> The  Wardens of Order
>  by ScottTrek
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Prologue 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

1 Week Ago

Luna sat with the cool night air blowing against her back, the wind gently whistling between the dappled leafs rustling in the moon light. For a moment she closed her eyes and simply listened to the whisper of the wind mixing with the soft, hushed discussion going on below her.

She wasn’t entirely sure whether the Royal Astronomers Society was something that had formed organically or whether it was something Celestia had ‘encouraged’ during her banishment. Her sister claimed it was the former but in the end did it really matter? Her subjects below her excitedly looking through their telescopes genuinely, whole heartedly enjoyed looking at her nights sky; and while she had tried to move past her old demons of jealousy and envy, sometimes it was nice to be indulgent and enjoy a little adoration now and again, especially at planned events like this..

Opening her eyes Luna scanned the small crowd below her, clustered in small groups around their telescopes. It was a good night for stargazing, the sky clear and still with the heavens twinkling away in all their glory. As Luna looked down she spotted one pony who seemed to be working a little more fervently than the others, her telescope positioned separate from the pack.

She had an odd looking telescope, all wires and magical crystals welded on around the outside. The pony, Luna believed she was named Moonglow, was checking a number of papers strewn about her fold-out table and fiddling with her impressive device. Curiosity piqued Luna, tracked the telescopes position up into the night sky, trying to figure out what had her subject so intrigued.

“Let’s see,” Luna murmured to herself, “The Hyperion Nebula? The Antares Cluster? Oh…..I wonder….” Luna hopped off her balcony and carefully glided down to the garden. Ironically none of the ponies below noticed the Princess of the Night descended, too wrapped up in their own star gazing and Moonglow barely suppressed a yelp of surprise as Luna dropped down in front of her.

“I dost like thy telescope Moonglow,” Luna smiled, taking a moment to inspect the contraption up close, “The magical crystals increase the resolution?”

“Umm…ummm…yes you highness.” Moonglow stuttered, “The Crystal Empire crystals also allow me to artificially change the focal length. It’s only a prototype but already it’s many times better than anything with just glass cut lenses.”

“And, if I may hazard a guess,” Luna continued, “Using your new telescope you have spotted a small tetrahedral object orbiting at the extreme edge of our system?”

Moonglows eyes grew wide with awe as she stared up at her princess. “What is it?”

“An ancient device built by an ancient being. Placed above out world countless millennia ago. A beacon into the great unknown. In truth I had forgotten about it until just now.” Luna said, leaning in and dropping her voice. She was enjoying this rare opportunity to truly converse one-on-one with a subject.

“I’ve never seen anything like it…” Moonglow whispered, one again peering through the eyehole, up at her discovery. “Why are there no records of such a device? Or whatever was powerful enough to put it there?”

“I suppose it was unimportant in the grand scheme, as funny as that may sound.” Luna mused, peering to where she knew the object was. “It hasn’t worked in a very, very long time. And apart from being like myself it’s almost impossible to spot. The last pony to have even detected a hint of it lived over a thousand years ago. You should be very proud.” Luna felt like she was watching history in the making, of course she had known about the device since well….since the beginning. But did she really count? Let Moonglow have her moment in the sun (as it were).

“it’s very pretty.” Moonglow sighed, “Blinking away up there.”

Luna’s train of thought came screeching to a halt. “What?”

Alarmed by the Princess sudden shift in voice Moonglow slowly peered up unsure of what was now happening. “Its….got blinking lights on it and….”

With a sudden loss of all manners Luna pushed the smaller pony out the way and jammed her face into the telescope. After a few long moment Luna drew back, took a deep breathe, checked that no pony else had noticed what has going on (they hadn’t), and calmly addressed the quivering Moonglow. “I need you to quietly pack this telescope up and take it up to the palace for me ok? I will have guards direct you to the right spot but I need you to go there now and wait for me ok?”

“But….but…”

“I know. I’m sorry. I will explain if I can but I am commanding you to do this. And you must tell no one of what you have seen. Understand?”

Moonglow gulped. “Yes Princess. I understand.”

Luna turned to go but halted for a moment and turned back. “You are a brilliant pony Moonglow, and your discovery has helped us a great deal. I will remember this.”

“Yes princess!” Moonglows eyes filled with determination as she set about moving her equipment. Luna jumped and took off back into her glimmering skies. She needed to find her sister as soon as physically possible

The Wardens had returned.   

   

> Distant Foreboding 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twilight swooped in low across Canterlot as she flew towards the palace, watching as the midday sunlight glinted off the rooftops below. It had taken her a while to really appreciate her new wings, more often than not she would forget to use them all kind of scenarios. But recently, with a little encouragement from Rainbow, something had just clicked.

The wind ruffling through her feathers, the rush as she soared untethered through the sky… this explained so much about Rainbow Dash. Though her friend was still extreme Twilight could see why her friend lived the way she did.  

Snapping back to the present the palace had finally come into view; it looked busy. Of course the palace was always busy with nobles, guards, civil servants and all the periphery that came with running a kingdom. But this looked a different kind of busy, the type of busy one worked themselves into when something crucial was coming up but there was nothing you could do but wait for it to arrive.

In short a lot of buzzing about in an attempt to keep ones panic under control.

“Ohh wow.” Twilight muttered to herself as she glid down, deftly avoiding a few stragglers who were too caught up in themselves to get out of her way. She skidded to a halt just in time to lightly bump into Shining Armour who had rushed out to greet her.

“Oomph. Phew, hey Twiley.” He gasped, “Just in time to sort…whatever this is out.”

“What is going on?” Twilight gestured, looking at the ensemble of panicked ponies milling about in the castle grounds. “Hang on…is everypony from in there outside?”

“Yeah Celestia cleared out the entire castle. Cadence and myself only got hear a few hours ago but as far as we can tell this has been going on since early morning.” Shining sighed and led Twilight inside. “As for what’s going on? No idea, Cadence is trying to find out more. All I know is that Celestia and Luna have locked themselves in the throne room, only leaving to order yours and Cadences summons, not to be disturbed until you arrived.”

“Sorry I took such a long time to get here.” Twilight said sheepishly, “I was…uhh…preoccupied.” As Twilight said this she cleared her throat and surged ahead down the corridor, trying to hide the fact she was blushing. Shining noticed of course but decided it would be prudent to ignore his sisters startling lack of subtlety for the present moment.    

Arriving at the doors to the throne room Twilight was relived to find Cadence waiting for them, a royal guard and Flurry Hearts floating crib waiting just behind her. “Ahh thank goodness.” Cadence smiled, hugging Twilight tight. “I’ve told auntie you’re here but she just told me to wait outside.”

Twilight held her sister-in-law tight, glad of her ever-reassuring presence. “I wasn’t expecting them to shut you out as well.”

Cadence sighed and turned to introduce the Royal Guard waiting patiently behind her. “This is Lance Corporal Bastion.” The earth pony saluted. His face was set like stone; composure unwavering despite everything. “Lance Corporal, repeat to them what you told me.”

“Yes ma’am.” Bastion nodded. “About a week ago her Highness Luna moved a member of the Royal Astronomical Society into private quarters in one the royal towers, along with delivers of several pieces of equipment. This coincided with noticeable sense of agitation rising from the Princesses.” 

“And they didn’t say why they’d moved this astronomer up there?” Twilight asked.

“No Ma’am. However, the astronomer Moonglow sent at least three reports to them per day. Princesses eyes only. Additionally, though I cannot personally substantiate the claim, the Night Guard have informed us that Luna has been ‘communing’ with the stars every night almost non-stop.”

“And the stars shall aid her escape.” Twilight murmured, glancing at Cadence who returned the concerned look. They’d booth been vaguely aware that Luna had a connection to the stars that was something more than them simply being points of light in her night’s sky. Now they both wished one of them had thought to inquire into the matter further.     

“Now, as for the event that precipitated the lockdown I can tell you exactly as I was present at the time.” Bastion continued, indicating the sealed doors. From behind them Twilight though she could hear the mummer of voices but it was impossible to be sure. “At approximately 8 o’clock this morning as Princess Celestia was beginning an open court session a beam of light appeared in the middle of the throne room.” For the briefest moment Bastions composure cracked with a small smirk. “As I recall it cut off Prince Blueblood mid speech when it struck him. Though unharmed it did cause him to scream quite loudly.”

“Something finally shut him up.” Shining Armour snorted, smiling despite the tension.

“Not for me to say.” Bastion replied, “It is at this moment that Princess Celestia order the evacuation of the throne room, followed shortly by the evacuation of the castle. However as the guards’ escorted everypony from the room, I was able to read the message being projected within the beam.” Bastion shut his eyes as he pictured what he had seen; “The Wardens have need to speak to you. Further communication once Tether repairs finalised. Assemble the other Alicorns, this concerns them.”  

“The Wardens? The Tether?” Twilight said puzzled. Looking to her family members she asked, “Either of you heard of this before?”

“No.” Cadence said, pulling her child basket closer. Flurry Heart was thankful still fast asleep, cooing softly.

“I don’t think so.” Shining Armour replied, scratching his head. “Well nothing that would warrant all this anyway. ‘The Wardens’… the wardens of what?”

“The Wardens of Order,” A familiar, deep resonant voice cut in. “To give them their exact title. Though the definitive article is certainly apt.” The four ponies automatically jumped to readiness as Discord slid out from behind a pillar, grinning down mischievously. 

Twilight suspiciously eyes up the spirit of chaos. ‘Reformed’ he may be but she wasn’t taking any chances. “Wardens of Order huh? What have done this time?”

“Me!” Discord exclaimed, “No no NO. I’m just sitting here where everyone can see me definitely not creating chaos or causing trouble. Just little old me,” he purred in mock surprise “Why would you even suggest I had done something? No siree not me.”

Twilight rolled her eyes. “I don’t think I need to go into detail as to why I automatically assume it.” 

“Oh dear,” Discord muttered sarcastically, “I do hope I’m not becoming predictable. I am supposed to be the master of the unexpected after all.”

“It would be unexpected of you to tell us what’s going on?” Shining Armour hopefully interjected. He immediately regretted his decision as Discord, in his normal disregard for personal space, reappeared virtually coiled around Shining. Ominously he was holding a small blue jack-in-the-box in front of Shining face.  

“Oh dear no.” he hissed, slowly cranking the box’s handle “I’m afraid that would ruin the surprise for the dear ladies in your life.” 

Shining cringed as looked pleadingly to his wife, but Cadence could only look apologetic and push Flurry Heart towards Bastion who began to edge the baby away. Fortunately Shining had the presence of mind to duck as cheerful chimes from the box finished their jaunty little tune so he avoided getting hit in the face with the ejected custard pie. Less fortunate was Bastion, whom the pie nailed in the back of the head with considerable force. 

“Permission to be excused?” Bastion groggily said from the floor. “Should I take the young princess?”

“Permission granted.” Cadence said shooting a death stare at Discord. “And I appreciate the thought but I’m sure our friend has better sense than to interfere with my child.”  

“I assure you I value my life to much to attempt such a thing.” Discord replied hovering back up to his previous position.

This was going as about as well as Twilight had expected. The phrase ‘blood from a stone’ would be apt (with a few choice adjectives thrown in). Deciding a change of tactics was needed Twilight strolled closer, batting her eyelids as she did so. “Oh Discord I’m sure one as knowledgeable as yourself can tell us something useful. I mean, good friends help each other out don’t they?” Discord narrowed his eyes as Twilight smiled sweetly up at him. “We are good friends aren’t we?”

Discord looked at Twilight, then at Shining and Cadence who merely nodded “One second.” Discord grumbled as he turned round and huddled with a few copies of himself each sporting slightly different hairstyles. Twilight couldn’t make out what they were saying but after a few moments they collectively let out a sigh and the ‘lead’ Discord turned back to her; wearing reading glasses and holding a paper file. “Well………I suppose in the name of friendship I can give you what I definitely know about them…” Twilight reached for the file but Discord held it back, “if you agree to join us on the next Ogres and Oubliettes night. I hear you play an excellent wizard!”

There was a moment’s hesitation before Twilight grunted, “Deal.” She magically took the file and opening it. The next noises out of her couldn’t really classify as words more just a primitive grumble of frustration. Cadence and Shining came up behind her and saw that the ‘file’ was completely blank inside. “Honestly,” Twilight groaned, “I’m just disappointed.”

Discord laughed to himself, rolling in the air as the file was thrown back at him. “Oh sorry I could pass up that opportunity.”

“It’s a bit passé.” Twilight sighed. Discord recoiled as the two other ponies nodded in agreement.

“I am anything but passé” He exclaimed suddenly wearing a tux “And …In truth… though I don’t know anything definite about them. What I know vaguely however I can tell you for free. These beings wield more power and authority than you little ponies can even begin to dream of. This place is but a blip on the radar to them. You little mortals need to be careful.”    

“But you have seen them here before?” Cadence asked, “On this world?”

“Sort of.” Discord said, suddenly shifting uncomfortably.

“Sort of?” Cadence pressed.

Discord seemed to look past them, eyes glazing over as his mind was cast back.  The assembled ponies shifted uneasily as for just a fraction of a moment Discords ever jovial personality dropped as something akin to a thousand yard stare passed over his face. “Once…a very long time ago.”

“What happened?” Shining Armour asked, voice low.

For a long moment Discord said nothing, looking carefully at each of the assembled ponies in turn before slipping back into the shadows. “What happened? My dear friends, the Sun died.”

At that moment the great, gilded door of the throne room groaned open. Princess Luna appeared in the door way and curtly said; “Commander Shining Armour you are to insure that no-one enters this room under any circumstances. Twilight, Cadence, come inside. Bring the young one. We have much to discuss.” Luna face and tone betrayed nothing, and glancing at each other nervously the two princesses walked inside.
  

> The Message
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The throne room was quite, all the noise from the outside world muffled away leaving the great hall silent and cold. Having let Twilight and Cadence inisde Luna had immediately returned to the left side of the hall. She joined a mare, presumably Moonbeam, who was sitting in a pile of papers  and scientific equipment strewn about the floor and was scribbling notes furiously. Celestia stood on the other side looking up at the stained glass windows that adorned the wall. The elder Alicorns were pointedly facing away from each other.

