Chrysalis moves on Canterlot while Twilight and Luna are away on a day of research. The real problems, however, lay in the confession of feelings from one starry eye princess to one with the romantic inclinations of a stone.
Twilight and Luna set out to dig up some old records in the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters. As they are doing this a plot by Chrysalis, hinging on the two alicorns being out of her way, begins to move on Canterlot through unexpected means. Will the two alicorns even realize there is trouble in time and even if they do, can they get to Canterlot in time to save it? The Princesses might even have bigger issues besides. One has a crush on the other and the one being crushed on is probably the most romantically oblivious pony to have ever existed.
It was a lovely day in Equestria unless you happened to be in the middle of the Everfree for it was a dark and ominous as ever or at least it appeared that way at first at any rate. For Luna and Twilight Sparkle the forest seemed to be merely thick with overgrowth that morning. The sunlight somewhat choked out by the canopy above and vines hiding a path that seemed to exist more in Luna’s memories than in physical material after all these years. The two were on a trip to the old castle to see if they could not find some of the kingdom’s older tomes on governance so as to help bolster Twilight’s education. Luna had insisted on retrieving not only the records in the former library but also her personal collection of records so as to help Twilight understand some of the evolution of the governmental process over all these years.
“Why are we doing this again? There are records of how things were back before you were banished in the history books.” Twilight asked as they made their way through the forest.
“It is because those books lack spirit. I understand the need for emotional detachment when teaching about history but that will not explain to somepony the why of what happened merely that it did.” Luna turned to answer Twilight just as they had come upon the river that might still house a river serpent.
“So why not tell me about it yourself?” Twilight asked the second question, well it was really the primary question but she felt it needed to be worked toward, that was on her mind.
“A millennium spent seething in rage and hate does things to one’s memories, fair Twilight. It is hard sometimes for me to recall even some of my memories of growing up never mind the memories of why I might have called for food to be set aside for a few years just in case a famine might happen or why I might have presided over the wedding of so and so lords of whatever over another couple of equal standing.” Luna answered as her eyes, adept to darkness, located the minute traces of the former path through the forest on the other side.
“Ah, I see.” Twilight could indeed see how such a time might mess with memories if by nothing else than coloring them with the emotions and thus altering the perception of one’s own reasons.
The two took flight across the river to its other side and continued on their way. As they did so they failed to notice glowing blue eyes watching them from the branches of the trees above them. Elsewhere, somewhere in the depths of the badlands, a wicked queen observed their journey through the forest through those eyes and began to grin.
“Keep watch. If they start to leave, do whatever it takes to keep them in the forest.” Chrysalis severed the connection with her changelings and turned to her green crystal orb which depicted a glassy eyed Celestia. “Now, Tia, I believe we were discussing some changes about your troop movement.”
Nearing the rope bridge Luna decided to ask Twilight her own question as she had to know how Twilight kept her figure if she stayed indoors most of the time. “Given that you live near this forest have you taken the chance to use it for exercise?”
“I suppose you could say that. I travel into it on a regular basis to speak with Zecora. She is that zebra friend of mine I’ve mentioned before. You know we should stop by and see her on our way out. I think you would enjoy meeting her.” Twilight answered as she took flight across the gap leaving Luna behind for a moment.
Taking wing to catch up with Twilight, Luna pondered if they could work in the visit. “Sure, we are not on any schedule or anything. This is the one you said used magic even though she doesn’t have a horn, yes?”
“Indeed. Admittedly she seemed to be mostly knowledgeable about meditation techniques a unicorn could use to refine and strengthen their power. If I was a more suspicious mare I would assume Celestia placed her out here for my training.”
Luna laughed at that. “While my sister is given to such machinations I am sure she would not go quite that far. Zebras were never fond of playing those kinds of games and even less at being the pawns in them. Shamans, as this one sounds like she is, less so. “
Twilight giggled a bit at that as she had found upon her ascension records backing up Luna’s statement to some degree. The whole reason Ponyville occupied the land it did was so it would be near the elements. There were foot notes that indicated Celestia expected the settlement to grow and house strange and unique ponies as a result. That plan had paid off in her opinion even if she felt strange could be replaced with crazy in the description.
“Why did you ask about me using the Everfree for exercise?”
