Circle Time
A window is often a portal, a means of escape from an inner world into something freer and open. In this way by looking we wish ourselves to the other side, enjoying airy liberty by proxy, even if in reality we are in limbo (as any disliked place can feel when forced to remain in it too long). This however can only be possible if the view outside has some kind of positive facet with which to entice the incarcerated, otherwise there might as well be an uninterrupted wall in its place. Sadly for the Princess of the Night the case was very much the latter.
From her annex, set in a vast stalactite hanging from a seemingly endless cave’s roof, Luna looked down and sighed. The pane before her was not mere glass, but rather a thick slab of see-through crystal, it and its kin creating shiny ripples all over the fang of rock. This reinforced material was more than necessary, holding an inferno at bay behind it, along with the thick scent of sulphurous fumes. The exterior realm was one formed of only fiery elements, lava flowing about the jagged landscape like rivers, in turn forming bubbling blotches in settled pools. Flames rose up from this glowing web, staining all surrounding solid ground through a mix of scorching burns and flickering shadows. The whole stormy scene screamed of violence and destruction, hardly a reprieve by most reasonable standards.
Welcome to Tartarus!
The princess paused for a moment more in contemplation before she turned, enjoying a last preparatory breath as she reset her features. She felt tired. It was not the kind of weariness which followed in exertion’s wake however, instead stemming from how little she had achieved and how much further she still had to go, like seeing a mountain and considering the fatigue entailed in actually climbing it. ‘Now, let’s try starting again’ she began, spinning slowly on the spot to once more face her audience.
The world that had been at her back could most readily have been described as a classroom, painted in bright yet uncontentious yellow. Despite the roughness of their charred exterior faces the walls were smooth, adorned in places with calming watercolour prints and motivational posters. Aside from the lone doorway (panelled in plain wood to conceal its armoured core) one side of the room bucked this general trend, stark as a seamless mirrored surface stretching from floor to ceiling. At the centre of this box was placed a circle of disparate chairs, required to accommodate very different individuals, into the one remaining unoccupied of which Luna settled herself.
‘Seriously, you’re going to make us start all over again!?’ an angry voice lashed out, shot by a comparatively huge pinkish creature somewhere between an equine and an aquatic form (much like a mythical merpony but far bigger), the third of three similar hippocampi seated to the princess’ left. ‘We’ve done this like a million times already! I thought the aim with all this was getting away from torture, not just changing the style of it!’
Grumbles of agreement went around the rest of the circle, but Luna internally gritted her teeth, outwardly maintaining her open smile. ‘Yes Aria, this is necessary, even the longest journey has to start with a first step.’
‘So cliché’ the most recalcitrant of the Dazzlings interrupted again with a roll of her purple eyes, slouching deeper into her chair which for any normal pony dwarfed the average sofa.
‘Now, I’ll start, again’ the princess persisted, adding her final annoyed word as an inaudible hiss. ‘Hello, I’m Luna.’
‘Hello, I’m Sonata’ the next hippocampus on Luna’s immediate left mirrored with a broad smile, honestly if absently warm. She was the smallest of the three (although “small” was perhaps not the best descriptor for any of them), her fur and scales predominately turquoise apart from a few intermittent flecks of darker blue.
Luna gave an appreciative nod.
Why can’t they all be so easy?
‘Adagio Dazzle’ the next in line delivered bluntly, her size dwarfing all others in the room in spite of curling her tail in tight in her seat, all shimmering gold and quiet anger.
For buck’s sake!
‘Just first names please Adagio’ the dark alicorn interjected in as pleasant a tone as she was capable of, having had to repeat this simple instruction already multiple times.
‘Sorry! Hello, I’m Adagio.’ She added a sneering smile to the end of her mock address, hammering home (if the false apology was not clearly evidence enough) exactly how she felt about the exercise.
‘Hello, I’m Aria.’ The third Dazzling performed her piece in an idiotic accent, sending a glare her younger sister’s way.
Halfway there!
‘Hello, I’m Discord.’
Everypony including Luna was forced by shock to do a double take at the sudden appearance of an eighth previously non-existent chair and its new member of the circle in it.
As if today couldn’t get any worse!
‘Explain yourself’ the princess growled after a moment to return her composure.
