Imperial Forclousure

by The Sound of Loneliness

Old Friends Meeting

"It's her! I am telling you! I saw her myself in the camp!" Blackhoof slammed his hoof on the round table in the police break room, rattling the glasses and making coins jiggle.

"Didn't you just say that you also saw two Celestias?" another stallion with a white dot on his nose answered. "Come on, it's not like this is the first time you refreshed on duty."

"He-heh!" the third stallion at the table giggled. "Three kings," he said in a contrastingly calm voice, putting down three cards on the table.

"No, I swear I saw her, she was like a black cloud of smoke with two glowing, slitted eyes! I would recognize those eyes anywhere! And there really were two Celestias talking!" Blackhoof persisted. "I know it sounds crazy, but I swear it's exactly like it was! The first Celestia came to the camp, she was like we remember her, and went to a tent. Then Her Majesty showed up, talking with the second Celestia, who looked like she didn't care about anything around her. Her Majesty then went to the tent and after a while, the first Celestia came out of the tent and called the second Celestia to talk in a corner." The two other stallions waited for him to finish.

"Four aces," the one with the white dot said and put four cards down.

"Hey! You cheat!" the Third stallion yelled.

"What do you mean 'cheat'? I got cards, don't I? If I cheated, I would have waited until I had done rid of all other cards. I got no more pairs," the one with the White Nose defended.

"Hey, would you drop your stupid game and listen?" Blackhoof tried to get their attention anymore.

"Blackhoof, honestly, we are too old for that crap. If you really seeing double, go have a nice sleep. You might've had one too much," White Nose shot him back.

"Yeah, take a hike," the Third stallion leapt to support, putting two more cards down.

"Taking," White Nose grabbed both.

"Got no more," the Third said.

"Oh, damn. Well, you got done and dusted then," Whine Nose smiled, laying out the rest of his cards. Three valets and the two tens he just took.

"You cheat!" the Third sharply stood up from the table.

"Prove it or didn't happen," White Nose didn't sound impressed in the slightest.

"Oh, I am going to prove it alright..." the Third started brushing through the cards on the table, counting aces and valets.

"Oh, for old captain's scruffy balls!" Blackhoof cursed. "I am telling you, I know what I saw! I'll prove it to you! Get off your bums and get down to their camp, let's ask if they saw anyone like that!"

"You think we got nothing better to do?" White Nose lazily reclined back in his chair.

"Look, let's have it like this. You come with me and if I am wrong I'll give you both what you just lost to him," he nodded to the Third.

"I didn't lose, he cheated!"

"Whatever, figure that out later. So, we got a deal?"

"Well, I could use twice his money..." White Nose mused. "Throw your mane paint on top of it and I am game."

"Hey, brazen much today?"

"Hey, you said you saw them, didn't you? You got nothing to be afraid of."

"Aghhrrr... Fine!" Blackhoof pushed himself away from the table and went to the door. "See you, two morons, outside."

Blackhoof stormed out and stomped down the stairs, the entrance into the tiny building was directly in front of the stairs, but he made a turn to the left instead.

"Hey, Cloud Wave," Blackohoof hailed the hippogriff standing at the reception. "You saw Terramar today?"

"Not yet. Why, you want to try with his sister again?" Cloud Wave grinned at him.

"What? No! I told you, it wasn't like that! Anyway, I need you to tell Terramar that the three of us got called to the internment camp."

"Weren't you posted there with Clubhoof yesterday?"

"Well, yeah, but I need to go back there, it's important."

"We have someone there today already, and you know that we don't do posts more than two at a time. Come on, I know you. You three just want to lay-off."

"I swear, nothing like that! Goodness, why does everyone think that? I never slacked off on duty."

"Really now?"

"Well, no. I didn't, honest," Blackhoof shook his head.

"And about that time when you disappeared for a whole day when that mare... what was her name again?"

"Her name was Rarity, and it wasn't like that! I and Rarity go way back, she was Nightmare Moon's advisor when I was still a guard in her palace. She just wanted to talk to someone about her problems, she's like that, can't just soldier on alone."

"If you say so. My point is that this isn't the first time and you don't get to talk about how you never do it."

