1| Theophany

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I heard the familiar, heavy footsteps of my boss, Jared, shuffling down the well-travelled hallway before I saw the neatly groomed top of his salt and pepper hairdo float over the top of the cubicles. He was a seemingly respectable guy in his early forties with that characteristic charismatic glint in his eye. The only thing about him that rubbed me the wrong way was that he tended to brown nose people from time to time, but nothing really came of it. In the end, I chalked it down to him encouraging us to do our jobs right. What struck me as peculiar was he always wore the same, impeccably groomed blue suit to work while the rest of us often gravitated towards casual dress.

I brushed some of my long hair out of my eyes as he casually leaned against the door frame to my meager office, a small grin on his face, and a nicely sized folder under his arm.

“Kate!” he announced, tapping the folder. “It’d look good if you had this work on my desk by tomorrow.”

I’d always coveted a position within the higher-ups during my lengthy tenure, and one of my talents was a particular skill at organizing even the most disheveled stack of paperwork. If I could impress the latest in a long-string of managers, that lofty new job could finally be mine.

“Well, I just need to get this other crap out the way and I can start,” I said cheerfully.

“I knew I could count on you! Bertha is still on her lunch break,” Jared said with a chuckle. He handed me the folder and I eagerly put it in the ‘IN’ tray; if I clocked in a couple hours of overtime, I could have it done in time for dinner.

***

I’d finished signing off on the last form when I glanced at the clock for the final time and saw that it was almost midnight. I closed the folder, and put my pen down next to it with a satisfied sigh before taking the folder and strode down to Jared’s door, simply marked ‘CEO’.

I pushed the door open and walked around to the front of his desk and put the folder on top before clocking out for the day and leaving the office, so sure that my hard work would pay off and I’d be sitting in my city-view office space by the time I came back.

Three days went by, and I didn’t hear a single word about any promotions for a job well done. Every so often, I passed by Jared’s office, stealing a glance with high hopes he’d finally tell me I got the job. It was on one of my return trips from the restroom that I spied the once empty managers office with boxes and new furniture, chairs, etcetera.

Excitedly, I went in to relish in the smell of ‘new office’, then noticed the embossed nameplate on the desk. “Matthew”, it read. My eyes were drawn to a folder on the desk, and my heart pounded at seeing that it was the folder I had organized. As luck would have it, I saw Jared walking down the hall.

“Ah! Just who I was looking for!” he said, clapping his hands together before I could ask him what the hell was going on. “Step into my office.” Once we were in, he closed the door. “Finally, getting all caught up on that work was a boon for us,” he said as he slumped into his chair. “With that done and dusted, and a new manager in place, we can finally get things moving forward. Have you met him yet by the way? He was here yesterday.”

My gut dropped to the ninth circle of hell. “What did you have me do all that work for, then?”

“Oh, that. The new manager needs to get in the swing of things. This’ll give him time to catch up.”

“How does a new entrant manager have more experience than someone who has been working for you for fifteen years?” I demanded.

“Your work for us has been invaluable, but this is someone who has been to business school and studied to get qualifications,” he replied, leaning forward with his elbows on his desk. “Kate, I know how much this meant to you, but you haven’t been properly trained for this position.”

“You never even gave me a chance!” I scoffed. “Just because the new guy is qualified doesn’t make him experienced!”

“Look, if it’s any consolation, I can give you a raise and some more time off.”

“Come on! You know how quickly things would go south without me! If I was a manager, I’d be able to help get things more organised!”

“I’m sorry I got your hopes up, Kate. Just doing paperwork doesn’t mean you’re qualified to lead a team. You’re too valuable in your position to risk promoting you into one you’re not prepared for.”

I indignantly folded my arms over my chest. “Are you sure you just didn’t want to make the new guy’s job cushier?”

“Watch it, Kate. You’re already getting the raise, so don’t throw that away.”

“Throw it away? The company was behind because the work was piling up; if I can finish that much work in that short of a time frame, what asshole thinks he can trump me?”

He leaned back in his chair, leaning his right elbow against the armrest, twirling a pen in his left hand. Suddenly, his charismatic way with words made all too much sense. “Guess the cat’s out of the bag now,” he said nonchalantly. “I was going to wait and see how long it took for you to figure it out, but you can’t really turn down a twenty percent raise and an extra six weeks annual leave off.”

“You know just as well as I the manager gets more than double that! Don’t think you can pay me off and keep me under your thu—oooohhhhhhhhh,” I realised, a knowing grin spreading over my face. “All these years, you never intended to promote me. You just wanted to keep me where I was!”

Now that I think back at it, my accusation was a bit redundant. Maybe I was so pissed, my mind came up with something to try and convince myself that he was the villain in all this.

“Here’s the thing, during his studies, he interned for another office, where they trained him for a supervising position. Not only is he more qualified, he can do what you do, if not better, and much more. If you like, you can take the rest of the day off to clear your head. And tomorrow. And the following.” His stupid, smug little grin kept spreading proportionate to my rising anger as the metaphorical penny was flicked in the air.

“You’ll be getting a nice little severance package, that’s for sure,” he laughed, crossing his arms. “And I’ll write you a letter of recommendation sure to impress anybody else looking to hire you!” I felt like he was just adding insult to injury at this point. “But in all seriousness, you have until the end of the week to move all your stuff out.”

And the penny dropped. Heads or tails, it didn’t matter. I was royally screwed either way. Despite me wanting to slap his smug face into next week, I knew a better way to get back at him. Under the silent, yet irate guise of being upset, I quietly got up and left the room without saying anything, bumping into a few of my co-workers along the way. After fifteen fucking years working for this asshole, he just so callously up and fires me to hire his preppy son? I made my way to the office where I saw the folder, and with a nefarious grin, casually picked it up off the desk and walked back to mine to take what I could home.

Without this folder and me to get things done, he’s going to have to scramble to get new forms and reorganise the paperwork, setting the office back at least a week. I didn’t care how long it took them to finish, I just wanted to inconvenience them as much as possible. Yeah, I know it was petty and vain, but what else could I do after being callously betrayed? Was this something I’d regret doing later?

Probably not.

As I was walking up the street to my car, folder in my bag, I spied a trash can and tossed the folder in with a few other bits of refuse to hide it.

I was feeling pretty darn happy with myself when I got home, despite everything. Because I’d been working a well-paid office job, I’d been able to afford a more luxurious apartment and acquire a nest egg so I could at least live comfortably. Modern amenities, wide open plan layout, flat screen TV, you get the picture. Anyway, revenge does feel pretty sweet if you can pull it off. To mark the occasion, I got undressed and put on my favourite sweatpants and a tank top I often wore around my apartment. I opened my bedside drawer and pulled out a dented and thoroughly scuffed mint tin, then one of the funny smelling cigarettes from within.

What a better way to relax? I lit the thing, the wonderful aroma instantly filling my senses, and went to get some snacks and soda from the kitchen before I sat down in the armchair, turning on the TV. If you haven’t done mindless channel surfing, or at the very least watched TV while baked, then you’re definitely missing out. I was watching one of those ‘How It’s Made’ segments (I officially hate hotdogs) when the screen began to get increasingly fuzzy, cutting in and out and distorting the sound. It was on not-so-excessively long exhale that I thought I was seeing things, but after a minute, the issue began to worsen, like reception getting bad in a storm. The screen went from random static to an outright polar bear in a snowstorm.

I got up to check there was nothing wrong with the cable box or the line coming into my place, then went around the back of the TV to check the connections.

I unplugged and plugged everything back in to see if that would work. I grumbled in annoyance when I looked back and still saw static, so I unplugged everything again then went to find the phone. I dialled up customer support for the cable company, and when I returned to the lounge after having punched in the numbers for the automated menus, the TV was still running static. The line for the call picked up.

“Yeah, hi… There’s something wrong with the cable... Well, it’s just running static,” I informed as I walked around to glimpse behind the TV, then my breath hitched. To make sure I wasn’t completely out of my mind, I looked from the screen, to the plugs on the floor, then to the smoke I was holding. “No no, I unplugged everything... Yeah, but that’s not the weirdest thing, the screen is still running static.” That certainly piqued the dude’s curiosity. “Some time tomorrow? Good... No, this hasn’t happened before... Alright, see you.”

When I hung up, I saw a little glass ball the size of a softball brazenly fall out of the TV and land on the wooden floor with a rather ominous thud, where it rolled to a stop against the edge of the rug with my eyes glued to it. I gave it a curious nudge with my foot to make sure it was real and not a figment of my THC-induced imagination.

I gingerly picked the orb up, and after turning it over, soon became a translucent milky white in response, before the TV started flickering with lines of blue and black.

Like the needle of a skipping record player, a broken, garbled voice came from the speakers. I dropped the glass ball out of surprise, and it faded away as quickly as it came. Having been more curious than I otherwise would have been, I picked it back up to find out what was going on. A blurry figure appeared on the screen. As the static cleared, I saw a weird-looking blue blob thing. It too, held an orb that looked like the one I had, and I saw it holding the thing between both appendages.

“I am way too high for this to be happening…” I mused. “Yeah, that’s it… I-I’m… I’m just high…” I added nervously, more or less trying to give myself some sort of rational explanation. “Heh…”

Whoever or whatever was on the screen must have heard me, for it circled its left… arm, I think, around one of its ears, then motioned for me to put both my hands on the orb like it was doing. I cupped the ball between both hands, then the static cleared up, fully revealing the creature on the screen. I had a hard time figuring out what to make of it, but it looked like some kind of horse with a shorter, more rounded muzzle and feminine features, with impossibly large eyes and shoulder length, light-blue hair.

“Hello!” it exclaimed. I stumbled back over my rug almost immediately and caught my heel on the edge, then fell into my armchair—which was probably for the better—still clutching the orb. Did… Did it just talk to me? “How nice to meet you!” I could only stare. That’s all I did for what felt like hours, trying to figure out what was going on.

“Is that your universe behind you?” Uhhh, what? “It’s so exciting to meet somepony from another plane of existence!” Universe? Planes of existence? Somepony? Either there was something more than I expected in that spliff, or I was tripping harder than I had initially thought.

“What… the… hell…” I said very slowly. All I heard was the word ‘pony’, which just made me wince harder, like watching grown adults playing with children’s toys.

“What is this ‘hell’ you speak of?” she said, tilting her head like an adorably confused animal.

“What’s going on?” I asked nobody in particular.

“Oh!” she exclaimed. “Pardon my rudeness. My name is Luna. What is yours?”

First I get fired from my job, and now, somehow, this thing is appearing in my TV. I’ve passed beyond the point of stressed and into the grey mist indifference of complete shutdown of all but emergency services in my brain. Fuck you, universe. “Oh hello, Luna!” I said cynically. “Mind telling me what’s going on, or if I should be seeking rehab or psychiatric help?”

“How to explain in a capacity you’d understand…” Normally I’d be insulted if someone said that, but given the circumstances, it was understandable. “This mirror is a portal to other universes.” Aahhh, okay, gotcha. Not really, but no need for her to know that.

I tried to make heads or tails of this. “But you’re in my TV, not my mirror.”

“What is a TV? Is it some kind of viewing portal like this?” And by ‘this’, I assumed she meant the mirror on her end.

“Well, you’re not wrong.”

“Can you use it to communicate with other universes?”

If you count shows and movies that take place in other universes, then, “Sure, why not,” I said, shrugging my shoulders. And then it clicked. “You’re from a different universe?!” It took me longer than I would have liked to fully realise what she said.

“And so are you!” Luna excitedly exclaimed. “I can’t believe it worked!”

“Yeah, I never expected to be talking to you either!” I exclaimed with faux enthusiasm. She immediately stopped what she was doing and glanced at me. “But please, do go on. From the very beginning, and slowly explain what happened so I can understand why you’re inside my TV.”

“Oh, I’m not in your ‘TV’. It is acting as a viewing medium between myself and you.” I think the fact that’s exactly what a TV is more or less designed for is confusing me, so I disregarded that for the moment to focus on what she was talking about. “But, I digress. The mirror I am currently looking into has been designed for interuniversal travel.” What got me is when she said “interuniversal travel”. Travel.

“You must need a lot of power to run that thing,” I jokingly said.

“Yes, it does require a fair bit of magic.” Magic? Hah, my ass. “After so long trying, I’m so glad I managed to make it work!”

“Are you some kind of freaky unicorn? How do you even exist right now?!”

“Different planes of existence,” she repeated with a wink. “Across all of space-time, there’s invisible rifts, or tears in the fabric of each universe.” Oh, so this is one of those multi-verse theories, except it’s apparently not just a theory anymore. Neat. “The mirror allows for visual contact, while the orb you hold allows for direct communication and translation.”

“How did you even find me, exactly?”

She shrugged. “Currently the mirror’s function is difficult to control. I suppose it’s sheer dumb luck that I stumbled across you. I don’t fully understand how it works, I just know what it does.” ‘Luna’ cleared her throat So, tell me, what are the rest of your kind like?” Oh boy, look at me winning the lottery.

“Do you just want to give me the third degree about my planet?”

“Heavens no, I come with a proposal!” It just kept getting weirder and weirder by the second, so I gave up all pretense and decided to take everything at face value. In reality, I was more likely to have tripped and passed out on the floor. Might as well ride this out as long as possible, I guess. But okay, a mirror that acts as a portal between universes I can understand, but what has any of that got to do with me?

“For so long I had wondered what it’s like on another world!”

“So… You want to come here?” I asked, putting two and two together.

“Precisely!”

“No offense, but the wider scientific community would likely want to dissect and study you if you were to wander around here.”

“Why would they do that?” she asked with a cocked eyebrow. “The rift in the mirror I am using is not currently big enough to allow for physical travel, so one’s immaterial being must trade places with the other.”

Brain.exe had stopped functioning. Would you like to reboot?

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, but I gave up caring by this point. “So let me get this straight. You want to swap places with me just so you can see what it’s like on another world? That should not be fundamentally possible!”

“Oh? I thought it would be a once in a lifetime opportunity for interuniversal travel, wouldn’t you say?”

This insane mirror horse just offered me a holiday on another freaking planet! But, as insane and beyond the realm of scientific plausibility as this sounded, a small part of me couldn’t help but be intrigued at the prospect. I’d briefly thought about taking some time to myself. Apparently, I didn’t have to look far. The Bahamas, margaritas being served by ripped men, bikini-clad women and sunbathing are nice, but an entirely different world? If there’s one thing today taught me, if it sounded too good to be true, it probably was.

I cautiously leered at Luna. “How do I know you’re telling the truth, or if there’s something you’re not telling me?”

“We’d be swapping bodies. Is that not enough motivation by itself to trade back?” Well I couldn’t argue with that, and I couldn’t deny that a holiday did sound good.

“Look, you can understand my hesitation. You’ve never met me, I’ve never met you. It goes without saying there’s the potential for a lot of nasty surprises on both sides.”

“Oh, of course. Every culture has its ups and downs, yet it doesn’t excuse the want to know and learn. We’d both gain valuable insight and perspectives about one another, even if nopony else would believe either of us,” she said with a chuckle. “Call it our little secret.”

This was all coming way too thick and fast, and I was way too high to properly digest the information. “Look, I’m not in a position to make informed decisions like this, especially not of this magnitude. Can you give me a few days to think about it and get back to you?”

“Why, of course!” Luna said happily. “When you hold the orb like you are, it will let me know you are willing to talk.”

“When I’ve thought of my answer, I’ll call you, alright?”

“Very well. Until then.” Luna must’ve dropped her orb, because the screen suddenly went black.

I went around to the back once more to plug everything back in, and sure enough, everythingstarted to function normally. I put the orb on the coffee table to act as a paperweight for some magazines, then went to take a shower, though it was mostly to calm my nerves after… that...

I made dinner afterwards, and all the while I was sitting at the table, the orb never left my field of vision. I wanted to keep an eye on it for as long as possible to make sure it was actually real, and wouldn’t disappear from sight the moment I looked away. I had to go to bed eventually, so I gave it one last look over my shoulder just to be sure it was still there, and then I resigned to bed where I elected to deal with it the following day.

***

The next morning when I woke up, I’d completely forgotten about the encounter, chalking it up to a weirder-than-normal trip.

That only lasted until I walked through the lounge to get to the kitchen, and my tired, wandering morning eyes made contact with the orb, making me stop dead in my tracks. It shocked me back to the very real possibility that my experience hadn’t been as a result of a dream or anything else. I made breakfast, and sat down on the table to eat, but watched the orb instead of the morning weather, trying to figure out what I should do.

I decided that taking a day to myself would be good, so after I ate, I went and got dressed to go out. It was a bright, sunny day to myself much needed. Being upset and brooding over being fired wouldn’t do me any good, though the bitterness about Jared still remained. I don’t understand how someone could so carelessly fire a loyal employee after fifteen years of hard work.

I couldn’t say that Jared gave me reason to distrust him. Sure, we had a few minor hiccups in our working relationship, but nothing ever made me think he would do something like that. Sometimes you don’t really know if someone was playing your hand until they put their cards on the table.

When I caught up with my friends, I didn’t tell them about the orb. Honestly, what would I even say? Instead, I kept from mentioning it by telling them what happened at work. They were none too happy about it either, and two of them even offered to put in a good word at their jobs if I needed work. I told them I wanted to take a relaxing holiday to completely unwind and think about what I wanted to do next in life.

When I think about it, the only reason I began at the firm was because I’m good at organising and planning. I was head of the student council at school, and when I applied for an internship at the office, they were quick to notice, and things went from there. Most of the people there in my time were nice, which made the job and environment easier to work in, and Jared always had a way with words. A combination of all that must’ve made me complacent with the status quo.

I spent the third day going over my options. If I took a holiday overseas like I originally wanted to, my savings would definitely take a hit, but I’d still be able to cover at least three to four months of living expenses. After that, I’d be in the shit.

With a mug of coffee in hand, the morning was spent on the laptop looking at ticket prices for flights. I’d been out of the country as a kid before, but that was on the rare occasion mum and dad decided to take us somewhere as a family. It was always an option to bring one or two of my friends to split the costs and have fun together, but that was something they also needed to think about.

I chuckled at that thought. Kind of like me with Luna, really.

Instead of looking online, I sat in my chair and began to look at the orb similar to how I looked over the options online. I ran through the implications of what could happen but, ultimately, I’d never know what'll happen unless I went through with it. Like booking tickets for an overseas trip, you’re relying on the presented information, but that’s an option Luna never gave me.

Because of the sheer absurdity of the offer, I wanted to think Luna in my TV was some kind of dream, but I knew better, unfortunately.

Honestly, there was no easy decision as to what I could have done. Throw the orb out the window? Someone else would have found it. Destroy it? I was tempted, but that tiny little piece of my mind yearned for me to go through with it. That, folks, is what you call morbid curiosity.

I went into the lounge and sat on my chair, where I planted myself and looked at the orb intently. I was constantly throwing choices around in my head. How many people would get a chance like this? You just don’t. Ever. Even Luna said it was sheer happenstance that her mirror managed to create a portal to my TV. Somehow.

On the other hand… Nice hotel, beaches, sunbathing, booze, and all the eye candy I could ask for...

Granted, I could return home and still have fun, however there were still a lot of unknowns to consider on bothside. Both places I’d never been to before, and there were a lot of pros and cons, moreso on Luna’s behalf because I was essentially going in blind. Before I made any more decisions, I figured it would be a good idea to speak to Luna about a few of them first.

That still left the question of how long I’d be gone. I still needed to move my things out of my cubicle. Which just reminded me that since I hadn’t had a call from Jared, he mustn't have found out about the file I “requisitioned”.

I picked the orb up, and almost immediately the tv began to do the same thing as yesterday. I waited for what felt like an eternity because of my apprehension, and at the five minute mark, lines of static began crisscrossing the TV, and Luna showed up on screen after a moment.

She cocked her head and said; “That took longer than expected.”

“I said I’d call you back in a few days, didn’t I?”

She looked taken aback for some reason. “For myself, it has been five and a half months, or about one-hundred fifty-six days for perspective since we last spoke. I assumed that your decision was forgone after a week had passed.”

“Woah woah woah, five months passed for you, but only a few days for me?”

And like that, realisation dawned on her face. “It would seem the time streams in our respective universes run out of sync with each other. Relatively speaking, time passes quickly on my planet.”

“So…” I gave the math some thought and tried to break it down. “...one day on Earth is roughly fifty-two days on your end. That still begs the question of how long you would want to spend on my planet if I’m going to be taking your place for exponentially longer,” I said with an air of apprehension. Though, I couldn’t help but think that this deal just got better. One day in lieu of two months? I could get behind that, especially since I didn’t have to pay for it. Monetarily speaking, of course.

“Our proposal is this. I shall spend the first twenty-four hours on your planet, and if you decide you want to change back at any point during, then you just need to contact me,” Luna affirmed.

“Alright, but there’s some things I want to ask you first. Regarding you, your planet, and so on.”

“And you were concerned about me giving you the third degree,” she said with a comically pointed smile.

“There’s a lot of variables here. I want to make a fully informed decision,” I said sternly.

“I can agree to this, if you do the same for me. To make it fair, we shall ask questions in turn.”

“Firstly, tell me about yourself…”

I don’t know how long she spent talking to me on her end, but two hours later, we’d exchanged details about one another’s lives. I told her about my friends, how I was recently fired by my condescending boss, as well as any relevant bits and pieces. In turn she told me about her sister, though why she didn’t mention anyone else I don’t know. Luna mentioned how she was a royal princess, which caught me off guard. The most surprising part was when she told me she lived in a castle. A freaking castle!

I was rather gobsmacked when Luna told me she was over a hundred years old. Apparently, her kind, Alicorns apparently, lived exponentially longer, though she didn’t say how long. Their planet, appropriately named Equus, while home to a large population of equids, other mythical races such as minotaurs, gryphons, sirens, phoenixes, dragons, and many others called it home. This sounded like something straight out of the realm of fantasy! David Attenborough could’ve narrated a new show: Fantasy Animal Planet.

The one thing that I couldn’t put my finger on, was that when I asked Luna about why she wanted to come to Earth. She didn’t give me any straight-forward answers outside of “for the experience”. I tried pressing her for an answer, and the more I began to understand what she meant. I wanted to take a holiday to somewhere I hadn’t been before, and so did she, but that was a more extreme example. If I wanted to unwind and find out what I wanted to do in the future, then it wasn't unreasonable she’d want the same. It made me rightfully cautious, however, but I couldn’t figure out why. So long as it had nothing to do with me, I would be fine.

“Here’s what I want to do. You hang around for a while, because there are one or two last things I need to take care of. When I’ve made my decision, I’ll call and give you your answer, regardless of what it may be.”

“Very well, then.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t take as long this time. Promise.” I put the orb on the table, then cupped my face in my hands.

My grandparents—on my mum’s side—taught their kids how to make the best of a tough decision, and often gave them a choice of equal weight to the other. They would always tell you to take a moment to clear your head and toss a coin. That was something he used to do when I’d regularly visit as a kid. It’s how I learned to prioritise.

I pulled out a ten cent piece from my bag, sat back down, placed the coin in the crock of my index finger and underneath the nail of my thumb, then flicked. Half way down, I caught it in the air.

“When you want to make a choice you’re unsure about, don’t ever worry about what side it lands on. When that coin flies through the air, your thoughts will focus on the thing you want more.”

Good old grandad was right.

I quickly picked up my phone and placed a few calls. I was supposed to be going out with my friends tonight, so it gave me a good opportunity to call them and say I couldn’t make it because I wasn’t feeling well and needed a few days. I didn’t want someone coming over and finding someone that wasn’t entirely me, and given how I wasn’t expected at work… Well, that wasn’t a problem. I picked up the orb and it took less than ten seconds for Luna to appear this time.