“Curiosity mostly. I come here regularly and test myself against the creatures here to keep from getting too soft. Sure there are large creatures elsewhere but this is the most packed place for threats to do so with. I had pondered if you did similar to keep your magic up.”
“You would get along with Rainbow I think, Luna. She likes to test herself by buzzing the quarry eels down in Ghastly Gorge. No, I don’t regularly do anything quite that extreme. Never saw much reason to take the risk before though I did give a cockatrice a wallop up the side of the head a year ago after it had turned me into stone.”
“Ah, here we are. As for being turned to stone I have heard it’s unpleasant. Thankfully you got out and with any luck that will never happen to you again.” Luna alighted outside the castle with Twilight coming in to land at her side. “Shall we go inside and start?” Luna personally could not wait to see Twilight go on a tear through the library and begin studying. It always amused her so to see the former unicorn enjoying herself so much.
Twilight nodded her head and the two entered into the old castle. Luna lead the way toward the library Twilight knew about from her previous visits. As always the moment they entered Twilight’s eyes began to sparkle much like Luna’s treasured stars and the purple alicorn begin to set out to start reading.
“Remember Twilight, just the books on court sessions.” Luna felt bad the moment she saw a slight slump in Twilight’s demeanor but smiled when she saw the magical prodigy perk back up after hearing what she said next. “After all, we have my personal archive after this. With any luck some of my old magic books are still there.”
After several hours pouring over the old records Twilight was satisfied that she had found a good number of the books they were searching for. She teleported them back to her library to study in detail later. Turning her head to see where Luna was she notices the night alicorn staring dreamily ahead. ‘She must be remembering her past based on what she is reading.’ Twilight thought to herself completely missing the fact that Luna had been lost in watching Twilight research. “Uhm.. Luna? I think I found enough stuff here. You ready to lead the way to your collection?”
Luna almost jumped out of her skin realizing that she had been lost in her own world of stars drifting in a sea of purple. “Eh? Yes, yes of course. Just follow me if you would.” Luna began to lead Twilight out of the library and toward one of the more ruined looking wings of the castle. “By the way, what do you think of the old castle?”
“How do you mean?”
“Do you think we could get it rebuilt? I’ve been thinking it would be a rather convenient place to set up here in the forest so we can keep an eye on the Tree of Harmony. I mean it is just right below more or less.”
“Interesting idea but I don’t know if it could be done easily. Admittedly while I would like to see this place restored to get an idea of what it once looked like,” here Twilight’s inner archeologist shone through for but a moment, “I’m unsure if it wouldn’t be better just to fortify and repair only the bulk of the castle that is still intact as a sort of watchtower over the Tree with some guards stationed here.”
“While I suppose that could be done we would have to pick out some of our best soldiers. At least if we commissioned the castle to be rebuilt one of us could stay here and keep an eye on it and we wouldn’t have to leave so many soldiers at the tender mercies of the Everfree, yes?” Luna asked as they continued to walk through the hallways toward her old suite of rooms.
While Twilight replied Luna listened with only half an ear to make sure she could respond properly. The rest of her mind was occupied with trying to figure out how to let Twilight know she was interested in her. This was her third attempt at such in a month with the last two failing spectacularly.
The first time had been taking out Twilight star gazing which she hoped would be romantic but it failed before it could even begin when Twilight showed up with an overstuffed notebook, two peer reviewed journals on the subject, and a list of questions about the night sky longer than Luna personally thought was warranted. While she had enjoyed the intellectual exchange, something she rarely got in this era for some strange reason, she had hoped for a simple night. The second attempt had been ruined by the usual disasters of the day as she had invited Twilight to a dinner only for the both of them to be pulled into a meeting resolving the differences between a minotaur ambassador and that insufferable twit Blueblood.
“Luna, are you alright? You kind of blanked out on me again.”
“Sorry Twilight. I got lost in thought about the cost in money and horsepower this place would have to get it back in line. I still think it might be worth the investment though if for no other reason than to keep an eye on the Tree and possibly a nice summer home to escape the nobility when things get too hectic.”
