Stir Up Long Lost Memories
“How does it feel Celestia? To be on the brink of losing everything you have ever worked for?” the imposing and very much snide Queen of the Changelings demanded of her. “I can honestly say I sympathise, after all; it’s happened to me before…” she claimed, sending an accusing glare in the direction of the pink alicorn stuck to the floor with that unyielding adhesive green gloop.
Much to Celestia’s surprise Cadence looked away, a hint of shame leaking through a mask of indignation. Her millennia old eyes were far too honed not to cut through it, even with the world tinted a sickening green and turned upside-down.
“But let us not worry about that, it’s a private matter we’ll be discussing later. For now it’s all about you! Isn’t that exciting?” she claimed in a crude mockery of glee. “It must be so good to finally have those age old sins lifted off your shoulders with righteous retribution.” Her hooves glided forward as she trotted over to the windows, sighing as she looked out on the chaos around her. “Old broken treaties reinstated whether you like it or not, stolen lands returned by force and countless dead reprimanded by sacking…”
Celestia for once in very few times in her life began to feel genuinely stumped. While she had certainly dealt with Changelings before and even infringed on their lands but she had never negotiated with them or permanently claimed any land they owned.
In that moment the Queen grew rigged before whipping back around to face Celestia. “Confused!? You have the audacity to be confused!? I may be too young to have experience what you did to us but we remember everything! I’ve seen the memories! We were at peace and then you came along sprouting nonsense about indoctrinated towns and slaughtered any Changeling you could find! And you didn’t stop there either; you and your soldiers plundered our lands and killed even our young in cold blood!” the Queen ranted in a furious cascade of claims.
However Celestia was now she was more muddled than ever. There had been a heavy Changeling infestation when she had first come into power alongside her sister and perhaps she had dealt with it more harshly then was appropriate but she never recalled any peace or formal borders being violated. Luna had destroyed a hive of theirs in that area but it had been an illegal settlement within their borders… hadn’t it? The memories were rather distant being some of her earliest well over two thousand years ago and before the reign of Discord.
The Changeling Queen was now staring in shock at the princes. “You… don’t know? That, it doesn’t make sense! No, you’re trying to trick me you manipulative old… cow! But…” The once calm, collect and gloating Changeling was now squirming in a mess of misleading and contradicting facts. “How could you not know!? How could you have done all of that and not…” the passionate demands were visibly drawing her to tears.
It was fairly well known to Celestia that Changelings had the ability to sense emotions and generalised intentions, even the vague subjects of thoughts if they were attentive enough. It was one of the things that made them so slippery as they instantly knew if a pony meant them harm or suspected them. Right now however it was proving to be a problem of sorts, showing off Celestia’s own emotions that were clearly conflicting with the Queen’s own information.
Unfortunately for Celestia it didn’t last long. “We have them,” she declared, snapping out of her angry stupor, looking towards the doors. “Your elements won’t be bothering us any time soon Celestia.” Her victorious grin had returned, even if it was more unsteady then before.
She took up her position, ready for another round of righteous gloating. She cast one last glance at Celestia and whispered to her in such an odd combination of resentment and reassurance; “calm down dearie, we won’t be keeping Canterlot for too long…”
Brilliant magenta eyes snapped open. Celestia’s sleep had been disturbed.
A shame, she was hoping to examine more of her memories than that. The dream had been one of her own making, a means to re-examine events that were still perplexing her. The Queen’s words had revealed that here had been more to her ‘invasion’ then one would initially assume. To be frank it should have been more obvious, the Changelings had bought enough numbers to take Canterlot but certainly not enough to hold it against the inevitable counterattack. At first Celestia had assumed stupidity and arrogance but now? Now she wasn’t so sure and so many reviews of the events continued to hint at something deeper.
A distraction perhaps? Or maybe some sort of grand gesture? The aftermath had made it clear it was no attempt to weaken them. Casualties had been amazingly low and many citizens and guards alike testified that the only when a Changeling was killed did they use lethal force. Fortified positions were avoided completely, simply blockaded, cut off and left to wither.
There had been some serious wounds as well but there were also numerous, if not consistent, accounts of Changelings claiming to be trained in medicine tending to ponies’ wounds. Admittedly this was offset by their ruthlessness when dealing with those who had killed even one of their kind but it showed that they were not quite the monsters many officials were making them out to be or as Celestia last remembered them.
Eleven. The number shook Celestia in a way she was far from used to. A full scale invasion and only eleven guards had been killed out of the entire Canterlot garrison. Most were excessively violent deaths but so few of them…
To add to it most of the damage done was purely cosmetic. Yes it was still expensive to repair but it seemed as if they had been avoiding anything that would cause serious disruption to Canterlot’s infrastructure. Hospitals weren’t even so much as touched, food stashes were left alone and particular effort was put into securing the train yards with as little damage as possible.