"Well, we are supposed to serve the citizens and guard their wellbeing, right? Well, I did just that. I helped somepony, I didn't just sit down with those two morons for a game."

The sound of a door slamming above was heard, followed by the heavy steps on the stairs,
"Hey, weren't you supposed to wait for us outside? Come on, I want my money already." Cloud Wave gave Blackhoof an accusatory look.

"Look, just tell Terramar we are on duty, I promise I'll explain later, and I owe you," Blackhoof quickened outside, following the other two police ponies.

"Move it, move it, Blackhoof, I want my money!" White Nose ribbed on him. He valiantly endured it, and more to come, for he knew that they were going to shut up really soon and then it would be his time to crack hilarious jokes. They went down the familiar streets, the morning sun was not yet looking down between houses and the air was still pleasantly cool. Blackhoof's two compatriots mercifully shut up, allowing him to think about what he was about to do. He knew that he was right, or he thought that he knew at the very least, but what he was going to say?
'I am sorry, have you seen Princess Celestia splitting in two and both of them having a talk?' He wasn't keen on losing his money. Although, if something like that happened back at the palace, no one would've been overly surprised. Unexplainable things were happening almost daily and any attempt to dig into a newly risen mystery was met with heavy dissuasion. One night the Empress orders them to be on high alert in every area except for one, next night she lowers the alert level to normal. No one saw or heard anything, or even understood what was going on.
Princess Celestia being her bitter enemy in the morning and her sister again in the evening. Changelings being the official enemy, but later it turned out that one of them was living with the rest of them directly inside the palace, being Empress' dearest friend. The palace staff and the Guard very quickly gave up trying to make any sense of regularly occurring inexplicable events and simply stopped trying. The Empress seemed to appreciate their trust, judging by how much affection she was displaying to them.
To hear of her death inside her own palace was a crushing blow to everyone, what kind of Guards would fail to stop assassins from entering the home of their Lady when the entire city was watching? Although the morale was at an all-time low they still stuck together. Even if disgraced, they still had their duties. Princess Twilight did not disown them and they followed her, the only thing they could do.

"So, that's the place?" the Third asked, staring down the walls of the prison camp. "Never knew why they wouldn't just build a proper prison. They got the walls anyway."

"I thought you saw how these work, you used to guard camps like these," White Nose stated.

"Well, yes. But it's not like anyone bothered building concrete walls around it! Look at it!"

"Who cares? Maybe they just like it that they can just dump a bunch of prisoners there and let them figure it out from there."

The lonely board guard on the gate gave them no mind, spare Blackhoof the necessity to explain what they were doing out there. In the morning the camp was less active than it was the day before, making it easier to spot specific personalities around. It looked like everyone was just waking up.

"So, where's your twin Celestia at?" White Nose asked.

"That there is her... their tent," Blackhoof pointed at the largest tent in the camp.

"So, you wanna just get in and see? You know what, you go there. We'll see if she's there or not alright from here," White Nose said, the Third gave a chuckle.

"Yeah, really funny. Let's go find whoever is posted here today, they'll know where she is."

One of the force members stationed at the camp, as luck would have it, was one of the few police ponies that weren't in the Imperial Guard, at least not himself, everyone in the Guard knew who his father was - the only member of the unit ever to be discharged due to combat injuries. Formally, it was an honor to suffer injuries in the line of duty, but to Silver Shine's father, it always was a shame. Everyone was in the same situation in the field, but he was the only one who got himself hurt bad enough to be of no more use to his Lady. The times of knighthood were long over, but the Canterlot Royal Guard was as ancient as it was traditional. There never was any official code of conduct in this regard, everypony was simply immersed in the culture and learned from the elders. The age of knighthood may have been over, but the spirit survived, as eternal as their Lady was. There was something deeply romantic about knights willing to defend their Lady's honor with their lives, but to be rendered unfit to serve her any longer was a great shame indeed.

Silver Shine was never an official part of the troop, but he sure was one of them. He was a courier at the Palace when he was but a colt, likely due to his father's reputation. Everyone loved Morning's kid, from the maids to the courtiers. All the signs of a bright future were there. Blackhoof even heard some of the younger, and sillier, maids chatting about the Empress grooming herself a husband, but everyone who ever seen her hold a court knew how silly the idea was. She was way above all of them.