‘You can thank Celestia for my timely arrival’ the freshly appeared patchwork form of chaos incarnate explained, grinning. ‘She called it “community service” or something, and my dearest Fluttershy agreed that it would be good for me to get out of the cottage for a while. Apologies for my lateness however, I haven’t missed anything good have I?’ Mid-speech in a flash he transformed, reappearing in a suit and spectacles, with a copious moustache on his upper lip and a clipboard clutched in his talons, continuing: ‘when do we start discussing our mothers?’
‘Discord…’ Luna attempted, unsuccessfully, to break in.
‘Or confessing inappropriate urges we have towards our siblings…’
‘Discord…’
‘…or their “faithful” students for that matter?’
‘Discord!’
‘Yes Moonbutt?’ the troublemaking demon asked in a puppy-eyed display of politeness, sending a low laughter around the rest of the circle.
‘One chance’ the dark alicorn hissed, tone dripping with angry venom just held on a leash within. ‘You have one chance to surprise me; otherwise I’ll gladly find a magma vent to throw you into. Clear?’ Internally she added a mental note to come up with some suitable means by which to get her sister back, her usual go to revenge of cake theft not seeming nearly enough in this case.
‘Temper temper’ Aria tsked, doing her best not to be helpful.
‘You’re too kind Moon…Luna dear’ Discord replied, unfazed. ‘Now, I believe it was the turn of my centaurian friend here to introduce himself’ he continued briskly with a nod to his left.
‘Lord Tirek and I am not your friend!’
Oh come on!
‘Tirek for the last time, there are no titles here’ Luna sighed in annoyance, bringing a forehoof to rub her temple, feeling a headache coming on.
‘Why?’ the centaur snorted, adding a defiant hoofstomp as he did so. The action however failed entirely to conjure any of its imposing intent, its owner lacking any of his previous stature to produce the effect. In his present company he looked small, wizened, his once prominent horns reduced to mere nubs on the sides of his head and his much diminished beard lacking all lustre. He had been forcibly shrunk to his lesser former self and artificially aged with it, yet he still attempted an authoritarian air. ‘I unlike you earned my title, and I will not submit to give it up so easily.’
‘I’m sorry, what exactly are you supposed to be “lord” over?’ Aria piped up again, her sneer obvious in her tone.
‘How dare you! I am a more legitimate ruler than any other here! Every ounce of power I have taken for my own, earned it, I am lord over magic itself and…’
‘So nothing then’ the most talkative pink siren deadpanned, triggering a fresh chorus of sniggers.
‘I will not be mocked by some fish who can’t even sing its enemies into submission!’
‘Are you so bucking dense that you can’t even pretend to play along, just for a short while?’ Adagio asked through an exasperated hissing, wearing the said same expression as the elsewhere side-lined alicorn and likewise clutching her forehead. ‘It would only have to be for a little bit, so we could maybe get past bucking introductions!’
‘Who’re you calling dense…’
‘Enough!’ Luna at last bellowed, rising angrily to her hooves whilst a couple of stray aggressive sparks leapt from her horn. ‘Surely I don’t need to remind you all why we’re having this little meeting, and why therefore it might be in your favour to make some attempt at cooperation! Right now I’m very much seeing the positives in not making any effort with this place at all; it being so much easier to simply bow to tradition, throw you all back in your respective torture chambers and liquidate the keys!’
‘Temper temper’ Aria repeated for a second time, before being immediately rounded upon by the alicorn, now barely holding herself in check.
‘That goes for you as much as anypony, unless of course you prefer the idea of returning to “Canterlot High”?’
As one the three Dazzlings all shivered, in unison grimacing in horror at the sweetly spoken threat. Their shared prison was one of Tartarus’ more unique, placing its inmates in freakish bipedal bodies in order to disorientate them, whilst equally the demiplane took the form of a warped high school. Combined these bindings were formed to punish, tormenting their victims and causing swift mental degeneration, meanwhile distracting and preventing escape with a sprinkling of annoyingly catchy songs. Rather than providing a little bit of respite however, these musical numbers more served to highlight the vapidity of this false world, like a jail’s window displaying the joys of freedom just beyond a convict’s reach. It was hard to believe that anypony, even the parasitic sirens, deserved such a fate.
‘Okay fine, I’ll play along, but only because it’s what I want’ the centaur reluctantly acquiesced, attempting (vainly) an air of superiority with arms crossed. ‘Hello, I’m Tirek. Happy?’
Thank buck for that.
