here, always working against me, so that I might never slip up again. Or maybe I should send you back to the moon. Which is it?”
“We… would ask of thee to not bequeath us a fate so terrible,” Luna said, slipping back into her old speech.
“So I should tolerate your treachery?”
“We would never–” Luna cut herself off, remembering Daybreaker’s rage at her, "We seek only to better Equestria. It is, as thou sayest, weak.”
Daybreak smiled and chuckled, “Just as I remember you. Now that you are done rebuilding my city...”
‘Reconstruction is far from finished!’
“... You will discover how to fix this new issue you helped create. This insect infestation of my kingdom. Leave the entrapment of the vermin to Captain Shining Armor. Find out how to lure that repulsive thing from its protection, so that I might make right your mistakes. You have a lot to make up for, leaving me alone for all those years.”
‘On that note, you are correct, demonspawn. I will save my sister. I will mend the gap between our ponies and changelings. I will finally have a suitor who can truly make me happy.’
“You shall always stay by my side, so that I might see you closely. I have missed you so much, Luna. I do not want to let you out of my sight, for fear that you might vanish when I am not looking.”
“We will never leave thee again, sister.”
“No, you won’t.”
With that, Daybreaker left the room, no doubt to give Captain Shining a dressdown for problems outside of his control.
Luna slumped over onto the beanbag chair in the Sunset Lounge. She slowly sunk into its comforting grip as Phasma watched.
“You okay– no, obviously not. What happened, Luna?”
Luna lifted a hoof and beckoned him over without looking. She heard the clip clop of his hooves as he approached her entombing resting spot. When they came to a halt next to her, Luna flipped over and grabbed Phasma, pulling him into a tight embrace.
“Oof!”
Luna breathed in deeply as she held him close. He smelled of pine wood smoke and a faint tinge of oranges. Unconsciously, he had chosen very earthy and stallionly smells for himself. And oranges, for whatever reason.
Luna doubted it was vanity in his own color palette. Likely if she asked, he would state the two as his favorite smells. Dreams follow such logic more often than not, sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse.
Luna smiled as she breathed in. It was such a refreshing change compared to the smells that offered themselves to her in the waking world; dust from all the construction, disinfectant cleaners that kept the Castle prim and proper, flowers that were replaced every week yet always stayed the same, and so much perfume and cologne. The ponies of the royal court always used the same obnoxious smells, to the point where Luna could identify them with her eyes closed.
“Hold me,” she commanded.
Phasma obeyed after a moment’s hesitation, wrapping his hooves around her as they lay.
“You wanna talk about it?” He asked.
Luna smiled. Even here, in a tight embrace while in a romantic parlor lit only by a warm fire, Phasma’s only thoughts were Luna’s wellbeing. Perhaps Luna’s experience with suitors was tainted through so many bad experiences, and this was simply the norm for courters. In those eons past, suitors would vie for her affection, and care little for who Luna really was, or her work.
The first face she had seen in a thousand years…
“Daybreaker,” Luna sighed. “She seems to be back in Canterlot for good now.”
“What happened?”
“The changelings have retreated to what we found to be their home, protected by a field that dispelled every form of magic. You knew this would happen.”
“I feared it. Once they retreat within the field, there’s no leaving it. Not while the Equestrian armies are posted up and prowling around outside of it.”
“There are no other exits?”
“None.”
“And I suspect you shall not tell me how to disable the field?”
“Even if I did, you couldn’t do it. Regardless, keeping my people alive is my number one concern, and the destruction of that hive would spell the end of the changeling race. It is in our benefit that the war has reached a stalemate, and trust me, there are far worse ways to reach such a stalemate.”
‘Knowledge from his world?’
“Knowledge from your world?” She voiced her thoughts.
Phasma readjusted his positioning to free his muzzle, and nuzzled it against Luna, drawing out a smile from her.
“Yeah. We got quite good at waging war. No, I will not tell you about it, nor will I bring any ideas back to here…. Any more ideas…. Any ideas that will only increase the amount of people who die.”
“That is a very specific criteria.”
“Well…. I did kinda already train the Legions in many modern fighting techniques.”