“Apparently true to your word.”

I looked her in the eye. “I want to set some ground rules.” An indirect answer, but one that still made my choice clear. “Since we’re going to be parading around in each other’s bodies, we should set limits with what we can do.”

“Agreed,” she said with a soft smile.

“I’ve organised things on my end so that you won’t be bothered. There’s plenty of food so you don’t need to go out and potentially get lost, or worse. That said, try not to burn the building down if you want to cook something.”

She scoffed. “Any functional adult should know how to cook.”

I liked her already. “Right now, your best source of information and entertainment about Earth would be the television.” I was just trying to give her reasons not to leave the apartment.

“I still don’t know what a television is, though I suppose I’ll find out in due time, and I can agree to those terms. However, you will likely be around my kind more than I will be yours. I just ask that you not draw any unnecessary attention that would potentially uncover what has transpired. This includes Celestia.” Hmm, sounds like if I can win over the sister, then it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to keep everything from going tits up.

“I have left a journal with scheduled events and other minor responsibilities that I ask you accomplish to the best of your ability, thus nopony will think I am not who they think I am. Understand?”

“Do what you’d normally do during the day to avoid suspicion,” I repeated. I gotta say, being a princess certainly sounded appealing.

“Feel free to write your experiences down for me to read when I get back, too.”

“Sounds fun, I guess.” Luna touched her orb to the mirror on her end and the surface of both shimmered like a pool.

“Touch yours to the surface as well,” she said eagerly.

“One more thing. Try not to do anything stupid.” I reached forward to make the connection.

“I could say the same thing for you, too,” she mused.

The point between the orbs began to radiate a bright white light. It grew exponentially, enveloping everything within sight in a matter of seconds. I felt a slight tugging in my chest, and after that, everything went black.

2| The Puppet Master

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I didn’t know how long I was unconscious, but the next thing I remembered was the familiar, soft warmth from the morning sun on my face. Darkness gave way to hazy vision as I slowly cracked my eyes open, where I was immediately blinded by the sun directly on my eyes from a nearby window. Snapping them shut, I felt a splitting headache hit me like a night out of hard drinking.

I groaned painfully and laid back down, bringing an arm up to my head only to end up dragging it across my face like a wet noodle. I cracked open an eye to see not an arm, but a horse’s leg with a coat of blue fur. It felt like that one time I fell asleep with my arm draped over my head, then freaked out when I woke up because I thought it was someone else. Only it really was someone else. As hard as it was to describe, everything felt like when you sit on your foot wrong and it went numb, except there wasn’t any major discomfort. I couldn’t do anything until I came to grips with the situation.

I began moving each leg independently, at least trying to feel it, the muscles and range of motion, and how they worked. While the legs of horses on Earth weren’t as dexterous or poseable, the ones I found myself with. I inspected the bottom of my hoof - which is something I never thought I’d catch myself doing - and noticed how well groomed and polished the obsidian nail was. Like the palm of your hand, the inner part of… my hoof was soft to the touch. The longer I looked at each foreleg, the weirder it became to realise I didn’t have any fingers. I fully stretched out each leg like you would to make snow angels, both to feel how each set of muscles pulled and contracted, and bring some feeling back to them.

As I slowly sat up, opening my eyes to properly observe my surroundings, I discovered that equines weren’t supposed to sit up like humans could. I barely managed to catch myself from falling over, so I thought it would be a better Idea to prop myself up against the pillows and headboard.

Four carved wooden poles with hooks at the top held a dark, almost black silk-like fabric over me. The duvet dark blue while the rest of the bedding covering the larger than necessary mattress was white. There were numerous pillows strewn about the head of the bed and from the door directly in front of me and to the right was an ornately carved, roll-down desk that sat against the wall, two bookshelves sitting on the right with tubes poking out of cubbies, and books slotted in place. Between the shelves and the bed was a set of tall arched glass doors that lead outside, and two sets of curtains with a thick, dark-blue fabric over a more transparent white. Each hung from the rail above, tiebacks keeping the curtains in place.

The window through which the offending sunlight streamed was on my right. I didn’t know who thought it was a good idea to put the bed in a position where the morning sun has the perfect place to annoy me.

A sewn, stylised banner with a depiction of the rising moon over a mountain range sat between two thick portal doors, and two large landscape paintings on the far left and right. Off to my left was a powder table with vertically hinged mirrors and various accessories, and between me and it was a small bedside table that had a little clock on it.

Everything here gave the room an antiquated and mediaeval, yet cozy atmosphere. I just hoped there wasn’t a chamberpot under the bed.

As I sat in bed trying to absorb my situation and the surroundings, a knock came from the door. “Luna, are you awake?” a soft voice asked.

“Who is it?” I rasped, then immediately realised how fundamentally different my voice sounded. Now it wasn’t just weird; my situation transcended and challenged the very definition of ‘normal’.

“It’s Celestia. May I come in?”

The sister?! I quickly laid back down to make it look like I’d just woken up, and the door softly clicked open.

My eyes widened in surprise at the figure I saw, and in strode Celestia, her ivory coat reflecting the morning sunlight. Celestia’s mane resembled a piece of multicoloured silk floating delicately in a pool of water and, like myself, sported an elegant horn on the top of her head, and wings on her back.

Normally someone thrown into the thick of something like this would react out of confusion and shock. I was lucky to have been briefed by Luna, so at least I was somewhat mentally prepared.

“How are you this morning?” Celestia asked.

“Uhm... Fine, I think.”

Concerned, Celestia trotted over. “Are you still upset over last night?”

I don’t know if Luna left some sort of detail out because I didn’t need to know, so I just shook my head.

Celestia smiled warmly. “Breakfast is ready if you are.”

I figured eating something would be good for me, so I tossed off the bedspread to get up. I swung my legs over the side of the bed to stand, but quickly regretted the action. I forgot that horses walk on four legs, not two, and gravity was quick to remind me of that. Fortunately, there was some kind of thick rug under the bed (and not a chamberpot), so at least the landing was somewhat soft and not as unpleasant as it could’ve been.

“Owww… That hurt…”

“Are you alright?” Celestia asked with a surprised look.

I groaned in pain, shifting limbs about to make sure nothing was broken. She came over to assess my situation and her horn lit up with a bright, sunshine-yellow glow. To my shock, I felt as though the laws of gravity no longer applied to me as I floated through the air and back into bed.

It should go without saying that there’s a first time for everything, and there’s situations like this that made me want to punch the person that first said that phrase.

Celestia’s hoof brushed aside a lock of my mane from my face, resting on my forehead. “Oohhh, this isn’t good.” She was silent for several more tense seconds. Could she tell Luna and I swapped places? I felt my heart rate increase alongside my worry the longer her hoof was on my head.

“How are you feeling?”

Was that a trick question? “I feel fine.” Mostly, anyway.

“Hmmm… Rest here while I fetch the doctor; you’re running a high fever.” She promptly left, leaving me lying on the bed.

I put the back of my foreleg up to my forehead to feel what she did. It did feel warm. So why don’t I feel sick? I guessed it would’ve been side effects to do with whatever Luna did to me. It did explain the painful headache and initial blurry vision; that must have been my immaterial being, as Luna aptly put it, adjusting to her body. What did “immaterial being” even mean?

A couple minutes later, Celestia came back in with an elderly looking mare carrying a doctor's bag in her mouth, only she didn’t have a horn or wings, but she did have some kind of serpent-entwined rod on her flanks. The mare put her bag on the floor next to my bed and popped it open, fishing out a stethoscope which she donned and put on my chest, listening intently with a hoof on my forehead.

“Elevated heart rate… High fever…” She put the instrument back and pulled out what looked like a penlight, and a ring connected to a small box by a wire that looked like one of those devices you use to measure electrical current. “May I?” she asked.

I didn’t know what she was on about so I just dumbly nodded, where she slipped the ring over my horn, and shone the light in my eyes. “Mana levels and pupillary response normal,” she said after several seconds. She kept hmmm-ing as she continued to poke and prod to check for symptoms of whatever Celestia thought might be ailing me. I just hope she didn’t somehow figure out I’m not Luna.

“I don’t know what would cause something like this to spring up overnight, but her symptoms should clear up as the day goes. No need to worry, Your Highness. Luna will be fine.”

Did she just call Celestia “Your Highness”? Did I get called that too? I hoped so.

“Thank you,” Celestia said. “I was concerned when my sister tried getting out of bed and fell on the floor.”

“As far as I can tell, there doesn’t seem to be any signs of delirium or loss of motor function,” the doctor said with a raised eyebrow toward me, “so it’s nothing some rest won’t help with.” She put her instruments back in her bag, picked it up and casually trotted out the door while Celestia remained behind.

“Are you sure that was necessary?” I asked. “It felt a bit pointless.”

“You had a fever spring up overnight. That was my biggest concern, so I wanted to make sure nothing else was the matter. Now, how about I bring you some breakfast in bed. Does that sound good?”

It did, so I said so. In retrospect, if I had this kind of reaction to trading places with Luna, she’d likely be going through the same thing. About ten minutes later, Celestia came back floating a tray of breakfast and laid it on the bed next to me. While I was used to the more simplistic nature of a home cooked, or deliciously greasy cafe breakfast, the tray held two glasses with orange juice and water, and the meal was minimalist enough that it resembled something served in a high-class restaurant you’d pay hundreds for.

“Something wrong?” Celestia asked.

“I’ll be alright. Must’ve hit my head.” While not entirely untrue, Celestia did crack a small smile.

“I’ll be back in a few hours with lunch, so take care of yourself until then.” She gently closed the door on her way out, leaving me alone for the time being. I looked at the spread, then to the knife and fork. How was I supposed to use a knife and fork with hooves? Granted I could likely make things levitate, but I had yet to learn how. However, I knew there was more than one way to pick up and drink a glass of water, so I bent down to pick it up between my teeth and slowly tilted my head back so it wouldn’t splash over me. I finished it and the OJ easily enough, but I didn’t really want to bend down and eat like a horse actually would. I felt it would have added insult to injury, and the water and juice had settled things for the moment.

I set the tray on the bedside table and lifted the blanket off. I needed to teach myself to walk sooner or later so Celestia didn’t question why I couldn’t walk, yet the hard part was figuring out how to get out of bed without gravity being an asshole. Naturally, I opted for the lazy method when I didn’t want to get out of bed—on Earth, that is—to get something.

I put my two front legs on the ground and awkwardly pulled myself forward from the bed, and when my backside was at the edge, gingerly extended my back legs to the floor. I wobbled for a moment but didn’t move. I normally took standing and walking for granted, so I felt like I had achieved something monumental and couldn’t help but smile at the accomplishment.

Standing, however, was one thing. Walking was another. I gave a silent thanks to Animal Planet and tried to recall how horses actually walked. Two hours later, with many falls and stumbles, I managed to finally get the jist of it and was competently walking around the room. The more I did it, the more natural it began to feel, though, I couldn’t really try and run just yet. Not enough space for that.

I turned my attention to the two doors on the left wall from the bed and eyed up the handles. My hooves would’ve never fit into the small iron rings. Before I even considered leaving this room (not that I currently could without outside help), I needed to figure out how to use Luna’s magic, and quickly.

I went over to the powder table and stared into the mirror, looking cross-eyed at the horn atop my head, I wondered how I could use it like Celestia did. I focused on one of the various macguffins on the powder table, trying to pour my efforts into making it move. I closed my eyes and focused my thoughts on a powder puff sitting in its tin.

I made every attempt I could to try and get the thing to move, but no matter how hard I tried, it wouldn’t budge. Luna gave me absolutely no instruction on how to use her horn or the other two appendages on my back, and I silently swore at myself for not asking like I should’ve. Some time later, I was becoming increasingly frustrated nothing was happening. That nurse said my mana levels–whatever that meant–were normal, so why was I unable to do anything?

I decided to stop for a moment and see what laid beyond those big glass doors. Bigger doors need bigger handles, so I was able to pull one of the doors open.They softly clicked open to the world outside.

My jaw dropped.

The bottom of the rising sun barely kissed the top of the rolling foothills as it ascended. The air was beyond clean by Earth standards, like that refreshing first sip from a flute of champagne, and as crisp as a ripe apple plucked straight off the branch. A casual breeze blew my mane over my face, the pleasant, early morning bite in the air making me feel invigorated. I inhaled deeply, savouring every molecule of untainted oxygen.

From my limited view, it looked like the castle—Luna said it was called The Castle of the Two Sisters—sat atop a plateau with a chasm snaking its way around the castle, though I couldn’t tell where it ended and began. A flat stone bridge spanned the distance over the crack in the earth, and I saw another further down when I craned my neck to see how far the chasm went behind the castle.

A dirt path was worn between the grassy knolls from the bridge, sparsely populated with trees, leading up to what I assumed to be the main gate, though that much was out of sight. Birds flitted and chirped around the present trees, going about their daily business.

You just did not see that kind of scenery from living in a city. It made me wonder about people that lived in more rural and isolated areas of the country. Was this what I’d been missing out on all that time?

I closed my eyes and sat down, savouring the energy and vibrancy all around me. It felt like I could reach out and touch it. I could have sat on this platform all day and relished in the sensations. The everlasting peace made me feel serene and tranquil, something I didn’t realise I needed so much up until now.

I sat in the same position for what felt like hours, until the heat of the sun started to become too much to bear. I didn’t close the doors behind me when I went back inside. I wanted to let the cool breeze and peaceful background noise in.

I made my way back to the powder table with renewed intent in trying to figure out how I could make this levitation thing work. With the relaxed mindset from sitting outside, I slid the powder puff and tin into the middle of the vanity with my hooves and I closed my eyes and cleared my thoughts as best I could. After some time, I felt a tangible sensation, like the one from sitting outside flow through me. I remained calm as I felt a physical presence coalesce inside me, then felt it move through the horn and onto the powder puff.

Several seconds went by with nothing happening, so I opened my eyes to see if anything was different. I was shocked to find the powder puff no longer sitting in the makeup. I looked around the desk to see where it went, and that must’ve broken my concentration. The next thing I knew, the powder puff landed on the vanity with a soft thud and a cloud of fine powder.

I looked up and saw the mark the powderpuff left behind. Exactly how long did I hold it up there? I attempted the same method to put the fuzzy thing back in its place, and much to my serendipity, saw my horn glow in the mirror, as did the powder puff. Then, keeping my eyes on it, directed it back home. A mile-wide grin spread across my face as I witnessed it bob up and down in the air, trying to keep my focus.

The experience lit the fire of confidence within, and I decided to try and open one of the doors. It gave me an excuse to at least exercise walking, and to find other things to levitate.

I went over to the left door and tried opening it. It proved a little trickier than I’d hoped; making something float through the air was different than opening a door. After some strugging and tugging this way and that, the door opened with a click. Beyond was an immaculately clean washroom. Fit for a queen (or in my case, a princess), the pristine white tiles made everything feel more open planned than it actually was.

In the centre of the room was a sparkling porcelain bathtub that I could easily spread out in, polished stone countertops with a myriad of cupboards and drawers making up the vanity on my left, then on my right was a half wall that you could barely look over, behind which was a shower big enough for four of me. With the bathroom familiarised, I went to check out the second door.

The second door was a walk-in closet that was less of a closet and more of a room that made me feel like I had walked into my own personal clothing store. The right hand wall was a giant rack with all sorts of clothes hung up, and closets on the left, several drawers of which made me wonder, if love is blind, why is lingerie so popular?

Hung on the wall in front of me was an absolutely massive mirror that allowed the first proper look of myself. The subtle fold in the hinged mirror gave me perfect views so I wasn’t having to strain my neck twisting and turning.

Seeing myself in Luna’s body reflected in the mirror was utterly surreal. Through Luna’s adorably large eyes, I ran a hoof through my mane and tail, made a few silly and serious facial expressions, and I even pulled out one of the wings to get a better look.

Compared to Celestia, Luna did look significantly younger, and it made me wonder how old Celestia was. Luna’s light blue mane amounted to shoulder-length hair by human standards, and the tail hung listlessly in the air. I saw a patch of black on each thigh with a white crescent moon to contrast, whereas Celestia had dual suns. Was this some sort of cultural tattoo?

I remembered Luna mentioned a journal with a schedule I needed to follow. Maybe it would have a message to me about how to use her horn and wings properly? I probably should have thought of that before. Figuring the desk would be the most logical place to start, I went over and searched through the drawers. I opened the top left and found several bottles of ink and various feathers with both sharpened tips and metal nibs. So these ponies have functional, Earth-standard bathrooms but no pens or pencils? I brushed that thought off to the side and opened the top right, and found a book bound in a leather-looking material, stitched at the spine with twine, and stamped into the front was an emblem of the crescent moon.

I didn’t know if the vast amount of questions I had would be things Luna should already know. I hoped to act as natural as possible whilst figuring things out for myself without raising doubts. Figured the best way to do that was to be a lot more observant than normal. The books seemed like a good place to start, and I wondered if there was a library around.

I opened the antique-looking diary, and the pages weren’t filled with any lines like a writing journal; they were totally devoid of anything, and the paper looked like it was made from pressed, recycled paper, which I thought was pretty cool.

Only the first half dozen pages had things written in them. There were lines scratched over the writing of the first two pages, mostly things that were likely already taken care of. The next four pages had a daily schedule, but no message of any sort directed for me. I guessed Luna was trying to play it safe by not leaving a paper trail, but it did complicate things.

After the first two pages of redacted writing, the page for what I assumed to be today only had a few things written down. Two of them were meetings of some nature, while a third mentioned paperwork and another was written further down the page. Celestia was due back with lunch soon, so I’d ask about the meetings then.

It was then that the pangs of not having eaten anything outside the juice and water caught up with me. I went over to the tray of breakfast—long since gone cold—but decided to eat it anyway. I managed to levitate the powder puff with practiced difficulty, but trying to do the same with a knife and fork threw me through a loop; it felt like like left was right and down was up.

I was so occupied with practicing levitating whatever I could get my hands on, so to speak, that didn’t I heard a knock on the bedroom door. I left everything where it was and went to open it. Beyond was another mare, a unicorn, levitating a tray laden with lunch.

“Princess Celestia asked me to check on and bring this to you,” she said respectfully. She was wearing casual maid’s outfit, so I couldn’t see what tattoo she had. I don’t know why Celestia didn’t deliver like she said she would, but that doesn’t mean I couldn’t ask this mare to pass on a message.

“I had some business to take care of today, but woke up feeling unwell. Could you check with Celestia on what’s happening with it?”

“Of course, Your Highness,” she said with a courteous bow. Being called “Your Highness” made my inner goddess shine. “If I may remove your breakfast dishes too?”

Almost forgot about those. I levitated the tray over to her. “Thanks, have a nice day,” I said.

“You’re quite welcome, Princess.”

We exchanged trays and I went back into the room. I’d never had fondant potatoes before, and again, the extravagance of this dish was on a whole other level.

With my stomach full, I thought about what to try next. As much as I wanted to explore the castle or try flying, I’d likely get lost or end up dying if I jumped off the outside ledge. Instead, I perused the left set of bookshelves and found many cartographs, geological, and topographical charts of the castle grounds and surrounding lands.

Surprisingly, there was an even bigger map. I wasn’t sure if this showed Luna’s entire world, or just the known regions. The smaller ones were like cells on the page of an atlas, and I managed to figure out where each one went after looking at the pieces like a puzzle. I had no way to compare how big all this land and ocean mass are by Earth standards, so trying was futile.

I pulled down a few history books, including encyclopedias on various flora and fauna, then went to sit down outside to read. I doubted I’d get tired of the view anytime soon. The vast majority of plants, and a few of the animals I had never heard of before, and sincerely doubted any of them existed. Then again, my situation proved anything was possible. It was when I got to one of the books that detailed the various species of sentient creatures that populated the planet things got interesting. All of what Luna mentioned was here, and then some.

I don’t know how long I spent reading those books in rapt fascination before I heard a knock from behind me. A quick pass of the clock told me it had just gone two, and I opened the door and saw Celestia standing in the hall with her horn glowing.

“How are you feeling?”

“Everything feels better, thank you.”

“One of the maids said you asked about the tasks you had today. I took care of them as a favour so you could rest, so there will just be court proceedings tomorrow.”

“Thank you,” I said with a small smile.

She levitated another tray from behind the door frame. “Here, I brought a pot of your favourite tea and a bite to eat. Sorry for not bringing you lunch before, one of the meetings took longer than normal. I’ll have dinner in my room while I finish signing off the last of the documents, so yours will be brought to you.”

“It’s alright, there’s always tomorrow if you want.” A subtle question to ascertain if Celestia and Luna had dinner together.

“Of course,” she smiled. “I’ll see you at breakfast in the morning.”

After Celestia left, I was stuck in the bedroom for the remainder of the afternoon. I cleaned up the clothes I left on the floor from earlier, and I’m ashamed to admit that figuring out how to use the bathroom was not one of my finer moments. Let’s just say I quickly learned how to use the shower.

As the evening approached, I went outside to watch the sunset, but realised that it was setting in the opposite direction I faced. The moon would be a nice substitute, but as time went on and the light waned from the sun, no moon had risen. It wasn’t until the sun had fully set that a knock came from the door, then Celestia let herself in.

“Why haven’t you risen the moon yet?”

I blinked owlishly Wait… What?!

“Are you sure you’re feeling alright today?”

Damn damn damn, I needed to figure out a way to play that off. “I’m sorry. Guess I’ve had a bit on my mind.” Did Luna legitimately leave out fundamental details like this on purpose, or did she simply forget? What was raising the moon supposed to mean?

“Would you like to talk about it?” Celestia sat down next to me as I stared out into the sky.

I shook my head. “I’ll be alright by tomorrow. Promise. Today was just an off day, really.”

“Everypony has their off days, so I can do it for you tonight.”

I heaved a subtle sigh of relief.

Celestia closed her eyes and lit her horn. Moments later, the moon began to rise over the forest the same way the sun did earlier.

I gawked as it happened, unable to peel my eyes from the feat being performed. I could barely lift a knife and fork, and Luna expected me to figure out how to raise the moon? It was a terrifying prospect, especially since I needed to keep my cover.

Celestia’s horn dimmed as the moon hovered in the sky as it’s glow bathed everything in an incandescent white light. It felt different, somehow, like the moon radiated an energy the sun didn’t have.

We both sat on the dais, taking comfort in one another’s company. The problem I faced was keeping my poker face about me at all times. Celestia seemed ignorant enough for the moment, but what frightened me was what she could, or would do if she found out about the switch. I’d only spent a whopping twenty minutes around her up until now, so perhaps if we acclimated to things as time goes on, it’d keep her from being suspicious.

Eventually, I felt the soft touch of feathers against me as Celestia draped a wing around my shoulders. She pulled me in, and as surprised as I was, actually hugged me.

“Take care tonight. Let’s try not to have a repeat of whatever caused this, alright?” she said in care and jest.

I returned the giggle. “I wouldn’t count on it happening again any time soon.”

“I’m glad. I missed your company at court today, but hopefully tomorrow will be different. Until then, I bid you goodnight, Luna.”

“Goodnight, Celestia.” That name felt weird to say, like trying pronouncing a foreign word for the first time.

I grew tired the longer I spent outside. Minus the initial headache and such, today wasn’t all that bad. Getting to sleep with a lot on my mind was a bit difficult. I had to teach myself how to master Luna’s magic within a very short time frame, or figure out how to bluff my way through everything, but doing so would only go so far.

I hoped I could get through everything without a problem.