"Hey, Silver!" Blackhoof yelled, trying to get an answer. "Got instructions for your beat!" Silver had a way of just appearing out of nowhere directly in front of him and this time was no different, soon enough Silver was standing in front of him without Blackhoof knowing how he got there.

"Ready to report, sir!" he stamped out. He already got over his forties and never lost his fascination with military fleur. Probably because he never was an actual soldier. Nevertheless, there he stood, giving Blackhoof a salute in military fashion, trying to look as tough as his ludicrously crisp uniform would let him.

"You alone here?" Blackhoof asked.

"With Corporal Sandline, sir. He went for a latrine break."

"Perfect. Sergeant, would you tell us something about your shift?"

"It's quiet, sir. Folks here are friendly. I can't tell why we are keeping them here, frankly."

"Ahh... yeah. Look, did you see who lives in that tent over there?"

"Negative, sir."

"What, not one glance?" Blackhoof asked, internally cursing. He might be losing his money after all...

"No, sir. That tent has been empty since Corporal and I got here."

"Well, maybe someone told you?"

"No, sir. I never knew we were searching for someone."

"Well-well-well. Looks like someone owes me money," White Nose grinned.

"And mane paint," the Third added.

"Hey, quiet, you two!" Blackhoof gnashed back at them. "Okay, Sergeant, do you know who's responsible for the camp? They need to have a leader."

"There's a stallion that lives in a wagon, sir. Others seem to come to him to consult, but I don't know anything else."

"Is it that wagon over there?" Blackhoof pointed at the largest.

"Yes, s-"

"Carry on, Sergeant," Blackhoof sharply turned away and began moving in that direction.

"Wait, what about the orders?" Silver tried to ask him, but Blackhoof wasn't interested in him anymore.

Blackhoof determinedly strolled to the large, roofed wagon. Suddenly, a loud clutter pierced the air, followed by a loud shatter,
"You little shit," the voice was heard from inside.

"Wait, I know that voice!" White Nose suddenly cried. "Hey, you Filthy bastard, get your ass over here!" Such vulgarity could only mean one of two things. Either White Nose really knew this stallion they were about to meet or he was an idiot and just got them in trouble for no good reason, which was more likely.

"Get lost!" the answer came, completely in tune with the request.

"That's no way of receiving friends, Filthy! Get over here already!" White Nose did not sound dismayed at all.

"Wait, you said 'Filthy'? As in 'Filthy Rich'?" Blackhoof asked over his shoulder, and indeed the very same Filthy Rich stuck his head from the back of the wagon. White Nose brightly smiled, trotting closer.

"There you are, you old ass!" he said. "The world is a small place." In response, Filthy Rich hit himself on the forehead and groaned.

"Of course, where else could you be..." he moaned. "The hay do you want? I got a really big spill to clean before the whole place smells of... of whatever those jars smell of."

"The hay do you mean: 'The hay do you want'?! It's been years, Filthy. We wanted to see how you, folks, been doin'."

"Ain't none of your business. Get lost!" Blackhoof didn't remember the Minister much, he just let him in and out of the Palace gates, but he was pretty sure that he used to have better manners.

"Come on, you old bastard, for the sake of the old times, let's go out, have a few beers, share stories, just like we did those years before. All this time, you gotta have some to tell."

"Sweet Celestia, don't you, three, ever grow up? I am going to hit my eighties soon and here you are, behaving like twenty-year-old colts still! Don't you have something better to do, like playing with your grandchildren?"

"Oh, who's talking! You went off on a merry tour while your pretty lady and girl were sitting back home!"

"That's not how-"

"Yeah, like hay it isn't! I know that you wanted out of there and if you cared for them you wouldn't have gone! Don't tell me you finally got too old to have fun. There are potions for that, you know."

Filthy took a deep breath to calm himself,
"Look, what do you want? I got a job to do, I am not just sitting here cause it's cozy."

"Yeah, about that. Filthy, sorry," Blackhoof intruded before White could go on another lap. "I was stationed here yesterday and I saw... well, I saw something. We need you to verify it."