‘Thank you Tirek.’ Luna resettled herself in her seat, bringing her flaring magic back under control as she was at last able to gesture to the next in line of their number.
Finally over that hurdle.
‘Hello, I’m King Sombra’ a deep yet somehow thinned and unsure voice answered at being prompted, its dark steel grey owner looking in much a similar state. The curved horned unicorn (the tusk-like point having reformed on his forehead, yet still bearing the mark of its severance) although physically unchanged, still a broad some might say handsome figure with a well-coiffed black mane, somehow looked small without his armour and cape. Two defeats, one failed escape and long term incarceration had obviously not treated him well.
Bucking seriously!
‘I’m not trying to be difficult’ Sombra explained to the sea of anger which bore down on him, pre-empting the oncoming argument. ‘It’s just that I’d prefer to use my title.’
‘You think you’re better than the rest of us fancy mane!’ Tirek snarled through bared teeth.
The once proud monarch stood his ground, shooting back his own glare from his alien emerald and red eyes, but obviously not revelling in the confrontation. ‘No, I…’
‘No? So you’re obviously even thicker than goat face then!’ Aria added in, simultaneously supporting and undermining her preceding attacker in a single breath.
‘No, I…’
‘Who you calling goat face fish breath!’
‘No!’ Sombra roared, rage filled voice commanding immediate silence in contrast to its relative former timidity, the ethereal oil slicks which constantly coursed away from his irises for a moment flaring spikily. ‘I just don’t like using my name that’s all, though that said I am better, much better, than all of you! I… I’ he stumbled. ‘I never wanted to be a bad guy; I just enjoyed learning and wanted to improve my magic. Maybe I could’ve helped everypony, but I was young and there was this book and…’ he trailed off, gaze falling to the floor.
‘Oh quit the act already!’ the most vocal pink hippocampus responded in the momentary silence. ‘I may be a freaking siren, but your performance wouldn’t fool a foal!’
‘Nope, he’s for real’ Discord came in, having by some means summoned both a crank camera to record the scene and a bag of popcorn for himself unseen. ‘You can’t fake that kind of emotion.’
‘Discord’ Luna attempted, trying to wrest back control of the situation to no avail.
‘Which I suppose means you win Adagio, bravo!’ the Lord of Chaos continued, unheeding. The popcorn morphed into a bag of bits in his grip, the coins in turn sprouting spidery legs and crawling their way to the golden Dazzling, much to her squeamish displeasure. ‘I’m truly surprised; I’d have thought goat face would’ve been the first to break…’
‘Discord!’ the Princess of the Night tried again, now using a much more concerted authoritarian shout. ‘What do you think Shy’s opinion would be of your behaviour hmm?’ She gestured to both the sullen unicorn under the camera’s lens and the frantically squealing eldest siren as she spoke.
‘Oh low blow Moo…Luna dear, low blow’ Discord pouted, but nonetheless letting his tormenting creations fade back into the air.
‘Thank you. Now Sombra, the first stage in this process of rehabilitation is for us to be open with one another, so please.’
The grey unicorn brought a hoof to rub the back of his neck, obviously caught somewhere in awkward embarrassment. ‘I’d rather not. I really don’t like my name; it’s not just not me, but it’s… well I’m kind of ashamed by it.’
‘Please Sombra, we all have parts of ourselves we’re not happy with’ Luna encouraged. ‘I’m not here to judge and I promise if anypony else does they’ll regret it.’
Sombra paused, sighing as if he were about to confess the world before he spoke. ‘I’m Delicada, Delicada Sombra.’
‘What’s that mean?’ Sonata asked, tone as an innocent absence.
‘It can mean delicate, gentle or tender’ a myriad of exasperated mareish voices answered, although all coming from a single source, a concluding huff adding a tacit ‘you idiot’ afterwards.
‘Delicate Shadow?! Delicate! Ha ha ha ha!’ Aria burst into laughter, ignoring (consciously or otherwise) the princess’ warning. ‘Well actually that figures, “Delicate” fits a pretty little piss-weak filly like you! Ha ha hmmph!’ Her guffaws were cut off, becoming briefly a muffled unintelligible noise as her lips were sealed together by a silvery aura.