3| Counting Stars

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The moment after I fell asleep, I felt myself ‘wake up’ again, only I wasn’t in Luna’s bed. All I could see was a nebulous void that made me feel like I was floating in the middle of a star cluster in deep space. Rich colours of every shade imaginable were floating lazily around and past me, the void itself dotted with an innumerable amount of stars in the background.

When my hooves didn’t find any solid ground to stand on, I panicked. My legs kicked out, desperate to find something to stand on. My wings, which I hadn’t even put a second thought into, were flapping out of sheer instinct to keep me aloft.

The fear of falling exists because you know what’s going to happen at the end and you’re utterly helpless to stop it. But that never came. I eventually came to realise that I wasn’t plummeting with the grace of a brick, but floating like an astronaut. Even though I had no million dollar space suit, I could still breathe, which was bizarre, because there’s no air in a vacuum. I took several deep breaths to calm my heart as it tried to claw its way out of my chest.

As I began to calm down, my eyes darted around my surroundings, trying to figure out where I was. Then, one by one, patches of swirling colours as endless as the cosmic clouds began blinking into existence around me. Amongst them all was one with the purest white I had ever seen, and I could sense a gentle, yet firm presence beckon me towards it. Was this Purgatory? Did I somehow die? And was that the bright white light you’d find yourself going into? If that was the case, I didn’t exactly fancy going into it. I was extremely angry that Luna conveniently neglected to mention this; dying and then finding yourself in a vast emptiness. Not only did I intend on giving her a piece of my mind if we saw each other again, if stuff like this kept popping up I couldn’t wait to swap back. Assuming I was still alive, that is.

Ignoring the tug of the white portal for now, I realised that this place, this… void seemed a great spot to practice flying. I knew then and there I had functional use of these wings, so maybe this was a place I could practice with no risk of injury. And it wasn’t unreasonable to guess that there was existing muscle memory and a section of my brain dedicated to the use of these wings.

I took in a relaxing breath and willed the wings to flap. Though awkwardly, I managed to pump them downwards and felt myself casually float through the aether at an angle. I came close to one of the swirling patches, just barely avoiding the grass-green oval. I wondered what the hell these things were. Cautiously, I reached out and touched it. It felt like dipping a hand into a rippling pool of water; I could even see my hoof on the other side. I slid it further in and, despite my trepidation, nothing immediately bad happened.

Having binged on a lot of sci-fi shows, one thing that popped into my head to explain those things. Portals. But where did they come from and where did they go? Another dimension? ...Earth? Only one answer to that question. I pulled my hoof from the dubbed ‘portal’ and cautiously slid my head through the opening.

I found it mildly amusing that my head emerged from the trunk of a tree. Beyond was what looked like a fenced off backyard on a farmhouse; wooden posts with lengths of wire bent and warped from the elements. The house, in all its old and weather-worn glory, looked as though it was straight out of Courage the Cowardly Dog, though much more friendly-looking, and complete with a barn out the back. On the grass just forward of the back door was a lone colt playing with a few toys. He had a coat the colour of burnt orange and a straw-yellow mane, but no tattoo thing on his butt.

I pulled myself from the tree and idly walked up to him with curiosity on my face.
It wasn’t until my shadow loomed over the colt that he froze in the middle of playing with his toys, and his head slowly turned to look up at me. His eyes widened, his ears splayed back, and he shuffled on his hooves until he bumped up against the steps to the back door.

“P-P-Princess Luna?! What are you doing in my dream?”

Woah woah woah, I thought, this was a dream!? If that green portal lead to this colt’s dream, then the rest of the portals must’ve lead to countless other dreams. Was it something Luna did on a regular basis? Going off the colt’s reaction, I could safely assume so.

“Something wrong?” I asked. What would Luna say in a situation like that? “Did you not expect me to visit the dreams of my subjects?” Talking like a royal was definitely an experience.

“I-it’s just… I’ve never seen you in my dreams before.” The colt relaxed enough to pull his toys closer to him. I barely noticed the remaining half of his right ear as he turned his head to keep me from looking at it.

“What’s your name?”

“H-Hayseed, Your Majesty.”

“You can just call me Luna if you’d like,” I tried to say warmly as I sat down in front of the colt. He kept his eyes averted.

“How come you’re only now visiting my dreams?” he asked.

“I, uhm… There’s as many dreams as there are raindrops on a rainy day, and each drop is a different pers–pony’s dream.” Truthfully, I had no idea how it worked, so I changed the subject. “Where do you live?”

“A town called Mercy, halfway between The Castle of the Two Sisters and the south-east border.” He perked up a bit. “That’s where you live, isn’t it?”

I nodded and gave a short “mmhmm”.

“I’ve always wanted to visit the castle, but Momma and Poppa are often too busy to travel,” Hayseed said while idly pawing at the ground.

“Oh? What is it they do?”

“Mercy is a farming community, so they spend most days tilling the soil while I’m at school.”

“Working on a farm must be fun,” I said.

Hayseed just shook his head. “Why is that?”

He heaved a sigh and turned his head, giving me a proper look at the remaining half of his ear. “I was trying to pull one of the small ploughs when I tripped. My ear got caught under the blade, then Momma and Poppa got worried I might hurt myself again so they hired some help.”

I shuddered slightly. “Come now, it isn’t all that bad. Even I’ve got a few scars of my own.”

“What from?” he asked. And then my gut dropped. I was talking about my human body, not Luna’s. Thankfully I didn’t say as much, so I made up a little white lie.

“I can’t show you under all this hair,” I said with a small chuckle. “I can assure you, it’s not all bad.”

“The other colts and fillies at school make fun of me for my ear,” Hayseed said indignantly. “They call me Half-Head Hayseed.”

My breath hitched. “Hey now, it’s not all bad. You know, bones heal, pain is temporary, but scars… look good.”

“You think so?”

“I think it makes you look handsome,” I said with a playful nudge.

“Can… Can you visit my dreams again sometime?” Hayseed asked earnestly, looking up to me with his great big adorable eyes. Damn it, how do you say ‘no’ to something like that?

I sighed in defeat at The Look and nodded with a small smile. “I’ll do you one better. How about I come visit you one day?”

He gasped. “You’d do that?!”

“I don’t see why not.”

“Thank you, Princess, you’re the best! I’m going to tell all the kids at school!”

If the other kids were giving Hayseed grief because of his ear, then telling his classmates that I’d be visiting might give them more ammunition. I didn’t really want to crush his spirits, so I said; “Just keep it between us for now, alright? We can surprise everyone else!”

“Yeah, that is a good idea!” He seemed a lot brighter than before, and that made me smile. And you know what they say: Smiles are infectious.

“Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got more dreams to look into.” Mainly, I wanted to find out what was behind that white portal. Maybe my return trip to the (loosely put) real world?

“Can I come with you?” Hayseed asked longingly.

“Maybe another time,” I said. I wasn’t even sure if I could bring others with me into that freaky place. “Until then, try not to let the other kids get on your nerves. If you do your best to ignore them, they tend to get bored when they don’t get a reaction.”

“O-okay, Princess.”

“Remember, you can call me Luna.”

I promptly said goodbye and phased back through the tree, emerging back into the void. I could still feel the pull of the white portal, so there wasn’t much trouble in locating it. I paused for a moment outside of it, wondering what–or who–could be on the other side. I steeled myself and took a moment to relax before I stepped through. On the other side, I found myself in a tranquil meadow with lush green grass, flowers, and birds happily chirping away. To my surprise, I saw Celestia sitting on a blanket atop a grassy knoll with a picnic spread around her, casually sipping tea by herself.

“Ah, Luna,” she said without looking up. “It’s been awhile since you decided to grace my dreams.”

“There are more dreams than I care to admit,” I said with a dry chuckle.

“Banished any nightmares lately?”

What the hell was that supposed to mean? “You’re actually the second one I’ve visited today. Or tonight, as the case may be,” I said.

“Oh? Who was the first?” Celestia asked before a sip of tea.

“A little colt that had a bit of a bully problem.” I explained what had happened, but when I got to the part where I said I’d pay him a visit, she didn’t seem too impressed.

“You still have your duties to worry about, and we have court proceedings to busy ourselves with tomorrow since I had to fill in for you,” she said sternly.

“Oh, I completely understand,” I said, nonplussed. “However, it’s an inevitability that there will be periods of time with little to do, and I intend to adhere to my promise at some stage.” I caught that split second where she glared at me out of the corner of her eye as she took a sip. I stole a better look around Celestia’s dream and asked; “Do you always have the same dream?”

“Oh, not at all. Because yesterday was busy, this is my respite for tonight. As a final favour for you, I’ll lower the moon in the morning so you can rest a bit longer. That just means you’ll have to be in the throne room first thing after breakfast.”

“That’s fair,” I said in agreement.

“As grateful as I am that you visited, would you mind if I enjoyed the rest of my dream?”

“By all means. I’ll see to some other dreams in the meantime.” I bade Celestia farewell and went back through the portal.

I didn’t know what it was about Celestia that didn’t sit right with me. Whether it was her attitude or my interpretation of was up for debate. I couldn’t really blame her for wanting to have a bit of ‘me’ time, though, so maybe it was the stress speaking.

Regardless, the lack of gravity in the void (which I still didn’t understand) gave me a good opportunity to practice with these wings. As much of a handicap as it was, I wasn’t sure how much it would help when it came to actually flying. That’s not to discredit the practice that went into it.

I pumped my wings harder each time, gaining significant speed with every flap. No matter where I was in the void, the portals always seemed to radiate away from me like a focal point. Since Celestia was Luna’s sister, I thought she’d be somehow drawn to Celestia’s portal. However, it didn’t explain several others that caught my attention. Celestia mentioned something about nightmares, so was that what I sensed from them? It’d make sense since this is Luna’s job, for lack of a better word.

I was curious as to what someone else’s nightmare looked like, so I closed my eyes and tried to focus on finding the nearest one. I located the portal, swirling with diseased green and purple energy, and stuck my hoof through it. Oohhh, it felt like a bad one. It was like someone was dripping nasty, viscous tar all over my leg, and I instinctively pulled it out. I looked at the portal in horror. Whose dream was that? What I felt… It wasn’t natural.

I shuddered and went to locate another one.

The next portal felt much better. A mere fraction of the negative energy of the last one, I poked my head through and saw a little filly screaming at the top of her lungs, running through a dark forest like a bat outta hell. A giant black spider that looked like it was right out of Eight Legged Freaks gave chase, intent on capturing its dinner. Its ridiculously large fangs oozed and dripped venom, leaving a trail its wake.

With a swift pounce, the legs became a cage around the filly as she fell onto her stomach, then the spider reared up and revealed its ice picks for fangs in all their morbid glory.

“Stop!” I screamed, and flung myself at the creature to knock it off. I phased right through and landed on the dirt, wondering what the hell just happened. Unfortunately for me, I was successful in drawing it away from the filly.

Slowly, it turned, creeping over to me and rearing up a second time. I gave a sharp kick to the abdomen, my rear hoof passing right through.

What is this thing?!

It stared me down, and it felt like there was a thousand pairs of eyes all looking at me in the dead of night like it was dinner time. I fumbled to pick up a nearby log with my magic and brought it down onto the arachnid, and to my horror, it simply phased through, though it did make the spider pause and reform.

On my back, I pushed myself away with my hind legs and got far enough to get back up and keep swinging like Babe Ruth. Each swing through the smoke made it stagger back and reform, only for me to go at it again and again.

Seemingly pissed off with me, the spider batted the log away like it was nothing, which was completely un-fucking-fair, then swiped me across the face with a leg as it pounced and slammed its fangs into my shoulder. I screamed bloody murder in fright, and almost instantly I was pulled from the dream and back into the aether.

What the hell was that all about? I wondered as I heaved and gasped, trying to calm my ragged breathing. Damn it, Luna, I got a serious bone to pick with you. I shook myself off and gathered my wits, electing to ignore any nightmares for now. Despite being scared out of her mind, I figured that filly would be alright when she woke up. Just a bad dream, after all.

Having had my fill of nightmares for the evening, I decided the time I had in this place would best be spent practicing flying.

I don’t know how long I was in the dream realm since I had no concept of time in this place, but gradually, the entire realm began to glow increasingly brighter. Like the moment I felt tugging in my chest when Luna and I traded, I was eventually pulled from my slumber and back into the ‘real’ world.

Even though surprises like this kept popping up out of nowhere, I was cautiously curious to find out what other abilities Luna had in store. Afterall, you can’t go somewhere entirely new and not expect anything bad to happen.

4| Beginnings

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When I woke, it took me a moment to realise I was still in Equestria. Grateful that I didn’t have any headaches, I lazily looked to the clock and saw it was a little after seven in the morning. I got out of bed, did some stretches to get some blood pumping through my limbs, and then went through the big double doors to the outside to greet the morning proper. The smell of dew permeating the fresh air and a cool sensation of damp masonry under my hooves made me feel a lot more refreshed.

A couple minutes later, three firm knocks came from the door, followed up by an authoritative mascluine voice. “Your Majesty, Princess Celestia requests your presence in the dining hall.”

I went over and opened the door to find a white pegasus stallion dressed in Romanesque, gold-coloured armour, complete with galea helmet.

“I trust you slept well?” the stallion asked.

“I did, thank you,” I said. “I hope you had a good night too.” Hopefully simple courtesy was within Luna’s character.

“Nothing out of the ordinary to report, Princess,” he said. “If you’ll follow me, I’ll escort you to the dining hall.” I closed the door behind me and followed the guard, which allowed me to get my first proper look at the castle.

The halls were as wide as they were tall, curving further upwards to end in an arch supported by thick wooden beams. The walls were decorated with tapestries depicting wars, landscapes and castles, portraits, meadows, as well as sun and moon themes. A thick, ruby-red rug muffled our hoofsteps against the cold stone floor as we entered a corridor lit by multi-coloured rays of sunlight pouring in from stained glass windows, and some ways down the guard opened a door for me with a polite usher.

“Good morning, Luna,” Celestia said with a smile as I walked in. “How are you feeling?” She was sitting at the head of a long communal table in a massive dining hall, a large hearth with a crackling fire behind her and torches adorning each supporting pillar

“A lot better. Thanks for your concern.”

She raised a curious eyebrow when she looked up. “Why are you not wearing your crown and shoes?”

I glanced at Celestia, noting she wore a golden tiara, peytral with a set gemstone, and shoes with metal plating that extended up her forelegs. I supposed I should have realised that Luna had her own to wear.

“The guard fetched me from my room moments after I woke up, so I had little time to prepare,” I quickly said. “I can go back up and change if you’d like.”

“After breakfast,” Celestia said indifferently, “I can start the proceedings in the throne room, then you can join me.” Celestia punctuated her double entendre with a wave of her hoof towards a place set for me. I went over and sat down, where I balked at the exaggeratedly fancy spread of hot pancakes dressed in whipped cream and fruit. I was half tempted to ask for simple bacon and eggs on toast, but realised horses couldn’t eat meat any more than humans could eat grass.

“Any idea on what to expect today?” I asked, since Luna’s journal failed to mention anything specific.

“Conflicting land arguments, a few cases of accused thieves, and so on. With everything else you need to catch up with, you’ll likely be busy all day,” Celestia said with a cheeky grin.

I speared some food with my fork and eyed it for a second before eating it. I had no idea what to fully expect when it came to holding court, but if Earth’s past was any indication, it sounded like I’d be sitting on a throne telling everyone what to do all day.

Sweet.

We finished breakfast in peaceful silence, mostly because I was too busy stuffing my face, much to Celestia’s amusement, then she excused herself to go to the throne room while I went back up to my room to put on my stuff. I spent a minute rifling around in the closet before I found Luna’s crescent moon peytral, black tiara with blue trim, and light blue shoes, then took a few moments to brush and tidy up so I could hurry to the throne room.

I followed the same route to the dining hall, hoping I would find someone I could ask to show me the rest of the. I saw a maid stoking the sconces, so I asked her.

“Of course, Princess,” she said cordially. On my way, I paid mind to where we were going to learn my way around. The architecture, tapestries, paintings, and stained glass windows were all beautifully decorated, giving the castle an antiquated, yet distinct homey feeling. When we arrived, the throne doors were wide open, sitting at the top of a ‘T’ junction. Looking out, Celestia was sitting on the left, a sun-themed tapestry hanging above her throne while a lunar orientated one hung above Luna’s.

Two stallions, one wearing a straw hat and a well used burlap vest that stopped just above his butt picture thing of three ears of corn. The other guy was wearing a quality looking waistcoat with pocket watch chain. Unlike the first guy, the latter looked as though his definition of doing a job was to get someone to do it for him. The farmer (I assumed he was a farmer from appearances) bowed slightly, yet politely when I walked to my throne. The unicorn with the crystalline blue and white compass star on his rear eyed me up and down as I went by.

After I took my seat (making me feel like top dog at the office), I let out a heavy sigh I didn’t realise I was holding. Keep it together, I told myself. Be professional and follow Celestia’s lead.

“Now that my sister has arrived, shall we begin?” Celestia announced.

Was she trying to make me feel even more uncomfortable?

“Thank you,” the fancyblack stallion said through a relieved sigh. He cleared his throat. “This farmer has been stealing crops from my fields, and I have come seeking compensation.”

“What does the accused have to say?” Celestia said.

“Your Majesties,” the farmer began sincerely, “I’ve already sold off a few sections of my land to other nobles, and what I’m left with provides me and my family with enough food and money to live on. I live comfortably with my lifestyle, so accusations like this are slanderous to say the least.”

Celestia looked to me expectantly. It was now or never.

“Names?” I asked.

“Harvest, Princess,” the farmer said respectfully.

“I am Lumen,” the decidedly pompous bellend declared.

“Who do you represent?” I asked Lumen.

“I own land in the same area as this… farmer, shall we say .” Well, if that wasn’t the rudest thing you could’ve said. “What makes you think otherwise?” he amended.

Because you didn’t have a single spec of dirt anywhere on youhim, I mused. like he doused himself in isopropyl alcohol. “Call it a hunch,” I said. “. Now, what has lead you to believe that this stallion has been stealing your crop?”

“Our lands border one another, so it’d be easy for him to trespass and acquire seeds.”

“If I may interject?” Harvest said. I nodded. “Invited or otherwise, I don’t have a reason to steal. I’m too busy working hard and taking care of my family.”

Lumen snorted derisively at that and gave Harvest a sideways glance.

“Is it a possibility that wind could’ve simply blown the seeds over and into his land?” I asked.

Lumen opened his mouth but I cut him off. “What makes you so adamant to assert that he’d brazenly steal your crop?” I looked to Harvest. “How much of his crop has been growing on your land?”

“It keeps spreading. I try to pull up and incinerate it to make room for corn, but it’s proving tenacious to deal with,” he said.

Lumen was aghast at that.

“What kind of compensation are you asking?” I askedsaid.

“Simply the section of land on which my crop has been growing,” Lumen replied pointedly.

“Your Majesties!” Harvest blurted, “if that were to happen, I wouldn’t be able to provide enough for my family!”

This ‘case’ was child’s play. I grinned. “Humour me for a moment, Lumen. If a fence separated my neighbour and I, and his apple tree hung over the fence, I am well within my rights to dispose of or use the fruit on my property. Also consider this: Harvest has doing his best to keep your plants off his land. If he has indeed been stealing, why would he also be destroying them?”

“I-I-I…”

“Who do you rule in favour of, Luna?” Celestia asked me.

I turned back to the stallions. “Lumen, Harvest has every right to rid his land of your invading crop, and it is up to you to keep it contained, so please do so. Anything that blows from one plot of land to the next and vice versa, so long as it’s not done deceitfully, the owner of that land has freedom of choice whether to cultivate or destroy.”

“Motion carried!” Celestia said with a firm stomp of her hoof, and looked to me with a wink. Her voice carried over the throne room, and the noble just stood in place with the most horrified look on his face while the farmer looked beyond relieved.

I looked the noble in the eye. “Before you say anything else, know that further attempts at subjugating land like this will mean you’ll be compensating this stallion for wasting his time and money. Clear?”

Lumen forced a bow. “Of course.” He promptly turned tail and left, leaving me with a grin on my face.

“Thank you, Your Majesties,” Harvest said with a sigh of relief.

“I have more respect for the working class than those who think they can skate through life by having others do it for them and reaping the benefits,” I said.

“Your kind words are not lost on me, but I’d hesitate to say the same for my... friend back there.”

“Take care. If any other problems occur, these doors will always be open to you.”

Harvest bowed in finality and left.

The rest of the ‘cases’, loosely put, were fairly mundane and easy to decide. It was like mediating a bunch of bickering children in school. A few thieves were put in the stockades (I was surprised we even had those), one was put in the cells (I hesitate to say dungeon) until he was able to literally cough up what he stole. I had my doubts that the owner of those gold coins would want them back, though.

The lack of an institutionalised justice system was definitely surprising, so that left me wondering if everyone that had a grievance came to see Celestia and Luna for it to be settled. Probably. However, it meant I could potentially implement and discuss a proper court system with Celestia at a later date. A more hands off, or rather, hooves-off approach. I was fortunate that there wasn’t anyone accused of more abhorrent crimes; I doubted I had the fortitude to pass that kind of decision. Hopefully I’d be long gone by the time they came up.

As the day went on, stallions and mares came and went setting their petty squabbles and affairs. Celestia closed the doors over noon so we could get some lunch, then we were right back at it for the afternoon. The line to the throne room began to dwindle towards the evening as I became weary from sitting all day, so Celestia figured it would be a good idea to retire for the evening.

“I’m heading to the library before dinner. Would you like to join me?” she asked when everyone had dispersed.

“Sounds like a plan,” I said, trying to hide my enthusiasm at realizing that there was a library in the palace, and dutifully followed Celestia. I made a mental note to find out if it was possible to send books through the portal. After all, what’s a holiday without a souvenir?

I was eager to see what kind of books ponies had, and maybe look for one that was interesting enough I could take back to Earth. When I went through the doors, I was taken aback by the sight. Several long rooms connected by arched frames that stretched to the ceiling, and long tables that sat in the middle of each mini-room with blank parchments, scrolls, quills in jars, all sitting around small bottles of ink. I thought the library would have been a simple room with a collection of written books, but I was so glad to be proven wrong.

Celestia went off to do her thing, whatever that might’ve been. I wanted to find out what system these ponies used to catalogue books. I walked through each passageway, and eventually found a large cabinet that looked like a library card index. Each drawer had names for a large variety of things: medicine, history, mathematics, spells, but nothing on law in the sense that I thought. However, one drawer caught my eye. It was titled “Grimoires”, and the cards within the drawer had several different categories. I picked one out at random and took a good look at the card, noting the location, and went to find them.

The shelves were in the furthest room from the entrance, underneath a window in the corner of the room. The books were bound with covers of wood, what looked like leather at the spine and corners, and langets with rivets holding everything together. I picked one off the shelf and saw it had a raised symbol of a ram’s head stamped into the cover. I was fascinated by how archaic it looked, and when I opened this particular one, my lips pursed in silent fascination as my eyes widened.

There was no order to how this was written; notes and blocks of text dotted the pages around sigils, characters, and diagrams. If I could fly around in the dream realm using already existing muscle memory, then it stood to reason I shouldn’t have to learn how to read and write from scratch if it’s something Luna already knew. As I flipped through the book, it opened to a diagram titled Teleportation. It detailed how to teleport objects from one place to another using two sets of parchment, almost like a two-way walkie talkie. My curiosity piqued, I decided to give it a try.