Further into the hall a beam of light slowly pulsated a few feet from the twin thrones. The beam had no visible source and seemed to merge seamlessly with the ceiling and floor. As she silently trotted towards it Twilight noted that the beam didn’t seem to be casting any shadows despite being fairly luminous. The message Bastion had described didn’t seem to be there either, though as Twilight watched she caught glimpses of symbols flickering within the light.

As Twilight watched the beam Cadence instead looked between her two adopted aunts. Even without using her emotional magic she could feel the tension spanning between them like taunt rope. Ever so gently her horn glowed as she tried to read them; they were not mad at each other as far as she could tell, more of a disconcerting mix of guilt and something sad yet unnameable, that flavour of regret when something bad happened and you blamed yourself even if there was nothing you could have possibly done to stop it.

Cadence bit her lip. This particular feeling always worried her when she had caught tiny, momentary snatches of it emanating from Luna. Looking again between the two Luna seemed to be in deep conversation with Moonglow so Cadence indicated to Twilight that they should join Celestia.

Celestia had continued to stare up at the stained glass despite the new arrivals. In particular she had fixated upon the pane depicting her and Luna eternally circling with the sun and moon around the sky. “Thank you for coming at such short notice.” She said, eventually looking down to acknowledge their presence. “Especially since under such mysterious circumstances.”

“We understand.” Twilight nodded, “But please Princess, can you tell us what’s happening here?”

“Discord said that something called The Wardens of Order were coming.” Cadence added, “And while he’d never admit it out loud I think he was scared of them.” There was a brief moment were all present paused. All somehow anticipating Discord suddenly to pop out of nowhere, object to that statement, and then as quickly vanish with as was his usual comedic leanings.

But nothing. 

Maybe he really was that scared.

“Well…that would make sense.” Celestia responded. Her eyes one again looking at the history depicted in front of her. “Apart from the Stars themselves Discord is the only being I know of who was definitely alive when The Wardens last strode upon this world. In fact, I believe it was during that event that he was born…if you can apply a concept of birth to a creature like him.”

“Woah.” Twilight said.

“Woah.” Cadence agreed.

“Woooooooooo.” Flurry Heart added.

“So what are they?” Twilight continued as Cadence checked on her awoken baby.

Luna suddenly interjected from across the room “The gods of other gods.” Celestia did a double take, startled out of her musings by Luna sudden joining in. “Sorry to interrupt you sister but we don’t have time for your normal cryptic explanations…anyway…I think I’m more the authority here than thous’t are?” 

For a moment Celestia’s eyebrow flickered, but it passed. “Of course sister. I imagine the stars have kept you far better informed.”

Luna turned to Moonbeam and gently told her. “Thank you for your help, but you must leave now.”

Moonbeam nodded, quickly gathering up some key notes and trotting to the exit. Halfway she paused and looked back at Luna, her eyes wide in adoration. “Thank you and...Uhh…umm…good luck!” 

Luna smiled as her new friend scampered out of the hall. “So… the Wardens. They are an organisation or army or something of that type, composed of powerful otherworldly beings. United to fight an endless war against the Greater Chaos.”

“Greater Chaos? Like Discord?” Twilight asked.

“As I understand it the Greater Chaos would tear Discord apart in an instant. Discord is  a morally dubious trickster, annoying but his recent reformation shows he is not a truly evil being. The stars won’t tell me exactly what the Greater Chaos is but they whisper names such as the ‘Nightmare Children’ and ‘The Broken God’. I suspect they are not given such dramatic names lightly.” Luna said shaking her head. “There’s almost no direct reference to what happened on this world countless millennia ago, but very old Gargoyle texts make reference to an event they call “The First Ragnarok. In whence ‘the sky was ripped asunder and the lands bathed in blood’. The Wardens fought the monsters of the Greater Chaos all across our world and space beyond. They won… but the fallout was immense, most notably…the spirit that inhabited Equis’s star died in the fighting, leading to the sun and moon needing magic such as our own to be moved through the sky.” 

Twilight and Cadence were staggered by the revelation. The could not envision a time when the sun could have moved of its own accord; let alone the power it must have taken to do destroy such a force. But now they thought about it, did it not feel…right? As if on some level they had always known? They could see know why such information had been, probably deliberately, forgotten by the civilisations of the world. 

Before they had a chance to question this further the beam of light dominating the room began so swirl and hum. The Princesses watched as the swirls coalesced into vortex, clearly a portal to these Wardens.  From within the whirling light an array of laser beams shot forth, dancing upon Luna as the structure scanned her. After a few moments the beams jumped away to visit each of the Princesses in turn, leaving a single glowing beam tethering each of them to the structure.

When the beams reached Flurry Heart however they paused, the hum of the light seeming to modulate questioningly. Flurry giggled at light-show as Cadence stepped forwards, face hard as cut glass.  “I don’t know how time works for beings like you. But my child is only a baby. Leave her out of this.” Twilight held her breathe as the hum continued to waver. If looks could kill the one across her friends face could have wiped out a city. Thankfully the beams retracted leaving no connection to the baby. Cadence silently tapped a small rune inset of the floating basket and after a second the baby was teleported away. Shining Armour only just audibly yelping outside as his child was deposited onto him.

It was time.

Each felt a surge of power pass through them as the lines connecting them to the portal seemed to whisk them away from the real world like kites on a string. Behind them Equestria seemed to fold up like origami, tightening to a point and then…

…it was gone.  


> Fraying Tether
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

With a sharp crackle and a whiff of ozone the four princesses rematerialized, stepping forth from the portal. As they got their bearing they looked cautiously around at their new location not knowing what to expect. 

The portal they had exited from lay at one end of a wide octagonal corridor, clearly meant to accommodate creatures far bigger than they. The surfaces were metallic but even in the low light emitted from the portal they were visibly strangely composed. The metal was grey with flecks of silver and bronze running through it, and felt grainy and coarse like sandstone. It reminded twilight of a transfiguration spell gone badly wrong. 

Luna moved to a wall and banged her hoof against it a few times, listening carefully to the reverberations. “We’re inside the Tether.” She stated moving forwards along the corridor. “It’s the ancient satellite orbiting at the far edge of our solar system, up until a week ago it was as dead as a doornail…or so I thought.”

Twilight caught up to Luna, her curious mind already in overdrive. The technological implications of a millennia old self-sustaining mega-structure were extraordinary! And that wasn’t even taking account the whole host of unanswered questions about their mysterious hosts. She was about to launch into full ramble mode when something loudly clanked from behind the door sealing the end of the corridor. 

Twilight raced forward to investigate. The bulkhead sealing the portal room let out another clunk and began to slowly creak open, its great metal doors retracting into the walls and floors sending echoing groans through the structure. Twilight, standing on the tips of her hooves, peered through the widening opening into the gloom beyond. She was sure she could see something shifting in the gloom beyond…

Suddenly blinding light and a wave of heat blasted though sending Twilight reeling. The clanking of the door overwhelmed by a thunderous howling of winds as if a hurricane was raging in the room beyond. Then as quickly as it had struck it receded. The doors finished sliding open and the Princesses stood together ready, waiting for something to show itself.

From the darkness beyond something globular and glowing brightly coalesced from the shadows before racing towards them. Before any of the ponies had a chance react the blob barged through them and had engulfed Luna sending the other three sprawling.

Time seemed to slow as the princesses scrabbled back up.  Celestia shrieked and tried to dive at her sister. Cadence lit up her horn ready to blast anything that came at her. Twilight quietly wondered if this whole chain of events was some kind of elaborate trap as her own horn lit up. 

Then something cut across the chaos that stopped then all in their tracks. 

Laughter.

Luna was laughing hysterically. All around her blob as resolved into hundreds of tiny points of light each shinning with their own multi-coloured corona. They danced and swirled around Luna and now that their eyes had adjusted the others could see that up and over the giggling princess they merged perfectly in and out of her astral mane.

“Luna’s here! Luna’s here!”
“YAY!”
“Happy Lulu!”
“Weeeeeeeee!”

Dozens of tiny voices giggled and squealed as the other princesses relaxed. And soon enough they were laughing too as Luna greeted the tiny stars swirling around her. 

“Ah hahahah, hello little ones.” Luna smiled, eyes lighting up and momentarily forgetting the crushing stress she was under. “Ok that’s enough. That’s enough! Put me down……Celestia help!”  The swarm had buddle up beneath Luna and with surge of momentum scooped her into the air. Left flailing and without traction Luna could not stop herself being bundled away as the stars tried to carry her back to the portal.

Celestias flicked out a stream of golden magic that latched onto her sister but with a surprised whinny she found herself being dragged alone with them, Cadence and Twilight also tried to grab on with similar success.  

“What is going on?” Twilight thought to herself feeling dejection slide into her gut. 

Twilight was not having a good day.

She hadn’t known what to expect from this.

But it certainly wasn’t this. 

She had been having such a good morning as well!

“ENOUGH!” A voice bellowed down the corridor, with carried a wave of hot arid air. The swarm of stars dropped Luna and squeaked out apologies.

“Sorry.”
“Sorry Luna.”
“Aaahhhhhh.”

As the little stars dispersed the now thoroughly baffled Princesses turned to see three figures standing in the open doorway. They had the form of ponies but each glowed and like hot embers, the surface of their bodies flowing, pulsing and fluctuating with darker patches and luminescent streaks. Each of them glowed with different colour, a white-blue, a golden yellow and a deep red. Their eyes were solid block colours and none of them seemed to have mouths. Luna quickly strode forward to greet them, not looking as happy as she’d been a few moments ago but better than before. 

Luna and the Yellow Being hugged as they met and Twilight noticed something odd. As her eyes once again adjusted the changing light level she was struck by the fact that the Yellow Being appeared almost identical in form to Celestia. Colouration and texture aside the build, posture, size and even the magically flowing mane were identical.  And now that she looked the larger red one standing further back didn’t look a million miles away from Big Mac, not to the same degree but similar enough. The willowy, slender blue being she didn’t recognise. Celestia seemed to be glaring at her doppelganger, Twilight faintly hearing the grinding of teeth.   

“Thank you for being here. It means a lot.” Luna told the beings, having finished hugging them. “And while one could wish for better circumstances I am glad you can finally meet my family.” Luna turned back to the others gesturing to the glowing beings. “Everypony, may I introduce Sirius, Vega and Polaris. Spirits of the namesake stars.”

“We are so glad to finally meet you.” Sirius said, voice radiant and she moved to shake hooves. “Luna has told us everything about you.”

Celestia carefully regarded the hoof of the star spirit bearing her image but took the hoof and asked, “Everything?” Sirius merely chuckled in response.

“We do apologise for the little ones,” Polaris said, the swarm of mini stars brushing past her making her shimmering blue body spark and undulate. “The dears got terribly over exited. They’re only a few million years old after all.” Polarises voice was as delicate as her countenance but carried the same instant presence.

“Quite. Children are a handful.” Cadence said knowingly before bowing in respect. “We are honoured to meet you.” Twilight quickly joined in the bow. It seemed appropriate, after all there were no books on the protocol for this kind of situation.

“Our spirits assumed appropriate forms from your collective memories.” Vega rumbled. “Since you were all wondering it.”

“As you can imagine trying to fit out physical form in here would have been…difficult to say the least. Unless any of you have a strong desire to swim in plasma!” Sirius added as she turned and began walking into the structure. “Please follow us.”  

As they set off deeper into the structure the swarm of little stars fluttered about their heads before roosting in Luna’s mane. Twilight watched one wiggle out and float down right in front of her face.

“I like your butt mark!” It told her.  

“Oh!” Twilight blushed, “And, erm, you are very twinkly.” The star sparked in happiness and dived back into Luna’s mane. 

*******************************

Further into the alien structure space and time began to twist and warp. Anyone watching would have seen the darkness of the chamber flow together as if it were a tangible liquid. The shadows turned and folded in upon themselves growing tighter and tighter until they pushed through the fabric of reality itself. 

Transcending laws of physics that the tongues of mortals couldn’t even begin to describe something passed through the opening. Fully actualising into the real world the being stood over Equestria like midnight incarnate.

“So…here we are again.”  

> Deep Echo's
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twilight had noticed that the three stars spirits were throwing off considerable heat, as one would logically expect from the manifestation of a great ball of fusion and plasma. But some facet of her Alicorn Magic was automatically compensating for the intense heat. She didn't quite know why but the sensation seemed eerily familiar. 

Deja vu almost....weird...

She would have really liked to ask more about them. The Spirits presented paradigm shifting discoveries to theories and life and Magic but now didn't seem like quite the right time.

Especially given Celestia's reaction, she had an excellent regal demeanour but Twilight knew her well enough to notice the ticks. Something about was rubbing her quite the wrong way.

She couldn't quite figure out what was bothering her mentor. Her eyes briefly met Cadences, she could feel it too. 

"So you three are Wardens?" Twilight asked, Brushing the adorable baby star away.

"No," Sirius answered, looking back. "The stars of this realm were...are their allies .

"Were?"

"it’s been a while...even by our standards." Polaris replied stepping in. "Eons since last direct contact. Even beings if our power couldn’t maintain contact with them after..... the war." Polaris trailed off, voice going quite.

"And you believe they can still be trusted after so long?" Celestia asked.

"Well H....Celestia." Siruis replied, something slipping into her voice. "You don't just stop trusting someone if they've been forcibly kept from you for a few thousand years do you?"

************************************* ********

Within the Tethers central chamber the lone Warden looked down at the planet before him as he acclimatized to this reality. The planet looked so peaceful, billions of happy little mortals pottering away with their lives. They deserved that peace.

The last time he had seen this world it had been shrieking under the throes of the Greater Chaos. Fire and ice bombarding the surface while smoke and blood saturated the air. The skies beyond it being torn to shreds as space and time came undone; and terrible monsters came screeching through the cracks. 

Looking along one of the more southerly landmasses he could still just about make out a line of cragged islets all but worn away by time. They were the last remains of the island The King Under The Mountain had destroyed when he suplexed a Broken God into it. His friend had always been effective if a little direct.

An ache was building up inside the Warden like a phantom pain. This world deserved peace.

He would make sure they got it.

************** **************************

No-one had spoken up in about five minutes.

Twilight was fairly glad of that. Sirius had apologised for a comment, citing extreme nervousness in causing her to speak before thinking. However the fact that an immeasurably ancient star spirit was apparently that nervous did not sit any better with her.

Luna walked ahead with the Stars, conversing in a language no-one else understood. It sounded suitably grim however.