‘Took you long enough’ the mixed voice of several mares observed, addressing Luna as the alicorn extinguished her horn. ‘I was beginning to fear that you’d entirely succumbed to the Equestria wide epidemic of liberalising nonsense, and that we’d therefore have to put up with her continued prattling. It’s good to see that the princesses haven’t become so weak as to forget how to enforce obedience.’ A bug-like being (the owner of the weirdly layered tones) buzzed slightly, relishing in the enunciation of each syllable of ‘obedience’, her transparent insectoid wings flicking out excitedly from her jet black shell. She shuffled her chair sideways, closing some of the distance between herself and the downtrodden unicorn to her right, adding at a whisper: ‘personally I think it’s cute; Delicada suits you.’
‘Chrysalis, that’s far enough, no closer’ the Princess of the Night commanded, ordering the changeling to a halt as she leaned in close at Sombra’s side.
‘Oh come on Moonbutt, I’m starving here! With this place’s restraints on my powers it’s not like I can hypnotise him or anything, plus, aside from your frigid self, he’s the only attractive one here.’
‘No, enough’ the alicorn rebuffed bluntly, with a dark frown backing it up.
‘Fine, I guess it’s finally my turn to introduce myself then.’ She begrudgingly re-straightened her thickly carapaced form in her seat, striking a regal pose as if it were in fact a throne. ‘Hello, I’m Queen Chrysalis.’
Are you bucking kidding me!
‘Chrysalis!’ Luna succumbed to shouting again, temper stirred higher by a mirthful snort from the Lord of Chaos and others in the background. ‘For the last time, no titles!’
‘It’s not a title though’ Chrysalis countered, adding a patronising inflection to her tones. ‘I am queen by the right entailed in my biology. I cannot help but be anything different, it is an intrinsic part of my being as matriarch of my hive, far superior to any of your claimed labels.’
Calm, remain calm.
Not trusting her spoken voice to obey her inner one, Luna merely sent the most lethal look she could muster the changeling’s way (an easy feat as a bloody fire had taken over her normally serene azure eyes).
‘Oh fine, you’re no fun you know.’ Seemingly the queen took the less than subtle hint and relented. ‘Hello, I’m Chrysalis. But you can call me Chrissie’ she added in a whisper, for a second time leaning in to Sombra’s ear.
Still calm, still in control.
‘Thank you.’ Again the dark alicorn was her composed self, although internally she did permit the mildest of celebrations at finally getting some kind of sense of progression. ‘Now that we’re finally over that hurdle, let’s move on. As a first proper exercise I’d like us to go round and consider our self-esteem, so this time going anticlockwise please could each of you think of something about yourselves which you believe is your most positive trait.’
‘Hmmm that’s rather a difficult question.’ Chrysalis brought a holey hoof to stroke her pointed chin as if deeply considering. ‘Or rather for the rest of you it might be a tad easier, but as for myself I’m obviously perfect so…’
Buck you, you stuck up bitch!
‘Buck you, you stuck up bitch!’
Luna’s gaze leapt to the surprisingly returning speaker, having thought that she had effectively silenced Aria, but instead finding that the siren’s lips had been unzipped (quite literally) by one of Discord’s disembodied hands, now perched spider-like on her pink shoulder.
‘Come on, we were all thinking it’ the Lord of Chaos replied to the princess’ new deadly look his way, after attempting to perform a whistled tune of innocence and returning the offending talons to their associated forelimb. A silver aura chased it back into place and resealed the siren’s lips in turn.
Couldn’t be more calm.
‘I mean, how does one choose between one’s gorgeous physicality and devastating intellect?’ the queen continued, either deaf to or ignoring the counter and its resulting magical melee.
‘So “devastating” an intellect that “one” decided to reveal oneself in front of Sunbutt and all six element bearers and got oneself blasted down here as a result’ Adagio muttered, mimicking most others in their glowering. ‘Bucking beetle-brained bit…’
‘I don’t know, what do you think?’ Chrysalis again moved in closer to Sombra, the target of her query, as she spoke.
‘Erm… I…’ The unicorn straightened in his seat, surprised as if physically jolted by the queen’s words, caught off guard.
‘Come on, do you see anything you like?’ The changeling’s voices dipped lower becoming sultry, their owner making a show of letting her wings flutter lightly at he back and tossing her wispy mane to one side.
‘Whore’ Adagio muttered once more.
Too true.
‘Your eyes, I like your eyes’ Sombra decided, confidently definitive, frank as his gaze remained locked with hers.