The two alicorns continued to discuss the viability of the castle and its potential use as changelings followed the pair walking across the roof above. So far they had not had to act but they were already setting things up in case they did. The rather modest swarm that had been detached to this duty was prepared to pull out all the stops needed. They had already decided that if nothing else they would kidnap one of their targets to keep the other distracted trying to find them. Admittedly their commander had a plan that he hoped would do the job before it came down to that.
In Canterlot Celestia had summoned her commanders to an emergency meeting concerning a threat to their citizens. Once they had all gathered in the meeting room she began the show. “I have it on good authority that the changelings are preparing another assault on Equestria. I recently found a changeling posing as one of my personal staff and got it to talk before… well before it gave out shall we say.”
The commanders were suitably shocked though more about the fact that changelings were that close to the princess than about anything else. They kept their poise as best they could to hear what their diarch wanted to tell them.
“As such I’m going to need to assign you all to new patrols. I want the Wonderbolts and a detachment of battle mages to set up in Cloudsdale to make sure it remains safe.” Celestia began to give off her orders. “Spitfire, make sure you have one of your fastest ready to report to me if anything happens up there, alright?”
“Of course Princess.” Spitfire answers back ready to do her job.
“I’m going to need a good deal of the guard to set off for Ponyville, Manehatten, and Fillydelphia commander.” Celestia didn’t want to reveal that she had yet to remember the name of Shining Armor’s replacement so she didn’t bother naming him directly.
“Are you sure that is wise, ma’am?” The commander, a unicorn with a dingy yellow coat and oddly two toned brown hair answered.
“Perhaps not the wisest choice but we don’t know where they will assault us. The changeling wasn’t exactly informative about where they were going to raid. I would suspect it didn’t know if our theory about them possessing a hive mind is accurate as a spy wouldn’t need to know where the assault was happening.” came Celestia’s response.
“As you wish, ma’am.” The commander nods already plotting to keep some of his better troops here in Canterlot just in case. Admittedly better troops from the guard means they were merely useless rather than given to panicking flights of terror in the event of something going wrong but he would not confess to that.
The meeting continued in this vein of Celestia ordering various members of her military to move their troops around to protect various cities but in such a way as to make sure they had a fighting chance. Only the guard captain noted that it left Canterlot itself pretty exposed but he could not countermand orders. In the shadows of the rafters above one of Luna’s commanders heard the conversation and found the positioning of troops suspicious enough to warrant reporting to his mistress. Waiting until the meeting was over and the participants had time to disperse he took wing and set out to where he had heard she would be. The Everfree posed little threat to a member of Luna’s own after all.
The two alicorns squeezed through some of the last few almost collapsed passages to get to Luna’s old room. Twilight had a bit of trouble here with her wings which lead to her grumbling about the things. Luna might have helped her if she wasn’t resisting the urge to squee at how adorable Twilight appeared when she was annoyed.
“First they keep me from sleeping and walking down the stairs was awkward and now getting caught in hallways…” Twilight continued to grumble as she finally managed to get free and turned to Luna. “Alright, so where do we go next?” she huffs to her guide.
“Just over here.” Luna was rather thankful that it seemed her actual room was okay in spite of the damage to the hallways. Her magic moved the rusted and rotting doors out of the way with an ear shattering squeak of antique bordering on ancient hinges. The opened door lead into a large fore room from which a few other doors lead off into other rooms that the princess might have found useful when she once lived here. “The door off to the left is where I kept my records and personal collection of tomes. That is where we shall go I think.”
Twilight nodded her head and set toward the door at a rather rapid pace intent on getting to some new research. If she had looked back she might have seen Luna pause before entering as she worked to clear her head of the ghosts of the past sweeping across the familiar room. Twilight gave a cry of surprise that ultimately lead to Luna returning to the present and stepping into her old rooms and set to find her companion.
Luna found Twilight already reading through some of her old journals of court interactions. These records contained a much better detailing of the thought process that went into the decisions than even the records in the previous library. After all the court scribe really didn’t know what his rulers thoughts were when they were deliberating. Luna had always found it useful to keep such a thing so as to remind herself of what happened each day. Her sister had never seemed to do the same and it had always irked her that her sister did not seem to be treating it as seriously as she did. Still that was a gripe and worry of another time and place. For now she would enjoy watching her little alicorn do what she enjoyed most.