Naturally it caused much confusion as soon as the details were released. Before there were demands for an increased military budget from the wider populous but after the details people started wanting information that simply wasn’t there. The conspiracy theories started soon after, the distinct lack of information on Changelings only fanning those fires. She could have sworn herself there should have been more information both in quantity and reliability on them in the archives but they, the library and even royal records office had remained seemingly untouched during the invasion…
Then there was the matter of Cadence. From the meagre dialogue she had observed between the young princess and the Queen they had a history, Celestia was particularly surprised when Cadence had burst in and announced that she knew exactly what a Changeling was.
Celestia had meant to confront Cadence on the subject but decided not to at the time letting her enjoy her honeymoon. When she approached the topic at a later time all Celestia had managed to get out of her was that it was an old family matter, from her original family that is. The incident with the reappearance of the Crystal Empire occurring not long after cut off that line of enquiry.
Celestia’s heart truly went out to the young alicorn. Her early life had a somewhat traumatic ending, with her parents murdered in their own home for petty cash in her mid-adolescence. To be honest the thieves had chosen quite well as her father was a wealthy vineyard owner and bee keeper producing large quantities of cheap wine for the masses so petty cash was in abundance. Her mother being one of the once-every-other-century mares blessed with the ability to birth alicorn foals also helped as she was granted quite the Royal stipend to put towards maintaining her privacy.
Being an alicorn the Canterlot nobility soon snapped her up for adoption. Celestia had a helping hoof in making sure she got to a caring family who just happened to be the last surviving hairs to the Crystal Empire’s throne. A fortunate arrangement as Celestia had for a long time before the Empire’s fall been trying to unite the Crystal ponies with the original three tribes.
However the only loose end Celestia could find were rumours of a younger sister kept hidden by their mother. It was odd that this sister was registered as a unicorn; the mother being who she was should have not given birth to such. Unfortunately almost no evidence had survived the incident after so many decades and with Cadence leagues away running the Crystal Empire answers were not coming easily.
Taking a deep breath Celestia decided to concentrate on the present and by extension what had awoken her.
Ah, it would seem it was herself.
Being as well practiced in magic as she was Princess Celestia had the great pleasure of being able to tailor her own sleeping patterns. She had done so skilfully as well, as her carefully nudged subconscious would even adjust to circumstance. So when a guard or other pony carrying irritating and unimportant news or one of her more pointless duties she had to attend to, in the words of her sister, sleep like a bear. It wasn’t perfect of course as more than once she had awoken later on of her own accord hugging said messenger like a stuffed toy on account of them get just a bit too close. Fortunately, and much to her pride’s relief, none had reported it an entirely unpleasant experience. Only somewhat awkward.
Who said managing god like responsibilities had to be such a serious affair after all? One of Discords few philosophies she had later took to heart, though with a heavy dose of moderation. Ironically a little bit of chaos now and then helped keep her sane and goodness knows she needed her sanity.
However this is where her sensitivity to circumstance came in. If genuinely important news was being delivered to her she would wake almost immediately. Well, that and pleasant surprises. Or unpleasant ones including knives, crossbow bolts and poison but much to her disappointment there had been none of those in over a decade. Chasing assassins around the palace was an oddly enjoyable workout for her. That was, when none of her guards got hurt in the process of course.
As it just so happened one of those surprises had just awoken her. It seemed the gentle fizz and pop had awoken her just in time for a rolled up scroll to hit the sheets right next to her head. Clearly a letter sent to her, via the young dragon Spike from her dear pupil and niece in law Twilight Sparkle, a relation she had to insist on using but had grown on her in time. It was a shame Twilight forwent the offered Ladyship; Celestia could have used more level headed and emotionally alive nobles around.
Slowly she began to read…
And slowly her heart began to sink.
Dear Princess Luna or Celestia
I am weighting to inform you of an unusual phenomenon myself and my friend have discovered earlier this night. While star gazing Rainbow Dash spotted a number of unusual lights in the night sky while I was investigating occupied with. She traced these lights back to their source which appeared to be a pair of large objects in orbit of our planet. One was long and silver producing green beams and fast moving blue dots while the other was more rugged, grey and only produced flashes of light. She observed them closely discovering that the objects were using some sort of rocket system to move. Unfortunately further observation revealed that these lights were causing damage and thus Rainbow realised they were in fact fighting. She drew my attention to the spectacle just in time to whiteness the smaller one deploy a volley of rockets –or what I think are rocket propelled weapons- that produced impossibly large explosions for their size destroying the larger ship. The smaller one was damaged but intact and still functioning enough to move itself. However what is of greater and quite possibly grave importance I that both produced a number of smaller objects that, if my calculations are correct, have landed somewhere in the Mild West in the same region as Appaloosa. While I am trying to supress my anxiety for the moment I can’t help but fear these aliens have bought a war to our world.