‘Erm… I… thanks…’ With that it was Chrysalis’ turn to fall over her words, like him not really expecting her partner’s answer, her crown of antennae twitching at an underlying realisation. In sync a bright pink hue blossomed on each of their darkly mirrored cheeks and their green tinged irises sought safety in the carpet, throwing themselves to the deck.
Long unheard, silence fell around the circle, strangely loaded. ‘Get a room for buck’s sake’ the eldest siren filled in under her breath, acting as the Dazzlings’ sole remaining speaker in Aria’s enforced and Sonata’s absent quiet, the youngest of the three left gazing as if as enraptured by the scene as its participants.
‘Aww shush sulky scales and leave them to it.’ Now somehow snuggled up in a fluffy leopard print onesie and hugging tightly a plump love heart pillow to his chest, Discord continued: ‘I’m such a sucker for bad shipfiction!’ Both king and queen turned and snarled with bared fangs at their audience; however they then fell into repeating their previous blushing in spotting their accidental protective mimicry, eliciting further dawwing from the Lord of Chaos. ‘Now, I suggest we skip past “Delicada” for a bit, moving onto my friendly friend here.’
‘I am not your friend!’ Having tried his best to recede, setting his features as careless boredom, Tirek was far too easily pulled back out like a fish on a line. ‘As for the overarching question though: there’s no good trait to anything about my present self, I am lacking in all things. My true self in contrast is real perfection, regardless of bitch-features’ pretentions to such grandeur, capable of laying low all of Equis and forcing even the greatest of alicorns to stoop.’
‘They’d given up their powers at the time you deluded moron!’ Chrysalis spat back.
‘They threw away their magic in the fear of my coming, insect!’
You are calm ponified.
‘Let’s not get too side-tracked please if possible.’ Luna could no longer raise herself to pleasant, so instead like any good teacher aimed at blank, not able to quite reach encouraging but not disparaging either. ‘I’m afraid that considering the time…’
‘There isn’t a clock in here. Besides aren’t we in Tartarus anyway, so does time even work right here?’
The very epitome of calm.
The princess ignored Discord’s correct if infuriating interjection. ‘…we should probably move on. In all cases however, whether you’ve had a chance to share your thoughts with the group or not, you should consider what you think others see as being your best aspect. At the same time, what would they say about what you call your best feature?’
‘Give me a break.’ Together Adagio and Tirek this time were the ones to match each other in muted aggressive speech, immediately changing to awkward coughs and stared loathing at being mirrored.
‘So this time starting back from the other side, as you’ve been rather quiet Sonata, could you each please come up with what you don’t necessarily like about yourself.’
The youngest siren, who had been tapping out a rhythm to a tune only existent in her own head against her tail, glanced up sharply, surprised. Her pause was only brief however, responding visage brightening visibly in contrast to all others. ‘I guess I don’t like that I’m the smallest of the three of us’ she ventured, ‘or the youngest.’
‘We’re thinking a tad deeper than that Sonata’ Luna encouraged what was essentially her star pupil. ‘Try imagining that you could travel through time and space at will and could therefore change or improve some aspect of yourself. What would you change?’
Set against the rest of the princess’ less than willing audience, Sonata was still relatively aglow, but this elaboration did blunt her light somewhat. ‘I…hmmm, I guess I would wish I was stronger like Ari or braver like Adi. I mean I hate that I’m rubbish at standing up for myself and maybe I could if I was a little more confident, or maybe I could’ve been a bit more than “the third Dazzling”. I guess I don’t like being a shadow.’
A small glimmer of hope.
‘Thank you for your honesty, I hope it can maybe inspire the rest of you in emulation’ Luna smiled, mood at least monetarily taking a turn for the better. Her hopes for this to continue however were only vague as she proceeded to the next siren in line. ‘How about you Adagio?’
The two remaining Dazzlings had exchanged silent (necessarily in Aria’s case) looks at hearing their sister’s words, eyes for the briefest of moments conveying a guilty agreement before darting away to disguise it. There was therefore another break in their conversation, the golden hippocampus taking it to recompose herself. ‘I…’ In starting she again stopped to clear her throat. ‘Sorry, I…’
‘Are you serious?! Am I the only one here who has any kind of resistance?!’ Tirek’s voice (although never really capable of much beyond some form of angry) kicked itself up a notch, as if truly affronted by the siren’s concession to an apology. ‘Can’t you see what she’s doing?! When she asks what we’d “change or improve” what she’s really after is our flaws! This is all just a ploy to probe our weaknesses or to make us doubt ourselves, but you can’t fool me “princess”!’ he spat.