Twilight had already set aside four books that seemed to read as if they were about the court decisions of the day. She was beginning to look for some more before she paused for a moment and realized that it might be enough. Some of what she had read seemed too much like a personal diary in parts for her to feel too comfortable going willy-nilly through the rest. “Luna, do you know of any other books in here that I should look at?”
“That are about the courts? I do believe I might have stored the rest back further in past my spell books. We’ll have to collect those while we are here. There are spells in them that I’ve learned have fallen out of favor and they might still be useful. Care to read through those while I search our primary objective?”
“Ooh, can I?” The purple alicorn’s eyes turned to stars as she held back from going into complete arcane fan girl mode over ancient and lost spells. She had an inkling that spells belonging to the mistress of dreams and mother of illusions would be positively fascinating if not downright complex. “Which one should I start with?”
Luna indicated a black book near the left edge of the top shelf of the bookshelf. “That one is the basics of most of the rest. I wrote them as I developed them and kept them in order. Have fun while I find that last set of records.” She walked off to let Twilight begin her reading.
‘Well, I think I’ve covered gifts well enough. The question is how does one let a mare know you are interested when she is incapable of getting the hint. I tried complimenting her appearance last time and she simply thanked me thinking it was a common conversational act rather than an overture to her beauty so that is out. Conventional wisdom would suggest food but she is neither a stallion nor is this the kind of place for a meal. I guess I’ll have to be direct and tell her that I find her admirable and would like to begin a courtship. It was so much easier back in the day as I would have been married to her simply for saving me.’ Luna thought to herself as she began to poke her magic into one of the further back bookshelves of the room. She seemed to recall the tome, a rather large collection of previous court journals that had been bound into a single omnibus, rested somewhere on this side of the room. Memories might have been hazy here and there but something she had fiddled with almost every day of her descent into madness stood out a bit.
“Twilight, you are an admirable mare.” Luna had decided to go for the straight forward approach and began working her way through it.
Twilight, deep in the euphoria of learning new magic, responded in a somewhat distracted tone. “Well thank you Luna but I’m not that special.”
“No, you are my dear. In fact I find myself quite captivated by you if I’m honest. I was wondering if you might be willing to join me for a meal tomorrow night.”
“Sure, I would love to have a meal with you Luna.”
‘Did she even understand that was an invitation to a date?’ Luna had to ponder to herself.
“Twilight, you do realize I’m trying to ask you if you would like to…” That was as far as Luna got as the two heard the sounds of a commotion outside the room they were in. Luna began to leave the room to find out what was going on and was joined a moment later by a reluctant to abandon her new book Twilight. The two looked outside into the fore room from earlier to find what appeared to be one of Luna’s Noctourne guards in a scuffle with some changelings.
“It figures.” Luna muttered under her breath. “Always when I get to the important part.”
“Enough.” Luna’s magic sprung to life slamming the changelings to the floor. At the booming voice of his mistress the Noctourne stepped back and looked to her. “What is your purpose here within mine castle?” The moon goddess’s eyes glowed with pure power as she stared down those who had dared to trespass into her former home and interrupt her Twilight Time.
Twilight watched Luna handily bind the changelings to the floor taking mental notes on what it appears she is doing and theorizing on how. She knew Luna was the more battle ready and inclined sister but was not aware she could so easily hold down multiple targets in an instant. Perhaps those theories she had about Luna controlling gravitational effects held true after all as she did not even see a glow around the changelings binding them in place.
A large changeling, in fact the largest present and the only one in armor, managed to work his jaw enough to answer. “Feeding. We smelled food and merely began to search for it. We were unaware of its source.”
“Truly? Your kind once more trespasses upon the lands of my subjects and admits you are here to feed upon them. You dare?” The force holding the changelings to the ground seems to almost double given the cracks forming beneath them. “Commander, bind them all. We will be taking them with us back to Canterlot.”
The Noctourne nodded in response and proceeds, somehow unimpeded by Luna’s gravity field, to bind the hooves of all the changelings that have been captured. He also placed a horn ring on all five of them to prevent them from using magic, hopefully. The changelings say nothing but the commander internally chuckled at this attempt to keep them under control.