Eagerly awaiting your response,
your most faithful student and niece,
Twilight Sparkle.
“Oh my…” The memories bought up by this letter were pleasant yet disturbing ones. The technology or even magic required to reach the stars and travel among them was, to her knowledge, dangerous information. Not necessarily unstable but easily turned into a force for destruction by those lacking harmony or compassion in their hearts.
The bringers of that knowledge as little as she knew them surly lacked the former and had paid for it dearly throughout their history. However, at least in their case, the wisdom required to reach such heights surpassed any lingering violent instinct despite their chaotic tendencies. As she recalled Discord much enjoyed the company of a select few of them before that sickness stripped him of his sanity and much of his memory alike…
An odd tingling in the back of her mind interrupted her thoughts. “Ah, and of course on the subject of those with a distinct lack of Harmony,” she joked to herself, “five, four, three, two, one, and…”
Her chamber doors bust open with velocity comparable to that of a cannon ball. Not a rare occurrence.
“Sister! We have the most wonderful of news!” The dark alicorn announced.
“Oh? Might this have to do with the alien craft currently fighting each other above our world?” Cellestia responded almost dreamily.
“Nay, it…” she began but soon cut off in bewilderment. “Wait what dose thou speak of? They are battling!? How did thy learn of this sister?”
“My faithful student happened upon it a little earlier this night it would seem,” she explained simply as she stretched upon her bed and magically passed the letter to her sister.
“Ah, Twilight Sparkle. It would seem she and her friends are magnets for these sorts of events.” Luna frowned out of concern for one of her few close friends but also something more.
Her dissatisfaction came from her new position. The royal advisors and nobles did not approve of Luna’s tendency to directly interfere and personally medal in government affairs as Luna was used to. Being held back from the fight with king Sombra had irked her quite a bit. However, much to Celestia’s pride Luna steamed on ahead anyway. Her sister’s passion was her strength, even if it doubled as a weakness sometimes.
“Indeed, it would appear that way,” Celestia mused, as calm and collect as always. She climbed up from her circular bed, taking a moment to roll her joints and loosen up. “I would not want to cause a panic but we had best do something about this. Oh, and how did you learn of this Luna?”
“The instrumentation in the vaults of course. A total of seven ruptures into the Slip Stream realm were detected,” the Princess announced somewhat excitedly as they proceeded out of the room. “It gladdens me that old friends are returning, even if enemies of theirs are potentially involved.”
“Luna, we have no idea if one of the factions will be them or not. They were not the only ones who used that dreadful realm for travel,” Celestia admonished. “We had best rouse the rest of the Guard. I do not like the fact that there have been that many anomalies and only two ships sited in heated battle.”
“Perhaps there may be cause for concern but regardless many fantastic things are yet to come.” Luna snorted in good humour as they began to walk down the corridor. “You always had such an odd phobia of voids considering we work with one on a daily basis. Nighting Gale, please go to the barracks and tell the captains to meet us in the cartography studio.”
The lieutenant barely held in a sigh as she had only just arrived. “Yes Ma’am, right away,” she said drolly before scampering back off.
Celestia rolled her eyes. Luna did things like that on purpose. Not in a malicious sense or even as a joke but as a test. “You think she will make a fine Captain one day don’t you sister?” Celestia asked rhetorically. “Oh, and the thaumatic realm is hardly a void!”
Luna huffed and tilted her head up in indignation. “It lacks any sort of matter sister; it is even more of a void then Slipstream Space in that sense!”
The semantics of such obscure realms were blurry and always caused much head spinning in the intellectual community. Naturally that made it one of the main topics Twilight and Luna would discuss over tea.
Celestia felt her neck begin to slacken and hang lower than usual at the prospect. “Please Luna; let’s not get into that debate again…” Her affinity was for social interactions and statecraft, not science and magic despite her extensive knowledge on the subjects.
“Only because we both know I will inevitably win Tia,” she replied smugly.
Celestia could only groan at her sister’s arrogance, even if it was in jest. “Let us just get on with this! I would like to get some sleep before the first of them start popping up, if they do. Space fairing species or not theirs is often far more trouble than it’s worth…”
Luna let out a shocked gasp. “But think of all the things we would be missing out on if they hadn’t become stranded her oh so long ago… like democracy! I remember how much you enjoyed that one.”