I picked up two rolls of parchment, dipped a quill in some ink, and went about following the instructions as best I could. Hopefully this little experiment wouldn’t wind up like the teleporters from The Fly. Yeesh… Once the circles and runes were drawn, I put each parchment at opposite ends of the table with the quill in the centre of one. The book said I needed to ‘charge’ the sigils, but I wasn’t sure what that meant. Was it like what I did with the powder puff?

I figured I’d try that, so I lit my horn and the parchment, and almost immediately, poof. The quill disappeared in a flash of light and reappeared at the other end of the table.

My face lit up. Holy shit! I started giggling to myself like an excited schoolgirl and joyfully cantered down to the quill, making sure it was still in one piece. Fucking magic, man, this was the sort of thing you could only dream of! I was over the moon! What else did the book have?!

I opened the book to a random page and, unless I was misreading the title, settled on something to do with anti-gravity. It looked more complex than the last, so I took it as a challenge. I carefully transcribed the sigil onto the back of one of the parchments I already used, and set an empty ink bottle in the middle. I ‘charged’ the thing, and the jar immediately rocketed upwards with a flash and shattered against the ceiling as I let out a small shriek. Seconds later, Celestia came through the arch closest to me.

“What was that?” She walked over to see what I was doing and stopped when she saw the parchment. “You’re playing with gravity spells?”

“...Maybe?”

Celestia spied the broken glass, then used her magic to pick up all the pieces, and I mean all the pieces to put them in a wastepaper basket in the corner. Talk about dexterity. She stared curiously at the parchment before she spoke.

“That shouldn’t have happened… It’s designed as a means of levitation without user input.” She flipped the parchment over and that knowing “oh” look dawned over her face before she chuckled. “Stacking sigils like that isn’t a good idea. Your magic got confused as to which spell to run off, and that’s what caused the bottle’s acceleration.” At the time, I couldn’t get over the fact that I essentially created a rocket propelled bottle, and I was beaming. “Just be careful it doesn’t happen again, alright?”

“I was just trying to save on parchment is all.”

“There’s more where that came from. In any case, you’re due to raise the moon after dinner, so I’ll come get you.” She gave me a soft nuzzle which, as much as I hate to admit it, felt kind of nice. Celestia left to finish up what she was doing, and the moment she was out of sight, I dove back into the book in a frenzy. There was no way I could raise the moon on my own! Maybe the book had something that’d help? I started to rifle through every page, and while I found some spells definitely worth trying, couldn’t find anything that I saw would help me.

I must’ve been at it for a while, searching through that book and a few more, because the next thing I knew, Celestia was knocking on the frame on the archway to get my attention. “You can take that book up to your room if you’d like. It is a library, so make sure you bring it back tomorrow.”

I made a mental note to come back tomorrow to find out what other spells I could combine, though I’d likely have to be careful which ones. I quickly scrunched up the used parchment rolls and tossed them in the bin, then picked up the book in my magic. After dinner, we went up to my room. I put the grimoire on the desk, then followed Celestia out to the dais.

Celestia lit her horn and bowed her head with closed eyes. The sun’s glow dimmed as the dark blues and blacks of the night sky became more prominent. “Go on, it’ll be alright,” she gently ushered.

If I screw up, then Celestia will think something was wrong. If I pass it off again, she’ll get suspicious. It was now or never, so I followed her example.

I closed my eyes, dipped my head, and concentrated as hard as I could. I remember feeling the energy that radiated from the moon last night, so I tried funneling that energy through me. The powder puff likely weighed a few ounces, but this was a celestial body weighing billions of tonnes! The whole time I kept thinking It’s just a powder puff, it’s just a powder puff… at least trying to out-psyche myself.

I strained, pulled, and tugged, and it was no secret that Celestia could tell I was having a hard time. I just hope she didn’t question it. I felt a wing drape over my back, and then came a soft whisper. “Don’t overdo it, just let it come naturally.”

I drew a breath through my nose, held it, then breathed out, which helped clear my head. Eventually, I felt the strain release and I opened my eyes. I was being basked in the radiant glory of the full moon. I stared up in wonder and perplexed confusion as to how the actual fuck I managed to do that!

Celestia gave me a small peck on my forehead. “Father would be proud,” she said with a smile. “Come, it’s time to rest, you’ll have an easier time with the moon tomorrow.” I looked behind me to the clock. It was only eight! I typically didn’t go to bed until at least midnight on Earth.

“It’s still early,” I pointed out.

“The life of a princess starts before sunrise,” she said with a nuzzle. “We both need the sleep.”

“I think I’ll stay out here a little bit. I like the scenery.”

“By all means. Just don’t go to bed too late, alright?”

“Alright,” I repeated. Her wing still around me, I felt her pull me into a brief, tight hug before releasing me and walking over to the door to see herself out.

After she left, I sat under the moon’s calming light for what felt like hours, basking in its majesty. Eventually, my head began to dip slightly from how tired I was becoming, so I decided to call it a day and crawl into bed, shutting the door behind me.

5| The Hunt

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Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy wealthy and wise, but not me. I was often like an angry she-devil that would (not literally, of course) murder someone if they woke me at an ungodly hour.

Within the hour after getting up, I was in the throne room for a majority of the day dealing with mind-numbing bureaucracy, spending seemingly endless hours sitting in a stone chair with a quickly flattening cushion, and it was doing a number on my dainty princess ass.

The third day of being a pretty pony princess was absurdly hot, and being as bored as I was and not wanting to sit in the stifling heat, I had a parchment with the teleport sigil on it next to me, teleporting away empty glasses of water and getting refilled ones sent back with a fresh wedge of lemon. As well as a test of distance, I also learned I could still get the spell to work with minimal effort. Drinking all that water also gave me ample opportunities to use the aptly named restroom.

When I was in the library on my third day for that very reason, I conveniently overheard a mare and a stallion talking about something called a “cutie mark”. Further research lead me to discover the youngest documented age of a pony, a five year old got her mark in enchantments. That filly must’ve had a lot of magic to be naturally good at something as high-level as that.

In the evening, Celestia and I went up to my room to lower the sun and raise the moon. My scientific and logically inclined brain was in a continuous struggle to understand how doing so was even possible. A human using an unknown magical force to control the path of a goddamn moon of all things was beyond surreal, and something I was likely to get thrown into the loony bin over if I said anything back home.

Every time I rose the moon, it was like a wave of invigorating energy washed through me. Sitting on the dais and basking in its radiant white light made me feel full of life, something I didn’t understand at the time, and I had to find out why.

It was Celestia’s responsibility to raise the sun just like the moon was for Luna, but how did that come to pass? Were certain ponies predisposed to getting certain cutie marks? Did they appear during a specific set of circumstances??

I resigned to study that issue tomorrow, electing to crawl into bed like a drowsy two year old. Normally when I went to bed on Earth, I’d often toss and turn for longer than I should to get to sleep. That wasn’t a problem since coming to Equestria. Whenever I laid down, I closed my eyes and let out a soft, relaxing breath, then felt myself slowly drift off to sleep like it was an innate command.

There were a couple things I’d discovered when perusing the dream portals. A number of nightmares I entered into often had an amorphous, floating cloud of smoke that terrorised its victim, like that eight legged freak from the first night. I had witnessed them shapeshift multiple times into various creatures to scare the ponies senseless. Were the creatures something that those individuals feared? Beyond that, I wasn’t sure what else the smoke did or what it was. As unoriginal as it was, I just called them Smokers until I found out otherwise.

And that brought me to the next discovery: physical attacks didn’t work on them. Whether it was myself, sticks, stones–heck–I even tried using an iron fire poker and throwing salt at the things. Somehow, the tangibility of the objects in a dream had next to no effect on the Smokers, and left me wondering how I could affect them.

Brute force wasn’t working.I had magic, so I came up with an idea, though in hindsight it seemed like a horrible idea at the time, but I really had nothing to lose by trying. As I found out from repeated experiences, if I fell off a cliff, got caught by a Smoker, or suffered what would have otherwise been major or lethal trauma in the waking world, I’d get pulled back into the portal room. I had my own personal respawn!

In one dream, I emerged from a portal into a house, wondering where the occupant was. Normally they’d be absorbed in their own little world, but that wasn’t my immediate concern. All the little knick-knacks dotted around, and furniture gave the house a lived-in feel, but the oppressive darkness and a cold sense of isolation put me on edge. It was like being in a horror movie and trying to hide from Freddy Kreuger. I helped myself to a quill and parchment from a nearby desk and drew two sigils, one on each side, before picking up a letter opener.

I went out into the hallway to find a Smoker, which involved walking around the endless maze of gloomy corridors for what felt like hours. As I rounded one corner, I spotted an inky, floating menace, lazily floating down the hall. We both stopped in our tracks, staring each other down for several tense seconds in a Mexican standoff.

As fast as I could, I brought the letter opener to bear in front of the parchment, worked my magic, and the knife was propelled forward, flying through the Smoker and causing the path through to singe and burn from the inside out, like holding a cigarette lighter under a sheet of paper. Despite the lack of a mouth, its pained, high-pitched growl was like rusted nails scraping down a chalkboard. It then formed a spear point from itself, sliced open the roof, and leapt from sight as the slice closed itself right after.

I stared, dumbfounded. Huh, that was new, I thought. I mostly expected it to jump me like the other dozen or so times. Where the hell did it go, and for that matter, how?

As I tried to process what just happened, there began a gradual, quaky rumbling from all around me, increasing with every passing second. I froze in place as my head snapped to and fro, trying to figure out what was going on as every surface of the house began to dissolve like bubbling acid. As the house was slowly eaten away, I saw a thick, oily darkness consuming the cosmic clouds at a steady pace as the portals began to disappear one by one. While I hadn’t been here that long, I knew that wasn’t right.

I began to fly as fast as I possibly could to the narrowing point of the clouds, at least hoping if I made it in time, I would wake up.

The darkness coalesced into a point as it finished eating everything, then I was forcibly yanked from the realm like the Grim Reaper pulling me to hell, wherein I sat bolt upright with a deep gasp.

Taking a few breaths to calm myself, my attention was caught by rustling from the other side of the room, a cloaked figure standing by the bookshelves. Barely illuminated by the moon, I saw them toss a few unrolled scrolls onto the floor among several other scrolls and books. They stopped what they were doing and froze when I gasped, then snapped to look at me.

In an instant, the figure launched itself faster than feasibly possible at me, pinning me to the bed with legs as thick as tree trunks. The hood of their cloak hid most of their facial features, but I could see their emerald green eyes and menacing gaze, partially lit by the moonlight pouring in from the doors to the dais.

“If you want to keep your vocal cords intact, I’m going to take what I came for and be on my way,” the masculine voice threatened. Well, that went from zero to one-hundred real fucking quick.

He made a very, very poor decision. I had the power to raise and lower the moon, and he thought it was a good idea to break into my room? I lurched forward to headbut the intruder, but forgot about my horn and ended up carving a bloody canyon across his forehead. He roared and fell back and off the bed, knocking over the bedside table.

“Wrong move, asshole!” I shouted, jumping off the bed, where I immediately got to punching the stallion across the face.

With one particularly hard punch, his hood fell back, exposing a rust-red stallion underneath. I tried flaring my magic to grab something nearby to knock him out, but instead felt a painful sensation roll through my head, making me waiver.

Seizing the moment, the stallion swung hard at my shoulder, and the impact knocked me to the side, giving him enough pause to shove me off and scramble out from underneath. He darted back over to the bookshelves, picked out some scrolls from their cubbies with his mouth, dropping one in the process. With no time to pick it back up, be bolted toward the doors.

I cut him off with a tackle and he rolled under me, where I was quickly awarded with a kick to the gut. Those muscular legs knocked the wind from me and my eyes bugged out of my head. The cheap shot gave gave the stallion enough time to shrug me off and stand up, but I clamped my teeth onto his tail and pulled. The sight of his wings flaring out from underneath the cloak definitely surprised me, and he looked back to me, glaring daggers of exasperation, cuts big and small, all over his face, not to mention the bruises that’d show up by tomorrow. He reared a hind leg and kicked me hard on the muzzle, sending me rolling backwards onto the stone floor.

The door suddenly burst open and I saw a pegasus guard run in, and in the split second I looked back, the pegasus had already taken flight.

The guard ran up to me as I groaned in agony. “Princess! What happened?!”

“I-I got a-attacked,” I mumbled thickly, my head and vision swimming, my nose feeling like it was broken. Was that blood I tasted? That wasn’t good. Two other guards ran into the room and looked at the scene before them.

“You,” the pegasus barked to one, “go wake Radiant. And you, go wake Celestia. Now!” They ran out without saying a word.

My eyes drifted shut. “Ugh, my head is killing me…”

“It looks like you got a concussion, Your Highness. Try not to fall asleep.”

I concentrated on the guard’s talking as best I could so I didn’t fall unconscious, and as my vision slowly returned, I saw Celestia and the doctor, Radiant, run in, backed up by the two guards from before.

“What. Happened?” Celestia demanded through gritted teeth.

“I heard a commotion, shouting, swearing, and by the time I got here, Princess Luna’s attacker had already fled.”

Radiant rushed over to my side and dumped her bag next to me, tearing into it. She pulled out the little penlight thing, then started assessing me with her expertly trained eyes. “Mild concussion and possible broken nose… Can I get some water please?” she said, and fished out a few bottles, gauze, and scissors from her bag.

Despite all the commotion, Celestia’s concerned gaze was fixated on me. “What is that?” she asked, and I gave her a very confused look. Using her magic, I felt something slide off my horn, the pain of my headache alleviating slightly. “Is that a…” She paused, a look of horror written across her face. “Luna, did you get a good look at the pony who did this to you?”

I nodded a nasally “Uh huh” and winced as the doc dipped some gauze straight in the pitcher of water brought over from the desk, then wiped the crimson from my muzzle.

“Can you tell me what they looked like?” Celestia said.

The dizziness had cleared up slightly, so I told her while it was still fresh in my mind. “Green eyes, rust-red coat, wings, stallion… That’s it.”

“Pardon me, Your Majesty, this will sting a bit.” Radiant used some gauze with disinfectant to further clean any cuts on my face, then began to gently assess my nose.

“You didn’t see their cutie mark?” Celestia asked.

“They were wearing a cloak,” I said.

“Well, the good news is no broken nose,” Radiant said, “but the concussion means you’ll have to take it easy for a couple weeks. There’s a nasty cut on your nose, but that will heal up fine.” She cut a strip of gauze, squeezed some kind of viscous gel onto it, then pressed it against the cut as I winced.

Celestia turned to the guards behind her. “Fetch some pegasi and sweep the exterior of the castle. If anypony—and I mean anypony—is out and about that matches Luna’s description, throw them in the dungeon until I can question them.” The two guards left immediately, then she told the first responder to stay put.

“Luna, do you know what they were doing?” Celestia said, and I just pointed over to the bookshelves. She looked over at the torn pages, scrolls, and books everywhere. “What did they take?”

“Some scrolls…” I trailed off, tired and woozy.

“Why?”

Irritation crept into my voice as I felt myself drift off again. “I don’t know.”

“If I may interrupt?” Radiant interjected. “Try not to go back to sleep tonight, Princess. I’ll be back in a few hours to change the bandage. Concussions need to be monitored for the first couple days.” She turned to Celestia. “I’ll let you three talk.”

After Radiant left, Celestia wasted no time in levitating me back into bed, propping me up against the headboard with a mound of pillows. “Can you tell me what happened from the start?” I took my time so I didn’t get anything mixed up, then she addressed the guard still present. “By these accounts, you didn’t enter the room until well into the altercation.”

“I was knocked out, Princess.”

“You wait until now to mention that?”

“This is the first chance I’ve had to mention it, yes.”

“Standard issue helmets are designed to prevent bumps on the head, Sergeant.”

And it suddenly became my turn to say something. “Sarge, give me your helmet.”

Celestia looked at me, perplexed. “What do you need his helmet for?”

“Just trust me. Please.”

Celestia reluctantly levitated over the helmet, and I turned it over in my hooves. If my assumption was correct… There it was! “You’re right, Sergeant, you were also assaulted,” I began, and turned it to show the both of them. “See the dent?”

Celestia couldn’t really contradict the guard anymore.

“There were two of them?!” the guard said, aghast. As he stared at the helmet, his eyes suddenly widened. “Pegasus,” he spat. “They were flying above my field of vision.”

“Or, perhaps a unicorn used a spell to remain hidden, but that’s not important right now.” Celestia interjected, not unfairly so. “In any case, join the search party and relay the new information. If you haven’t found anything by first light, they’d likely be long gone. And if you find any scrolls, bring them straight to me.”

“Yes, Your Highness.” The guard promptly galloped off down the hall.

Celestia closed the door with a soft click. With slumped shoulders, she looked to me with a troubled gaze. “Oh Luna, I’m sorry this happened.”

“Don’t be,” I said with a dismissive wave of a hoof. “You’ve got nothing to apologise for. It’s the other two we have to be careful about.”

“What do you think was so important that this pegasus decided it was worth breaking into your room over?”

I laid back, comfortable, and closed my eyes to ponder the question. “I’m not sure he intended to fight,” I said after a while. “I was in the dream realm when it began dissolving around me, then I woke up.”

In her magic, Celestia turned over the thing she removed from my horn, a ring, scrutinising it carefully.

“What is that?” I asked, my eyes fluttering from a wave of drowsiness.

“Dark stone. Made from the rocks that fall from the heavens; they lack magic because they’re not of this world. Creatures use them against ponies because of their anti-magic properties. I have a collection of these so I can try to find out who made it, and where it came from by analysing its composition.”

It took me a moment to realise that, in fact, Celestia was talking about meteorites of all things. “Did it pull me from the dream?”

“Once worn, it renders any magic useless.” Celestia sighed. “I’ll keep an eye on you until Radiant returns, and I can help you clean up the mess. Maybe we’ll figure out what was stolen.” That made sense, so I gingerly got out of bed to join her. I couldn’t help but giggle that the ring became a disservice for the stallion.

We gathered up the parchment lying all over the floor, then stacked everything on the desk to sort out where they came from. From the scrolls and books that remained in their niches, it wasn’t too hard to figure out where things went.

“Can you pass the rest of the maps, please?” I asked, halfway through reorganising. Celestia looked through several scrolls aloft in her aura.

“I don’t have any here,” she said momentarily.

“There was more than that. Check again?”

She gave each tube’s title a careful look before moving onto the next as I stole a quick glance around the room to see if we missed any. “How many are there supposed to be?” Celestia asked after a minute.

I began to pull all the maps from their cubbies, where I proceeded to lay the big one out on the floor, followed by matching the smaller maps to each region.

“...Five, six seven, eight,” I counted. Despite being dazed and confused at who-knows-what ‘o’clock in the morning, the realisation couldn’t have come soon enough. My eyes eventually wandered over to the south-east part of the map and I leant in closer. “There were eleven, so there’s two missing, not counting the dropped one.”

“Which ones are they? I’ll double check,” Celestia said.

“The big mountain range and the forests around it,” I said, pointing it out.

After a few moments of briefly checking the scrolls, Celestia looked at me and shook her head. “Those two are definitely missing. Why somepony a thief break into the private chambers of a princess for some maps?”

“Either he took the wrong thing in his haste, or he found what he was looking for.”

“Now we just need to figure out what that something is. I’ll look into tightening security tomorrow, but in the meantime, let’s get this cleaned up,” Celestia said.

It didn’t take long to clean up the room. After everything was accounted for, including missing and damaged, Celestia went to fetch some tea. I looked at the maps half absentmindedly, trying to figure out why he apparently needed maps for a mountain range and forest. When Celestia came back levitating a steaming pot and corresponding cups on a tray, she looked me up and down.

“Something wrong?”

“There has to be something we’re missing,” I said. “You don’t break into somepony’s room in the middle of the night without a very good reason. Are these maps something you can get in a library?”

Celestia briefly looked them over. “Maps like this aren’t easy or cheap to make. Multiple pegasi have to go on extended scouting missions to chart everything, assuming they even return in the first place.” She righted the bedside table and pulled it over to set the tea tray down, then poured two cups. “It begs the question of how knowledge of these maps got to that pegasus.” Celestia let the question hang in the air, so I took a sip of tea to help me think.

The soothing warmth did wonders to ease the headache while we deliberated over the bigger metaphorical picture. After we drained half the pot in comfortable silence, and with nothing else to do, I elected to straighten up the desk, stack the damaged books and scrolls, then began looking through some of the books I got from the library.

Celestia picked up her tea and took an idle sip before peering over my shoulder. “How can you study in your condition?”

“I’m not really. More like making a few notes for later. Just need a way to pass the time and stay awake until Radiant returns.” Then I remembered the clock. I levitated it over from the floor next to the bed and looked it over. To my annoyance, there was a great big crack over the glass face. The hour and minute hands were frozen over the one.

“A pity,” Celestia said. “I’ll have Horologium fix it tomorrow.”

I assumed Celestia meant a pony who works with clocks.

“Those pegasi cretins caused me to wake up before my allotted time. They will regret it,” I muttered under my breath.

Celestia laughed at that. “What do you plan on doing with them?”

“I’ll stuff every nightmare I can find into their dreams. They’ll be too terrified of having nightmares to go to sleep.”

“That seems rather vindictive, don’t you think? Assaulting a princess is a serious offense, though not entirely unforgivable. If it were up to me, I’d keep them in the dungeon for a few years then banish them from the kingdom under threat of execution if they ever returned.”

Execution?! I was horrified at that thought. “I hope you don’t carry through with that if they happened to return. Regardless, I can understand that the fear of having your head lopped off would keep you from coming back.” I leaned back and stared off into space, pushing those thoughts out of my head.

“What about remanding them indefinitely?” I said after a while.

“Locking somepony in a small cell in the castle’s dungeon for the rest of their life is ridiculous. Regardless if we make the law around here, you still have to consider what you’re doing to others.”

I sighed in annoyance, took a deep breath, then a drink of tea. “You’re right. I’m sorry. When you find yourself in a revered position, it can be hard to stay grounded at times.”

“I’m surprised you said that. Where’s the cheery and giggly Luna I’ve always loved?”

I stared at Celestia, both horrified and confused. Did she catch on to me that quick?! But, to my continued confusion, she just chuckled and playfully nudged me with a wing.

“I’m glad to see you’re taking more responsibility for things lately,” she said.

Oh, so that’s what she meant. Crisis averted. “Well, it’s not every day that something like this happens.” Given my unique situation, I meant that in every sincerest form. “We’ll decide what happens with that stallion if or when he gets caught, as well as his supposed accomplice. Let’s focus on the task at hand.”

“Of course. Is there anything else you need?”

From all the tea that shot straight through me, it was only a matter of time before my stomach began to rumble. The way Celestia’s ears flicked toward me, she must have heard.

“Perhaps a snack?” she asked with a small grin.

“...Yes, please,” I said sheepishly. Celestia poked her head out the door and whispered something inaudible, and I heard someone trotting down the hall before she closed the door. “Who was that?”

“Another guard I asked to watch your door.”

“Because that worked out so well the first time,” I said with a sarcastic roll of my eyes.

“Oh, Luna,” Celestia playfully chastised, and we shared a small laugh. She came over to the desk and sat down beside me, where I had a few open books and my scroll of notes. “Now, how can I help?”

“Well… Remember the ink bottle incident?” She nodded. “Tonight made me think. What if we used something like that for intruders?”

“Hmm, that’s actually not a bad idea,” Celestia said, pleasantly surprised. “Though, catapulting them skyward might require peeling them off the ceiling. But, I think you’ll find…” She picked up the grimoire I had yet to return to the library and opened it roughly half way.

Putting it back down, I saw a runic array with the symbol of a keyhole in the middle and blocks of notes on the page. Celestia looked at the page for several seconds, then went over to the bedroom door.