"It's the Princesses, right?" Filthy sighed. "I swear, if they are going to keep having bickering matches on the streets, soon the whole world will be following us around. First, it was this lot," Filthy waved his hoof around, "now you three."

"Wait, so Blackhoof didn't just drink one too many?" the Third suddenly remembered how to talk. "There's really two of them?"

"Two? Oh no, there aren't just two of them. There's FOUR of them!"

"Four?!" all three of his listeners asked in unison.

"Yes, four, give or take! We just keep getting more and more pon... creatures aboard! I long since stopped trying to understand what's going on or what these folks really are. Well, at least these folks can look after themselves most of the time."

"Wait, the hay are you even talking about? What's happening with you?"

"Hay if I know. I just met a little foal on the road a few months back, I had a lovely little traveling shop and she told me she wanted to go to see her sister. Here we are, with her whole damn family! Or something like that, I honestly don't get how any of them are related."

"Can you start from the beginning?" Blackhoof suggested.

"So, again, me am having the shop, and all fine and dandy. I am going around, making a living. Then suddenly, as I was going through my usual route, I see a foal, staring at me from across the street. I never knew anyone had foals that year and he didn't seem to have come with anyone. So I wait, to see if maybe someone's was going to pick him up, but it starts getting later in the day and nopony comes. Everyone's already gone, doing their business again, so I decide to ask him what he's up to. Oh, if only I knew just the kind of mess I was getting into..."

"What, was he the son of some nomad king or something?" Blackhoof asked.

"Well, no. It turned out that the foal was actually a filly, well, from her own words and that she was an orphan. She couldn't read and barely knew how to speak. Said she never had anyone looking after her. I ended up showing her a map to show me where she was from, but I quickly realized that she never even saw a map before. I ended up mentioning where I was from and telling her about how things used to be at our place, well, before everything happened."

"You always had a penchant for nostalgia," White chuckled.

"Yeah, laugh it up. I'll see how you feel when you've been walking roads for forty old years. So I told her about Princess Celestia and how things went for her, and she immediately perked up to that. She told me that Celestia was her sister. I thought she was pulling one on me, but I went along anyway. That's when she told me that she wasn't actually a foal, but some kind of alter-ego type of a thing. Like when psychiatrists give lectures on several personalities living inside one person."

"So... she was insane?"

"Honestly, I don't know at this point. The whole story sure sounded insane alright. Never heard anything less probable in my life. So, I mentioned that I saw Celestia going south along the coast on a ship, I happened to be on the same one during my way out, and she asked me to let her copy my map. I was still not sure if she was playing with me, but she sure was very serious about actually going to look for her. Just leaving her there alone didn't feel right, so I went with her, I needed to go that way at some point anyway. Can only go so long without new goods to sell. I thought that maybe I could get her to throw this crap out of her head, but the longer she was around, the less improbable it all was. She looked like, eight, maybe ten years old, but she could cut solid rock with her magic, ignite fire and do other things that not every adult unicorn knows how to do. She also was hellbent on getting her way, not in a way that foals can be, she was single-minded to a fault, anything that didn't get her to her goal was not worth her time. It was mildly terrifying, actually, to watch her roll over everyone standing between her and her goal."

"So, you found Celestia in the end, right?"

"Well, yeah, we did. I still expected her to just send us on our way and she did, kind of... kind of. Here's the thing, Celestia recognized her as her sister."

"What, really?"

"Yes, really. I was sitting there and hearing her talk about how she has someone like that coming to her every once in a while and some other stuff, and realizing that I officially didn't understand squat about anything we were doing anymore. So she sent us out again, Tiny was in despair, and then this Changeling comes chasing us."

"A Changeling?!" the three of them cried again.

"Where did that part come from? You picked up a Changeling on the way?"

"No, not me. Look, I don't get it myself. You remember this weird Changeling that suddenly appeared in the Palace at one point?"

"The one with the broken horn? Yeah, that was confusing. I thought Changelings were supposed to be our enemies and here Her Majesty suddenly walks around with one and treating her like they knew each other for years, and the Changeling jumps at her every word."