“Luna, I’m not sure how secured this makes them. We don’t know if they need their horns to shape shift or if it’s even magic on their part. For all we know they can alter their form at whim even with their magic bound. After all I doubt one of those could keep you from turning into mist or any of your other forms.” The changeling commander’s already blood ran even colder at their bane’s logic being spoken aloud.
“Good point. Then let us take them somewhere more… comfortable.”
Deep beneath the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters one could find sections that had hardly been affected by the passage of time. Oh sure there were cobwebs from spiders and mold from neglect but hardly any rubble or debris to be found. These rooms and hallways made up what was once the castle’s dungeon. While not exactly a bright and cheer place to go on a date as Luna noted and grumbled to herself, unless your lover was particularly kinky anyway, it would serve tonight.
Luna’s magic and the Noctourne’s blade did their job of escorting their captures into one of the still functioning magic blocking cells. These cells had been used to hold unicorn and other similar magically powered dissidents in the past during the early part of the sisters’ reign. Not all the formerly noble unicorns had been happy about losing their royal status and influence to two upstart alicorns to say nothing of the non pony races vitriol at the new rulers influence. They also had the bonus of using a field of energy rather than iron bars to contain their prisoners so no need to worry about the changelings turning into snakes or something to slip through. A blast of Luna’s magic to a gem on the wall beside the cell springing the barrier to life once their prisoners were inside.
“There, this should hold you and keep your powers in check. Now then, explain!” Luna looked at the changelings contained within. Her face barely changed from her usual neutral expression but it might as well have been carved from obsidian for the intensity it portrayed was cutting.
Luna’s guard and Twilight both shrunk away from the look upon her face. Few things caused an instinctive fear in ponies than the wrath of Luna. Twilight may know her as a friend and fellow scholar but she also knew her history and the wrath the moon princess was famous for bringing down upon her enemies was not something easily forgotten. The guard, while more familiar with his mistress’s moods, merely wanted to wait to bring to her attention his reason for being here lest he get her angry at himself by drawing any attention to himself.
“We were merely seeking food. My unit and I have been trying to make it back to the hive for some time now. We’ve spent months recuperating after being dashed almost to pieces by that barrier during the Canterlot invasion. Once we were all healed up enough to move we began our trek home. We were merely passing through these woods and sensed food. As such we began to search for it. We were only hungry, nothing more.” The changeling commander answered from a suitably cowed position within the cell.
Luna’s glare hardly let up on the outside but on the inside she was panicking. ‘Perhaps questioning them with Twilight present is not wise. I should perhaps wait until she is not here least they explain my plans to her. I will not let some bugs confess my love before I do.’ “Very well. You will be my guests here for the moment. I do seem to have more important things to address right now anyway.” Luna turned her gaze from the changelings and her visage softens as she looks upon Twilight. The poor young alicorn was doing all she could not to hide as her instincts were telling her so Luna tried to convey a more mellow mood for her sake.
“Come, let us three step back into the fresh air for a moment and calm ourselves. Then we can begin to plan what to do next.” Luna suggested to her companions who nodded and joined her on the journey top side.
“Ah, I never do feel comfortable in dungeons.” Twilight spoke aloud once all were topside. “I know why they are needed but they always make me feel horrified that we have to use them.”
“Just remember that it is the better choice to take prisoners than the alternative.” Luna answered speaking from experience. As Twilight shuddered as she knew what the alternative is the lunar sister turned to her soldier. “Thank you for stopping them from sneaking up on us. Now what were you doing here? I am pretty sure I did not order a silent detail to follow me.”
“Mistress I came to you to let you know some of the locals had seen changelings nearby recently. A few of us had decided to be nearby in case you needed anything. We felt it was wise to be ready given all the activity in this area. A lucky thing I did too. I happened to spot these ones crawling on the ceiling of the room you found us in as I was rushing to inform you.” The Noctourne answered.
“I see. Good job then. Anything else to report to me? Know of anything happening in Canterlot? I know I assigned some of you to observe if anything untoward happened.”
“Nothing, mistress.”
As this conversation occurred under the light of the moon in the old courtyard no one took note of the green cocoon in what used to be Celestia’s room or its occasional twitching. The changeling commander in his cell and his queen miles upon miles away smiled at a plan unfolding.