In the rear Celestia and Cadence whispered to each other. Celestia was no longer staring daggers at Sirius and instead just looked down trodden. Somehow that was worse, Celestia was Celestia. She was supposed to be a bastion of control; even in the face of Discord or Tirek or whatever that week’s crisis of state she maintained an air of absolute authority.

She was THE Princess. She always knew what she was doing. She certainly never looked downtrodden…and so…normal.

Twilight supposed that Cadence and Celestia were talking about diplomatic options. Twilight also supposed she was part of that conversation, she might have murmured some vague agreement a few time. She wasn’t really paying attention.

She still couldn’t quite shake that feeling in her gut. Not Déjà vu. But close.  

*********************************** **

Eventually the ponies found themselves in what they could only assume was the meeting room for this increasingly foreboding meeting. Though still extremely utilitarian and military looking some attempt at making the room look more habitable had been made; several pony anatomy appropriate chairs had been arranged facing towards the closed doorway that would presumably reveal their host. The chairs were old looking with faded upholstery but as Twilight tested one it was still soft and pretty comfortable. At a loss for anything better to do she hopped up on one and sat herself down to wait. 

Glancing up Twilight noticed there appeared to be a sword embedded in the ceiling. No not embedded, fused. As if the surrounding metal had swallowed up the blade.  If they had taken the time to add chairs for the princesses why hadn’t they removed the creepy ceiling sword?

“So,” Cadence said, pulling up a chair but not sitting. “Do we just wait?”

“Yes.” Vega rumbled.  

“For how long?” Annoyance starting to creep in.

“As long as it takes I’m afraid.” Polaris responded. “He’ll be ready when he’s ready.”

“Hmmpf. Look I know these are far from ordinary circumstances but we do not appreciate being lead around like this! Can you please tell us something of what is going on?” Cadence asked, eyes then narrowing. “I don’t believe you three are trying to make this more difficulty but it’s getting…frustrating.  

Twilight glanced at the two elder princesses but their expressions were unreadable. Twilight might have been the princess of solving friendship problems but this was well out of her normal scope. 

Sirius seemed to let out the stellar equivalent of a frustrated sigh, head drooping. “Sorry. We’re not trying to make this difficult…its complicated.” Drawing back up to full height she continued. “There’s only one Warden here.  His name is Umbra, the Drakon of Midnight. And as I remember he’s one of the Wardens big guns.”

“And that is saying something.” Polaris added.  “As for why he’s here…” 

In turn each of the Star Spirits turn to face solemnly face Luna. The Princess of the Night drew in a long, deep breath and started speaking as if she was reading her own eulogy. “My sisters, this day has been coming for a long time. When I fell, and became Nightmare Moon I allowed a great power of our world to be corrupted and put the entire planet at risk. The stars and I believe that the Wardens have come here as they think I am no longer fit to wield the power of the moon.”

“Sister no…” Celestia breathed.

Luna stared at the ground, breath coming in with the rhythm of one on the verge of tears. “When I fell. I betrayed...the trust that had been put in me. And I am ready to accept the consequences.” 

“But…but….” Celestia murmured, eyes misting over before suddenly snapping back to reality before snapping back to reality, voice hard as diamond. “No, you have already paid for your mistakes. Thou willt not be taken from us again!”

At that moment the wall dividing the room fading to nothing, the apparent entryway seemingly meaningless. Beyond lay inky blackness; the light from their side of the room seeming to stop before it reached the void. Then something moved in the darkness. 

Looming above them a pair of solid indigo eyes opened, each angular and glowing like coals. The light from these burning slits barely illuminating of a being as black as the void itself. Shifting in the penumbral darkness the ponies could just pick out a short muzzled head and the barest top of its body and shoulders.

Luna stepped forward. “I know why you have come here. You have come to take my Alicorn power away.”

“No.” Umbra replied, “I have not come for you Night Bringer. I have come for you all.” 
 

> Judgement
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“uhhhh…?”

“ehh……ah…..wa?”

“…………..”

The princesses stood, shell shocked by the shadowy entities proclamation. Each trying to process the eldritch voice they had heard. Luna had completely shut down, so caught up in signing her own death warrant that the derailment of her train of thought had put her into a confused trance. Celestia and Cadence continued to make small noises of distress, the younger princess barley suppressing tears as her mind jumped to her child back in Equestria.

The Stars were less readable, having little in the way of distinct facial features. Instead they stood off to the side; silent and rapidly fluctuating in luminosity. 

Eventually Twilight managed to marshal her thoughts back into coherency and stepped forward. “Sorry...all of us?”

“Yes.”

“Wait. What?”

Umbra shifted in in his side of the room. The eyes moved closer and the motions of his indistinct arms giving the impression he was leaning across some invisible table. “My apologies, that all came out rather melodramatically. I am here under the authority of the Wardens of order to make a determination on whether the four of you are fit to continue being Alicorns. Each of you Princesses, not just the Night Bringer, have demonstrated…shall we say…questionable behaviour.” Umbra’s voice was weird. It seemed to be completely unperturbed by the acoustics of the room and deliver itself directly to their ears. It was like listening to the royal Canterlot voice; powerful and authoritively, but as soft and as quite as a whisper.

“So…you’re here to judge us?”

“That’s a little harsh. I’m a perfectly reasonable being. You of course will have the chance to defend yourself. And we’re not going to punish you, no-pony’s getting trapped in a celestial object or worse.” Now that Twilight looked harder she though she could make out Umbra’s mouth. The barest hint of white pulled back in an unsettling smile.

Luna could audibly be heard grinding her teeth as her wings carried her into the air, setting her face to apparent face with Umbra.  "You seem as if you are enjoying this Warden. Perhaps too much. Are we to assume you enjoy tormenting us?"

“Not at all.” Umbra said. “But…well…you know more about what happened last time don’t you? When the Wardens came to this world? A lot more than you’ve been letting on. A lot more than you’ve said…well…not that that is entirely your fault is it? But that would be getting ahead of the proper order of things.”

Twilight could have sworn she heard Luna growl. She looked over at Celestia but she was still wearing her calm mask. One glance over at Cadance though and Twilight knew the truth. That calm was an illusion. Luna’s eyes narrowed as Umbra materialised a pale flower in front of her. 

Twilight peered at it curiously. It looked like a Moon Orchid. At Umbras satisfied smirk she glanced back at Luna.  Was…was she was crying?

“My point being Luna, You out of any of them know better why I might take a slightly personal stake in this.”

Luna dropped back down to the floor, bringing the flower with her. She still looked angry but was subdued for the time being. “Very well. Let us get this test over with.”

“I assume then that my ponies will remain safe?” Celestia asked. Though she had looked frightened before while no one had been looking something had changed. She was the ruler so Equestria and once again she looked the part. Voice absolute and radiating both a figurative and literal aura of power.

“Oh don’t worry. I value my life far too much to risk crossing you Helia.”

The shadows around Umbra seemed to bubble as coils of darkness flowed into the room and between the ponies. For the briefest of moments each of looked towards each other in solidarity before the darkness enveloped them like a blanket and each were left alone.

“Who’s Helia? Twilight though as she sat back down and pondered into the darkness. Little did she know that one wall of darkness away her mentor was asking the same question.



    

> Meanwhile 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shining Armour was not having a good day. 

He usually could usually deal pretty well with major crisis's, but today might be the day that broke him.

First Celestia and Luna had been acting crazy for weeks. Sure them locking themselves in the throne-room made them much easier to protect but it wasn’t doing much for the morale. THEN all four princesses including his wife and LSBFF had been kidnapped by some insane space entity. Shining supposed he should be grateful for the safety of his daughter

The fact that when his wife had activated the recall rune the hover-basket had materialized two foot above Shining’s head he was less grateful for. The resulting concussion had certainly tarnished his already dour mood somewhat, as had the heavy capsule containing orders from Celestia that that had teleported in a few seconds later, also batering him over the head as he tried to stand up all while Flurry burst into tears.

His daughter, much as he loved her was quickly severing his last nerve. From the second Cadance and the others had left she refused to stop crying.

That had been two hours ago. 

Then Discord had started making faces and miraculously she was now giggling and cooing at the living embodiment of chaos. Shining wasn't sure which was worse. 

But try as he might he had found no way of stopping the crying. Discord on the other hand was having a marvellous time entertaining the young princess who was enraptured by the ongoing show. Shining internal cringing intensifying each time he checked in on the pair. 

Shining had really hoped this day would never come, he loved Flurry dearly but she was one magic surge away from being a natural disaster. Again. Putting her anywhere near Discord seemed like a catastrophe waiting to happen. Not to mention the ever-likely possibility of Discord being Discord and wrecking everything for the laughs.

in fact If he hadn't known about Discord’s abject terror over whatever was happening with the princesses, not to mention his apparently genuine determination at leaf turning he might have seen the giggling baby as a declaration of war. Considering the circumstances however Shining decided simply to hold in a manly tear and put it down to the complete insanity of today. 

As much as leaving them together irritated him by some odd logic it was the best option he had right now. Flurry entertained was a safer Flurry. Discord preoccupied was less of a headache for everyone else, especially given he was falling over backwards (sometimes quite literally) to appear helpful and not at all evil.

And in the event something went REALLY wrong he supposed an all-powerful reality bender was a good choice for protection. Still…if Twiley’s friends got get here faster that would be good. 

Of course all that would have been enough more than enough but missing wives and reality bending babysitters weren't enough. Oh no Shining had to deal with all this and a riot.

Well not quite a riot…not yet anyway

Trying to rub away his growing migraine Shining walked back out onto the battlements and surveyed the front of the palace. The gathering crowd had grown by at least 50% since he last checked, the badly outnumbered royal guards doing their best at crowd control, but they couldn’t quite get the mob to disperse.

Seeing a lull in the mob Shining’s horn glowed as he pushed the barrier he had erected around the palace outwards another notch. One of the contingency order from Celestia had been to increase the size of the cordon around the palace by quite a bit, mostly for the protection of the general populace. Protection from what she hadn’t specified. However this task had quickly fallen afoul of what Shining was terming the second big problem of the day.

Namely the populace.   

Now in his experience Ponies fell into one of two categories. Those who rose to the occasion during a crisis. And those who really REALLY didn’t. Most of the time ponies were a kind gentle race who thrived on friendship and wouldn't dream of breaking out the torches and pitchforks and screaming incoherently. Unfortunately most of the time didn’t include all four Princesses going AWOL and somehow the information concerning the nature their absence being leaked.

Could he really blame the crowd for panicking? Not really… 

But could they please stop panicking? and stretching the guards thin to keep civil order? And since bad news travelled extraordinarily fast could they be doing this pretty much nationwide.  When manure hit the fan they tended to look to their strong leaders. And that lead to the third major problem of the day.

(The third major problem he could actually do something about.)

Who exactly was in charge? Celestia’s canister had contained a number of contingencies on the matter but they had never anticipated something quite like this.

Celestia? 	MIA
Luna?		MIA 
Cadence? 	MIA 
Twilight? 	MIA 
Raven?	 	On her yearly two week vacation 
Kibbitz? 		 As Shining looked around his fur somehow turned an even paler shade of white. Kibbitz was leading the mob outside. Apparently this had upset one too many appointments.
.
.
.

As Shining mentally ticked down the rest of the list he realised with horror almost every person on Celestia’s list he knew the status of was unavailable was so somehow unavailable. 

Almost

Glancing back inside at flurry he found Discord looking straight at him body vibrating wildly. “Ohh it’s a doozy!” the Draconequus said happily “isn't it good to know that even in such dire times as these chaos ensures?” He then glanced at the sky as if to expected to be struck down , breathing a sigh of relief. 

Shining ignored him, he had a far more important problem.

Blueblood.

Now it wasn’t definite, there were still other names on the list, but there was an increasing chance that Prince Blueblood would be nominally in charge of the noble courts. Now in all fairness Shining had been proved wrong… on the rare occasion… about Blueblood, the Prince expertly rescuing the Yakkistan negotiations after Shining had initially botched them for example.

But…

"PLEASE if there are any gods listening let whoever end up in charge be anyone but Blueblood. I know you're out there, my family is talking to you."

****************************************

In brane of reality somewhere near Equestria an oracle of the Wardens giggled as she intercepted Shining Armours desperate half prayer.

“Sorry little pony.” She smiled to herself. “Our Prime Directive still applies. Even in the event of Blueblood.”

With that she shifted her esoteric perception back to the Equus Tether and her compatriot. The show was about to begin.

******************************************





> A la Lune
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Luna paced restlessly within her little bubble of shadows. She couldn’t tell how long she’d been waiting, each moment seemed to stretch into infinity. In Luna tumultuous mind it could have as easily have been 30 seconds or 30 minutes since their self-appointed judge had rolled in the darkness.  

Not that it was actually darkness engulfing them. Luna knew the magic of shadows, and even a cursory examination told her this stuff wasn’t magic either, not magic as she understood it anyway.  She want sure if it was tangible matter though, if it was, it was impossibly dense. The energies needed to control such a substance were almost unimaginable.  

Almost…

“I haven’t seen power like this…” She whispered, “Not since…”

Her train of thought was cut abruptly short as the indigo eyes once again loomed out of the darkness.  Luna sat down on the provided chair. Staring at their host, daring him to break the silence first.

“Well then, feeling prepared for this little chat?” Umbra asked. The glowing eyes circled around Luna’s bubble, a hunter stalking its prey.

“I am quite used to dealing with bullies,” Luna replied, flawlessly keeping her eyes level with his as she turned in time with him. “Especially those who hide themselves in the dark where they dost think they are safe.” 

“Excuse me?”

“You are excused.”

A low, heavy uneven noise emanated out from the swirling shadows, it wasn’t the omnipresent voice she was used to. This wheezing laugh bobbed up and down in time with Umbra eyes. “Oh this is much better. I do prefer a bit of fire over self-indulgent whining.”  Umbra began to swirl around Luna again, the shadows drawing closer with every rotation. 

“So shall we get to the talking then?” Luna said as she stopped turning, “Another thing I am quite used to is the shadow of Nightmare Moon hanging over me. I know this is why you have come here and despite thine proclamations both of the nobleness of thineself, and of doom to my companions. I grow tired of this elephant in the room.” 

“I’m afraid the Pachyderm will have to wait. These things have their proper times, and right now is the time to discuss more individual failings. The Nightmare…I don’t view as such.” Luna’s facial muscles twitched for a second. “Right now we need to discuss the Tantabus.”

“Oh ….. I see.”