“Would you train the Equestrian armies thusly?”
“Once there is peace between our nations? I mean… I guess? Not sure how many wars you’re planning on fighting after this, but happy is the city that in times of peace, thinks of war.”
“With idioms such as that, it is no wonder your previous world ‘got quite good at waging war.’”
Phasma grunted a reply and sighed deeply into Luna’s fur. Luna closed her eyes and thought of her future. For once, there was somepony other than Celestia who could be there, even in the far off distant epochs.
“I could stay here for hours,” Luna broke the brief silence, “and I look forward to the day I can.”
“Soon. I really hope soon.”
“Me too, Phasma. Me too.”
Under the soundtrack of the crackles from the fire, they dozed off together, asleep within a dream.
Luna sat bored on her throne. Once again, she was relegated to listening to the masses, forced to sift through the grifters and the helpless, finding out which was which.
The peons– ‘No Luna, they are not peasants anymore. They are citizens.’
The citizen in front of her was going on about how the well-to-do desperately needed another tax break. Luna was trying her best to tune him out while appearing interested in what he had to say. It was a skill she and Celestia had honed after literal millennia of hearing the same things over and over. In fact, right now she was imagining being back on the moon. Alone.
It was a more pleasant environment than here.
The noble finished talking.
“The Crown shall consider your proposal. Now, begone.”
“But, Your Highn–”
“Shoo!” Luna said, making the flicking motions with her hooves.
A guard moved up from the base of the thrones and gave the noble a stern look. Taking the extremely subtle hint, the noble turned his nose high and left, trying to salvage what was left of his dignity after being essentially thrown out of the throne room.
‘No point in that, it’ll do you no good.’
“Bring the next citizen in.”
The noble exited the doors on the far side of the throne room, and a group of three ponies entered. At their sight, Luna rose from her seat in shock. Their existence had slipped her mind. After all, when Nightmare Moon arrived as was preordained, they were nowhere to be seen. That made Luna realize she had no idea where their loyalties lay.
‘Equestria, Nightmare Moon, or with themselves above all others?’
They were for all intents and purposes, a rogue tribe of ponies.
‘Thestrals…’
The group of three thestrals stopped in front of the throne and bowed as one. They possessed no armor, no saddlebags, but they did wear clothing. Each one of the three were wearing full tuxedo suits with high necked collars and red ties. Luna noticed that each of the guards in the room had gripped their spears tightly when the thestrals entered, ready to level them out at a moment’s notice.
“Your Highness,” the thestral in the front said in a deep low tone. “I am Silent Night, and we come on behalf of Count Howl of Vallachia to affirm our allegiance to the Princessdom of Equestria. The Count expresses his wishes to return to the rule of the Alicorn of The Night, Your Highness Princess Luna.” His accent put emphasis on the S’s and C’s of his words, elongating the syllables slightly.
Luna nodded slowly and looked to her aide. Prominent Bias shuffled through some papers in one of her folders and produced a map of Equestria and its neighbors. Far to the west, she pointed to a small-ish country, independent of Equestria.
“Your nation established itself in my absence, I see.”
“Yes, Your Highness. It was a necessity after the political fallout from the fracturing of Equestria so long ago.”
As he spoke, Luna started recalling the particulars about thestrals and their tribe. She even started to notice the fangs the thestral had when he spoke. They were small, a mere tooth in comparison to the fangs a changeling had, but they were there all the same. There was something else, something Nightmare Moon had done that Luna had trouble remembering…
“For what reason would such an act be necessary?”
The thestral took a moment to choose his words, “For our survival. Long term diplomacy became… untenable. For the sake of peace, we decided to leave.”
“Now the Count of Vallachia wishes to be a part of Equestria?”
The lead thestral nodded, “Count Howl Hucul desires to mend the gap between Vallachia and Equestria, Your Highness.”
“Very well. You may tell the count that I shall receive him in person to accept his vassalage.”
“The Crown is most generous. The Count will be humbled and honored by your offer, Your Highness.”
As the thestrals bowed once more and backed up to leave, Luna leaned over to Prominent Bias to whisper to her.