Her horn lit up, and right before my eyes, the same patterns began appearing on the door. She touched a hoof to the keyhole, and a yellow outline of her cutie mark lit up like an ephemeral glow above the array, then sank into it.

“Come over here and open the door.”

I had no idea what Celestia did, so I decided to humour her. I gripped the handle with magic, pulled, but nothing happened. I looked up at her, confused, and tried again. Nothing.

Celestia chuckled to herself. “Try putting your hoof on the keyhole,” she said, so I did. A white glow of the crescent moon showed up and sank into the array. “Try the door again.”

With a shrug, I opened the door with ease. “What was that?”

“A locking spell. This one is currently set so only you and I can open the door. Like a key in a lock, the spell needs a recognised magical signature to open, so you’ll need to open it for everyone else.”

That was actually rather cool, but there was one thing wrong with putting it on the bedroom door. “As useful as that is, that pegasus came in through the large doors,” I said pointedly.

“No matter,” Celestia said. “One array works on all doors within the room it’s cast. I’m surprised you hadn’t seen that spell with how long you’ve had the book.”

I smiled sheepishly. “Ah, heh... I’ll put it back tomorrow. But, this situation begs the question of why there wasn’t a spell in place to prevent something like this from happening.”

“Hindsight is a fickle Mistress.”

On that note, soft knocks came from the bedroom door. Whoever was on the other side couldn’t open it, so I had to.

“As requested, Your Majesties.” The guard held a basket laden with a display of fruits you’d see being offered to royalty. Grapes, bananas, mangoes, pineapple; it made me wonder if Celestia specifically requested all of that, or simply asked for some fruit. The only thing I couldn’t recognise was the weird green orbs.

“Thank you,” she said gratefully, closing the door behind her. “Come, let’s go outside.”

I hadn’t had an opportunity to see what plain old fruit tasted like, so I was eager to find out. Celestia and I sat out on the dais waiting for Radiant to return and casually ate away. As it turns out, the green fruit tasted like an orange. But weren’t oranges, well, orange? In any case, the fruit was exponentially more delicious than anything I had on Earth.

Getting some food in me did a world of good, and it wasn’t much longer until Radiant came back. After running her little tests to see how I was faring, she changed the bandage, where I found out that viscous gel was… weirdly both glue and an antibacterial paste. I made a mental note to find out the ingredients so I could invent a revolutionary medical product on Earth. Radiant gave me the all clear, though warned me if there were any persisting symptoms to summon her.

Celestia told me that I could go back to sleep, though she’d wake me when she raised the sun. She slept for a couple hours until it was time to lower the moon, curled up on the rug next to me like an oversized lap dog while I slept in bed. After Celestia gently roused me and asked how I felt, she was nice enough to let me catch up on lost sleep while she began the day after I lowered the moon.

With my worries at ease, being among the dream portals was more than welcome.

6| Ulterior Motives

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I could feel the heat of the high noon sun on my face and the sounds of bird song outside. My eyes slowly flitted open to see the invigorating rays of sunlight permeating my room. With a bit of magic, I opened the balcony doors to let the fresh air inside and lay in bed, relaxed as could be and without a care in the world.

The door being slammed open was like a bomb going off. My eyes snapped open in anger as Celestia brazenly strolled into my room, scaring off and silencing the birds outside.

“A little common courtesy would be nice,” I growled.

“I do apologise,” Celestia said, “I thought you might want to know that one of the scrolls has been recovered.” As I reluctantly got out of bed, Celestia magicked two scrolls out of thin air and pulled two more from the shelves. “I had several keen-eyed pegasi comb a wide area on the off-chance they’d apprehend him. Despite being long gone, one of the pegasi found this on their return trip.”

I wasn’t sure how important one scroll was to warrant sending someone several hours out of their way for it, but I was glad we found a piece of the puzzle. “Which one is it?”

“The mountain range. The only one missing is the plains between the hills and the forest.” I peered over Celestia’s shoulder as she unfurled each map. “I also procured replacements for the damaged and missing scrolls.”

“If they weren’t interested in the mountains or the forest, why keep one map and ditch the other?”

“Your guess is as good as mine,” Celestia said.

I dragged a hoof down my face in mock despair and groaned. “Why do I get the uneasy feeling that this is just the tip of the iceberg?”

“That’s part of the reason I came here. I sent word with a messenger that we will be recruiting new guards, to be passed around the villages and towns en route to the minotaur kingdom.”

“The minotaur kingdom?” Luna had mentioned minotaurs, but I didn’t understand why Celestia would contact them.

“The king and I are on good terms with each other, so it’s time to call in a small favour he promised. He’ll be sending a few of his officers to train the newcomers,” Celestia said while putting the maps back. “The messenger will be back tomorrow, and hopefully everypony else will be here by the end of the week. In the meantime, we’ll need to start making preparations on living quarters for the recruits.”

“How do the maps tie in with this?” I asked.

“Added security will allow us to spare resources for patrols and investigations while still maintaining a presence at the castle.”

“And how long is that going to take?”

“Training and inductions will likely take a month. I’d be satisfied if we wind up with thirty guards by the end of it,” Celestia said.

My dad had been in the marines, and he underwent what he called twelve weeks of hell. I doubted three weeks would result in guards of remotely equal calibre, but only time would tell.

“I’m glad that’s all sorted out,” I said. “Now, what’s on the agenda for today?”

“Proceedings in the throne room have been postponed for the next three days so we can prepare for the recruits, also giving us ample opportunity to finish any work we’ve yet to complete by week’s end. If everything goes well, this week should be rather mild.”

“What are you talking about? Who doesn’t love getting punched and kicked in the face?” I asked.

Celestia smirked and chuckled. “Take the rest of the day to yourself,” she said. “Setting up accommodations for the recruits will be relatively simple, something the staff can manage, and I’ll make a start on the remaining work in the meantime.”

As she finished, a soft knock came from the door.

“I had lunch prepared for you, so eat up and enjoy your day.” Smiling, Celestia left and let in a maid carrying a covered tray with her magic. She lifted the lid of the tray to reveal a delicately prepared selection of sliced and decorated fruits: apples, pears, oranges, and pineapple arranged around a stack of still-steaming pastries.

After eating, I made sure to brush and tidy up. Just because I was a princess doesn’t mean I get to slack off during business hours. After all, a certain level of decorum was expected from royalty, and it was a welcome change of pace to have everyone actually looking me in the eyes instead of a few degrees lower. Once I was presentable, I gathered the books and my notes, then made my way down to the library with my free time. Studying to get through school and its arguably useless classes that would almost never be put to use in the real world was one thing, but magic actually had substance and tangible use. Levitation, teleportation, and figuring out how to utilize dream magic was a time-consuming, but enjoyable experience. I even found out how to remove Celestia’s magical signature from the lock on my door! Now you have to knock and wait like a polite person, I thought impishly.

My duties were all but completely forgotten about that day as I studied harder than I ever had back on Earth. Before I knew it, night had fallen, and I retreated to my room after dinner to wait for Celestia. I had just finished putting away my notes and books as I heard the frustrated attempt of the bedroom door door trying to be opened, like a parent barging in unannounced. Then came the louder-than-necessary knocking.

I went over to open the door. “Yes?” I said, more smugly than I should’ve.

Celestia blinked. “Why’d you alter the spell?”

“Aren’t I entitled to privacy? What if I was indecent?”

“What could you possibly be doing that would constitute indecency?”

I cleared my throat and took a deep breath. “Mas–”

“Okay!” Celestia interrupted exceedingly quickly. “Okay. I’m sorry, Luna. You’re right, I should’ve knocked. In any case, how was your day?”

I took pleasure in her embarrassment. “All things considered, it was good, thank you,” I said with a smile.

“If I may… Why the sudden interest in books?” Celestia said, gesturing to the state of my desk.

“Just about every magic user writes down their spells. I want to learn as much as I can, and build a big library to store as much knowledge as I can!”

“You’re usually holed up in your room or have run off somewhere I can’t find you, now you’ve become more active with court, and you’re spending more time studying?”

“Maybe falling out of bed and hitting my head knocked some sense into me.”

Celestia rolled her eyes and chuckled. “I see you’ve still retained your sense of humour despite two head injuries within a week.”

“You’d have to be pretty stiff not to have a good laugh,” I mused.

“Perhaps,” Celestia conceded. “In any case, I’m putting two guards outside your door and having a few more patrol the grounds. If that pegasus decides to return, maybe we’ll catch him.”

“Can you guarantee the spell will hold up?” I pointed a hoof at the balcony doors.

“Why wouldn’t it?”

“You’re giving me extra guards, so making sure the spell works would be an idea.” I walked to my bedroom door and opened it, finding a pegasus and unicorn standing outside. Perfect

I tapped the pegasus on the shoulder and he looked to me with curiosity, where I whispered into his ear. He looked at me with surprise. His eyes darted between me and the big doors in my room. “...Ok,” he said, and was all too quick to depart. I went back into the room to see Celestia giving me a confused look.

“What did you say to him?” she asked.

“Wait for it…”

Now, watching birds hitting windows is funny enough, but watching bird-horses do the same thing left me stifling my giggles. As thoroughly displeased as Celestia was, she couldn’t deny the results, even though the method was rather... primitive.

I wasn’t cruel enough to leave the guard hanging, though, and he got carried off seeing twice as many stars.

Celestia looked down at me through the corner of her eye as she left. “Now I have to procure another guard,” she said with an annoyed snort.

Still amused at the evening's entertainment, I crawled into bed for an early night. With the guarantee the spell would hold up, I wasn’t overly concerned about anyone breaking in.

After breakfast the following morning, I went about preparing for the arrival of new recruits while Celestia was holed up in her study with paperwork, as well as sending messengers to nearby markets to arrange for extra supplies to be delivered to the castle.

Everyone was diligently going about their jobs; the woodsmiths crafted removable bed frames to make bunk beds (a suggestion of mine that the smiths were pleasantly surprised with); the kitchens were bustling, and I even managed to squeeze in a bit of study when I wasn’t busy with the list, but I didn’t get too far with the spell I was working on.

When it came to spell work, the only thing I wasn’t immediately able to create a work-around for was my lack of ability to actually cast spells without the aid of an array on parchment. I needed to internalise how to cast magic and understand it on a more fundamental level. Only then could I really become stronger and not rely on parchment as a crutch. There was an array for telekinesis, something which I could do with proficiency, so it was a matter of the application of principal. The castle was too hectic with what was going on to squeeze in practice, and I was still having problems with my dream magic.

Luna’s journal was proving immensely useful. I kept note of useful spells and combinations, reminders, appointments, and I kept tabs on my day-to-day life if Luna decided to read through upon her return. While teaching myself magic from scratch was both interesting and exhaustive, I needed help if I was going to make any headway in completing my spells. The only question was... who to ask? I thought about asking Celestia, but I was worried about her finding out my secret if we spent too much time together.

I was in my room with some scrolls that Celestia said I needed to sign off on when I got a knock on my door. With a final flick of the quill on the last scroll, I heaved a satisfied sigh and went to see who it was.

“Your Highness, volunteers for the guard have begun showing up at the castle gates,” a guard said. “What would you have me do with them?”

“Show them to the common room that has been prepared and tell them to wait. After I get these scrolls to Celestia, I’ll show everypony to their rooms.”

I levitated over the veritable pyramid of scrolls, stepped out into the hall and closed the door behind me. The guard, however, took a few steps back and stared at me like a puppy wanting a biscuit. It was slightly unnerving.

“...Is everything alright?” I queried.

“I, uhm… Yes! I just… wanted to say thank you.”

I just rolled my hoof as a prompt for him to continue.

“For the other night,” he amended with a blush, awkwardly looking to the side.

I blinked. For the other… Oh! “Oh, you were the fellow that almost knocked himself out flying into my door. To be honest, I’m surprised you remembered, given your condition.”

“When you’re offered something as coveted as that, the accompanying request can be difficult to turn down.”

Coveted, eh? I thought with a raised eyebrow. I’ll be sure to remember that one…

I began walking towards Celestia’s study, the guard staying beside me. “It makes me wonder what else I could get away with,” I said with a devious smile, giving the guard a knowing look. He did a double take, flushed even harder, then quickened his pace until he turned down a corridor.

I made it to Celestia’s room, and I actually had the decency to knock.

The door began to open. “I’m bus–oh, it’s you, Luna. How can I help?”

“Just returning your mountain of scrolls,” I said while levitating them over to her.

She blinked in surprise. “That was quick.”

Years of working in an office will do that to you. “Volunteers for the guard have started to arrive, so I had to be brief. I’ll show them to the quarters that have been prepared while you make sure everything is in order.”

“Already?” she said, unrolling a few of the scrolls to check my work. She raised an impressed eyebrow at my handiwork, but didn’t say as much before continuing. “The surrounding villages would’ve had a shorter commute, I suppose, so by all means show them around.”

With Celestia still buried in her own paperwork, I headed to the common room. It had a hearth with a lit fire to make first arrivals feel welcome; there were bookshelves stocked with reading and study material, paintings and tapestries for decoration and warmth, and in the middle of the room was a large communal table and chairs.

I laid down on one of the couches placed against a wall until I heard the tell-tale sounds of hoofsteps and excited mumbling coming from a large group of ponies, followed up by the door-smacking guard telling them to quiet down. He cracked the door open and stuck his head in and found me comfortably reclining on the couch.

I got up and made my way over, giving the guard a simple nod to let them in. He closed the door so it was ajar to make an announcement.

“Introducing Her Highness, Princess Luna.” Once the door opened, he was smart enough to stand off to the side to avoid being trampled as everyone began pouring in.

“Welcome all,” I proudly proclaimed so all could hear, “to The Castle of The Two Sisters!” I was met with bows from the ponies, and as everyone came through, I was genuinely surprised at a few of those that signed up. Four gryphons came in the door, and my eyes were glued to them as they each bowed deeply. As the last of them trickled in, I closed the door and turned my attention to everyone present as they idled about the room. To further my surprise, a few of the pegasi, well... they weren’t pegasi in the sense that I thought. Their wings had elongated fingers of bone that fanned outward, a skin-like membrane replacing what would have otherwise been feathers, and they even had the cutest little tufts of fur on the tips of their ears and chests.

Eyes darted all around the room, with numerous glances toward me. I stood next to the guard, briefly clearing my throat, and he took the hint to give a loud, shrill whistle to get everyone’s attention. They all paused what they were doing as silence fell upon the room, so I took the opportunity to address them all in the best authoritarian way I could. Being royalty helped put the scare in, too.

“Thank you all for signing up for this occasion! But first, let me lay a few ground rules during your stay. One: No fraternising. If you do decide to fool around, make sure you invite me.” That was met by shocked stares of disbelief. “To that end, the rooms through the corridor on the left are for males, the right for females, and my room is in the east tower.

“Two: No drinking on the job. Do that on your own time. That also covers recreational substances. This is all about setting a standard for everypony to follow.

“Three: You’re here to be trained as guards, so you’d better start acting like it. Until such time as you finish training, your orders will come from Celestia and myself, scullery maids, and everypony else in between.”

One stallion raised his hoof.

“You there, a question?” I said.

“How is taking orders from scullery maids going to help us?”

“I’m glad you asked,” I said with a smirk. “If you can’t protect cutlery and plates from dirt, how could you expect to protect me?” It wasn’t likely that any maids would give them orders, but it was on principle. “Any other questions?”

A mare raised her hoof.

“Yes?”

“Were you being serious about your first point?”

“The only way to find out is by breaking the rules, and that’s not something you’ll want to have happen.”

“What happens if somepony breaks the rules?” she continued.

“Rule breakers and anypony involved with them will be seen to accordingly,” I said.

That was met with thick gulps and intimidated nods of understanding, much to my amusement. I’d be lying if I said pulling rank as a princess didn’t feel good, though “my friend” was giving me a rather perturbed look.

I cleared my throat and put on a more friendly visage. “To round everything off, a word from me to you. I don’t bite, so if you see me about, feel free to say hello or strike up a conversation, though do so on your own time. And since you lot are the first to arrive, feel free to get comfortable and explore the castle and its grounds while everypony else takes their time getting here. You’ll need it, too.

“Any parting questions?”

A male gryphon with a cocky grin raised his talon. “Considering the first point you made, what if we want to just pay you a visit?”

I nodded at “my friend” again. “You’ll have to make it past him.”

The gryphon’s smile quickly was promptly wiped clean.

“If there’s no more questions, I do have other matters to attend to. If you need me, you know where to find me. Now, enjoy your freedom while it lasts!”

Despite knowing Celestia for about a week, it was safe to say she’d have more work waiting for me. As I left the newcomers to their own devices for the meantime, my accompanying guard decided to pipe up.

He cleared his throat. “A candid question if I may, Princess?”

“Ask away.”

“Would you mind explaining what that was all about?”

I tilted my head at the question. “Pardon?”

“The thinly veiled threat you made by using me as an example.”

“I was being emphatic, though I do apologise if it made you feel uncomfortable.”

“Think nothing of it, Princess.”

I ‘tsked’. “Between you and me, I positively loathe formal titles. You can just call me Luna if you’d like. I also didn’t catch your name the other night, sadly.”

“Comet, Your Highness,” he said with a cheeky grin.

“In any case,” I said as we arrived at my bedroom door, pushing it open. “Step into my office and take a seat.” I pulled over an extra cushion and sat down with Comet at the desk. “Now, what do you think of the current state of the guard?”

“If I’m to be honest, it’s a bit... fragmented. We get our orders from Celestia and yourself and we follow them, but outside of that, everypony tends to mill about waiting for shift change. Unlike the minotaurs, there’s no real hierarchy in our guard.”

“Yes, I have noticed that,” I said distastefully. Celestia and Luna must have been pretty slack when coming up with the structure. “I’d go so far to say it’s a matter of; ‘How have you not been invaded yet?’ And that brings me to my next point: I’m going to need somepony to take responsibility for these recruits. We can’t have an excess of guards wandering around without structure and purpose.”

“So, what would you have me do? Comet said.

I just sat and looked at him with a grin.

“...What?” the stallion said.

I kept staring. Comet was getting more confused.

Then, his eyes widened. “Me!?”

“Yup,” I said simply.

“B-but, I… W-why me?”

“Since there’s no real chain of command, I’m going to be implementing one, and not only were you in the right place at the right time, you were recommended.” If Comet wasn’t already sitting down, his ass would’ve dropped like a lead balloon under the weight of what I was telling him.

“Recommended?” he parroted. “By who?”

I pulled out a scroll from one of the cubbies on my desk. “Celestia gave me this to read after you flew into my door. After I read it, I felt a little bit guilty for what I asked you to do. It’s your performance record, and Celestia wrote that you’ve got excellent leadership skills, even calling you a jack of all trades. Since you’re one of the more seasoned guards, the idea is to promote you from Lieutenant to Captain and have the new recruits under your leadership.”

“I’m uh… I-I I’m not sure what to say,” Comet said in a state of surprise.

“Say yes.”

“Well, I…” He rubbed the back of his neck.

“Look, I get it: You’re unsure if you’re cut out for the job. At the same time, ’m not the kind of person to give you a load of new responsibilities without some sort of guidance. This situation is new to the both of us, so we can both help each other out. How does that sound to you?”

“So… If I’m understanding you correctly, you want me to captain your guard while you provide me with any necessary assistance?”

“In a nutshell,” I said. “So, do you want the job? Since things are changing, that just means you’ll need to go through the same training course with the rest of the recruits. ”

“Alright,” Comet said after a moment. “Celestia recommended me to you, and you’re putting your faith in the both of us.”

“Excellent choice, Captain.” Comet beamed when I called him that. “Now! Onto official business.

“I’m assuming you caught wind of what happened to me the other night?”

“I only heard that you were assaulted,” Captain Comet said.

“Celestia and I have a couple reasons for hiring extra guards. Beef up security around the castle so I don’t get jumped again, but what you apparently didn’t hear is why I was assaulted. On the down-low, the attacker stole some maps, one of which was recovered. Since this stallion was so hell-bent on breaking into my room, he must’ve been after something that involved the land depicted on the maps.”

“May I have a look?”

“It wouldn’t hurt to have another pair of eyes.” I levitated out the maps in question and unfurled them. As Comet looked them over, I caught the distinct glint in his eye when you realise something’s out of place.

“Do you see something?” I asked.

“Which of these did the thief steal?”

I pointed out the map of the plains.

“Hmmm… These maps must be a bit older than I thought. Several years ago there was a massive earthquake. What the maps don’t show is the canyon that was created after the fact, and the town inside the mountain range was half destroyed.”

“What’s the town called?” I asked.

“Mercy.”

I froze. That’s where Hayseed lived. I cleared my throat to regain my composure. “And in the time since the earthquake, somepony decided they needed maps for an unknown reason.”

“Princess, you mentioned two reasons for the extra security?”

“With extra guards to keep security tight around the castle, that frees up resources and ponies to be used elsewhere if needed, including but not limited to, investigating the area you pointed out.”

“Hold on a second, let me get this straight.” Comet took a breath to calm his thought processes. “Somepony broke into your room, assaulted you, stole a map, and now Celestia is hiring more guards so you can send ponies to investigate nefarious activity? But the one the thief took doesn’t even have the chasm on it!”

“You’ve helped me a good deal with this matter, Comet, although your mention of the chasm brings something else to light.”

“It’s a giant hole in the ground,” he deadpanned.

“Don’t be so quick to judge. Whoever wanted the map knows something about that hole that we don’t, and whatever that something is, we have to get to it before they do.”

7| The North Wind

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True to Celestia’s word, the bulk of everyone signing up for the castle guard had arrived on Sunday. Through all the paperwork and organising I’d been doing, as well as hearsay from the influx of ponies, I eventually learned that Celestia’s and Luna’s rule extended beyond the confines of the castle from what I initially thought.

Some of the scrolls that came my way were requisition forms that Celestia used to order what the castle needed or couldn’t produce by itself; food, cloth, lumber to name a few, which is partly why court proceedings tended to get rather busy, and it explained all the desk work: everyone took the chance to come see Celestia and Luna as they were passing through on business, such as Harvest and Lumen from my first day’s proceedings. I wasn’t entirely sure how far the princess’ rule extended to, so I began by noting towns and villages petitioners and would-be guards came from to give me an idea of the general vicinity.

As much as I wanted to take Sunday to unwind from the busy week, all the hustle and bustle meant there was more work to do than any other day. Celestia had created a personal record for each recruit to track their progress (which I thought was a wasted effort since not all of them were going to make it), but we didn’t even have enough room in the castle for them all! Fortunately, we had enough camping equipment in storage to accommodate those who lost out on a room, and we set them up behind the castle.

Knowing what was to come made getting out of bed that much more difficult.

Normally I could walk to the dining hall for breakfast on my own, but the halls were filled with the ambience of most of the maids and butlers (and I say that because I don’t like saying ‘servants’) occupied with the jobs needed to take care of a surplus of three-hundred guests, so I was constantly passing someone.

During breakfast, most of the new arrivals sat at the opposite end of the lengthy table from Celestia and I, as if they were somehow scared by us. As the dining hall filled, ponies sitting down got increasingly apprehensive the closer to us they got, and it was only a matter of time before someone sat down next to me.

A nervous, sky-blue mare sat down on my left with her meal. Though she glanced my way once, her silvery, wind-swept mane fell over her shoulder, keeping everything on her right out of view. She kept the same rigid posture as she ate, anxious etiquette ensuring she kept up with appearances in the presence of Celestia and I.

“What’s your name?” I asked.