“In terms of bad decisions I rate nearly letting loose a world ending nightmare monster of one’s own creation rather highly.”

“It is not as if I released it on purpose. It was supposed to say within mine head.”

“But you knew it had the potential? I wouldn’t assume you that ignorant.” Umbra questioned, the eyes retracting slightly. The outline of a hand gestured and a large flat screen faded in. Luna watched half bemused, half mortified as a projection of her dream played out. The Tantabus transforming her into NNM, Twilight and friends rushing in to rescue her with rainbow power, the Tantabus escaping … then the scene shifting to Luna’s room in the waking world.

"My dream ended... happily? That... cannot... happen!"

Luna winced slightly, unable to keep the rising discomfort and shame off her face.

“The oracles who recorded this agree with me,” Umbra continued, voice picking away at Luna with its implacable certainty. “That was hardly a reaction of surprise. Dread certainly, but not surprise.”

“It was a risk of using the creature. I simply believed it would not choose to leave me.”

“I have to say that whether you thought it would get or not it’s still a pretty idiotic idea.”

“Yes I realise that….”

“Do you though?” Umbra cut across, “You wanted to punish yourself for NNM right?”

“Yes?”

“So why does it seem you were trying to make it happen again?”

“WHAT!?” Luna shrieked, so shocked that her legs nearly went out under her. Her eyebrows met like furious lightning bolts and cerulean light crackled round her horn. “HOW DARE YOU!”

“You fell a thousand years ago when all those negative emotions you were carrying around got all snarled up inside and it let the Nightmare get its hooks into you. Did you not?”

The light around Luna’s horn continued to intensify, but the flare of anger she felt was quickly burning away to cold inside her.

“You let the Tantabus infect you, torture you, give you nightmares of your ‘worst fear’ night after night. For months on end.” Umbra kept talking his voice sliding in past Luna’s protestations. “Were you going to keep letting it push you and push you until you couldn’t take it anymore? Until you snapped again?”

“I would never let myself become the Nightmare again.” Luna said through gritted teeth. “My punishment was to remind me of that.”

Umbra began to swirl around Luna again,  faster this time. “What….by repeatedly letting you relive that moment? By letting you feel that way again in ever so guilty little bursts?”

Luna’s face fell. All emotion drained away in an instant. “No.”

Umbra was close now, like a shark closing in on its prey. “So why did you do it?”

“I wanted to punish myself.”

“And?”

“And I thought it was the best way.”

“Really?” asked Umbra.

“Yes…..” Luna started to sink to her knees. Something guilty pushing its way up through her psyche. 

“By risking it all?”

“No…..”

“By trying to throw away all that your friends and family had done? By throwing away all she did?”

“It’s not like that!”

“So what is it like?!” Umbra was all but right up in her face now.

“I don’t ….”

“Why are you doing this to yourself?” Umbra roared eyes flashing.

“BECAUSE NO-ONE ELSE WILL!” Luna screamed back. With a gust of wind the inky shadows were blown backwards leaving Luna once again in an oasis of calm. She breathed in and out slowly, barely believing she had just said that. “They won’t…..”

“Go on.” Umbra said somewhat smugly.

“The others, they forgave me without even thinking. Even if, as you say, the blame for what happened was not entirely mine…I’m still the one who fell to the Nightmare, I’m the one who nearly plunged half the world into darkness and let the other half of the globe boil to death.”

“They forgave you? That’s the issue?”

“Yes and I know I can’t complain that Celestia still loved me or Twilight was ready to be my friend….” Luna sighed, struggling to find a way to articulate the labyrinthine emotions twisting about inside her. “But acting if it never happened…it’s like they were not taking me seriously. Or it was never important…which weirdly makes it like I never important.”

“Huh.”

“And then….they just put me back in charge again. Ruler of the night, co-ruler of Equestria. They just…pretended it never happened. CELESTIA pretended it never happened.”

“But it did happen.”

“The thing about my sister is… even if the kingdom was falling down around her ears, she would still put on that smile and pretend everything was just fine … for her image, for her people… and especially for me.”

“And you?”

“I’ve never been a very good liar.”

“So it would seem.”

“Tia loves me dearly but she wouldn’t have understood. She doesn’t know darkness like I do. Besides I knew she wouldn’t have list…..” Suddenly Luna sat bolt upright, her emotional outpouring suddenly snapping shut as she remembered who exactly she was talking to.

“You knew she wouldn’t listen?” Umbra purred, eyes shifting slyly.

“No I……”

“She never listeners to you does she?”

“That’s not what I meant……”

“Not about Discord, not about the Crystal Empire, not even about yourself.” More snippets of Luna’s past danced across the levitating screen. Scenes from both her recent past and from long ago.  “I think I’ve heard all I need for now.” With the faintest breathe of wind Umbra’s glowing eyes retracted into the darkness creating little whirlpools of shadows 









> Patterns in the Sky
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“I’m going to backhand him into….INTO ME.”

“Sirius please calm down.”

“He can’t talk to her that way!”

“You think I don’t agree with you?” Polaris sighed and leant back from the edge their ‘balcony’. “But you going Nova in here isn’t going to help matters.” 

Sirius snorted shooting hot embers out of her nose, lines of angry plasma arced between her form mane and the surroundings. “Always the serene one huh PoPo?” The stars voice hissed like escaping gas.

“You always confuse my control of emotions for a lack of them.” Polaris sighed, “Believe me, I am quite consumed with anger.”

For a few moments the two stared at each other. “You can see where this is going right?”

“I’ve never had quite your knack for extrapolating the future.”

“Heh…like it ever helped when this world is concerned.” 

“Don’t blame yourself.” Polaris sighed, leaning her long neck forward to nuzzle her companion. Corporeal forms had their advantages sometimes. 

Sirius let out a long sigh expelling more embers. “Maybe I blame myself a little with what happened with Luna.” A slight edge crept into her voice. “Not as much as I blame the sister.” 

“I know…..but…”

“Luna looks quite a bit happier now.” Vega interjected. The two other Spirits look back into the chamber As Umbra’s form moved from their friends section. “Guess she needed to get that off her chest.”

Once again the three stars looked on as the unearthly Warden moved on to his next questioning. 

Princess Cadence



 

> To the Heart of the Matter
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"I will be with you in one moment Princess Mi Amore Cadenza" Umbra said to Cadence as he slinked through the shadows bast her bubble. "Or is just Cadence acceptable?"

For a moment Cadence genuinely considered telling Umbra when he returned to only refer to her by her formal title.  But then she might have to start referring to him by his title: Drakon of Midnight, or something along those lines? If there was one thing Cadence could change about being royalty it would the asinine fixation on titles. Half the time they were hereditary nonsense that barely meant everything except the bearer was unshakably sure they were better than everyone else, contrary to most evidence. She at least had EARNED her title as princess.

But “The Drakon of Midnight” seemed a fitting title, though she supposed ‘Midnight’ probably referred to a place not the concept. And ‘Drakon’ was very fitting, in Equestrian myths the Drakons were a titanic race of beings that modern day dragons were descended from. It was said in myths the dragons had physically built the volcanoes where their progeny now lived, digging right down through the planets crust. The world spoke of ancient immutable power and in the bare glimpses of Umbra’s body she thought she may have spotted the shape of a dorsal fin or spines.

“Cadence will suffice.” The princess replied as the glowing eyes returned. For a brief moment she wondered if Umbra has seen Drakons when he had last been to their world. Then she considered the fact this being was old enough for the question to be reasonable. “By Star-swirls beard….” She thought to herself as she put on her best diplomatic face. She was a Princes of Equestria, she could handle anything.

"So shall we begin?"

"Please go right ahead."

"Well Princess, to start off;" Umbra began "I must say your record is quite uneventful, well compared to some-ponies." 

"Oh, really?"

"Yes, no major emergencies can be regarded as your fault. I mean your child did destroy the Crystal Heart. But you Alicorns are a well of untapped potential. Accidents are sure to happen, so I'm not so harsh as to hold that against you or little Flurry.” 

"I should hope not," Cadence said, voice suddenly icy. "Such severity would be...an unfortunate mistake."

"Is that a threat?"

"Do you see it as one?"

"Heh, not really."

"Hmpf... you were saying?"

“Yes, nothing really of note,” Umbra mused, “I might suppose that being captured by the Changeling Queen…twice…is a little embarrassing.” 

Cadence grimaced.

“Then again. The second time EVERYONE got captured.” Umbra continued, “Actually, is that more embarrassing or less?”

“Chrysalis was skilled at what she did,” Cadence sniffed, “Unfortunately for us.”

“Was skilled?” Even through the murky shadows Cadence could see something twinkle in Umbra’s eye. She felt her gut drop. “She’s not dead you know!”

“That’s not what I meant!”

“What did happen to her then?”

“She…uhh…got away.” Cadence stuttered slightly.

“I feel like you people should have really tried harder to stop that.” Umbra said, conjuring up a screen. It showed an image of the last they had seen of the former Changeling Queen. “Hang on let me count; four Alicorn princesses, five rainbow power bearers, a unicorn with magic comparable to Princess Twilights, your husband, the new Changeling King, a small army of restored Changelings….oh and the 'Chaos' whelp Discord.”

Cadence looked up at the screen. It was replaying the look of utter contempt that passed over Chrysalis face as she slapped away Starlight’s hoof.

 “And NONE of you tried to stop the Queen escaping!” 

“I guess going after her seemed wrong.”

Umbra’s eyes rose in the air as the incredulous air in his voice increased. “Right after she swore ABSOLUTE VENGENGE on you all?” 

“Well… I don’t know how the Wardens do things, though if your anything to go by its doesn’t look positive,” Cadence rounded on him, “But in Equestria we believe in giving others a second chance. No matter what they’ve done.”

"Your compassion is admirable. You are of the line of Grasshoof are you not?"

"I'm sorry I don't know what that means."

Umbra shook his head. "This ignorance of you Alicorns is astounding. To know nothing of the history of your world, of your own history. Civilisations have fallen for far less." He sighed. "It is of no matter for now. Tell me, when exactly did you first hear of changelings?"

“Umm… well I believe Princess Celestia had mentioned them a few times before…” Cadence took in a deep breathe, “The invasion at my wedding. I certainly knew the main points of the species.” 

“Main points?”

“Well…the main points as we knew them at the time.” Cadence quickly corrected herself.

“Of course. And at the time they were?”

“A shapeshifting parasitic race that fed on the love of others.” Cadence replied. There was a slight sinking feeling in her gut, “I think I can see where this is going.”

“Ah. Well then I can skip to the point. So on the one hoof we have a race that’s been suffering under a millennia long famine. On the other we have a demi-god who embodies their only food source. Now call me crazy, many do, but I think we might have a problem and a solution right here.”

“I would think my first proper meeting with them would indicate that would have been a bad idea.”

“And I think your little friend Thorax bluntly shows it was worth pursuing.” 

“That did change things…”

“Nothing changed. You couldn’t just stop ignoring the problem anymore. For a princess of love that’s seems like a pretty big empathy blackspot. Or did you simply not care?”  

“You are grossly simplifying a much more complex situation.” 

“You’re a princess. You don’t have the luxury of not dealing with complex situations. Which you didn’t. After all you had to get kidnapped again to find them. And EVEN then it was Thorax and Twilights student who fixed them." 

“You are assuming I could have even done anything.” Cadence said, stepping into short back and forth pacing. Anything to tear herself away from the relentless stare bearing down on her. “The Alicorns probably couldn’t have done anything to help them, so criticise all you like but I am not in the habit of putting myself, and by proxy, all those under my protection in danger by putting myself in unnecessary risk.”

“I suppose one has to pick their battles.”

“Exactly. And even with Thorax living the Crystal Empire I couldn't risk everything rushing into a hostile kingdom on the evidence of just one rogue changeling”

“Well from where I’m standing it didn’t seem like you were trying very hard, even if you were being cautious.” Umbra countered. Cadence now found his eyes seemed to be fixed in front of her gaze. With a barely supressed snort cadence ceased her pacing as Umbra continued. “And you do know Thorax wasn’t the only one right?”

“He…he wasn’t?”  A slight edge of uncertainty started to creep into her voice.

“Thorax wasn’t even the first one. There like two others running around in your kingdom. One of them was even at that donkeys wedding you attended. He wasn’t even disguised!"

"And the other one?"

"Can’t talk about that one."

“Ok…why won’t you tell me?”

“4th dimensional space-time weirdness. And you know…” Umbra chuckled. “I’m not just going to just out them like that. What do you take me for? Some kind as jerk asshole?” 

Cadence balked briefly. Umbra’s demeanour was fraying her already stretched patience. “What?”

“I can say that I'm pretty sure THAT than one might just have saved the kingdom more times than you have. Which isn't all that hard really. I mean you weren't around for much." Umbra chuckled darkly “Somewhat your theme really.”

For a moment Cadence was ready to scream. However she had spent pretty much all of her teenage and adult life as a princess so trained composure won out. Breathing in deeply she looked up and pressed on. she would keep paying this creatures game for now; “What do you mean by that?”

“Well…what can I say? You really don’t do much do you?”

“I am the princess of a small nation if you hadn't noticed”  Cadence nearly spat.

“And even there your impact seems minimal.”

“Excuse me?”

“Look, how about I go through this step by step so you can understand.”

Cadence grimaced disgruntledly. “I have the feeling you’re going to explain it all to me anyway.

A few thunderous claps rung out accompanying a few more chuckles of Umbra’s physical voice. “Heh heh, now you’re getting the idea of this!” Umbra’s conjured screen resized itself forming into a slideshow like projection. The first image that flickered up was very familiar.

“So to start at the beginning as it were. We are all quite aware of the legend surrounding your two aunts, and what happened when she returned. Have to say Everypony seemed pretty surprised to learn Celestia had a sister. Almost like the fact she had a ‘niece’ didn’t even cross their minds.” And of course we can look at your input during that whole event, or rather the total lack of it. Did you even know?”

“Celestia…didn’t tell me exactly what was happening. She told me there was a chance ‘something’ was going to happen that day. And if anything did I was to stay safe and stay away?”

“Oh and you couldn’t go against the mighty Princess could you? Better let little Twilight nearly die saving the entire globe from total destruction.”

“I didn’t know about Twilight at the time.” Cadence sighed. 

“I think that might be more disturbing.” The screen clicked and changed to an image that Cadence recognised as the post evening carnage of twilight and her friends first Grand Galloping Gala. “Not important enough to be invited?” Umbra queried.