As annoying as Luna’s teasing was Celestia couldn’t help but smile inside. Sending Luna to Pinkie Pie to permanently snap her out of that awful moodiness that often clung to her had been a good choice, even with the consequences.
Prank wars, eccentric declarations and rampant investment of the exorbitant interest in her bank account that had built up over a thousand years of inactivity were a good sign of sorts. She was healing, letting go of those awful events that had stolen them form each other for a thousand years…
“Sister? Are you crying? I did not think you loathed that particular political arrangement to that degree…” she joked lightly, knowing it not the true source of upset.
Celestia snapped out of it, braking out a light blush at letting her mannerisms slip. “My apologies… it’s simply good to have you back Lulu.” She said softly.
“There is no shame in showing emotion sister. We would not be true ponies if we did not.” Luna’s mood sunk a little as she grew more serious, “I often wonder which of us received the greater punishment Tia. Without each other to shear our burdens…” she trailed off into mournful silence. “Let us not dwell on such unpleasant things. They are unpleasant,” she declared firmly in an aloof manor.
Celestia couldn’t help but slip a small giggle at the redundant statement. “I whole heartedly agree. With the situation up north in the Crystal Empire combined with these new developments things are about to get stressfully complicated. Best not let such burdens rise up from the past.”
Luna nodded once in firm agreement. “Indeed, with that particular emergence, as pleasant as it may seem may bear unforeseen complications…”
“Yes, I do hope Shining Armour is faring well with his task.”
“Worry not Tia, he is a fine stallion with a cool head. If any are qualified for this roll it is he,” Luna comforted. “In fact, I would go so far as to say it is a shame he has embraced monogamy. I would be happy to welcome such a fine specimen of the male gender to the royal heard and mine bed alike!” she declared wishfully.
Celestia’s eyes narrowed and her cheeks lit up. “Luna…!”
“What? ‘Tis truly a step back monogamy. ‘Tis a thing of the dark ages not to share thy virtues and prosperity!” the moon princess countered with hidden glee at her sister’s embarrassment, the attention of the guards and others augmenting it severely. “Why, in the days before my banishment we had dozens of willing harems between us! Our endurance ensured there was never a lonely night for thy palace staff either, all were welcome to share in our-”
“That is quite enough sister!” With the number of palace cleaning staff they had passed there was no way this wasn’t going to leak to the press the following morning and the staff knew she was too soft to reprimand over such petty things…
just like the last time.
“And that is not the only travesty in recreation. It would seem the law preventing ponies from covering their rear half in our presence has been repealed! Such a sign of trust and honesty to their princesses by putting their gorgeous rumps on display is essential not to mention the lack of self-confidence and worth by covering ones soul mark implies…”
Celestia’s teeth were now dangerously grinding and surprisingly in contradiction sharpening slightly. If one looked closely enough wisps of flame could even be seen dancing in her mane. She enjoyed such things as much as anypony but putting it all out on display? Luna, coming from an age of great feasts, strong ale and more intimate ‘merry making’ failed to grasp it was unbecoming for a princess in this day and age.
“Luna, I have spent much of the past few centuries trying to maintain the image of a perfect virginal princess,” she said in a quite growl. “I would appreciate it if you would not disrupt that.”
Luna seemed to recoil in surprise. “Well then, you have clearly not visited the many night shops in Canterlot. Not to mention the dreams of our subjects… they are surprisingly creative in this era.”
Night shops, weren’t they…? Celestia’s eyes visibly widened. “What did you say!?”
And with that, the two sisters continued to discuss, argue andbicker over important ‘social’ maters long into the morning, oblivious to the unveilings that would be soon to follow and the brewing issues in the north.
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>>voiddraggon
Ah, the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy. Such a hoopy frood of a book series.
Noticed a lack of commas in this bit. Changed airs to heirs, as in "Heirs to the throne".
2188490 Taken into consideration, thank you.
2188527
You are welcome.
If I notice anything else- well you know.
Entertaining story so far as well, Equestria (Or Equuis or whatever it's called) seems to attract nearly as much weirdness as Earth does doesn't it?
2188570 Well if we were completely realistic about the chances of things happening then we wouldn’t really get anywhere in the story.
But yes, everything is a bit astoundingly coincidental thus abnormal and weird. Then again we’re writing stories about multi-coloured pastel ponies in a world based on warped chunks and titbits of human mythology. At this point weird is a given.
Then again I’ve always put stock in the saying ‘reality is stranger than fiction’.
2188680
Indeed.
Crap he's on to us
2441014 Oh, I have nothing against sapient computer constructs, I’m no technophobe. I only have a problem if you trying to instate some sort of big brother regime…
In which case there’s probably nothing I can do.
Cadence seems to have a bad case of the batman origins.