She promptly jumped right out of her skin, her spoon clattering against the table as she began thumping her chest to clear her mouthful from the wrong pipe. “B-Boreas, Your Highness,” she managed to choke out.

“I didn’t mean to frighten you,” I said apologetically.

“It’s fine, Your Majesty. I didn’t expect you to actually talk to me.”

“Oh? Why not?”

“Everypony else is worried they might say something stupid, or end up inadvertently offending you or Celestia.”

“It takes a lot to offend me, so those fears are unfounded. I honestly don’t mind if you talk to me like you would anypony else.”

“...Really?”

“Of course! Let me start. What made you want to sign up?”

“Honestly?” she said tentatively, to which I responded with a nod. “I just want to put my talent to good use. I often got easily bored when I was little, and often found myself picking up things I otherwise shouldn’t. One day I picked up one of my father’s knives, found a log to use as a target, and never looked back. It was so exhilarating finally being able to consistently sink a blade into the same spot.”

“It’s an amazing feeling, isn’t it?” I said.

“I kept focusing my boredom onto something that I feel had merit, and when that log finally split in two, I got my cutie mark,” Boreas said with a proud smile.

She leaned over slightly, and I saw what appeared to be two crossed kunai on her flank.

“I take it you’re good at what you do?” I said.

She narrowed her gaze. “I can pin a fly to a wall clear across a room bigger than this.”

I raised an intrigued eyebrow, then looked over to Celestia eating by her lonesome as an idea popped in my head.

I leaned down and whispered my idea into Boreas’ ear.

She recoiled. “I couldn’t do that! I might accidentally hit somepony!”

“What happened to Little Miss I-can-pin-a-fly-to-a-wall, hmm? Not as deft as you claim?”

Boreas met my challenging gaze with her own. “Alright,” she acquiesced, grinning. “But remember, this is your idea.”

“I’ll take full responsibility,” I said with a smirk.

Boreas was quick to finish up, and as I watched her leave, Celestia gave me a curious look from across the table, holding one end of her spoon in her aura. I just kept looking at her, waiting…

Before I knew what happened, there was a faint tink as a knife hit the wall somewhere off to the right, and the bowl of Celestia’s spoon splashed into the milk below. She stared, confused, expecting a mouthful that never came. Meanwhile, I had a grin spread ear to ear, leaning into a hoof to support my head as I stared at her.

Celestia, confused, looked around for whatever caused half her spoon to fall off, and finally did a double-take when she spotted the piece of steel embedded in the frame of the hearth. Her head turned slowly, mechanically, and those demonic purple eyes bored straight into my soul with simmering anger, and I began to waiver under the weight of that gaze the longer I kept eye contact.

To my continued horror, Celestia’s silent, piercing anger was replaced by a knowing grin that slowly etched it's way across her muzzle. She picked up a napkin, nonchalantly dabbed any excess milk from her face, and went back to eating using the spoon from the place set next to her. All the while, her eyes never left mine.

She winked at me, and it was at that moment, I knew I fucked up.

As calmly as I could, I finished eating and slowly exited the dining hall, and found Boreas waiting outside.

“So, what happened, Your Majesty?” she asked.

“Has anyone ever given you the dirtiest look ever, and you feel like you want to wet yourself from the fear they’re beaming into your soul?”

“I… can’t say I have. Is everything ok, Princess?”

I shook myself out of the stupor and ruffled my wings to clear the justifiable anxiety. “Yes, they will be. After that prank, it’s inevitable Celestia will try and pull one over on me.”

“When you said I could talk to you like anypony else...” Boreas said as a change of topic, eyeing me up and down as I began walking to the throne room. “Can I ask why?”

“Let me answer your question with another question. Do you see me as a friend, or as somepony who’s superior than others?”

Boreas went silent after that, pondering the question right up until we arrived at the throne room doors. After some deliberation, she finally spoke. “I would much rather a friend who I can protect, and who protects me, than a ruler who expects their guards to lay down their life for them.”

“Well put,” I said with a smile. “I think you’ll do well here. Friends?” I extended a hoof, and Boreas bumped it with one of her own, beaming.

“Friends.”

As ponies began to gather outside the throne room, I pushed open one side and ushered Boreas in. “Would you be up for a little test?” I asked her.

“Sure, but what kind?”

“Would you care to stand in for one of the usual guards? It’ll demonstrate that being a princess isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be, and give you an idea of what guard life’ll be like.”

“You want an inexperienced civilian to replace one of your more experienced guards?”

I took my place upon my throne as Boreas stopped at the bottom of the stairs leading up to. “All you need to do is sit to my right, observe, and intervene if necessary. I couldn’t tell you the last time anypony tried anything violent.” That was true and false at the same time. “If things go from bad to worse, your talent should prove useful at deterring anypony. Speaking of… Where do you keep your knives? For that matter, how do you even throw them?”

“My wings, of course. Where else would I keep them?”

“In… your wings?” I parroted, dumbfounded. Boreas proceeded to fan her wings, small, razor-thin blades poking out from between the feathers. Intrigued, I reached off to the side and grabbed a piece of parchment I was going to throw away, scrunched it up and tossed it into the air. Boreas was quick to adopt a solid stance as she eyed the paper flying through the air. She fanned a wing and threw it forward, catching the paper with a blade and embedding it into the door at the opposite end of the room in one swift motion.

“I’m impressed already,” I said after a moment.

“Thank you, Princess. Though, if I may–” Boreas was cut off when one of the doors suddenly opened, Celestia striding in with a stern expression.

“Good mor—Ow ow ow ow ow!” I suddenly found myself being forcefully beckoned towards Celestia, my hooves scuffing across the floor, only just keeping me upright. When she stopped pulling me across the throne room like a child about to be reprimanded, I sat before Celestia as she looked down at me while I gingerly rubbed my ear.

“I do believe a proper good morning is in order,” she said stiffly. “Would you care to introduce me to your friend with impeccable aim?”

“Boreas, Celestia; Celestia, Boreas,” I said sheepishly, timidly looking up to Celestia.

Celestia cleared her throat and sighed. “Luna, as much as I enjoy a good prank, all it would’ve taken is somepony leaning forward at the wrong moment for things to go horribly wrong. Understand?”

I only nodded.

“And this won’t happen again?”

Another nod.

“Good. On another note, why is Boreas at your side instead of one of the other guards?”

“Well... As a bit of on-the-job training, I asked her to fill in for the regular guard.”

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Celestia pressed.

“I assured her that intervening is a circumstance that rarely arises, so I’m confident that it won’t do any harm.”

“Disregarding recent events, I’ll trust your judgement with that. Oh, by the way…” Celestia levitated not one, but two of Boreas’ knives over to her. “I do believe these belong to you.”

“I, uhm, eh-heh, Thanks,” Boreas said awkwardly, taking the blades and tucking them back inside her wings.

“Also,” Celestia continued with a sly smile to me, “don’t think I won’t be getting you back at some point.”

I looked to my stand-in and groaned. “Told you…”

Despite everything that just happened, Boreas giggled.

“I think I just lost half of my brain cells,” Boreas commented, the throne room doors swinging shut behind us. “Are all the petitioners that obtuse?”

“If you lost half your brain cells, you’d wonder why I’m not a complete vegetable after dealing with it this long.” And by ‘this long’, I meant a week. “For the most part, they are. Although, there’s a few that I do get rightly invested in.”

“So, what do you normally do after court?” Boreas asked as she began following me through the halls.

“Considering it’s late afternoon, I’d take care of any errant work at my desk, enjoy the rest of the evening, eat dinner, raise the moon, then sleep.”

“Oohhh, can I watch?”

I blinked in surprise. “You… want to watch me scribble over parchment?”

“No no,” Boreas chuckled. “Raise the moon! I’ve always wanted to see it happen...”

“By all means,” I replied as I stopped at a seemingly random door.

“Erm, what’d we stop for?”

I pushed the door open, and Boreas’ eyes widened when she realised what lay behind.

“No way,” she breathed in awe. “I never imagined I’d ever get to see the inside of a princess’ bedchambers…”

“You’re not the first,” I absentmindedly said. I didn’t realise the weight of that statement until I looked to Boreas, seeing her crooked grin trying to suppress laughter.

“It’s not like that!” I blurted.

“Oh yeah, I bet you get all the stallions in here,” Boreas snickered.

Time to play some mind games… I thought mischievously. “Who said it was stallions I was interested in?” I stepped closer. “For that matter, why do you think I invited you in here?” Boreas’ ears fell flat against her head, her eyes looking up as I slowly approached. The mare before me went completely tense. I stared her down for several pregnant moments before I did anything.

“Kidding!” I finally said, breaking into a small bout of laughter.

“You actually had me going there for a minute,” Boreas said, exhaling a long-held breath and laughing in return.

“See what I mean?” I said as I flopped onto my bed to relax briefly. “Just because I’ll effectively be your boss, doesn’t mean we can’t share a laugh. And for the record, I don’t mind if you use my name when you’re not on duty in the future.”

“I appreciate the sentiment, Luna,” Boreas said with a smile.

“You’re quite welcome. In any case I’ve got work to do, and one of the regular guards will stand outside for the rest of the evening, so feel free to have a wander ‘round the castle and soak in the sights. And try to get an early night, you’ll most likely need it for tomorrow.”

“I shall.” With a short, thankful bow, she left as Comet took his place outside.

“Who was that?” he asked once Boreas was out of sight.

“Hopefully one of the newbies I’ll be assigning to you. Quite good at what she does. Scary, too.”

Comet raised an eyebrow. “Do I want to know?”

“You’d probably end up crossing your legs in her presence if I told you what happened at breakfast,” I snickered.

“And with that said, I’ll mind my own business while you do your princess-y duties.”

“A wise choice indeed. Oh, and could you do me a favour and fetch Boreas, the mare that just left, in a few hours?”

“Of course, Your Highness.”

With a grateful “thanks”, I clicked the door shut, and sat down to the pile of scrolls I bought in with me.

The lingering light of the evening sun hung below the horizon, soon replaced by the vast blanket of the night sky. Like sun sparkling on a secluded lake, the heavens were lit by pinpricks of light blinking into existence one by one, reflected in Boreas’ awed eyes.

I turned to head back inside, closing the balcony doors behind us.

“Wow…” she said airily.

“Is that all you have to say?” I asked in jest.

“Well, no, but when you see someone as powerful as an alicorn perform a feat like that, it puts you at a loss for words. The night sky is just so... lucid.”

“Powerful, you say? There was once I time I had incredible difficulty levitating even the smallest of objects.” White lies are fun.

Boreas blinked in disbelief. “I find that hard to believe, considering all the legends surrounding alicorns.”

“Oh? What legends might those be?”

“Just stories I heard as a filly, about how the strongest could turn a mountain to dust without even blinking.”

“Hah! Looks like I’ve got some catching up to do, then. Now, shall we adjourn to the dining hall for dinner?” I opened the bedroom door, offering Boreas the right of way.

Celestia had decided on holding a dinner for all the new arrivals each day until week’s end; it was a good way to get to know everyone, and was more efficient than crowding hundreds into a room that had a maximum capacity of less. Feasting, merriment, banter, and there was even mead! It was like my friends and I at the bar on a Friday night before the weekend, but Celestia, however, gave me a stern look when I made a grab for my fifth flagon when she was halfway through her first. She was either a lightweight, or a prude.

With the moon risen, my stomach full, mind buzzing, I crawled into bed and made myself comfortable. I wondered if getting tipsy then visiting the dream realm would be any different.

It wasn’t a moment later I found myself amongst the portals, wherein my question was answered. Sadly, liquor didn’t effect me or anything in the dream realm. It would have made for an interesting experience, seeing all the hypnotic swirling portals while tanked. Despite my mild disappointment, that wasn’t why I was here.

Comparing Earth to Equestria, I didn’t think it unreasonable to assume that dreams functioned in a similar manner, and what Boreas said earlier made me think. If someone was aware they were dreaming, they could potentially manipulate the dream itself in any manner desired, something called ‘Lucid Dreaming’, and I wondered how it would effect my magic within the realm and dreams themselves.

I began by closing my eyes and fed magic into my horn, and through the tendrils of energy snaking forth, I could feel the nature of each dream they touched, good or bad. I mentally commanded the magic to organise the portals into corresponding groups of nightmares and sweet dreams, and I opened my eyes to see the portals shifting and grouping together with fluid motions. The one thing I noticed was the colours of the portals with nightmares were a lot darker than their counterparts, and the downright nasty ones were sickening to even look at, much like the oily black portal from my first night in here. Going the extra step, I kept a mental picture of Hayseed and in mind, willing my magic to bring it closer.

To my relief, it floated over from the sweet dreams instead of the nightmares, the colour a much more vibrant grass-green. Curious as to what the little guy was dreaming about, I stuck my head through the portal, and what I saw made me “d’awwww”.

Hayseed was playing with a version of Luna that looked to be around his age, however old that was, pushing one another on a swingset, frolicking about in the yard, and otherwise enjoying one another’s company. Happy that Hayseed was having a good dream, I ducked out and left him to it, moving on to another.

A nightmare would be a good opportunity to put my hypothesis about dream magic to the test, so I found a relatively mild one and jumped on in.

It was an empty forest full of dead, decaying trees and detritus all around that seemed to stretch into infinity. Then a screaming red blur with a bark-brown mane shot by me faster than I could blink. Not a moment after that, black blobs bounded across the forest floor like bouncy balls the size of basketballs down a hill.

I was quick to leap into the air, taking flight after the stallion. Spotting him ahead of me, I increased my speed to keep pace with his running, hovering just above him.

“Need some help?!” I shouted down to him.

In the split second the stallion looked up, he tripped over a log, fell flat on his side, but was quick to scramble to his feet unhindered.

“Princess Luna?! What are you doing in this Celestia-forsaken place?!”

“I saw you were having a bad dream, so I decided to pop in!” I swooped down, wrapping my forehooves around his barrel, then lifted off into the air, the blobs mobbing the spot he was seconds before.

“You alright?” I asked as I set us down on a thick branch half way up a tree.

“T-thank you, Princess. If you hadn’t come along…”

“It is a dream,” I reminded him. “You would’ve woken up with a start is all.”

The stallion looked down at the ground, and even though the blobs had no eyes, I could feel them staring us down.

“What are those things?” he asked, wide-eyed with fright.

“I call them Smokers. Basically, a nightmare in a physical form. Well, as physical as a dream can get…”

“I keep having the same dream night after night,” he said, thumping the back of his head against the tree trunk in frustration. “It’s driving me insane, and I dread going to sleep some nights.”

“What’s your name?” I said.

“Bramble, Your Highness.”

“Being chased by a bunch of little things? Sounds like you’re running away from something,” I ventured.

“When you put it that way…”

“In life, you’re bound to be overburdened by lots of little things. You just need to take a moment to clear your head, and figure out how you want to handle things. Though it may be overwhelming, keeping a level head can help to keep stress in check.”

“Yeah, I suppose you’re right. But… how?”

“That’s not up to me to decide. What I can do, however, is give you a good night’s sleep. Hopefully in the morning, you’ll be refreshed enough to think straight.”

It was time to put my theory to the test.

Leaving Bramble in the tree for the moment, I glided down to the ground to address the horde of Smokers. They were less interested in me than in waiting at the base of the tree.

“You will leave Bramble alone!” I shouted. “I am She who guards the Night, and you will listen!” They cowered back, slowly slinking away from me.

“Begone with you!” I reared up, then slammed my forehooves down on the ground. To my serendipity, a wave of magic pulsed outward from my hooves, sending the smokers flying back. Where they went and if they’ll be back I didn’t know, but at least I made some ground with dream magic. I was glad to have caught a break.

I fetched Bramble and returned him to the ground. He was looking much more relieved than before.

“Thank you, Princess,” he breathed.

“You’re more than welcome. I hope you sleep well.” I lit my horn and leaned down to Bramble’s forehead, commanding the magic to give him a dreamless sleep. A moment later, the dark and gloomy forest began to slowly dissolve into a plain white nothingness, leaving the stallion asleep in the middle of it, and I could see the portal back to the dreamscape just behind him.

As I stood before it ready to depart, I looked back to Bramble. “Rest easy, friend.”

With a handle on how I could deal with nightmares, it was off to the next one.

8| Magna Luna

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I was so busy with preparations for training that, by the time Monday rolled around, I realised the minotaurs hadn’t arrived the previous day like they were supposed to. As I was walking to the dining hall for breakfast to bring the matter to Celestia’s attention, I was greeted by a bombastic cavalcade of five minotaurs all lead by Celestia, whose head barely came up to the chest of the biggest one. His shoulders were as wide as the almighty battle-axe strapped to his back, and packing enough muscle to make his golden ochre frame look like Arnold Schwarzenegger in his prime. His upward-curved horns protruded from a mop of obsidian black hair with a sheen to match the tuft of hair at the end of his tail, and the only thing he wore was a pair of scruffy, leather-looking black shorts and accompanying silver belt.

“Well if it isn’t Little Lulu!” the minotaur proudly exclaimed, stopping and stooping to tousle my mane.

“Touch me again and I’ll vaporise you,” I seethed, glaring at the minotaur through tired and dreary eyes.

After a brief pause and glances between the six of them, they group burst out laughing, Celestia included.

“Minos,” Celestia said after several mirthful seconds, “are you not going to invite Luna to breakfast?”

If my eyes didn’t deceive me, I could’ve sworn she winked at him.

Raising an eyebrow in my direction, Minos paused briefly before promptly reaching down and scooping me up with an arm, slinging me over his shoulder like a duffel bag.

“Hey, put me down!” I indignantly demanded, batting my forehooves against his back as he turned toward the dining hall. “I am Princess of the Night! I walk in the realm of dreams! I order you to put me down this instant!”

I could almost feel every ripple of his muscled arm holding me. It was... Perturbing. And then I suddenly realised why Celestia had fallen behind as we began walking, looking up at me with that smug grin as I had no choice but to admit defeat, deflating against Minos’ back. There was no way I could compete with his brute strength.

“Told you I’d get you back, ‘Little Lulu’,” Celestia chuckled.

“I hate you so much,” I grumbled.

The worst part about being toted around like luggage was when we entered the dining hall. Everyone shot glances my way, trying and failing to hide their giggles by stuffing their mouths with food, or hiding their muzzles in the crook of a hoof.

Minos finally let me down into my chair like a parent would their toddler into a high-chair, patting me on the head. Boreas and Comet were already sitting either side of me, trying their absolute hardest at keeping a straight face.

I leered at Comet. “Keep that up and I’ll tell you exactly why you should walk very gingerly around Boreas.” That wiped the grin off his face rather quickly.

“I still have no idea what she did and I’m already scared...”

“Should we tell him, Luna?” Boreas said.

She and I exchanged that same knowing look. “Nah,” we both echoed, much to Comet’s continued discomfort and confusion.

“Celestia,” Minos began as he sat down at the table, “how many guards and ponies do you have, and how many others have signed up?”

“In the neighbourhood of four-hundred and fifty. Some are camping out the back of the castle because we couldn’t accommodate them all, unfortunately.”

“Then they can stay where we are at the moment. Since I’m here on business, not that I don’t like your company, my dear, could you have everyone behind the castle after breakfast?”

“Some of them are in for a rude awakening if they’re still asleep,” I mumbled.

“That’s something to look forward to,” Celestia added, smiling at the thought. “And yes, that won’t be a problem.”

“Very good!” Minos declared, curling his knuckles in each palm and cracking them with satisfying pops.

Noticing that, Comet leaned over to me and whispered. “Is it too late to back out?”

I snorted. “Yes, yes it is...”

Once breakfast concluded, gathering everyone didn’t even take ten minutes. Minos may have been one of the most outgoing people (loosely put) I had ever seen, but dear god could he put the scare in you. Standing on a supply wagon the minotaurs brought for themselves, Minos delivered a drill sergeant-style speech to the crowd. It really put into perspective what my dad went through.

He stopped the speech by abruptly stomping on the roof of the wagon. “Bring it out!”

Two of the other minotaurs pulled it down the wagon’s tailgate–if you could call it that–and reached in behind the canvas curtain to haul out a giant, glass-looking orb attached to a crafted stand and set it in front of the wagon.

“Each and every one of you will begin your training by demonstrating your strength,” Minos declared.

I leaned over to Celestia to whisper into her ear. “What is that?”

“An MPF, magic power finder. It measures magical and physical strength. Just watch.”

“Do I have any volunteers to set the benchmark?” Minos said.

I saw a few shaky hooves rise, and Minos pointed out one toward the front. “Come forward!”

As the gathered crowd parted, an earth pony stallion strode up. Sporting a mud-brown coat and stony-grey mane, he was absolutely massive and well toned, though he had nowhere near as much muscle as Minos. In his mouth he held a leather strap attached to a stone warhammer that dragged alongside him.

“What is your name?” Minos demanded.

“Bastille, Sir!”

“Hit this thing as hard as you can and prove you’ve got stones as big as your hammer!”

“Yes sir!”

“Give him some room!” Minos declared, and the other five minotaurs stepped forward to push the crowd back.

As everyone parted in a large semi-circle around the MPF, Bastille reared back and rapidly spun the hammer above his head. Then, with all the strength he could muster, brought it crashing down upon the orb.

I was honestly surprised neither shattered, and almost immediately, numbers somehow popped up above the orb and began shuffling around, settling on four digits.

My jaw dropped.

“One-thousand five-hundred and six!” Minos declared, hands on his hips. “Next!”

Watching everyone try in vain to match or surpass Bastille’s score was quite the spectacle. During the initial scoring, one of the other minotaurs was keeping track of names and accompanying scores to compare who had the biggest improvement when they retested everyone at the end of training, from which the top two-hundred would be chosen. After everyone had their turn, scoring even as low as twenty, the highest score next to Bastille’s was a hair above a thousand.

Jumping down from the top of the wagon and landing with a thud on the ground, Minos kicked everything into action. “Let’s get this show on the road and whip your fat flanks into shape so you’re fit to serve under royalty!”

Lightly put, the next four weeks were chaos. The castle halls were somewhat calm during the day since all the trainees were outside, rain or shine, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t hear Minos’, shall we say, words of encouragement somehow echo throughout the castle. That motivated me to learn a soundproofing spell with a timer for my room, as training would often go late into the night.

Nothing changed with how busy court got, so Celestia opted to handle the proceedings and desk work if I took care of everything else. At Minos’ behest, I also spent a chunk of time helping him train the guards alongside the other four minotaurs.

One of the unicorn stallions, proficient with illusions, made a valiant attempt at trying to use his magic to fool Minos and myself into thinking he was doing better than he actually was. We only found out his deception after someone bumped into him, breaking the illusion that he was flawlessly hurdling over the obstacle course, when in reality he was reclining on the grass. The only reason he finished training was because of a nullifier Minos made him wear. Apparently, he had a few on hand for occasions he thought warranted their use.

Bastille broke a few of the obstacles when he couldn’t get over them, opting to go through them instead, which was rather entertaining, and watching the pegasi perform aerobatic maneuvers while in combat was dazzling to behold. At the same time, I realised a fundamental difference between pegasi and thestrals that mirrored birds and bats on Earth. Who knew watching so much Animal Planet while baked would pay off? In a nutshell, feathered wings are great for long distance flying, but a thestral’s wings are more proficient with maneuverability. I’d witnessed several thestrals keep their pegasi opponents on the ropes when sparring, whereas a pegasus had the edge when it came to endurance flying.

Boreas was quick on her hooves during the obstacle course, but when it came to target practice, she was only beaten out by one of the older pegasi due to his experience. Comet, on the other hand, performed excellently throughout training, which thankfully justified my decision in placing a portion of the guards under his command.