“Actually I was attending the Manehatten event.”

“Ah… that explains it.”

“Sorry to interrupt.” Cadence interrupted halfway through the next image transition. “But you seem to have very inconsistent coverage of our activities. I would have thought that fact would have been easy to find out.”

“Well I technically can’t directly enter your dimension without a whole heap of problems arising.” Umbra explained, pausing the slideshow. “So this exercise was mostly researched by the Wardens Oracle division. As you might imagine their power are a little … wibbly… so they tend to only be able to focus in on important stuff… proves my point really.”

Cadence huffed indignantly, then again as the slideshow finished transitioning to an image of Discord laughing manically. “I couldn’t have done anything about that if I’d tried.”

“You could have helped. At least distracted him maybe.” Umbra said as the image transitioned again, this time showing an image of Canterlot with her husband’s force shield encompassing it. “However, I’m afraid the next couple of episodes really do outline the problem here. Especially since you actually make an appearance.” They were now looking at a snapshot of Twilight and her friends talking surrounded by picnic paraphernalia. Two official looking letters held by Spike.” “Did you know Twilight didn’t recognise you at first? She had to go all the way to Canterlot and have it spelled out by her brother before she twigged. Shows how big an impact ‘the best foal-sitter ever’ actually left on her.”

“Well, I don’t think she ever actually heard my full name. Our relationship wasn’t like that.”

“Yes I’m sure she looked at the name Princess Mi Amore Cadenza and couldn’t have possibly connected it to any other Princesses she knew of who’s name started with the letter ‘c’ and was strongly connected with love. Especially one she helped set up with her brother when they were in high school” For a moment Umbra’s voice became puzzled, “Then again…she did apparently manage to completely avoid mentioning her BBBFF for what, over nine months? Maybe that just Twilight being Twilight.” 

Out of the corner of her eye Cadence thought she saw something flicker in the shadowy wall off to her lift. But before she had a chance to look properly Umbra had collected himself from his tangent and carrier on. 

“But you know what? The real indicator in this scene is Rarity. Even Rarity didn't know who you were at first mention. Rarity! She even knew who Blueblood was! Bloody BLUEBLOOD over you!”

“ … Oh? ”

“As far as I can tell that fashionista has extensively studied pretty much all aspects of high society and royal life. Not to mention before she ever met you she was intermittently quite the sensation in Canterlot society, and in all that time…you…were never mentioned….once?” 

Cadence scowled. Part of her was irritated that Umbra had gone for such a low blow. But Celestia dammit it was true wasn’t it? She had never gone to great lengths to ingratiate herself in Canterlot high society or go for egregious ego stroking in the public eye. But was she really such a non-entity in equestrian culture?  

The slideshow images snapped by as Umbra rattled through his last few points. “Actual wedding? Twilight busted you out and effectively carried you up to the confrontation with Chrysalis. Crystal Empire? Yeah you shielded the empire but Twilight and Spike did all the legwork actually saving the day so you could get chucked off a balcony and blow up Sombra. Tirek? Did you guys mount up and take him on? No you went along with Celestia’s frankly laughable plan to dump all the Alicorn Magic into Twilight and hope to the gods Tirek doesn’t completely massacre your kingdom in the meantime. And everything you were sequestered up in your little Empire out the way and letting everyone else shoulder the risks of the apocalyptic event.” 

“All I’ve ever done is try my best.” Cadence growled, patience finally hitting the end of its tether. “All I have ever done is do whatever I could to help other ponies…whatever way I could…and if that’s not good enough for you…” 

“How old were you when you were changed?”

Cadence’s ranting stopped, the question catching her off guard. Umbra’s voice seemed different now. The subtly mocking tone dropped and replaced by something softer. “Uhh…excuse me?”

“How old when you became an Alicorn?”

“I…I was ten years old.” Cadence felt oddly calm, completely at odds with the building rage she had felt moments before. Suddenly she was staring right into Umbra’s eyes, almost with a hypnotic effect. “The village I lived in was being drained of its love by a sorceress named Prismia. I confronted her, was able to use the love she had stolen against her, made her good again. Saved Everypony.”

“And then?”

“And then I was somewhere else…full of stars.”

“And?”

“And then Celestia was there. She told me that I was worthy of being a true princess…and then it was like all the love and compassion in the world was passing through my body.”

Suddenly Umbra voice has lined with a severe edge. “Sounds like you weren’t given much of a choice.” 

“No it wasn’t like that. I did accept.” Cadence shook her head, the memories were difficult to describe. “I don’t…I don’t think it would have worked if I hadn’t wanted it to.”

“Maybe…but you were just a kid.” Umbra replied. “What kid doesn’t want to save the world?”

“I don’t regret becoming a princess if that’s what you mean.”  

“I would hope so.” Umbra sighed, "Well, I guess you can just carry on sitting quietly (on aunt Cellys orders) until you're summoned again. Perhaps she'll send you to blow up Sombra again or something." Umbra let out a hollow laugh, "I imagine he's used to that by now"

“You sound sorry for him?”  

“You aren’t?” Umbra sounded genuinely shocked before letting out another hollow chuckle.  “Wait… what DO you think he is.”

“The legends told of a unicorn who’s heart was as black as night.” Cadence paused slightly as the well-worn phrase passed her lips. “At least that’s how Celestia described him. “

And you believed her just like that? Pretty convenient excuse to just write him off as simple evil.” His voice had same edge that had crept into Umbra’s voice before. “Your auntie is well practised in covering up her mistakes. She’s the reason he ended up like that.”

“She…turned him into that monster?”

“Not directly, But she may as well as pushed the dagger between his ribs.” There was a long few moments of silence before Umbra spoke again. "Well I think that's everything" said Umbra tucking away papers Cadence was sure hadn’t actually been there before this point. "We should be reconvening shortly after I speak with your sister and Aunt Celly. Meanwhile, please do enjoy the entertainment. I do find the truth to be quite enlightening."





Twilight pulled back as the hole in the shadows she'd been poking at quivered before closing up entirely.

"Well then Princess Twilight. I do hope you've been taking notes. We have quite a lot to cover."




 

> Twilight Sparkles Magical Space Destiny 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“So what do you think if proceedings so far?” Umbra asked looking down from above.

“Well, as my ‘notes’ tell me,” Twilight replied coolly, “I firstly must concur with my fellow princesses; you seem unnecessarily brutal in your assessment of us.  Secondly, I am well aware that the weakness in your shadow barrier that allowed me to observe your conversations with the others was intentional. As I’m sure you know I’m very good at being tested, even if I do say so myself.”

At some point in…however long they’d been here Twilight’s fear and stress had stopped weighing on her. Oh sure they were still there, but somehow it had all fused into some amalgam background noise leaving her in some meta-zen state. 

Besides Umbra didn’t scare her the way Tirek or Chrysalis had. Partly because that strange sense of almost-Deja-vu hadn’t gone away yet. It was like there was a massive missing piece of the puzzle and she was staring at the empty space it left. 

“Hmm… was my ruse really so obvious?” Umbra asked as the tiny discrepancy in the barrier Twilight had used phased out. “I’ll have to try harder for the next one. And as for my ‘character’, well what can I say? "I'm not kind. I'm not nice. But I am honest. If you weren't so blind to their flaws you'd see I'm just telling it how it is."

“You’re just telling it how it is? Huh.”

“Something funny?”

“Well,” Twilight replied putting on her best lecture voice, “It is just that in my experience ponies…uh… people who ‘are just telling it how it is’  are using it as an excuse to air every cruel and mean little thought that pops into their head. If you really told it how it was you would spend an equal amount of time saying positive and kind things about those around you.”

“Well said Sparkle. I am many things but I would prefer not to be a hypocrite.  In which case I must say that you and your friends have done some truly remarkable work over the past few years.”

“I’m glad you think so.”

“Yes, several near apocalypses averted but at the same time you make the time to get out there and solve…umm, what is it you call them?”

“Friendship problems?” 

“Yes those.” Umbra smiled. “It’s good to see you’ve remained remarkably humble particularly considering your magical space destiny.”

“Well just because I’m a princess doesn’t make me better than anypony else….wait…my what?”” Twilight said as Umbra words clicked into place. “Magical space destiny?” 

“Heheh.” Umbra laughed as Twilights cheeks flushed deeply. “I mean it is true isn’t it?”  

“NO!”

“Oh come on,” Umbra cooed slyly. “Don’t tell me you’ve never thought about how staggeringly unlikely you are.”

“In a cosmic sense everything is unlikely...but…” Twilight replied carefully. Certain thoughts were making their way to the surface of her mind. “I suppose I can see what you mean.”

“Go on.”

“Well…” Twilight bit her lip, what she was about to say almost felt like a betrayal. It wasn’t, but she was loath to say anything that agreed with Umbra after the way he had treated Luna and Cadence. “I had pondered the coincidence that Nightmare Moon was sealed to the moon for 1000 years, and that 1000 years later I figured out not only that she was coming but work out the way to defeat her and get Luna back, all perfectly timed to the day of her return.”

“Do you not thank somepony else could have done that?” 

“Well of course some pony could have tracked down the evidence…but would they have met 5 other ponies who almost perfectly embody the elements of harmony and THEN befriend them enough to follow a possible mad-pony on a dangerous mission into the Everfree to basically fight a god?”  

Umbra went to say something but Twilight cut him off, sinking to the floor hooves gradually moving up her face. “Not to mention the fact me and my friends were already unknowingly connected years before though out simultaneous and interconnected gaining of our cutie marks.”  

“Well…”

“And our cutie marks were the same shape as the Elements.” Twilight groaned.

“Heh… and your cutie marks are very prominently plastered across the Tree of Harmony. And that’s been there since the First Great Chaos War, and that was millions of years ago.”  

“The Tree was created in the Chaos War?” Twilight asked, curiosity briefly cutting through the existential dread.

Umbra let out another of his rattling breaths. "Yes, and no. It's rather a long story. One I don't have the time to get into now." Twilight's shoulders visibly sank. "I wouldn't worry young Sparkle, I have the feeling before we finish here you'll know far more about the Chaos War than even I do."

“Ok…” Twilight sighed, “So…I have a ... ugh …. Magical Space Destiny?”

“I guess it really depends on how much stock you put in the idea of destiny.”

Twilight looked up. She had caught the bitter note in Umbra’s voice, and how his eyes had flicked away from her as he has said the word.  

“You don’t like the concept much?” She asked softly, something inside tugging at her to ask.

“Destiny is a frigid bitch,” Umbra spat, “Who doesn’t care how many innocent bystanders are trampled in her wake.” 





“Um…bra……” 

“hmm?”

“Umbra…….”

“Who is this? How did you get this frequency?”

“Give them to me Umbra…..they must suffer…. ….they are a betrayal …..Of her ….”

*thwap*

“Sorry about that Umbra, Danio snuck in ahead of me.” 

“Ahh of course…what do you want Faceless? I said I wasn’t to be disturbed, holding simultaneous conversations are tricky in this dimension.” 

“How far are you through your task?”

“Look, Judgment takes time and this especially requires ALL of my concentration. I won’t rush this. So would you kindly…”

“The King under the Mountain is on his way there.”

“….Are you joking?”

"When have you known me to joke?"

 

> White Lies and Dark Orders 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twilight looked carefully up at her would be judge. If his minor outburst hadn’t been enough he had immediately glanced to the side, distracted by something only he could see. He had mumbled something in his real voice too fast and low for Twilight to catch but she was fairly sure she had heard him curse at something. 

After a few moment his silhouette seemed to shrug and turn back to Twilight. “My apologies Princess. That was quite unprofessional.”

“Problem?”

“My commander had some minor adjustments to my orders.” Twilight noted annoyance in Umbra’s voice. “Interdimensional communication is never easy… neither is my commander.” 

“Should…I be worried?”

“No more than you were before.”

Twilight sighed and Umbra chuckled. She couldn’t tell whether he was purposely trying to aggravate them or not. From what she had seen Umbra’s personality seemed to flip on a dime between sympathetic, threatening, annoying and grandiose. Sometimes every few seconds. He was weirdly like Discord in that way… or Pinkie Pie for that matter. Sometimes she had the odd sensation that her pink friend was reading from a cosmic script that only she had access too. It made her wonder about the ‘orders’ Umbra was under. 

“Can we continue?” Twilight asked.

“Of course. Where were we?” 

“You had just made your thoughts on destiny abundantly clear.” 

“Oh yes.”

Twilight watched as the memory screen once again was pulled into existence. It flickered on and ran through a brief number of random scenes from Twilights life. As the slideshow progressed the scenes seemed to focus in on some certain encounters with a certain white Alicorn.  

“Is this the part where you start bashing my mentor?”

“Excuse me?”

“Don’t act innocent. Someone might think you have it in for her.”

“Huh… well I wouldn’t say that.”

“Your conversations with Luna and Cadence seemed to steer that way very quickly. You even told Luna straight to her face you wanted to focus on more ‘individual failing’ then went straight back on your word a few minutes later.” 

“It’s not my fault the Sunbearers presence is so…well…omnipresent.”

“I’m sure.” Twilight huffed. “And this correlates to what we were previously discussing?”

“Well here’s the thing about the large amount of coincidences that feed ‘magical space destiny’, is it really destiny or is by design?”

“Are you saying my magical space destiny is all part of Celestia’s design?” Twilight said raising a sceptical eyebrow. 

“Yes.”

Twilight’s brow went higher.

“Well no, obviously not entirely.” Umbra admitted, chuckling to himself again, like he knew something she didn’t. Which Twilight supposed he very much did as it happened. 

“Are all the Wardens this insufferable?” Twilight wondered as Umbra continued.

 “It more comes down to a case of following orders.”  

“Following orders is a bad thing?” Twilight said, with obviously mock shock. At this point Twilight was willing to play along with this weird game for the sake of expediency. “I hardly though you’d advocate anarchy against the authorities! And there I was thinking loyalty was one of the elements of harmony?”

“See this one gets it.” Umbra said, seemingly to no one on particular before continuing. “Of course loyalty to your leader is admirable. But the amount of control Celestia has over you is frankly worrying.”

“Examples?” Twilight said looking expectantly back up at the memory screen. Umbra did not disappoint.

“So off the top of my head how about recently when that Chaos wannbe Tirek tried to steal all the magic of your land.”

“What about it?”