"Yeah, that one. Well, turns out that she was with Celestia the whole time. So, she follows us down the mountain, carries a spellbook and gives it to Tiny, and says to cast the spell from a certain page. Then goes back again. And she did."

"So, the Changeling just gives you a random spellbook and asks you to cast a spell and you just go through with it?"

"Well, it wasn't like I could stop her if I tried. You didn't see what she can do with that horn of hers, I did."

"Well, okay. What happened next."

"So, one night I just go to sleep and then suddenly I hear Her Majesty's voice calling to me."

"No shit!"

"Yeah, I know. And guess what, it wasn't a dream. I sat up and there she was, with those piercing glowing eyes of hers staring at me. I thought I was going to have a heart attack! Imagine your dead granny suddenly appearing in the-"

"You mean Her Majesty is alive?!" Blackhoof cried. "You knew that from the start and you couldn't say it?!"

"Look, I don't know what she is. Or is it really she, or her personality brought to life, or some other existential thing, but there she was. She asked me about what happened and I told her how everything fell apart. I thought she was going to punish me, or at least chew me up for running away like that, but she didn't say or do anything like that. Instead, we merrily went back on the mountain. Sure enough, the Changeling is standing at the top, waiting for us. Turned out it was trivially easy to have her back with us, it's just that Daybreaker and the rest of the court were against the idea. Her Majesty was obviously a little dissatisfied to learn that, but she wasn't mad at Daybreaker though."

"Wait, who the hay is Daybreaker?"

Rich proceeded to hit himself on the forehead,
"Right, you don't know yet. If you think the part of the story about the foal was improbable, wait till you hear this one. So, remember I was telling you about the personality split thing? Well, Princess Celestia and Luna had those too. Her Majesty isn't actually Princess Luna, but kind of like her... well, she isn't another... you know what, I am not even going to try to explain. So basically Princess Luna and Majesty are separate ponies, well, sort of. They kind of look really similar, I think Her Majesty wanted to be more distinct so she changed her coat color, size, mane and other stuff, well Daybreaker and Celestia look exactly the same."

"So you mean there always were four of them?" Blackhoof asked, he was quickly getting done with trying to rationalize what he was hearing. He knew for a fact that there were two Celestias, so Rich's explanation wasn't totally unbelievable.

"Well, like I said, kind of. The way they explained it to me is that it's like having someone else living with you in your head, you can talk to each other and stuff, and that other person in your head is just in for a ride, you are still the boss, well for a while. That other person in your head kind of wants to go around and do their own stuff, but they need a body and yours is the only one around."

"So they want to steal your body?"

"Well... yeah. No good way of putting it, I guess."

"Well, here's one thing I didn't know I wouldn't want to know."

"If it makes it any better, they don't really like doing it. It's just that it's either that or never getting to live. It's kinda sad, really. So, normally, when that other person takes over, they put you to sleep, or something like that. They go around and you don't have to be in their position, or get in their way. This is what happened to all these folks around and that's why they all say they are relatives. They never really get rid of you, though. So, apparently, there's some magical stuff that can clone your body and have you both get one. That's how we got four Princesses now."

"Okay, this is officially the wildest bullcrap I ever heard in my life! And that's saying something," White Nose giggled. "So, to recap, while we were guarding the Palace every day and night there was an extra set of Princesses roaming around and no one ever saw them?"

"Well, there was Luna. The Daybreaker and Celestia thing is a recent development. For Luna though, I got no idea where she was all this time, honestly. But I swear, I saw her myself, she really is a separate pony entirely."

"What about Her Majesty? Is she here?"

"Well, not right here. She is with Twilight in her mountain bunker. Claustrophobic that place of hers, doesn't she go out from time to time?"

"Well, she always was a bit of a couch potato. She preferred sitting around in the archive even when she lived in the Palace."

"I guess, but it's not like she was on her lonesome in there. In Ponyville she had... well, everyone. And in the archives, she had the archivists. Her territory wars with them were legendary!" Rich smiled.

"Oh, you don't know half of it. She was territorial alright, the poor eggheads ended up sharing space with administration clerks because Twilight wouldn't let them into their own archive. Some went as far as to sneak in during the day when she was sleeping."