There were endless drills, exercises, and combat training, during which I helped the unicorns with their magic, which was also a learning experience for me just as much as it was for them. There were a number of unicorns who could teleport, so I directed those that could to teach the others while I watched on and picked up on the technique. It saved me the headache of trying to teach myself, which would have likely taken even longer, and it was the same for the pegasi and their airborne combat regimen. I was effectively training and teaching myself as much as the guards.

Between instructing the guards, my own training and duties around the castle as well as in the dream realm, I barely managed to get in alone time. What few hours I managed to squeeze in here and there were spent practicing flying in remote areas where nobody could witness my spectacular failures, usually in the form of crashing into bushes and the tops of trees. If I got stuck, I could muster enough magic and safely teleport myself to the ground.

When I wasn’t picking twigs and leaves out of my mane, and washing the dirt off my coat, I was in the library studying spells, soaking up information like a sponge trying to drain the Pacific ocean. I found out that that there were three types of magic: Holder, caster, and passive. Holder magic effectively required an enchanted item to channel magic through your body, such as how witches and wizards used wands, amulets, and spellbooks in movies on Earth. That made me wonder if anyone could pick up a wand and start casting spells.

Caster magic was limited to unicorns and alicorns as far as I knew. It basically required the use of our horns to draw on the magical energy from within and around us to cast spells. If we drained our own reserve of magic too quickly, it’d slowly recharge over time.

Passive magic had a lot to do with earth ponies, pegasi, and all the other races. It gave earth ponies incredible strength, endurance, longevity, and likewise gave the pegasi the ability to fly and manipulate the weather and clouds, which I thought was pretty trippy. It was during one of my flying sessions that I discovered laying on clouds was like laying on a gigantic sack of freshly picked cotton!

At one point during my studying, Celestia told me that, because alicorns had all the traits of each of the pony races, we could essentially do all of what they did. Our unique brand of magic effectively bolstered and enhanced the capabilities of each individual race, part of which resulted in an exceedingly long lifespan, and it explained how Luna was over a hundred years old and still looked like a teenager if I had to guess. Did it also mean alicorns had a higher tolerance for alcohol? I wouldn’t mind testing that one.

It took a hell of a lot of practice, patience, and effort, but I finally had a handle on what I thought were the most important spells to know. The only thing I had trouble with when teleporting, conjuring magical barriers and so on, was exactly how much magic I needed to feed into the spell. When I pumped too much magic into my first attempt at teleportation, I wound up in the middle of a freaking forest. I had no idea how far I went, let alone where I was, but fortunately I was able to teleport back to my room by using the same amount of magic in reverse.

Watching everyone score on the MPF on the first day gave me the idea of trying for a score of my own. Part of what I was doing during studying was designing a brand new spell, as well as finishing off the one I’d been working on. With how proficient I was becoming with my magic, I eventually learned how to cast spells without reading instructions on parchment like I had been doing.

At the end of the four long weeks, I had a sneaking suspicion that all the time spent training, studying, and trying to perfect my magic as best I could, would pay dividends when it came to finding out why the stolen map had been so important.

I had no idea how right I was.

With the end of training finally in sight, Celestia had closed court for the day so she could observe the guards try to beat their high scores on the MPF, which gave me an opportunity to polish off my new spell in the four hours everyone spent trying to out-score one another.

I’d discussed it with Celestia previously, and she seemed to like my idea of choosing the top twelve scoring guards to serve directly under us, and from there we would establish a proper chain of command within the castle. I already had my eyes on Comet, Boreas, and Bastille, and there were a few others that piqued my interest in my time spent training.

As I was up in my room putting the finishing touches on my newest spell, I didn’t realise all the noise outside had died down until I heard a knock come from the balcony doors. Confused, I looked and saw Celestia gesturing me forward, so I went over and opened the doors.

“Everything is prepared if you’d care to join us,” she said.

“After you.” With Celestia ahead, we both glided down to the training grounds. The grass was worn down with how muddy it’d become from thousands of hooves trampling around.

Two deep and four wide, the guards were assembled in groups of fifty with twelve standing in a row at the forefront as I flew over. We touched down next to Minos and the MPF he was leaning on, holding a large, rolled-up parchment in hand. He offered it to me when I approached, and I took it, unrolling and looking it over. It was all the scores from the MPF arranged highest to lowest, and some really impressive ones, too. The lowest was fifty, and the highest being about twenty-five hundred, which made me do a double-take.

“Allow me to introduce those who scored in the top twelve,” Minos began. “Bastille made a huge improvement and scored the highest, and everyone else came within two-hundred of him.” We stopped at the beginning of the line, next to the same unicorn who tried pulling the wool over our eyes.

Minos thumbed at him. “You remember this screwup?”

I looked over the list to remind myself of the stallion’s name. He had jaundice-yellow eyes, a dark blue coat and purple mane to match, and his cutie mark had the sun overlapping the moon. “Midnight, yes.”

“He scored the second lowest above Boreas, though his magic may prove to be useful. Next we have Ares...”

Ares was quite the curiosity, though not in any sort of bad way. Looking him over, his jet black coat covered him from head to hoof including his wings, perfectly hugging his handsome, athletically toned body. The black of his coat crept up his ram-like horns, eventually tapering off halfway to the bone-white horns should be. What really stuck out as odd, however, was that he had no cutie mark.

“...And then we have, uh, Princess Luna?” Minos’ voice caught me off guard, and when I looked to him, he and Celestia were already half way down the line, looking at me.

Wait… When I looked back to Ares, he was sporting a small, knowing grin.

He winked, and I suddenly felt a heat upon my cheeks that wasn’t the overhead sun.

“Uhm, yes, right,” I replied, awkwardly clearing my throat.

“Were you listening?” Minos asked, smirking at me.

“I was curious as to why Ares has no cutie mark and a pair of horns is all.”

“Care to fill the princess in, soldier?” Minos said.

Wherever Ares came from, his accent was rich, smooth, and simply tantalising to listen to. “Your Majesty, rams and ewes do not get cutie marks, and being sired by a ram to my mother, a pegasus, means I won’t get one. Additionally, I inherited my father’s horns and melanism.”

A flying battering ram, I mused. “Thank you for that clarification,” I replied, quickly moving to the next in line, a unicorn mare. “And what might your name be?” I asked. She had a red, yellow and black mane and tail that looked like a lava flow, and a fiery red coat to boot. Her cutie mark was a pair of wings closing around a flame.

“Firefly, Princess.”

“I must say, pyromancy is a fascinating magic, but I feel like I should warn you to take it easy so you’re not causing any collateral damage in the future.”

“My apologies, Princess, It won’t happen again.”

“Very good,” I replied, moving onto Comet, but he didn’t need any special introduction since I already knew him.

Next on the chopping block was Veloce (Velo for short) the only thestral, or aptly named “bat pony” due to their appearance. She had a gunmetal blue coat and the most beautiful magenta eyes, and her mane was a two-toned, light and dark sapphire blue that matched her wings. When I first met her, I was curious, as erroneous rumours stated that thestrals drank blood. Though her diet included meat, she was the furthest from a bloodsucker there was, but what made her stand out were her lack of forelegs below the knees. One morning during training, I saw her attaching prosthetics and pulling the straps to tighten them above her knees and upper legs. Veloce told me she’d simply been born without them, and preferred to fight with her rear legs. And let me tell you, a flyer with the ability to buck you with as much strength as an earth pony coming at you at terminal velocity was a downright terrifying thought.

“How’s training been treating you?” I asked Veloce.

“I’ve managed to outperform the vast majority of trainees despite my limitations, so it’s been going well, Princess.”

“I’m glad to hear. Keep up the good work, Velo.”

After Minos went through and introduced the rest of the twelve, some of whom I already knew in passing, it was time to see how high I could score.

“Minos,” I began, “since everypony else has had their turn, mind if I have a crack at the MPF?”

He furrowed his brow in confusion. “You princesses are the strongest out of all the soldiers here. Why do you want to?”

I shrugged. “I couldn’t tell you the last time I had my magic measured like this. You don’t mind, do you?”

“Not at all,” he replied, gesturing to the stand with a polite wave of his hand.

With my newly dubbed Meteor spell fresh in my mind, I took flight and quickly drew five arrays some fifty metres directly above the MPF with my magic, all connected by lines resembling a five pointed star inside a pentagon. I floated in the centre of it all, and began charging the massive spell with as much magic as I could gather, and then I started the incantation.

The entire array began glowing brightly alongside me, and I could feel the spell charging my horn with a massive amount of magic. When I felt it near critical mass, I reared back and unleashed the almighty ball of incandescent magic directly on top of the MPF like a comet roaring through the sky. From my position above, I saw detritus get kicked up all around ground zero as everyone in the immediate vicinity staggered back to shield themselves from the shockwave, breaking their formation.

By the time I touched back to the ground, I barely had enough magic left to teleport back to my room. I gazed upon the four numbers with pride. So this is the power that Luna wields? I thought to myself.

Seven thousand, six-hundred and twenty-two.

“I didn’t think someone your age had such power!” Minos said in awe. “Care for a turn, Celestia?”

“Don’t mind if I do,” she said without a second glance. “Mind if I go all out?” she asked, looking over her shoulder to Minos.

He shrugged indifferently. “That’s what it’s for!”

Clearing her throat and closing her eyes, Celestia spread her wings and hovered just out of reach of the orb, her horn glowing as bright as the sun. After several seconds of fierce concentration, a bead of magic shot skyward from her horn. Hundreds of pairs of eyes followed it as forehooves shielded faces from the blinding sun. And like a kid holding a magnifying glass over a colony of ants, a column of blazing yellow light slammed into the ground with a wave of intense heat radiating outward. Everyone staggered further back and shielded themselves from the heat, myself included.

After the smoke cleared, everyone stared in silent disbelief with agape jaws at those five digits.

“There’s no way that number can be real!” someone in the crowd shouted.

I was lost for words, but Minos grinning widely and chuckling at everyone’s bafflement. “Ten thousand and forty-two isn’t anything to sneeze at! Now, you’re dismissed!” Minos bellowed to the assembled, then ordering to two minotaurs for the MPF to be put back inside the wagon.

I shot a look to Celestia, and she proudly stuck her nose up in the air, making a deliberate show of cantering toward the castle like that display of hers was nothing.

“Pfft, show off,” I muttered under my breath.

With training complete, and the new recruits selected to serve Celestia and myself, Celestia took it upon herself to send the latter half of the guards home with a letter saying because they’d completed royal guard training, they could serve as sheriffs, deputies, or whatever else ponies called the ones who looked after their respective towns, so that even though they hadn’t been selected, their training wasn’t completely wasted.

Since we already had accommodations set up, it was decided to put two guards in each room, splitting up the mares and stallions on different floors for obvious reasons. Everyone was more than welcome to decorate their rooms within reason so as to make them feel more homey. We divvied up the guards according to their capabilities, experience, and split them into three groups so they all could learn off of one another. Two groups of sixty worked from Monday to Thursday when it was busy, and the rest did Friday to Sunday while still maintaining a presence. Having been the underdog at the office for years, it felt nice having people working for me. The fact that they had powers (for lack of a better word) beyond my wildest dreams was the icing on the cake.

With the newcomers settled in, Celestia and I decided it was time to pursue the matter of the missing map. We gathered our chosen guards in a conference room Celestia used to discuss sensitive diplomatic cases. Once everyone was inside, and the doors closed, I spread out the relevant maps I brought with me for everyone to look at.

“Five weeks ago,” I began, “the castle, and subsequently my room was broken into. A pegasus stallion with a rust-red coat and green eyes is to blame. Courtesy of yours truly, he may or may not still have a nasty gash across his face. We also believe that he was not alone, as the attending guard outside my door was knocked unconscious. Whether it was a unicorn or pegasus is still unknown.”

Comet thickly swallowed, but the others didn’t need to know it was him.

I pointed out the small map that was stolen, and the one that was recovered. “Apparently, these maps play an important role in his agenda, though what his goals are still continue to elude us. Comet,” I said, turning to look at him, “care to fill in everypony about what you told me?”

“Several years ago,” Comet began, “there was an earthquake that created a large crevasse outside the mountain range. Between then and now, I’d venture that somepony has made a discovery and needed maps to fully chart the area. The question that concerns us is how many are involved, and what it is they’re after.”

“Princess Luna, if I may ask, what does this have to do with the rest of us?” one of Celestia’s guards, Slipstream, asked.

“In addition to making up for the lack of security we didn’t initially have,” Celestia said, “we plan on taking a few of you to the town located within the mountain range to investigate. We suspect anypony with involvement will have a presence there since it’s the closest town to the crevasse they can buy supplies from.”

“So are we like Her Majesty’s Secret Service?” Boreas asked with a grin.

“As superiors to everypony else while under the guidance of the more seasoned guards, it will be your responsibility to maintain proper order among the lower ranked guards and make sure their duties are carried out accordingly,” Celestia said sternly in response. “All of you have been chosen because your respective skillsets will be instrumental in situations like this.”

“When do we start this little operation of ours?” Firefly asked.

“Tomorrow,” Celestia replied. “We do not know what else has been going on, and we need to get to the bottom of everything before the situation devolves even further. Anypony involved alongside the stallion that assaulted my sister over the maps has committed treason against the crown for their own ends, and I shall not stand for it.”

I had no idea Celestia cared about Luna enough to accuse someone of treason. All the more reason to keep my situation to myself.

“Starting in the morning,” Celestia continued, “Midnight, Boreas, Slipstream, and Firefly will be sent to the town of Mercy to monitor any and all nefarious activities, and pay the crevasse a visit to find out if it holds any significance. Your orders will be to mingle with the town’s ponies and keep a watchful eye out for the previously mentioned stallion and apprehend him if you find him. Everypony else will carry out their regular duties while being informed of potential security threats.”

“One flaw in that plan,” I said.

Celestia cocked an eyebrow. “Explain.”

“If that stallion was to be apprehended the moment he’s spotted, he wouldn’t be able to lead us to his accomplices.”

“Hmm, a valid point. How do you wish to do things then, Luna?”

“If you’ll allow it, I’d like to accompany everypony, and I do have good reason.”

“Luna, I can’t let you wander into danger again. We don’t know what those ponies are capable of!”

“Celestia, listen to me for a moment. I’ve seen that stallion’s face; I know exactly what he looks like. Would you risk apprehending an innocent stallion just because he bears a similar resemblance to another?”

She sighed and pinched her brow in frustration.

“If I may?” a deep, gravelly voice spoke.

“Yes, Anvil?” Celestia said through exasperation.

“Princess Luna makes a good point. We can’t run the risk of arresting an innocent stallion and having the operation blowing wide open sooner than it needs to.”

“Can everypony give us a moment?” Celestia said rather than asked.

There were awkward nods throughout, and everyone silently vacated the room.

“I can’t allow it,” Celestia finally said when the door clicked shut. “There are a multitude of unknown factors in play, not to mention how risky it would be for you.”

“I understand that you want to keep me safe, really, I do. But doesn’t it defeat the purpose of recruiting more accomplished guards if you don’t trust them to do their job?”

Celestia looked at me for a good, long while, studying me with a weird expression. “And what of your little friend that lives in Mercy? I remember you telling me about him when you visited my dreams a little while ago.”

She knew by how surprised I looked that she figured it out. “I… will admit that my motives are two-fold,” I said sheepishly. “Look, I’m just asking that you trust me on this. When we locate that stallion, Firefly can tail him to find out how he ties in with the maps; Slipstream and Boreas can fly over the crevasse, and I’ll have Midnight’s magic to keep me out of the public eye.”

Celestia cupped her face in her hooves and sighed heavily. She knew I was right, she just didn’t want to admit it. “Alright, Luna, alright,” came her muffled reply. “Though, I shall be telling Midnight not to let you out of his sight,” she finished, lowering her hooves. “Would you mind telling me why you want to visit your little friend too?”

“The first time I found his dream and went in, he expressed an interest in meeting me as a friend,” I said. “Can you imagine his serendipity if I showed up out of the blue? Besides, it’ll give us a good excuse to wander around town looking for... you-know-who…”

“As much as I hate to say it, you make a convincing argument,” Celestia said with a defeated, yet playful smile which I returned as my way of thanks.

“Now, you have a moon to raise. Hurry up before I change my mind.”

I had the biggest grin on my face on the way out, and a reason to pay Hayseed a visit and let him know I was coming to see him. How else would he know to look out for me while I was in disguise?

Despite how well things were going, it was when I visited the dream realm that things took a bit of a turn.

I had planned on using my newfound magic to deal with any nightmares appropriately, which I did anyway, then say hello to Hayseed at the end of the night. I kept an eye on his dreams during training while tending to others to see if he had any more nightmares, but tonight was a different story. When I caught sight of his portal later in the night, it was darker in colour. Concerned, I went to check up on him.

He sat on a swing underneath an outgrowing tree branch, idly swinging his legs back and forth and barely moving, head hung and looking down at the ground despondently. Overhead were black, rolling stormclouds, threatening to unleash a deluge.

“Hey there buddy,” I said softly, walking up to Hayseed slowly so I didn’t startle him.

Hayseed didn’t say anything, sighing heavily.

“What’s the matter?”

“I was playing with Citrus in the sandbox, then Bastion came up and started picking on her. I told Bastion to leave her alone, but he wouldn’t, so I pushed him back,” he muttered.

“Did you tell your teacher?” I ventured.

“Bastion told Miss Abacus that I pushed him first…”

My mouth formed a silent ‘O’ in realisation. “What happened after that?”

“Miss Abacus told me I couldn’t go outside and play for the rest of the week.” Considering it was Thursday, that was unfair. Just as I was about to say something, Hayseed did instead.

“And after school, I told Bastion you’d put him in the dungeon, ‘cause you’re my friend!”

I honestly tried to hide my giggle-snort, but I simply couldn’t. Hayseed saying that was just way too adorable.

“But then,” Hayseed continued, my interruption seemingly gone unnoticed, “Bastion pushed me back and said that nopony wants to be friends with me because I only have half a h-head…”

“I wouldn’t want to be friends with Bastion, ‘cause he sounds like a big fat meanie,” I said, trying to lift the mood a bit.

Giggling half-heartedly, Hayseed wiped a hoof over his nose. “You’re my friend, right?” he asked hesitantly, looking up to me with those adorable emerald eyes of his.

“Of course I am, why wouldn’t I be?”

“Bastion said—”

I looked him straight in the eyes. “Hayseed, you should never be ashamed of your ear. If you wear it like armour, it can never be used to hurt you. Own it, make it part of who you are. Behind everypony’s imperfections is someone with the heart and strength to do things in their own special way. And what about Citrus, she’s your friend too, right?”

He nodded, “Mmhmm.”

“Keep her close to you. If she wants to be your friend, then I know she sees more in you than what’s on the outside.”

Hayseed hopped down off the swing and unashamedly wrapped his forehooves around me tightly. In all my years of adulthood, there’s one thing I learned about little kids. Never be the first one to pull away from a hug. Chances are, they need it more than you do. I draped a forehoof across his back to return the warm gesture.

“Can you come visit some time?” he asked, slightly muffled by my chest.

“How does tomorrow sound?” I said after a moment.

“Really!?” Hayseed exclaimed, somewhere disbelief and surprise.

“Of course! Though, I will be in disguise because I don’t want the whole town to get jealous about paying you a visit instead of them,” I chuckled.

“What will you look like?” he asked.

An idea popped into my head. “What do you want me to look like?”

Hayseed sat on his haunches, looking up and studying my features.

“Pink!” he finally exclaimed. “With a rainbow mane!”

“I…” My eyebrow twitched. Every fibre of my being was urging me to say no to that horrendous colour palette, but I couldn’t turn the little guy down.

Note to self, I thought, never let a little kid pick a disguise for me ever again.

“Alright, deal.”

“Thank you, Luna,” he said, hugging me again.

I didn’t say anything. I just enjoyed his hug with one of my own.

By the time Hayseed pulled back and we looked up, all the dark and stormy clouds had vanished, replaced by an endless blue expanse and the shining sun.

9| A Town Called Mercy

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After I raised the moon, I was greeted by one of Celestia’s guards outside my door as I went for breakfast. I was taken to the conference room where a breakfast spread had already been laid out. Midnight, Boreas, Slipstream, Firefly, and Celestia were all patiently waiting on me.

“What’s all this for?” I tiredly croaked.

“I thought it prudent we all discuss our tasks in a bit more detail than yesterday, so I gathered everypony here and sent a guard to fetch you,” Celestia said.

“And you waited until the last minute,” I muttered as I slumped into a chair. “Next time, try thinking things through. We could’ve done this yesterday.” I shot Celestia a wry look, and she returned with one of her own. Eventually, my expression evened out during our stare-off as the awkward silence went far beyond uncomfortable.

“I’m waiting on you to start this, Celestia,” I said flatly.

Celestia cleared her throat to get everyone’s attention, then said that she wanted Atlas, the castle’s head cartographer, to fly out to the chasm with Slipstream while Boreas reconned the area. I questioned why Atlas wasn’t with us, and it was Celestia’s decision to keep him in the dark while we discussed the matter at hand. He showed up momentarily with his equipment, and was then informed that the extra security was because I’d decided to visit the town for the day.

With all our duties assigned, Celestia teleported Boreas, Slipstream, and Atlas to the general vicinity of the chasm. It wouldn’t be hard to spot a cotton candy pink mare with a rainbow mane when they met up with the rest of us later on. Once they departed, I left the regalia I normally wore with Celestia (save the peytral), and waited for Celestia to teleport Midnight, Firefly and myself roughly a kilometre outside of Mercy so that we would look like newcomers to the town, and so I had enough magic to teleport all six of us back. It was a tall order considering we were at least a hundred kilometres from the castle, but I was confident I could pull it off.

With a flash of white light, we found ourselves in the middle of a winding, dusty dirt road on the outskirts of a forest, the trees growing increasingly sparse the closer to the foothills they got. Though it was still morning, I could feel the heat of the sun beating down on me. Mercy was only partially visible in the distance thanks to the many craggy mountain ranges encircling the town and its multitude of farms.

It didn’t take us too long to arrive in town, but when we did, I was awestruck. All the buildings were crafted from thick, sturdy beams of wood like a western village during the 1800’s, but the stark contrast were all the vendors in the main street out and about selling hot, freshly cooked food. Charcoal-grilled corn, toasted nuts, as well as fruit, and vegetable kebab sticks. I was salivating at how delicious everything looked. Having such rich soil for crops, Mercy was a market hub where anyone could come from far and wide to buy food. A great deal of the castle’s food came from Mercy, and the various local farms reflected how many market stalls there were selling as many fruits and vegetables.

As we walked further down the street, I laid my eyes on an all too familiar face and beamed. Standing behind his stall chock full of corn and various sized sacks of different grains, Harvest smiled at each and every customer as they made their purchases.

Harvest dipped below the counter to replace a few sacks as I approached. When he stood back up and looked at me, he dropped what he had in his mouth and stared with abject shock, most likely because he’d never seen someone so… colourful. I was glad, too, for it was proof that my disguise was working.

“Hello there,” Harvest said, forcing an awkward smile and picking up what he’d dropped. “What can I do you for? I’ve got all kinds of grain you could want!”

“Good morning to you too,” I said with a friendly smile. “Me and my friends here are new in town and we were wondering if you could give us a few directions.” Harvest seemed to be fixated on me, but I couldn’t figure out why.

“I’d be happy to! Although, coming through the north’s forests, did you happen to pass through a patch of poison joke on your way here? I’ve uh, never seen an oddity such as you unless they’ve come that way.”