‘No Tirek, that’s not the aim of this, you’re being paranoid’ Luna tried with her last shred of patience wearing thin.
The centaur however would not be moved. ‘Cease your lies, and don’t you dare call me paranoid!’
‘Oh for buck’s sake shut up!’ Chrysalis’ amalgamated tone screeched, forked tongue ending with a predatory hiss. ‘First: that’s not the royal sisters’ style, second: they’ve got us locked up pretty tight in here so they’re already aware of our weaknesses, and third: does it even matter?! We’ve been here for an age and this is the first time we’ve gotten anywhere, so just once can you keep your mouth closed and let it happen!’
‘She’s got to you too you bug-brained bitch!’ Tirek continued unabated. ‘But she won’t get me; I’m stronger than all of you!’
Calm incarnate.
‘Shut up!’ Sombra’s voice seemed to have succeeded in re-finding the menace of its former rumbling self. ‘Like Chrissie… sorry, Chrysalis says this may not be the most fun exercises on Equis, but at least it’s a change of scene! In fact if you’re so adverse to revealing anything we can fill in for you’ he suggested with a sly grin to the changeling on his left, immediately picked up on and returned. ‘For example: we’re all more than happy to point out your prominent flaws and save you the trouble of speaking further.’
‘I’ll start’ the queen jumped in. ‘You’re a pompous, overcompensating, windbag!’
‘A powerless parasite, weak in both body and will, not to mention mentally lacking!’ the king added without leaving time for intercession.
‘Shut up both of you!’ the lord tried to roar, without however quite reaching that impressive mark and in any case being flatly overruled.
‘An unimportant, insignificant, failure!’ Chrysalis persisted, stressing every syllable.
‘Shut up!’
‘A lonely, unknown, nothing!’ Sombra supported, taking his turn.
Calm…
‘Buck this!’ Despite her mind’s last plea Luna gave up, magic pulsing through her horn before radiating outward, coursing like a wave throughout the room and its occupants. Everything stopped. The princess found herself stood up, straightening her ruffled fur and putting away the snarling teeth she had not realised she had subconsciously bared. The room was in stillness as she stepped through it to the doorway, without either sound or movement. The three sirens were statues of silent mirth, without their magic gaining nothing but still enjoying the angered verbal back and forth. The opposing participants in this were likewise frozen: the changeling queen’s wings caught mid buzz, the unicorn king’s jaws set in a roaring yell and their target centaur attempting a stoical front. The Lord of Chaos had meanwhile summoned an oversized foam finger and a flag, trapped in cheering with both. The alicorn’s silvery telekinesis moved to the door, opening the deceptively wooden and handleless portal.
‘A break your highness?’ a Lunar Guard greeted her monarch on the other side, her mareish tone revealing what her battledressed form hid, at attention with a similar compatriot.
‘Buck yes’ Luna sighed, her whole body huffing in a long exhale, trying to expel some of its built up tension with her breath. ‘Could you please scare me up the largest cup of tea and whatever cake-like and icing covered indulgence you can find, I’m in dire need of both.’
The night mare nodded, understanding just evident behind her crimson eyes and in her granite grey face, both being barely visible beneath their covering steely helm.
‘With a side order of painkillers’ the navy alicorn added to her departing soldier. The new space was a corridor (much like the one before painted in dampened colours) and she moved in opposition to the one she commanded, walking a few short steps to the next doorway along its length.
‘Your patience is laudable princess…’ the second sentry (a deep purple stallion) began at her back, following close behind as she entered a new room where further guards waited.
‘No titles!’ Luna snapped on automatic before she could stop herself. Immediately she regretted the slip up, sensing the one she yelled at shy backward, likely with ears fallen flat and shoulders hunched like all others in the room. ‘I’m so sorry, it’s just…’
‘It’s fine majesty’ he countered as she turned back in apologising, momentarily catching his stark yellow eyes. ‘You’ve been dealing with that lot for hours, so as I was saying: your patience is truly laudable, anypony else would have thrown them back in their cells long before now.’
‘Thanks Storm.’ The princess settled herself at the centre of a row of vacant chairs, all set facing a wall of one way glass, its opposite face being the out of place mirror of the previous room. ‘Do we know how he got in?’ she queried with a swift gesture to the unexpected patchwork member of the now statuesque party before her.