“You actually went along with that insane plan to put all four instances of Alicorn power into your body? It’s a testament to your willpower you didn’t go supernova on the spot. Would have been a sweet irony if your attempt to save Equestria had ended up vaporising the planet. The chain reaction probably would have killed off the nearest dozen stars given the magic contained in your world”

“We had to do something. What would have you done?” 

“Well,” Umbra said ponderously, as the memory screen displayed complex quantum mechanics. “Given that you wielding four Alicorns was roughly equal to Tirek wielding all of Equestria’s magic plus Discords,  I would have ponied the heck up and rode out to kick his ass while he was still weak.” 

“And risk him getting our power earlier? I think I like Celestias plan better.”

“I’m sure the handful of survivors would have thanked you for Celestia’s cowardice after Tirek had finished reducing your land to a blasted heath.”

Twilight flinched but stayed strong. Umbra was picking at details from an omniscient perspective, even he should understand in the heat of the moment no-pony could make the absolute pragmatic or logical decision. 

“Well you’re not wrong about that I suppose.” Umbra said, apparently reading Twilights mind. A fact that caused Twilight to let out a slight whinny of discomfort. “Even I can’t judge someone that harshly, especially when the fate of your home is at stake. Like I said to before, not a hypocrite.” 

“Right…erm... so what point are you aiming for here then?”

“It’s all the orders that Celestia had been planning for years that worry me. And especially the way she implements them. To take it back the beginning, she was the one who ordered you to go to Ponyville, yes?”

“Yes, to go make friends, which if you hadn’t was what saved the day, and a lot of days since.”

“In the big picture yes. But at the time you didn’t know there was a grand plan in place did you?” Umbra grinned. “In fact Celestia told you to forget all about it.”

“Is that the point?” Twilight replied, “Who’s to say things would have turned out okay if she hadn’t…um… well if she had told me right away I probably would have ruined everything trying to make friends.” Twilight didn’t know how but she got the impression Umbra had raised an eyebrow. “If you hadn’t noticed my social skill have always been quite...er… patchy. It’s nothing I’m ashamed of.”  

“Of course not.” Umbra agreed, “But yes this is kind of what I’m going for here. By your own admission she straight up lied to your face in order to manipulate you into doing the job. It didn’t even matter that you had figured out what was coming on your own. All your natural talent and years of studies that she wanted from you disregarded for…what reason exactly? She didn’t even trust her self-made saviour to be in on the plan?” 

Twilight took a step back. Umbra wasn’t playing around anymore as the same predatory look she has glimpsed him direct at Cadence and Luna crept into lines of his eyes.

 “It’s not even the most egregious example.” Umbra continued, "How about when the Crystal Empire reappeared? And Celestia told you that you any only you could help your brother and sister-in-law? Which is the exact opposite of what needed to happen.”

“Same as before. I’m afraid, she told me what she had to.” Twilight countered, “I’m sure she didn’t like having to do it.”

“I’m sure.” Umbra’s eyes narrowed slightly, he knew exactly Twilight was about to say next, and it irked him.

“Besides as you’ve already posited; if I do have some great pre-ordained destiny then Celestia needed to get me ready for it. She said afterwards that it was me ignoring her order and putting The Crystal Empire before my own safety was part of her test to see if I was ready to become a Princess.”

“Well firstly I don’t think sending a lone mortal to go fight something like Sombra. Your previous experince with Nightmare Moon and Discord is one thing, they are dangerous but they weren’t activity trying to kill anyone.”

“Well…”

“And secondly,” Umbra cut across Twilight, “I’m glad you mentioned that little event first. The magnificent asscention that all those adventures were leading up to. Quite an honour to be asked to take on that epic responsibility.” Umbra’s voice turned to ice. “Oh, wait…” 

Twilight shivered under Damocles’ sword. It was only when she saw the ice crystals forming on her mane tips that she realised the temperature in the room was actually physically dropping. 

“Cut that out!”

Umbra grunted and the room quickly returned to normal.

“No not … well yes that as well…but just stop trying to turn us against her.” Twilight huffed, sudden pride swelling in her chest. “See all these arguments that you’re trying to worm into my head hinge entirely on one principle, which shows just how effective your ‘research on us’ really is.”

“Ok then… what AM I missing then.”

“You seem to be under the assumption that there is any tangible chance you could convince me, or Luna, or Cadnece that Celestia has ever for a second acted in a way that wasn’t for the good of the ponies of Equestria and the ones she cares for.” Twilight was basically shouting at this point. Wings pumping she flew up above Umbra. “And if that involves her acting in a way you find ‘questionable’ then I’m very sorry but I accept what she has to do, the hard choices she must make every day to keep us all safe.”     

“You’re really ok with all that?” Umbra asked calmly, all his own previous anger melted away.

“Yes I am.”

“Your loyalty is impressive though it does beg the question: what wouldn’t Twilight Sparkle do if Celestia asked her? Where’s the limit?” Twilight fluttered back down to the floor. Her mood slightly diffusing as her mind began pondering the question. It would have easy to keep shouting at Umbra but that was seemingly what he wanted. “Not sure? There are a few possibilities I’d like to run past you. All of on the providence that there is some adequately serious reason behind it.”

“Ok then. Go on.”

“Well to start you off easy; let’s say Celestia asked you to steal something. Something important obviously, maybe important cultural artefact or symbol of another race like the Yaks or Griffons that had some magical power she wanted.”

“Well that’s easy, I stealing, while bad, could be justified.”

“Ok let’s kick it up notch. Would you follow her orders if it you both knew it would lead to your death…”

“Yes.”

He said nothing but Umbra did grunt approvingly. “Alright what about the flipside. Would you kill for her? Someone like Tirek, or Sombra, or Queen Chrysalis?”

Twilight paused to think for a moment. “Well… I ……. If …..urgh…. beings like Sombra and Tirek represent a threat to entire civilisations. And if I had to choose between them and a thousand … or even one innocent person … I could live with that.”

 “Alright, but what about Chrysalis in that example?” 

“She… uhh…”

“A little too relatable isn’t she? Fighting to ‘save’ her people.”

Twilight looked at her hooves as uncomfortable prickles spread though her gut. “I really wouldn’t want to…”

“That’s not what I asked.” Umbra pressed as Twilight made a long groaning sigh-like sound as she buried her face in one of her wings. “And please be honest. I can tell.” Umbra finished, waiting expectedly.

Twilight eyes looked grudgingly up over her wing. “I…I could…if she made me…”

“Is that Chrysalis making you or Celestia making you?”

“Are you done yet?” Twilight groaned, “I think your point is well made.”

“Not quite.” Umbra replied, his eyes moving in closer to Twilight through the shadows. “We haven’t asked the big question yet: If Celestia ordered you, would you kill someone you knew? Someone you cared out?” Twilight froze. “I mean like really, really cared about? Anyone like that ring a bell?”

“I…uhh…I don’t know…. what you’re…”

“I’m a near omnipotent reality bender with access to a team of Oracles who can scan your worlds entire timeline. I know exactly what you were doing this morning. Or more precisely whom.” Twilight felt her cheeks flush a deep maroon as she got the distinct impression that Umbra was wiggling his eyebrows at her. “Really, the rainbow haired one? Not that I’m disapproving or anything it’s just my money was the fiery haired one.”  

“Well I…..wait…..what? Money?”

“Oh yeah, while the Oracles were reviewing the ‘episodes’ of you and your friends lives they set up a betting pool on whom might get together with whom. I thought you had good chemistry with Shimmer but what the hell do I know right?” 

“A betting pool?” Twilight flabbergasted, train of thought on the previously grim subject matter having come to a screeching halt. 

"Yes. There's a betting pool. They actually got the idea after they found out thee was already one within your world. Several if you count those outside your immediate friendship circle. Frankly I assumed you knew. Your dear mentor is running at least two of them."

“I….I am going to pretend I didn’t hear that.” Twilight said shaking her head at the conversations dive into the absurd. “Though now I think about it… judging from my last few letters from Sunset she might have something developing between her and Sci-Twi. Does that count?”

“Wardens try not to involve themselves in anything that could be construed as alternate timelines. If we go down that rabbit hole and start encountering alternate versions of ourselves it’ll only end in disaster.”

“I can imagine.” Twilight replied, “Sci-Twi did nearly destroy both worlds and that was just scientific curiosity pushed a step too far.”

“Quite.”  Umbra sighed wistfully staring into space for a moment before clearing his throat and turning back to Twilight. “Well as interesting as that all is I’m not letting you avoid the question.”

“Horseapples.”

“Nice try.” Umbra sniggered. “But the question still stands: Could you kill her?”

“…”

“Could you kill one of other four?”

“…”

“If Celestia told you too?” 

“I…don’t know.”

“Don’t stall, I need…”

“No I mean I really don’t know. That’s my final answer.”

“Huh…interesting.”

“How could I ever make such a decision until it was sitting on my doorstep? How could I… could anyone plan for something like that…it’s…”

“A good answer. Probably the best. Let us both hope such a day never comes. Now we are done here, be pleased Sparkle your toment is over for now.” Umbra said pulling back and nodding contentedly but pausing as he did so as something flickered in his eyes. “Though with that last part, I suppose it did already happen once.”

“Huh?”

“Killing your friend, I mean….” Umbra suddenly paused, and his glinting toothy grin came though the shadows. “Oh…Oh ho ho. You don’t remember?”

“What are you talking about?” Twilight said slightly appalled. “I’ve never…!”

“Once I’m finished ‘picking on Celestia’ as you ponies seem to think I am we’ll get back to some issues more centric to each of you. For real this time.” Umbra’s grin flashed again. “Let’s see if your memory is jogged between now and then.”

“If you insist.”

Umbra indistinct form melted back into the shadows. Twilight let out a long breathe she hadn’t known she had been holding, which was quickly sucked back in as Umbra eyes popped back into existence.

“Sorry one last thing.” He said, “You…you’re not afraid of me like the other two are. Why?”


“Even Nightmare Moon did more than try and talk me to death.” Twilight replied, “Today? This is just Tuesday.”

“HA!”

 


 



> Meanwhile on the Surface
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shining Armour sighed as he finally sank into a chair. It had been a stressful day but at last could relax for five minutes.

The rioting ponies had finally been dispersed and calmed. Twilight's friends had finally arrived and made excellent time defusing the situation. There had been a few altercations but with his guards given the chance to organise properly things were now under control. There had even been a small contingent of Canterlot locals who had moved into to assist with situation, as it turns out not every-pony lost their mind in a crisis.

He’d have to organise some kind of compensation to the extra volunteers. Even those two weird PI's who had helped; one of whom had been asking him some unnervingly specific questions before his partner had dragged them back home, and she had apparently 'accidentally' hospitalised Kibitz during the scuffle.

"Urgh....Whatever works." He muttered to himself sitting back. Today was not a day to gripe at results. 

In regards to the issue of who was in charge, Shining hadn’t been able to stop Prince Blueblood attempting assuming some form of leadership but thankfully that had gone better than expected. As far as Shining could tell he’d only managed to offend 10% of the nobility and upper civil servants before he had been quietly 'removed' (which must have been some kind of new personal record). 

Shining Armour wearily looked up, eyes briefly lingering on his still distracted daughter playing with Discord, and up to the skies above. “Come back soon. Both of you.” He whispered, “I can’t do this by myself.”

It was at that moment a massive sonic boom shattered the relative calm, ratting anything not tied down. Shining jumped to his feet eyes racing to asses the situation, his tactical trailing running through a dozen possibilities in half an instant.

"Rainbow Dash?" He could't see the normal explosion of colour in the sky. 

"The Princesses were back?" There wasn't  the same beam of energy coming from the castle.

"Discord? .... Hmm." Discord seemed to have vanished, along with Flurry. "Had Discord kidnapped her?" Unlikely given his earlier apprehension.  

Suddenly there was a flash of orange and a small bang of compressed air as a panting Spitfire appeared before him. Her normal calm demeanour cracked as she slowed from near supersonic speeds in the space of a few meters. 

"Report Captain?" Shining asked as he fluidly leap to his feet while Spitfire fought through her own gasping breathe to answer.   

"I...I... don't know where it....huh..came from...but there's something approaching from the north-west.  It's ...huh...MASSIVE sir." Spitfire tried to keep talking but foiled as she tried not to hack up a lung. She was fairly sure she broken a few speed records responding to the explosion so quickly. 

Shinning's horn began to build energy as he readied his shield spells.  "How big are we talking?"

Spitfire tried to answer but was lost to another burst of coughing. Instead she gestured with her hooves, sweeping up and down in the direction she had come from. In the distance something began to thump heavily, the noise echoing through the ground.

Shining followed her movements as she gestured up towards the the spires above. "Its...its as big as the castle!?" he exclaimed as the thumping noise began to get louder. 

Spitfire sputtered and found her voice again as a shadow fell across the land. "No sir..." She said directing his gaze higher. "I was pointing at the mountain."


"PONIES OF EQUESTRIA! YOUR JUDGEMENT BECKONS!"  

> Falling Stars
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The three star spirits carefully wended their way through the inky blackness. In Umbra's domain even their cosmic light had been reduced drastically, leaving them little more than will-o-wisps drifting through a stronger darkness. 

A ripple of power passed through the air. The barriers holding them back from the Princesses had fallen. With renewed vigour they dove back into the dimension that served as Umbra's courtroom. 

Reaching out their senses they felt the four Heleneic signatures. Which to go to first though? Each felt distress in their own way, though they they had all already decided exactly who it was that was their unspoken priority in all of this.

After a few long moments Sirius lifted her head and floating off to the right. Without a word the other two followed.

As they walked trying to navigate the obfuscating shadows a grunt split the air. Polaris stopped suddenly clutching her side.

Unable to stop in time Vega slammed into the back of her sending the both of them tumbling through the air. Thankfully before either could sail too far off into the seemingly endless void a crackle of blue energy returned them safely, if a little roughly, into Sirius's strong forelegs. 

"Could you stop playing around?" Sirius grumbled angrily. "We don't have time for you two drifting back into nebula!"

Vega grumbled and blushed, a burst of heat emanating from his equine form. Polaris rubbed her side as her eyes came back into focus. 

"My apologies. There was a coronal mass ejection I had to take care of back home."

“You supressed it?”

“Deflected it away from one of my planets.” 

Sirius frowned. “Since when did you care about baking some rocks?” 