"Okay, so back to the story. We went back to the mountain, picked up the changeling and then went straight to Daybreaker. Nightmare Moon wasn't mad, like at all. There were no screams, no insults flying. She was genuinely glad to see her sister, that's all. Daybreaker herself didn't believe it at first."

"Why, was she afraid that Her Majesty is mad at her because of what happened to the Empire?"

"Well... no. Prepare for another discovery, Daybreaker was the one who killed her."

"Well, I guess no one really believed that the Changeling did it," Blackhoof shrugged. "No one who ever saw her in action believed it for one second."

"No one who didn't see believed it either. Honestly, it looked like with her gone there wasn't anyone left in the Palace who knew how to lie. That changeling was the most obvious scapegoat ever, her not even trying to defend herself made it even worse. So, me and Tiny, and the Changeling look at them figuring out their relationship. I don't get one thing of what they were talking about, Tiny doesn't either. Eventually, they get enough of each other and Daybreaker takes us into her house, it turns out she had a whole room to store Her Majesty's old things. Her Majesty showed us around and even gave Tiny her old helmet. I never knew she could be so lovely. The difference between the Empress Nightmare Moon and just Nightmare Moon is a world."

"Yeah, she is much nicer when she isn't ordering anyone around. Great times those were, we even made her a surprise party once."

"Really? Did she like it?"

"She loved it! We had an orchestra, snacks and ball dancing! It's a shame we didn't have more of those, seeing her dance is an experience, let me tell you that. That freezing cold attitude was just for the outside, to everyone she liked enough, she was much nicer. It was kind of shocking to find out. I think someone even went as far as to ask her out on a date, imagine doing that."

"Did she go?"

"She didn't get the opportunity."

"Oh..." For a while, no one had any words, solemnly mourning their Lady's possible lost happiness. "So, basically we went straight here. First on land, then by ship. We tried to hire a ship to take us across the ocean, but some cultist weirdo got the city guard to arrest us, it obviously didn't happen but after that point, we got a crowd with us. Apparently, they think of Her Majesty as the leader of their whole people. So, Daybreaker opened a portal and we are here," he quickly concluded his tale.

"So, you accept any more folks?" Blackhoof asked.

"What? You wanna come along? Ain't you a bit too old for that?" White Nose hit him on the shoulder.

"And you don't want to? What, going to rot over here your whole life? Look around, this is no place for us to die in. This might be the time to do something meaningful again!"

"Well, I guess if you wanted to, you could ask Nightmare Moon herself, by the way, she doesn't want us to call her with b title anymore. I think she's done with being the Empress," Rich added.

"Judging by this assembly here I wouldn't have guessed."

"The only reason they are even here is that it wasn't right to leave them to the authorities back across the ocean. They have a problem with people knocking off their city guards. I heard her talking about getting rid of them as soon as we are here, since it's either me or Daybreaker who look after them now, I guess she got as close to getting rid of them as possible."

"And how is it, you like being in charge of others again?"

"Honestly, it's not like that. I just keep a record of who needs what and pass it over to the government griff that comes to check up on us every once in a while. Otherwise, I listen to complaints and wishes, and get them to Daybreaker when she comes around. I don't think either she or Nightmare Moon really care anymore though. They have their own problems."

"Guess some things never change. Nobility lives in the world of their own, just as it always was."

"Blackhoof, how can you be both idealistic and jaded at the same time?" White Nose asked. "You were just talking about how nice it would be to have a purpose again and how we can fix everything, and now you give the common, run of a mill, statement that every old person ever said at least once."

"Well, maybe because I am literally old?"

"Doesn't answer the question."

"Have a heart attack."

"Yeah, very mature, you lot are just role models for your age. I'll tell the Lady about you. She doesn't like crowds, but maybe for you, she'll make an exception. Get everyone that might want to join too, I got a feeling that we might be leaving soon enough."

"And how do we know if she accepts?"

"I think you'll know if she does," Rich grinned, imagining all the ways the Lady could deliver her message.

Comments

[Batpony46]

I can't wait for more but please take your time your art is magical

[The Sound of Loneliness]

11000497
Why thank you! I always aim to deliver.