‘I’m afraid we’ve got no idea ma’am’ an officer reported, singled out with more prominent plumage in his segmented armour’s helmet. ‘If he teleported in he didn’t trip any of the wards and in fact we didn’t even notice his arrival until he started talking. We equally don’t know how he’s bypassing the nullification field. It should be impossible for him to be using any of his magic, so we can’t explain it, but then again his appearance full stop is a physical impossibility. Do you want us to remove and detain him?’
‘Surprisingly no’ Luna shook her head. ‘Detention would probably entail a massive hassle, if it’s even possible bearing in mind his present improbable liberty. Besides at the moment he’s hardly derailing things any more than anypony else, and if he is indeed telling the truth then he’s supposed to be here. At the same time if the opposite’s the case then any amount of time in the cells isn’t going to work as a solution, rather there’s a certain pink-maned pegasus who’s much more adept at making him regret any wrongdoing.’
‘As you wish your majesty’ the commanding officer nodded, although evidently ill at ease with not addressing the considerable break in security that the Lord of Chaos had managed to rend.
In the midst of this dialogue the first granite grey night mare made her reappearance, an out of place and uncharacteristic tea tray balanced dextrously on an outstretched wing. Atop of this a tall mug and matching pot steamed invitingly in unison, alongside a considerable plated stack of glazed donuts and a bottle of pills, all an infinitely welcome sight to the waiting princess.
Thank buck for that.
Luna wrapped the offered tray in a silvery corona, accepting it with a wide thankful smile, reciprocated with one understanding in kind. She was in desperate need of its contents, dry-downing (not waiting for the accompanying beverage to cool) a swarm of the tablets and following this with a wolfed bite of fried doughy goodness, willing both mouthfuls to act quickly against her incessant headache. Shuffling in place she made herself more comfortable, planning to full well enjoy the relief of this deep breath, raising her cup telekinetically to her lips and blowing to cool the drink’s surface. Her gazing meanwhile took in the world beyond the new portal she now faced, subconsciously prepping for round two.
---
Fifteen minutes later…
‘Daddy never loved me!’
The Princess of the Night sat back at the head of a circle of differing seats, taking a sip from a fresh mug of tea as she surveyed her hoofiwork.
To her left the trio of hippocampi had forsaken their chairs in favour of curling up on the floor. The two eldest of the three were seated either side of their younger sibling, herself working busily with pencil and paper. Sonata occasionally turned, receiving encouraging nods and suggestions in return from her sisters. For their part Adagio and Aria seemed to have slipped quite well into their (until then alien) purely supportive role, singing to sound experimental notes when prompted, giving the youngest siren the chance at leading in creation as songwriter.
‘He always preferred Scorpan over me!’
On the princess’ right meanwhile, as heedless of the rest of their scene as the siblings opposite them, the queen and her king sprawled together, having exchanged their independent seats for one of the siren’s larger ones to share. Side by side the two monarchs looked much younger than they really were, with dark forehooves intertwined and heads inclined to rest against one another, horns aglow together. Sombra formed a sharp heart shape from onyx coloured crystal in the air, running a jagged fracture like the teeth of a key down its centre, further piercing seamless holes in the tips of the two halves. At the same time Chrysalis’ magic created a pair of greenish silken threads, tying a pair of loops from which to hang the gemstone pieces. He levitated on her jewellery, nuzzling into her cheek, and her telekinesis followed in mimicry, the changeling failing to contain a quiet contented chirrup.
‘I just wanted him to accept me, to prove myself and make him proud, to not just be the little brother!’
Finally directly before the navy alicorn she was presented with the centaur clutching tightly to the Lord of Chaos. Tirek looked like a dam had burst; sobbing into the patchwork being’s shoulder with punctuating verbal howls, not resisting being hugged. Discord had changed back into his psychiatrist’s outfit (with the addition of a transparent raincoat over the top), summoning tissue after tissue to dry the flood of released tears.
Luna took another longer draught from her mug. Unsurprisingly she still felt tired, her frame needing to stretch and yawn to that effect, yet at least she now had some achievement to chalk up against her weariness. She stealthily sent a triumphant look the way of those behind the one mirrored wall, likely themselves a mix of understandably shocked or surprised faces. Her own visage followed up with a satisfied grin to herself, her mind roaming leisurely elsewhere whilst her inner voice celebrated like a rock star:
Goodnight Tartarus!