Polaris hesitated. “I… a few decades ago I thought I saw something. One of my planets was giving off some funny emissions from the surface. I’ve been meaning to take a closer look but, well, time does get away.” 

“Life?” Vega asked tilting his head. 

Polaris stood and straightened herself up. “It’s certainly a possibility. I simply thought that given, well, where we are…it would be respectful to err on the side of caution. My apologies Vega.” 

As the red giant nodded in acceptance Sirius looked up and pointed a beam of light into a particularly stodgy patch of darkness.

"We're here."





Luna lay splayed out on her back staring at the spectral screen still replaying the interrogations of her fellow alicorns. As Twilight received a particularly cutting remark she winced. 

For a moment she glanced at the barrier keeping her inside. The thought passed through her mind that she could try and break it. With a sigh of resignation the tension fell away from her muscles, replaced by boneless apathy. 

She barely noticed when the three stars entered. When they finally caught her eye all she bothered to give was a flippant half-hearted wave of recognition. It was so out of character all three stopped dead, glancing at each other, unsure what to do.

In the end Sirius broke the silence. “You doing okay down there Lulu?” she asked, skirting closer. 

“By what metric are we defining ‘okay’?” Luna said from the floor, voice a dull monotone. 

“Well…it sounded like it could have gone a lot worse….”

Luna let out a barking laugh. “Sirius, art thou serious?” 

Vega leaned over to whisper to Polaris eyes wide. “Puns. It’s worse than I feared. She hasn't used those since Discord.” 

The alicorn continued, frustrated agitation forcing life back into her listless form as she gestured wildly, still lying on the floor. "It went terribly! I lost control of my emotions, blew up at the authority currently controlling the fate of our entire solar system, embarrassed myself quite spectacularly, and worst of all somehow managed to blame all of it on Celestia." Luna smiled wryly. "So, to answer your question Sirius, I suppose things went exactly as they always do."

Sirius reached out a tendril of magic, helping Luna back onto her hooves. "Perhaps, still at least it is off your chest now?"

Luna quietly grumbled in reluctant agreement as she finished standing. Behind her Vega and Polaris whispered quietly as Sirius tried in vain to get their friend to crack a smile. 

"Vega, I don't want to alarm you," Polaris said carefully. "But Luna's really reminding me of Wolf right now…right after he entered his Asymtopic Giant Branch Phase.” 

"But that's not how she works…right?"

“If any of these ponies worked that way, it would be her. But no, I doubt she's going to explode in a particularly neurotic supernova any time soon." Polaris chuckled. "Anyway she's not even two thousand yet! That's way too young by any standard."

Vega frowned. "We will all die one day. And stars do not always die old." She looked away, suddenly uncomfortable.

Polaris grimaced. "I am sorry Vega. I did not mean to be insensitive."

The Red Giant smiled sadly. "It is not the time but the quality that matters, Polaris. If these alicorns have taught us anything it is that."

They glanced back at the still morose Luna. 

"But if that isn't it, what is?"

"I don't know Polaris."

"She has to be suffering from something. A hydrogen imbalance or gravitational influence…or…huhhh.." she trailed off. "Vega, have we ever understood her…understood any of them?"

“No, we never did. But perhaps that was the point of...”

A shrill wail cut through the quiet. In an instant the two rushed over the assist their friend at Luna's side.

The alicorn's detached composure had broken, leaving her a sobbing mess. Confliction warred over Sirius's features. As painful as it was this was a good thing. A thousand years ago she hadn't been able to cry.

Her friend threw herself around her neck, wings and forelegs tangling in the astral dust trailing from the stars her equine form. "Oh Siri… I think she made the wrong decision all those years ago…"

"Oh Lulu, no. Celestia didn't…"

“I did not mean mine sister.”

The light that  filled the room vanished, the stars fading to almost nothing in horror. Sirius's form dropped out from beneath Luna, nearly causing her to fall in a heap. Luna stress frizzed mane briefly slapping into her face, obscuring the sounds of a small scuffle.

She could hear Sirius quietly whispering. "She doesn't mean it. She can't mean it." as Vega held her close, part in shock, part in comfort… and maybe partly in restraint.

Suddenly alert, Luna cut through her own helplessness like cold steel. 

Pulling them close, her heartbeat slowed as she felt them slowly reignite in her hooves.

An unnaturally calm presence touched her shoulder. Luna turned her head Polaris stood there, her eyes old and tired. 

"I…I.."

Her presence wrapped around them all, quietly soothing away the old wounds so recently torn open.

Gently he stroked the exhausted alicorn's mane. "Darling, please don't."



 

Celestia had watched her family’s ordeal play out in almost unflinching silence. The part of her seething in outrage had been brutally supressed with long practiced stoicism. Now however, the fire so central to her nature had begun to smoulder.

Clouds of shadow coalesced as Umbra loomed out of the darkness before her, looking down on her with a strange flicker of something in his eyes. 

“So, Celestial Grace…what do you think of my work so far?"


A sharp intake of breath came from the alicorn, before a carefully measured response came several seconds later. “Well, having seen your  work, I am afraid I must agree with my companions.” 

Umbra quirked an eyebrow.

“You really do hate me, don’t you?” 

The drakon burst into raucous laughter. “You really think I would hate YOU! Oh that's precious!" He frowned, "and more than a little self-centred." He shook his head. "I’ve hated monstrosities the likes of which you couldn’t imagine, reality benders who tore their world apart with their own avarice, abominations who kill and bring back their victims over and over, the very demons who nearly devoured your world whole… but you? No, I don’t hate you… I don’t like you very much… but I don’t hate you.” 

Celestia narrowed her eyes as she continued to stare Umbra down. “Perhaps so. But you certainly gave that impression to the others.” 

“I needed to see their reactions.”

"That seems unnecessarily manipulative.” 

“So says Equus' great chess-master.” 

“Are we going argue in circles for the rest of eternity, or are you actually going to get on with whatever it is you really came here to do?"

Umbra shrugged. “Just trying to lighten the mood. But if you're so desperate to hear the truth…”

For a long moment neither said anything. Then, with an exhausted sigh Umbra let his claws fall to his sides. 

"I've cut off the others' view for a moment," he paused. "It's hard to be a God, isn't it?"

Celestia blinked, suddenly thrown by the drakon's sudden shift in tone. "Yes…I suppose it is."

“Almost unlimited cosmic and the knowledge and will to use it, and the ants we could so easily crush accidentally beneath our feet."

"Yet the end of the day it is we who go to sleep worrying that a single minor decision we made will inadvertently ruin all their lives 50 years in the future.” She paused. "You've seen Equestria… Do you mind if I ask what you world is like?"

“Its name is Talos. Its a little sun blasted pile of sand out in the middle of nowhere tucked away in a quite dimension many universes. In truth I don’t visit them as much as I should, I mean the natives… my people don’t often need my direct intervention, mostly it’s just inspecting subterranean fungus crops and manually adjusting the water table… Still, when you look at the big picture, it’s important to remember where one comes from, right Celestial Grace?” 

Celestia ignored the pointed remark. “Well, if we don’t worry about the bigger picture,” she replied “Who will?” 

“Yes… but a big picture is only made of many smaller ones.” Umbra said with deceptive calm. A wave of his claws and Twilight, Luna, and Cadance appeared through the clouds. "Now we've established that I think it's time to paint that portrait, don't you?"

> Celestial Grace
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Umbra regarded the phalanx of equines before him; two of Day and Night, two of Love and Hope, and Three Eternal Watchers. Seven sisters of blood and magic. “By the Lights of Midnight,” he thought to himself breathing in the moment, “If Celestial Grace and those Stars ever diffuse the animosity between them that’s one hell of a magic circle.”


“Because that worked so well on Midnight didn’t it?” A tiny voice inside him whispered. “And these ones already don’t like you.”


As much as he tried to ignore his bastard inner voice it was worrying, and almost funny. He was used to being hated and feared, but to feel such venom from beings that would otherwise be… ah well… it was like he said to the Princess;


“It’s tough being a god isn’t it.” Umbra said addressing the ponies below, “But tough as it is the fates you have been assigned. And so your actions… all you actions… must be judged as such. The first arm of this meeting must now reach its answer.”


“That question to that answer being I.” Celestia said, “You have talked at great length on this subject so far. As I said before,” She looked back at the other for a moment. "You really don’t like me.”


“I don't like the way you do things. But,” Umbra relented, “It has kept you safe and alive this long. I know a great many races… too many… who can no longer say that. But that's the thing isn't it? They all could say that: until they couldn't.” 

“So you believe my method of ruling my people will not last?”

“To your credit I don’t think you thought that yourself. You did create a series of replacements.” Umbra shrugged. “Being a chess master is all well and good until someone kicks over the board.”

“Twilight and Cadence are not replacements!” Celestia snapped. “I…I simply helped them realise their potential.” Yes! Twilight was special, she was powerful.” Celestia’s voice suddenly swelled with pride, “But she wasn't invulnerable. I couldn't stop her having to fight those battles, but I could make sure she had the best possible chance. Ascension gave her that. I won't apologise for granting the worthiest of all of us the greatest honour and safety I could offer her."

"But that's that catch, isn't it? It was never yours to offer in the first place."


"Ascension is the domain of Alicorns."   

"Perhaps. Have you asked your sister on her opinion on young Twilight's ascension recently?" 

"We discussed it. She agreed it was the best option."

Umbra's smoky hand appeared to rub his chin in thought. "Interesting. That does surprise me. Still, I suppose a rebellion so soon after the last one would be in ill taste." 

"That is not funny." 

"No, it isn't. But it is important. You have no equal Celestia. Perhaps you did once, but now all your subjects look to you before they think of any of the others." Seeing Celestia about to argue back he held up a withered hand silencing her. "I understand. A thousand years ruling alone must have been hard, almost impossible even. It is only natural you would be revered for such service. I had the same problem on Talos. But the fact remains. None of the others can stand against you. Luna is too raw and guilt ridden, Cadance too untested, and Twilight too blindly trusting and adoring. That alone is dangerous. Combined with your...manipulative tendencies it is unacceptable."

Umbra gestured and a single flower materialised in his hand. It was the same Moon Orchid he had presented earlier. Carefully examining it he continued. “And you know what I think the real problem I have with what you did Ascending Cadence and Twilight? One thousand years later and you still don’t understand. Your own power… you still have no idea. So it’s time to change that. I’m going to tell you the truth. The story of the first Alicorn.”

Almost by reflex Twilight looked from Umbra to Celestia. The expectation showing on her face even before she realised what she was thinking… what she had assumed. Because Celestia, her un-breakable mentor, stood staring with heartbreak in her eyes. Twilight looked round. Celestia was looking to Luna, who stood bowed. The Stars clustered round her as silent as tombstones.

“Ohh this is interesting.” Umbra purred, “I assumed you simply knew nothing…but you suspected something all this time but never asked.”

“Don’t.” Luna whispered.

“I’m sorry Luna.” Umbra murmured before floating the flower he was holding down to the ponies. “Twilight! What do you know about this flower?”

“Uhhh…well…” Twilight stuttered, “It’s a Moon Orchid. They only bloom during a full moon. And...uh… they’re sometimes used at funerals.”

“Yes, they are often symbolised with tragedy. And given present company one might assume this association came from Luna…”

“Please don’t.” A single teardrop fell down Luna face.

“But the truth is hinted at if you know their other name, their first name…” 

Umbra floated the flower towards Luna. She looked up from her tears and with a deep breathe uttered a name that she had not had reason to speak aloud in many year. “Selene’s teardrops.”
Everyone stood staring at the crying Alicorn as the room went dark, then light, then soft as it took them back through time and space. To visions of the same crying pony. Bereft of a regal horn, but not wings, a tiny Luna sobbed in her sleep as the nightmares once more closed in. 

> The Tale of the First: Part One
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

 The nightmare had come to torment her again. 

Luna ran through familiar halls: the manor another her in another time might have called home twisting and swirling around her. 

It was a labyrinth. A mad world, half familiar half unknown, endlessly stretching before her. A prison she could never escape. 

A window hung down from the ceiling, shedding dim light mockingly down onto her head. She threw against it but the icy glass would not budge.

 Sobbing heavily, she looked outside at the scene beyond, even if she could get out  there was no safety.  The wind pummelled against the sides of the house, sheets of rain falling like heavy stone, whilst lightning tore its way across the sky. 

The dark heavens filled with dark anvil-clouds. And the blackened shapes of pegasi within darted to and fro, egging the storm on. Her wings, willowy, frail and unused would be ripped from her back in and instant.

They’d take her away into the darkness… and… and…  

Crack!

Her foot caught in a crack in the floor and sent her sprawling. Around her the whispering shadows giggled in delight. One them taking from and descending onto Luna. 

Falling over her own feet she could only stare as a unicorn came striding out of the darkness before her. He wore a friendly looking moustache, a pair of neatly perched glasses and fine velvet suit. And, with a warm and tender look, her father reached down and whispered, “Freak.”






"Lord High Hall really is the funniest stallion Gal', you have absolutely no idea!" 

Celestial Grace sank back into the thick cushion of her chair, a small smile of peace falling across her face as her fathers booming voice filled the room. 

The soft candlelight lit the faces of the family clustered around the dining table.  

At the head Golden Sovereign gestured wildly, his eyes as wide as his smile as he told the story of his latest exploits at the palace. 

Across from him, his flighty wife Galaxia let out a tittering laugh, the curve of her mouth less wide, but no less genuine. 

And looking directly at her, a curious look in his eye, even as his lips involuntarily quirked was her older brother Blueblood, tall, and strong, and fast on his way to becoming the youngest captain of the city guard in history. He quirked his eyebrow at her, waggling it roguishly in precisely the same way he had as a small colt, convinced this new interloper of a sister was a changeling in disguise. 

She gave in.  

A loud laugh, bright as sunlight burst outward, filling the room and combining them all together in laughter.  She couldn't remember the last time they'd done that. 

For that brief brief moment Celestial Grace was entirely content. Safe in her home, surrounded by family, completely happy in a way she hadn't been in years.  

Then her father finished his joke.  

"So of course I told him, "What did you expect? They were only Dirt-Ponies. I'd be surprised if they could count higher than four!"  

The rest of her family burst in laughter, Sovereign banging the table with a hoof in tribute to his own jest. Celestia forced a blank smile, strained and forced, quietly cursing herself for allowing herself to believe. 