“I am in need of information on this tribe and their activities in the past ten centuries…”
“Of course, Princess. I will prepare a briefing at once.”
“Very good.” She cleared her throat and announced loudly, “Night Court is now in recess for an hour.”
Coffee had become extremely cheap and easy to acquire in the missing millennium, and Luna intended to abuse that fact as often as possible. There was a pot of coffee waiting for her in the kitchen, made from the finest beans bits could buy. And sugar, there was lots of sugar too.
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You may have gotten the chapter number wrong, this one should be the 84.
Aside from that, thestrals, heh ? Interesting...
Wonder how they will wind up interacting with Phasma's lings.
10816883
it went from cringe to based pretty quick.
I feel sorry for luna, but if daybreaker is lashing out like this it means things aren't going her way and she's desperate.
Which means things are working, BUTTTT, it also means daybreaker is about to start lowering her scruples
Luna is so brave... And Daybreaker reminds me of an abusive spouse. Flip flopping between threats and declarations of love in a very mercurial way.
10816894
I believe Nightmares are more in tune with the negative emotions of their hosts than with positive ones. Daybreaker is expressing Celestia´s actual resent toward Luna for her betrayal centuries ago, without the genuine love and hope for reconnecting.
Ahh yes, good old Roman "Si vis pacem, para bellum." While there is truth in those words, as my own nation found out when the Third Reich blew through the near-century outdated Dutch army, I've always found a certain irony in how the two nations that love the saying the most are also the nations that almost never stopped waging wars.
That aside, yay, thestrals! Also, oh no! Thestrals! They had some very poor timing on their end. Daybreaker is not likely to suffer a tribe of ponies whose loyalty is sworn to Luna rather than herself.
And now we add Phasmas slip up to the inquisitor. Someone is getting captured and tortured.
10816913
Or the Crystal Heart, if Twilight, the Bearers and Cadence have to deal with Sombra first. That thing must be like a Cornucopia for changelings.
The Underhive says hi. Mind, I'd take my chances with the Equestrians and the changelings feel likewise, but the option technically exists...
Wait. Let Daybreaker find out about that and let the Underhive's fauna do the work for them? With the only guard who has a proven record against them vanished due to being a changeling the whole time?
Good ol' son of the dragon (literally "Dracula")... Vlad III is another relevant title if you need it.
10816913
Worse still, imagine if Daybreaker then reads Phasma's mind and finds a banquet of information about how to fight wars without using magic.
They're already apart, they wish to be a part.
10816913
I struggle to see how could this happen. Currently, even if that bit goes through to Daybreaker, all she has to go on is that Phasma was Far Sky for a time, and he told the guards he's going to Manehattan.
Celestia better kiss Luna's hooves top to bottom for putting her through this shit twice. If it wasn't for Phasma, Luna would have broken down completely.
Good chapter
Dear Author... Your a Saint of Inspiration. Thanks for the update ♡
Huh. Thestrals do exist. Wonder what NMM did to them. And ouch. Daybreaker is back in canterlot and suspicious of Luna. Nice chapter.
Daybreaker is slipping very hard. Should she had ever any trust of Luna... It would be gone after the threats.
Also sending Luna away? I doubt she can do that actualy.
Anti Magic shield... If the throne could be moved or even the Changeling castle... Daybreaker would be not better than a earth horse i guess... Wonder if her mane went out if she crossed the anti magic shield like Hardes from Disneys Hercules
Cuddles to suit the soul.
Thestrals ♡♡♡♡♡
Good job Daybreaker, this will definitely earn you Luna's loyalty and not just make her plot against you harder.
Big words little Nightparasit...
Big words little Nightparasit, put action to your words.
Stealing Celestias archivments? Thats low...
Big word ringing empty little Nightparasit, to bad there all empty threats.
Empty word little Nightparasit. You already give yourself away.
10816971
it could alert her to the fact he alive and start a search for him, leading to further conflict while he trying to establish his new hive
well Luna might just have acquired force that could be loyal to her, though i am interested in their explanation why they didn't show up to back up nightmare moon
I guess in the end it's in out blood and experience.
Dark humor there
I would say that this video would be our resume
10816954
Not really.
It would be like viewing a movie in a foreign language in a foreign form, she won't understand anything from it.
It doesn't seem to be her magic specialty anyway.
Even Luna's, who has something closest to that, that can interact with someone's dreams, wouldn't be really able to do that.
10817173
Nightmare Moon got cleansed by the Elements soon after she returned, just like in canon. She didn't even get the opportunity to call upon them - assuming they actually would be loyal to Nightmare Moon instead of princess Luna.
Nice
Fiery mane
10817211
they were meant to arrive to aid her or so nightmare moon believed so
Well, Daybraker is losing it, it took a while but it seems she is slowly losing control
it sure sounds like somepony needs a nice long time out.
10817226
Mostly likely a few threstals watched NMM return only to be defeated and reported the news to their superiors, which led to much discussion, ultimately resulting in a small envoy to meet Luna after things calmed down.
Updates two days in a row?!
You spoil us!
And with that, I'm sure Thorax and Luna would become fast friends.
...KEEP TALKING SHIT YOU LITTLE PEST, KEEP TALKING SHIT, IT MAKE THEIR JOBS WAY EASIER!
Both of them can say at the same time "I need you more than you need me", an both would be correct.
I telling, WHEN they meet each other, Phasma will HOVER for a week at least.
YES! They exist here! Best Ponies!...*COugth!* Sorry
Hey Phasma, look, more ALLIES!
10817139
They way I see it, it's becoming now BIG, ORANGE tickling moving Bomb.
I wonder if they can use it against her, you know, baiting her IN the field. It's kinda a LAST plan, but it is one!
I'm really feeling sorry for Shining right now...
I think the count is Count Dracula or an off-brand cousin. I'm looking at you ugly a** cereal brand that shows up in Halloween.
10817537
Totakeke was about as subtle here as he was with Al Capony, taking Wallachia (the place the historical Vlad III ruled over) and filtering it through the standard vampire accent. (Reminder: "KK Slider" was the Animal Crossing character's stage name)
So does that mean Thestrals are vamponies? Seems to be that way. Oh and Vamponies can operate in the changeling anti-magic zone, probably.
10817606
yeah I wonder what the author is up to with that
10817231
well yeah, when everything is going your way it's easy to keep up appearances. When the world conspires against you... well, that's the trick isn't it?
10817139
Daybreaker:What? Is my mane out!?
10817737
derpicdn.net/img/view/2019/5/13/2038137.gif
10817693
I find that unlikely, seeing that thestrals aren't changelings. I find it much more likely that daybreaker takes issue with the bat pones.
10818170
Did you miss the Dracula references?
10818630
SI means Self Insert, though it is often used as short hand for "someone from our world" in a more general sense.
So day breaker seems to be rash and not at all smart, she is paranoid though and due to that keeps Luna on a closer look, hopefully she doesn't find out that the only time she is acting against her just by saying half truths and using the dream realm. Phasma has an opportunity here to distract Daybreaker by making a mess in the P agents headquarters so that Daybareaker can realize how useless and counterproductive her efforts are making her slip up more and at the same time publicly displaying Daybreaker's true colors to the masses. Luna and Cadence can then recapitulate on that by creating another distraction while Daybreaker is facing towards the P agents mess. I wonder if ponies can taste the emotions in alcohol?
Finally caught up! Been a fun read so far and I'm looking forward to the next chapter and beyond
10816909
Yeeeaaaahhh, I also have a sinking feeling about their return and how that will go over...
Castlevania makes its entrance, nice.
Eyyyy, Thestrals! It is good they appeared outside of Celestia's presence. Things would have gone... Differently. Curious that the guard are so uptight about them. Got that xenophobic vibe...
I don’t get why Luna was forcing a smile for Daybreaker, was she intentionally trying to piss her off?
If thestrals are vampires in this universe, I wonder if they could form a symbiotic relationship with changelings? The thestrals feed on the changelings' blood (plus regular food). The changelings feed on the thestrals' emotions (plus the goo they dilute emotions with).