Eyes blurring with angry tears she could never let loose she stared past her father to the ancestral tapestry hung high on the wall behind him.  Generations and generations of proud Bloods stared back at her, each crowned with a shining horn gleaming above their mane like a false halo. Beneath their hooves she could see the crushed wings and backs of the "lesser" ponies below, trash thrown to the wayside by the cruel elitism of their "betters". 

She grit her teeth, the harsh grinding noise muffled by the braying laughter of those she called kin.  

The mask slipped back into place. 

The beloved "only" daughter of the Blood family excused herself from the table. 






“Freak!”

“Mutant!”

“Aberration!”

“Traitor!”

The voices were closing in ever faster now. An army of twisted memories, whispering of things she would never know, surrounding her like a pack of hungry timber-wolves. They taunted her with tales of fields and clothes and friends. 

Backed up against the window Luna curled into a ball, trying to block it all out.  Between the storms both inside and out, the noise in her head was hammering through her like a steel spike. She had been alone for so long the mere idea of this many other people looking at her, even acknowledging her presence, sent tremors through her guts.

What did their words even matter.

It was all true.

Luna tried to scrunch down into the corner. The noise bombarding her grew deafening, reverberating around her head until it felt as if she would burst from within.

And, just when she thought she couldn't take it anymore, that noise inside came screaming out, 

“STOP! STOP PLEASE NO MORE!”

Everything went quiet. 

Luna drew back her feeble wings and peered into the darkness.

A single white figure loomed. As pale and menacing as death itself.

“No…” Luna whispered.

“It’s over…” The figure whispered stepping forward, the flagstone cracking beneath its hooves that did not even touch the floor.

“No…not you…”

“It’s over… It’s over…” The figure continued implacably moving closer.

Luna couldn’t run anymore. Why would the figure ever show her mercy? Luna was the shame riddled secret child, not the perfect pristine elegant child.  She sunk to the floor, abandoned by all. 

She couldn't cry anymore. The tears had run dry.

The figure was almost upon her, still murmuring its message of dread. Through the dull twilight a row of glass teeth glittered in its mouth.


/ Hmm... /


With a low thump and rumble of thunder, the clouds outside the window parted. Luna blinked in confusion. Bright moonlight flooded the room banishing the shadows, chasing them back into the depths of the void. Looked blinked and looked back up. And there, illuminated in a halo of light her sister knelt down to her, eyes crying out with worry.

“Luna! Luna! It’s ok, it’s over now you’re safe.” Celestia pulled Luna close, hugging and reassuring her as the dream began to fade. “I’ll always be with you Luna… I won’t abandon you… I’ll always keep you safe…”






“LUNA!” Celestia whispered, cradling her thrashing sister as her eyes snapped open. “You’re ok, it’s over it was just a bad dream… I’m sorry I’m late I got stuck with the others…”

“Tiaaaaaa…” Luna whimpered holding her sister close, she nuzzled into her sisters pink mane. Though she was illuminated in paler moonlight it was the same as in her dream. 

This was the real Celestia.

A few deep breathes and calm took hold once more. “Celestia… you’re never going to leave me are you? You won't get bored of me and go back to being Celestial Grace with them?”

“What? No… never!” Celestia sat back and looked into her sisters eyes. They were the same as their mothers eyes, and would have been called beautiful had they not belonged to a Pegasus. 

“Promise?”

Celestia smiled. “My sweetest little sister; I Promise that no matter what, I will always look after you. And on that note, would you like me to go get you some dinner?”

Luna’s stomach growled in response. “Ohh! Yes please!”

With practiced dutifulness Luna shuffled across her creaking bed into the far corner of the room away from the door. Celestia quickly worked the lock and slipped out, locking the door once again behind her. 

She didn’t think her poor sister would try to escape. And, Luna knew there was no point trying. But, continuing the little ‘games’ they played helped keep things just a little less… crushing.

Once Celestia was a safe distance away Luna slipped off her bed and padded over to the window. She peered up through the glass. Up towards the moon above. It seemed silly. It had just been a dream. All in her head. But… it would be polite…

“Uh hm… Thank you for helping me with my nightmare.” She called up into the night’s sky. “It was very nice, since it’s just… me.”

And as she turned back to the bed, mind wondering what Celestia would read her tonight, she couldn’t help but think… the moon seemed to twinkle back at her in response.
> The Tale of the First: Part Two
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Celestia legs worked in a constant rhythm as she hiked her way up Solaris Mountain. Her heart was pumping, not only from the steep path but from anxiousness at where she stood. Solaris Mountain was where the great Unicorn sages gathered to move the Sun and Stars through the sky each dusk and dawn, a ceremony they had performed without fail since time immemorial.

A few feet ahead of her strode Lady Astramiris, The Heaven-Weaver, one of the foremost Astromancers in living memory. Her status was such even the Imperial Family held their breath when she spoke. The great Lady’s form was outlined by the great corona of magic burning at the top of the sacred mountain as the sun was moved below the horizon once again.

“No need to panic,” She thought to herself, “This is only a precursory tour of the Solar Temple, it’s not like their inducting me today. Dozens of unicorns get this visit… And I’m sure Lady Astramiris takes… some of them…” She took a few breathes and smiled to herself, as scary as this was perhaps the most exciting day of her life. She had studied and worked for this task all her life. When the golden sunburst soul-mark had appeared on her flank a few days ago she had nearly fainted from happiness.

If she could have she would have jumped and sung and whooped for joy. But of course that wouldn’t have been proper.

After all her achievement had been expected of her.

For a moment a shiver of doubt went through her and her hoof slipped. For a moment she tottered but quickly regained her footing. “If I could fly like you sister this would be so much easier.” And she smiled as the thought passed through her head.

And as usual when doubt she thought of her sister. Her sister had been not bound by any sense of stoic and status. The little Pegasus had jumped and squealed and fawned over her soul-mark and babbled on and on until she went hoarse. Luna had insisted very strongly that she had asked the stars to behave themselves during Celestia’s final Stellar Cartography exam. They were not to move around or ‘twinkle funny’.

Luna had been so insistent Celestia had smiled and thanked her sister for her help most graciously; while she worried for her sister’s mental state it was better to let her believe she had contributed since… well… what soul-mark could Luna achieve locked inside her little room?

“How are you Celestial Grace?” Lady Astramiris’s voice came, cutting through her thoughts. “You seem rather distracted.”

“Oh no I’m perfectly fine…” Celestia replied, trying to keep the shaking from her voice. “I’m …”

“A little nervous?”

“A little… perhaps.”

“Ha-ha-ha.” Lady Astramiris tittered as she walked. “Quite understandable. I was much the same way when I first ascended this path 40 years ago with Elder Magellanic Cloud. I thought I would fall down all the way to the bottom of the mountain. Do not worry Lady Grace, you would not be here if you were not deserving of it.”

“Thank you ma’am. I am honoured just to be considered for your order. I hope with study I can live up to your expectations.”

Lady Astramiris seemed to look past her for a second before turning back to negotiate a particularly steep section of stairway. “I have read the reports from your various tutors. You have power. A great deal of raw power… and we need that kind of power more than ever.”

“Ma’am?”

“… It’s of no matter. You do not need to worry about our inner workings for a few years yet. And do not worry about the hike little one… one gets used to the journey with practice. We don’t lock our members up at the peak alone in cells away from the world.”

“Anymore, you mean. I would… rather hate being stuck in a cell.”

“… Indeed. Some of our ancient customers were rather severe, thankfully our forefathers realised the virtue of our sages continuing their bloodlines.”

“Yes ma’am.” Celestia said, as she raised her head to the skies. Above her the great magical corona emanating from the Solar Temple flared for a moment then like a cloak the starlit night descended.





Luna squinted through the coronal flare radiating off Solaris Mountain, she’d been trying to watch her sister walking up the winding stairway but as the light cleared she could no longer make out the small white blob she had been squinting at.

“Good luck Tia!” She whispered, climbing down from the chair she had perched on. And as the night’s sky filled with twinkling stars she looked up and thanked them too.

Thinking back she wondered of Celestia had believed her. If she was being honest she wasn’t sure she knew it herself. She didn’t know if her asking the nights sky to be calm had made it so… but… she felt like it had.

She still remembered that night, and since then she had looked into the sky in wonder. Unicorns seemed to concentrate on the sun, but… there was something about the night she couldn’t quite seem to shake…

Well if Unicorns were going to harp on about the sun it was only fair she harp on about the moon.

Suddenly feeling a wave of tiredness she slumped onto her bed, “Funny,” she murmured, “I’m normally such a night owl. Still, exciting day…” She yawned, “Maybe when I wake up Tia will be back…”

In a few moments her eyes closed as she drifted off to sleep.





When she opened her eyes there were no walls.

Luna blinked a few times, trying to figure out if she was dreaming or not. Around her was a scene like none she had ever dreamed before. Instead of her cell stretched a wide expanse further than her eyes could see, long streams made up of stars as small bubbles floated overhead. She was suspended in ether, nebulae-like clouds of the deepest magentas and midnight blues drifted around her, interspersed with glittering rainbow eos interspersed throughout.

She cautiously moved a hoof and she felt the cosy air currents brush against it, just as detailed and lucid as any real life breeze. “But… this can’t be real, can it?” Luna wondered out loud, “Can it?” She stretched out her other limbs and tried to walk but they found no traction.

She tried to flap her wings but that yielded even less of a result. And as Luna floated through the void she began to wonder for the first time in her life if she was afraid of heights.

“Ok, well if this dream then… maybe if I wait something will happened!” She said folding her legs, “I am NOT going to flail around and panic!” A good minute and a half passed as Luna waited for the mystery of the situation to reveal herself. When she had kicked out before it had caused her to pick up some momentum, causing her to spin in place. And after each rotation her face became even poutier.“Well… this is just silly.”

Then as she continued to tumble something same into sight. Luna twisted to look at the twinkling object as it floated past her. It was some kind of sparkling bubble. She reached up squinting, trying to reach it. Her hooves clenched in frustration as her unused wings flapped their displeasure in unison. She reached higher. The bubble floated just close enough to wrap her hooves around.

In it she saw a small Pegasus foal with pink fur like Tia's mane and a blue mane almost identical to her own. She was flying through the air with big strong wings that carried her through fierce winds as she performed tricks Luna could only dream of seeing. She span in circles so fast the wings swirled in her wake, then dived steeply Luna was certain she would hit the ground. Then a split second before she would have been flatter than one of Tia's pancakes she pulled up, a centimetre from scraping the ground with her hooves. As Luna watched she hollered in unbridled delight as she looped in the air purely for fun.

Then her hooves hit solid ground.

Suddenly gravity took effect and she tipped forward. With nothing to break her fall Luna came crashing down on the bubble with a sharp crunch. Cringing Luna peeled herself back, beneath her the cracked bubble swirled and boiled. Inside the tiny pink Pegasus was being tossed on rolling storm clouds, yelping in fright as she tried to stay aloft.

As she looked down at what she had done she slowly became aware of something moving into her peripheral vision. Its very presence seeming palpable in the air itself.

Biting her lip, she looked up guiltily.

A tall figure stood before her. Bigger even than Celestia, she towered over everything Luna had known. Had they been stood in her small room rather than this strange place she had no doubt her horn would have pierced the roof and the ceiling Luna could never reach would have bowed to her will stretching beyond the laws of physics to make room for her.

She met the eyes of the towering figure unable to tear her eyes away from the wonder now existing before her eyes

Luna's head ducked down, her thin legs shaking beneath her. She felt unworthy to even look at the Celestial Titan. What could she, a broken useless thing that only one pony in the world could even try to love, have to offer to a Titan?

The stars, if they even had whispered to her, were deathly silent now.
The long heavy pause continued to drag as Luna felt the Titan's gaze burn her back.

Still she did not look up.

Taking what small measure of courage she had stored deep inside she forced her knees to steady and then to bend as she slowly knelt.

Only one pony could save her now.

"S-sorry to bother you Miss Titan. But if you could just let me leave I...I won't bother you ever again. You wouldn't want something as unimportant as me anyway. Were you trying to reach my sister?"

A wide hoof, gentler than Luna thought could be possible for such a size, softly cupped her face gently lifting her head to meet soft pools of midnight blue set in an ocean of silver fur.

The Titan frowned, her gentle eyes widening in a strange sorrow Luna could not comprehend. "How strange… I have never known a single pony who was not important." Her eyes were pleading freezing Luna in place. Somehow forcing her to believe her words, even when experience and sense told her they were impossible.

Luna tried to reply. She froze. But the Titan with the deep kind eyes saw her hesitation.

"Little one… No pony has ever been able to enter my realm until you. I think that makes you very special indeed. Don't you?" Her mane, palest blue, rippled out behind her, a thousand strands of golden light caught in its wake as at her sides two mighty wings stretched out from her sides, reaching out for almost as far as Luna's eyes could see. As they opened that same golden light shone out through them enfolding the cracked orb of the pink pegasus filly, still fighting the storm within the orb. The soft stands of light flowed around the sphere, sealing the cracks until all was as before and the filly was zooming carefree through the air again with no sign of the previous hardship to be found.

Luna gaped. She had never seen wings with such beauty and power. To create with them instead of destroy. Not just to fly but to aid others to fly as well.

This strange mare of golden light and magic truly was just like the angels from Celestia's stories.

Luna had never truly thought herself good enough for them, had always assumed the mystical beings who brought wonder and joy to all good unicorns foals would surely always pass her by.

Maybe this was the day she could finally become a proper unicorn pony and stop Tia being sad all the time. Make the rest of Celestia's family proud of her too. Finally prove she was more than a rabid birdpony who should have been cast away at birth.

Hardly daring to look up Luna looked for the horn to accompany her beautiful wings, desperate to prove her theory.

There was none.

She could have sobbed. But then she realised where this Angel's power truly lay.

In her wings.

“You… you’re a Pegasus?” Luna squeaked, barely able to breathe.

The Titan carefully sat down, making a big dramatic show of looking at her wings then patting herself playfully on the head. “Hmm, it would certainly seem so.”

For the first time in her short life Lunar Grace flapped her wings, flew through the air, and landed as smoothly as could reasonably expected on the chest of her Angel, quickly wrapped in glowing wings of silver and gold before she ever had the chance to fall.

“M…my name is Luna.”

The Titan laughed, eyes crinkling warmly. “Luna you say? Well Lady Luna, my name is Selene. And I am the Mare in the Moon.”