I wasn’t sure how to take that, but I just rolled with it. “That... would explain why I woke up like this a few days ago,” I said, feigning ignorance as I awkwardly rubbed the back of my head. I had no idea what poison joke even was.

“If it’s a cure you’re after, go visit Powder Keg in his shop. It has a cauldron for a sign, and he sells all manner of potions, cures, and other odds and ends. Though, I do have to warn you that his train of thought skews quite often because of his eccentricities.”

Powder Keg sounded like a kooky old grandfather. “And where might I find his shop?”

“It’s a few streets over at the north end of town. You shouldn’t have too much trouble finding it.” Harvest’s continued staring was beginning to make me uncomfortable.

“Are you alright?” I said. “You seemed to be paying me a bit more attention than normal.”

“I’m sorry for staring, it’s just… Your voice somehow reminds me of someone, but I can’t for the life of me remember who.”

Apparently, the colour of magic wasn’t the only thing the illusion couldn’t mask. “I wouldn’t worry about it too much,” I replied, grinning inwardly. If only you knew…

“If you say so,” Harvest said, clearing his throat to push those thoughts aside. “Before you go, can I interest you in some grain? It’s great for making fresh bread!”

Freshly baked and buttered bread was absolutely tantalising, but what was I going to do with a sack of grain I had no use for? “Thank you for your offer,” I said as I levitated out a couple silver coins. Spending Luna’s money was fun; there were ten copper coins to one silver, and likewise ten silver to one gold. “Here’s something for your troubles, though.”

“Oh my,” came Harvest’s airy response as his eyes widened at the coins. “That much would get you the largest sack I have available.”

“How big?” I pressed.

“Five kilos for two silver,” he replied.

A lot of the earth pony vendors wore bags of coins around their neck like their own cash register, so I levitated the two silver pieces into Harvest’s. “Consider it a little extra for being friendly and helpful,” I smiled.

“Well thank you very much! I must insist on giving you something in return. It doesn’t feel right taking that from you.”

I chuckled as Harvest rifled around under the counter. “How can I say no to that?”

He brought up one of the smaller sacks of grain, and I took it from his mouth with my magic. “It’s a special variety of corn I’ve been growing,” Harvest said as I opened it up to look.

My eyes shot open. Those hard, deep gold kernels were all too familiar. “Thank you very much,” I said as I cinched the sack closed and put it in my bag. To confirm my suspicions, it would go straight to the kitchen when I got back to the castle.

“I don’t think I caught your name, by the way,” Harvest said.

“Corona,” I replied. It wasn’t the name of the beer, but the aura around the sun during an eclipse.

“It’s always nice to have newcomers in Mercy, Corona. And what are your friends names?”

“This here is Midnight and Firefly,” I said, pointing to them respectively.

“Will I be seeing you three again?” Harvest asked.

“Perhaps,” I said with a small smirk. “Maybe our paths will cross again in the future.”

“Happy trails until then!”

“Until next time, Harvest,” I smiled. As we began walking to find Powder Keg’s shop, I turned to Firefly and asked; “What’s poison joke?”

“It’s a magic flower that turns you into a walking contradiction. I would’ve thought somepony like you knew about it.”

“You’d think so, but my time is mostly spent around the castle. If Powder Keg has the supposed cure, then maybe we could pick it up and some of the flowers. It’d be funny to prank Celestia,” I whispered.

Midnight almost tripped over himself. “You’re going to do what?!”

“Make her some tea with poison joke and give it to her at breakfast. It’d make court substantially more interesting if she doesn’t realise what’s going on.”

Firefly could barely contain her laughter. “Oh wow, I can’t even imagine what she’d look like!”

That actually made me think. “If poison joke turns you into a walking contradiction, what do you suppose it’ll do to me?”

Firefly rubbed her chin in thought while Midnight gave us horrified expressions. “Why would you do such a thing to a princess?” the stallion asked.

“Well for one thing, I am also a princess and Celestia’s sister, so that makes it OK. Two, I owe her for last month.”

“To answer your question,” Firefly said, “who knows? Only one way to find out for sure.”

“Princess?” Midnight asked hesitantly. “I hate to be a wet blanket, but we are here for a reason. I’d like to remind Firefly of that so we can do what we came here to do.”

“Fine,” Firefly groaned. “That said, try to use the name Corona gave Harvest earlier. I also feel obliged to keep the chatter on the down low. In a town like this, there’s bound to be ears in places you’d least expect them.”

We went silent after that, but in a good way. It put my companions back into character, and it let us keep an eye out for the mysterious stallion and Powder Keg’s shop. We kept heading north, and soon enough found what we were after: a wooden cutout painted to look like a cauldron with the handle of a spoon sticking out the top. “This has got to be it,” I said as I went to make a grab for the handle.

The door was violently blown straight off its hinges at us, but Firefly reacted in time to turn the door into a charcoal briquette. I blinked in shock, then a moment after I grasped what the hell just happened, I looked to Firefly. “What did I say about collateral damage?” I said through clenched teeth. Meanwhile, the various ponies in the street near us were rolling their eyes and fanning their noses at the acrid smoke billowing from the shop like it was a regular occurrence.

When nobody came out hacking up a lung like I expected, we all went in holding our noses. Most of the smoke had cleared out, and through the thin haze still present, I could just make out the defining features of the shop. Shelves lined the right hand wall, filled with all sorts of labeled potions, vials, and other jars with unrecognizable things in them that had been knocked around and shattered by the explosion, and other jars with bits and pieces I hoped weren’t as advertised. In the far left corner was a bubbling cauldron, the source of the smoke, and an open window next to it. There were weird tribal masks hanging askew on the walls, a shelf full of books, some of which were on the floor and smoldering, and swaying dreamcatchers strung from hooks in the ceiling. I couldn’t help but snicker at those. The entire place had a distinct voodoo vibe to it, but I couldn’t see whoever created the explosion. They were most likely on the floor and buried under the contents of the two shelves that were previously stacked next to the cauldron.

Like a zombie rising from the grave, one of the wall masks rose up from the pile of clutter, complete with pained moaning. “Success!” the mask suddenly declared. Whoever wore the mask pulled themselves from the mess, shaking off anything stuck to them in the process, then tossed the mask to one side.

Though his black-and-white striped coat was singed and covered in soot, it did little to hide the distinguishing colour scheme all the way down to the zebra’s cutie mark. I had no idea what it was supposed to be, but it looked like some tribalistic depiction of flames. Did all zebra cutie marks follow the same design scheme?

As the three of us were standing there at a complete loss for words, Keg – that’s what I later learned everyone called him by – came up and began sniffing me like a curious dog. “Hmmm… Dry, stale, earthy,” he said. “You don’t get out much, do you?” Keg then shot a disgruntled look at Firefly. “I hope you’re going to buy me a new door after you torched it. Go and talk to Knocker the next street over. Mention my name and he’ll know what happened.”

I looked down to Firefly and grinned. “Go on then. You owe the stallion that much.”

“He blew his own door off its hinges!” she protested.

“On the contrary,” Keg said, “I can usually fix it after a low-key boom such as that. You, on the other hoof, burned my door and made my mother’s cooking look palatable!”

Grumbling, Firefly reluctantly went off to pay for a new door. Meanwhile, Midnight stayed by my side as per Celestia’s instruction. “Now, what is it you want?” he asked us.

“Some poison joke and the corresponding cure to,” I said.

Without any questions, I was promptly awarded with two vials; one full of purple liquid labeled “PJC” and the other was filled with blue liquid and labeled “PJ”.

“Three silver pieces a pop,” Keg announced. “That stuff ain’t cheap or easy to make, and getting the flowers is an entirely different story.” That wasn’t a problem, so I levitated out the coins and gave them to Keg, then he carelessly tossed them onto the pile of other coins that had spilled from a large clay pot. That was a robbery waiting to happen.

“Hey Keg, you old prat! I need some more of that boom sand you made!” a voice shouted from behind us.

I turned around to see who it was, and I saw… him. Rust-red coat, green eyes, wings, but this time he wasn’t wearing a cloak; his cutie mark was a wavy square of parchment with three bold red lines and a large red ‘X’. That suddenly made everything that much more interesting. I couldn’t help but grin widely at the oh so apt crescent moon scar on his forehead from when I headbutted him. The irony was equally delicious as it was cliche.

“What the fuck are you looking at, missy?” the stallion said, eyeing me up and down. I tensed. Every fibre of my being wanted to punt him into next week for what he did, but I held my composure.

“Pardon me, I thought you were my friend returning,” I said with as much grace as I could. Firefly wasn’t anywhere near as rude as he was, just careless.

“Well you and your little boy-toy there can scram. I got shit to take care of, and I can’t do it with you two in the way.” He shoved his way past us, and we calmly exited the store as soon as we could.

“What was that guy’s problem?” Midnight grumbled once we were outside and could breathe fresh air.

“Probably got some sand in his vagina. Would probably explain why he’s so rude. By the way, Midnight, that’s the stallion that broke into my room,” I said in a hushed voice. “When he comes out, follow him to wherever he goes. Do not talk to him, do not interact with him. I only need you to find out what he’s up to.”

His eyes promptly widened to the size of dinner plates. “But Celestia said–”

“I don’t care what Celestia said. Firefly will be back in a few minutes and I’m not going to wait for her if it means losing sight of him. I’ll tell Firefly what happened when she gets back with the door.”

“Ok, fine, but I’d better not get in trouble for disobeying an order from Celestia.”

“I’ll see to it,” I affirmed.

The stallion came back out a minute later with several sacks of something hung around his neck with string like ballasts on a balloon. He glanced at me one more time and rolled his eyes before walking south, where I gave Midnight a nod to follow. Once he lit his horn, the stallion completely disappeared from sight. His magic worked on the principle of perception, like when you fancy someone and they don’t even know you exist. It’s simply altered how you view the spell’s target, so that was Midnight’s version of an invisibility spell.

A few moments after that, Firefly came back levitating a door and grunting in annoyance.

“Ha-hah!” Keg exclaimed, catching me off guard and making me jump as he stepped outside. “Can you mount it in the frame please?”

“Hey, you blew it off, not me! If your doorframe was made of metal and not flimsy wood, I could weld the hinges to the frame.”

“Firefly, just fix the door so we can get on with our day,” I groaned, pinching my brow. Firefly proceeded to angrily shove the door in its place and use a concentrated concussive blast of magic to drive the nails home, then tested the door to make sure it worked properly.

“There, can we go now?”

I laughed inwardly. “Sure. By the way, Keg, do you know where the schoolhouse is?”

“Follow the path east out of town. Should only take a couple minutes, and thanks for the new door!”

“Whatevs,” Firefly said dismissively, to which I shot her a glare.

“You don’t have to be such a hot head all the time,” I teased.

She snorted and grinned slightly. “I haven’t heard that since I was a filly. Everypony called me hot head, flame brain, etcetera, because I was always the spritely one.” She blinked and looked around us. “Where’d Midnight go?”

“The stallion that broke into my room just so happened to walk into Keg’s shop while you were fetching the door,” I said.

“With Midnight gone, looks like I can’t leave your side, then.”

I looked over my shoulder, eyes narrowing at the map stallion one more time. I was already thinking of ways to get back at him, but justifiably so. If you take the bull by the horns, expect to get gored.

“What do we do now?” Firefly asked as we ambled up the street.

“Not sure,” I said with a shrug. Then a thought occurred. “The cutie mark of the stallion we’re after is akin to a treasure map; he stole a map of an area that recently had a chasm appear, so I’m thinking if this town has a library, we might find some records that’ll help us. He also wanted some ‘boom sand’ from Powder Keg. What is that anyway?”

“The same stuff that you’d put in cannons,” Firefly said.

My eyes shot open. “You mean gunpowder?!”

“...Maybe? I haven’t heard it called that before.”

“Break-ins, maps, a chasm, and now explosives? What the hell is that stallion up to?”

“Nothing good, that’s for sure,” Firefly said. “Hopefully Midnight finds out what he’s doing, and maybe Boreas and Slipstream can clue us in as well.”

“Let’s make ourselves useful in the meantime by doing a bit of research,” I said. To my amusement, Firefly groaned and rolled her eyes.

“Books and me don’t tend to get along. You know, promancy plus paper equals cinders.”

I snorted humorously. “Use your hooves to turn the pages, then.”

After getting directions from a passer-by to the library, we were pointed towards Town Hall, an imposing building that could have passed for a large manor. Consisting of three floors, the topmost had a balcony with a set of double doors that led inside, and above that was a massive clock for all the town to see. The bottom floor had a deck with railing that spanned the entire face of the building, complete with an awning to provide shade from the harsh sun, and slumped forward in a chair next to the wide-open doors was a tan-brown stallion with crossed forelegs, a stetson pulled down over his face, and a smoldering cigar that looked as though it was just about to fall out of his mouth.

Firefly and I gingerly walked up the creaky stairs so we didn’t wake the stallion, but we momentarily found out otherwise.

“Can Ah help y’all?” he asked, tilting his head to look up at us.

I just about jumped out of my skin. “Pardon me, I thought you were sleeping,” I said, which earned me a snort as if to say yeah right.

“Ah’m the mayor of this’ere town. You can call me Granite, and Ah remember every single face that walks through them doors. Mind tellin’ me what y’doin’ here?”

“We’re travellers sightseeing around your town, and wanted to purchase some books,” I said.

“‘Fraid there’s nothing in the library that’s for sale, though you’re more than welcome to browse. Anything inparticular you’re after?”

“It’s like this,” I chuckled disarmingly. “On my way here, I passed through some poison joke and woke up looking like a filly ate some paint and threw up on me, so I was hoping there might be a book on flora and fauna to know what to look out for in the future.”

“There’s a shop over yonder that sells the antidote,” Granite said, roughly pointing in the direction of Keg’s shop.

“Been there done that. Powder Keg said it’ll take a while to work, so it’s something I can take before bed, but, I digress.”

Granite went to take a drag on his cigar, but pulled it out with an annoyed grunt to see why he couldn’t, then proffered it to us. “Got a light?”

Firefly lit Granite’s cigar with a spark of her horn. With a smile, he took a long, satisfying draw, then exhaled. “Flora and fauna are in the back-right corner next t’the window. There’s parchment and quills you can use, just leave a littl’ somethin’ so we can replace what was used if y’don’t mind. Anything else Ah can help you with?”

I wanted to ask Granite if he knew anything about the stallion we were after, but that would’ve lead to questions we couldn’t answer. “I’ll be sure to ask if anything comes to mind.” With a polite sweep of his foreleg, Granite allowed us passage inside.

After an hour and a half of reading through all the scrolls and books we could gather pertaining to the town, we couldn’t find anything that would help us which didn’t confirm what we already knew about the town. Although, I did find out that the mountain range was called Macintosh Hills (a bit of a misnomer), named after an apple farmer from out west in the desert. The town itself was founded some hundred years ago by a mare of the same name, who set up the first farmstead, and the town grew from there. I couldn’t find records of any earthquakes before the one from several years ago, leading me to wonder what had caused it.

“Find anything that’ll help us?” I said over my shoulder to Firefly.

“Turns out Mercy was founded and settled because the dirt makes growing crops a breeze,” Firefly boredly replied.

I tsked disappointedly. “I guess all that’s left to do is wait for Boreas, Slipstream, and Atlas to get back.” I closed the book I was reading and restacked everything on the shelves, and Firefly followed suit. “Come on, there’s somepony I want to pay a visit to.”

“At least it beats reading,” she said eagerly. “We should make it quick, though, we don’t know when the others are getting back and we don’t want to miss them.”

Just after noon, Firefly and I passed through the main street and picked up a snack to eat on the go, and I also got something sweet for Hayseed. Keg’s directions to the school took us a little ways out of town, to the general area of all the farms. It made sense the schoolhouse would be closer to the farm houses so the kids didn’t have far to travel from home. The barn-like structure had a belfry above the main entrance with steps leading up to the deck and awning, and the fenced-off area had a variety of toys and playground equipment scattered around.

“Looks like we’re a bit early for their lunch break,” Firefly said. “Who did you want to meet here?”

“A little friend of mine. What time is break?”

“Another five minutes if I had to guess. Let’s just hope we don’t get weird looks from anypony,” Firefly dryly remarked.

“I… didn’t consider that possibility,” I awkwardly replied. Firefly and I took the time to finish our snacks, at which point a bell sounded, indicating break time. Ten seconds later, at least a dozen little colts and fillies poured out the back door and made a mad dash to claim their favourite toy or piece of playground equipment. I couldn’t immediately see Hayseed, but a moment later, I smiled widely as he casually walked out with a mare sporting a lemon-yellow coat and lime-green mane. That must be Citrus, I thought. And a fitting name, too. Hayseed had a brown bag in his mouth, most likely his lunch, then he and Citrus both sat on one of the benches against the wall to eat. Citrus sat on his left, obscuring me from his view, so I walked up to the fence and waved to get his attention.

It took a couple tries, but eventually Citrus poked Hayseed in the side and pointed over to me. He promptly dropped his sandwich and dashed over to me, leaving Citrus by herself and wondering what just happened.

“Princess!” he almost shouted in glee. Hayseed was positively vibrating with excitement, which made my day.

“Keep it down,” I hushed. “You don’t want to make the other colts and fillies jealous.”

“Hayseed, who’s that? You know we’re not allowed to talk to strangers,” Citrus said as she tentatively approached.

“Well she isn’t a stranger, she’s my friend!” he replied.

Citrus was giving me a weird look, so I tried making conversation with her. “What’s your name?” I asked.

“M-my name’s Citrus,” she said shyly.

“My name’s Corona. Now we’re not strangers anymore, are we?” I said with a smile.

“Excuse me there, who are you?” an older voice asked. I looked up and saw a mare with a dark burgundy coat and greying mane approach. Going off her cutie mark, she must have been Ms. Abacus. “Is everything alright?”

“Of course!” I said with my best attempt to dissuade her suspicious stare. “I know Hayseed, so I thought I’d pay him a visit while passing through town.”

“Is that right, Hayseed?” Ms. Abacus said.

“Corona’s my friend,” he said. We both shared the same small smile at that.

“Fine, but I’ll keep an eye on you if you don’t mind. And Hayseed, come back inside after you’re done eating.”

“I understand,” I replied. “I won’t be too much longer, just popped by to say hello.” With one final suspicious stare over her shoulder, the teacher went back inside, but shot me the stink-eye from the window.

I sat on my haunches and rested my forelegs on the picket fence, and my chin on my legs to talk to Hayseed and Citrus. “So, how are we doing today?”

Hayseed winked. “We were learning about Celestia and Luna, but our next lesson is math,” he finished sourly.

I reached into my saddlebags and pulled out a candied apple on a stick to offer it to Hayseed. “Maybe this will help make it better?”

“Oohhh,” he said excitedly. “Can I share with Citrus?” It was nice of Hayseed to consider his friend, so I used my magic to cut the apple in half. He finished it happily, and even Citrus began to smile, albeit hesitantly.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a stocky, brick-red colt with a grey-black mane looking our way as he strode up to the bench Hayseed and Citrus were sitting on. “Hayseed, who’s that?” I said with a nod in the colt’s direction. Hayseed turned to look, and his ears nervously flattened against his head.

“Bastion,” he said emptily. Bastion then proceeded to levitate and upend Hayseed’s lunch bag, nonchalantly taking the apple and other sandwich then shooting Hayseed a “haha” smirk. Not taking any of Bastion’s thieving bullshittery, I used my magic to pluck the apple and sandwich right out of his aura and put them back in the bag, levitating it back over to Hayseed. Confused, Bastion began walking over to me with a disgruntled expression.

“What did you do that for?” he said through narrowed eyes.

“Because it wasn’t yours to begin with,” I said. “Now go and eat the lunch your mother made instead of stealing somepony else’s.”

“But Hayseed said I could!” Bastion protested.

“Did you, Hayseed?” I said. Hayseed just shook his head, shying away from the abrasive colt. “There, that settles it. How about you go play unless you want me to tell Ms. Abacus?” As our eyes met, Bastion’s smirk told me all that I needed to know.

“You wanna go play in the sandbox like yesterday, Hayseed? Oh wait, you can’t,” he laughed, cantering over to the swingset.

Prick. I looked down to Hayseed, and the poor guy’s eyes were beginning to water. “Hey hey, it’s alright there buddy. You still got your lunch, and even the apple I got for you!”

Hayseed closed his eyes, took a deep breath, then looked back up to me. “Thank you, Luna,” he said quietly. Judging by the funny look Citrus gave Hayseed, she definitely heard, but didn’t know what to make of it.

“Hayseed, come back inside, please,” Ms. Abacus sternly said from the same window she’d been watching me like a hawk through. “You’ve had enough time to eat and talk to your friend there.”

“Yes Ms. Abacus,” Hayseed hollered over his shoulder. He looked back to me and spread his forelegs wide. How could I say no to that? I reached over the fence, and Hayseed wrapped his arms around my neck, squeezing tightly while Citrus watched on.

“Hayseed!”

“Coming Ms. Abacus!” The cheeky bugger actually snuck a little peck on my cheek before running back inside with Citrus in tow. I wasn’t even mad, that was cute as all hell.

Some twenty minutes later, Firefly and I were sitting outside a local eatery. Firefly was wolfing down candied apples while I drank some much needed water.

“Where do you put it all?” I asked in awe.

“I have an above average metabolism because of my magic, so I’ll have a big meal if there’s no fire to replenish my magic,” she said.

“What do you mean, ‘if there’s no fire’?”

Firefly glanced around, then settled on a grill across the road. “Watch this.” She lit her horn, then tendrils of red magic began snaking their way from the burning coals, directly into her horn and extinguishing the grill.

“See?” Firefly said with a proud smirk.

“I think I’ll file that under ‘things that continue to amaze me’,” I said. I noticed Firefly’s gaze shift up to the sky, and I turned around to see what she was looking at. Three specs in the distance were coming in from the south-east, who I immediately assumed to be Boreas, Atlas, and Slipstream. To my serendipity, I could begin to make out each of them as they got closer. Boreas was the first to touch down, followed by Atlas, then Slipstream, all of whom were breathing heavily from their flying.

“Where’s Midnight?” Slipstream asked heavily as she approached.

“He had a run-in with a friend of mine,” I replied. “He should be back soon.”

“That crevasse is huge,” Atlas exclaimed. “It’ll take a week to properly chart the entire area!”

“I could arrange an extended stay in town if you need it,” I offered.

“That shouldn’t be a problem, though I’ll need to speak with Celestia to see what she wants to do,” Atlas said. “It might be an idea to bring in Cloudy to do a proper analysis of the area; that chasm just shouldn’t be there,” he added.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

Atlas rolled his hoof over how to tell me. “Imagine, if you will, that you walk into the throne room one day and see a third throne staring back at you. You’d want to know how and why it got there.”

“I see what you mean,” I said with a glance to Boreas. When we locked eyes, I could tell by her tense expression that she’d found something noteworthy. Not here, I mouthed. The three of them went off to get some food, then we all sat back down to a fresh pitcher of water.

“Flying all day in this heat really takes it out of you,” Slipstream commented as she drained a glass in record time.

“Not me,” Firefly gleefully chirped. “I could run circles around this town!”

“Maybe you should… chill out?” Boreas sniggered.

“Hardy har-har,” Firefly mocked. “I hope you like your water. It’d be a shame if it were to suddenly evaporate.”

By the time Boreas went to take a drink, the water had disappeared. “Oh come on!”

Firefly smugly went to take a bite of her last apple, but instead closed her mouth around thin air as the apple vanished. “What the…” She owlishly stared at thin air, but I knew what had happened.

I scanned around us to confirm my suspicions, and I saw Midnight poke his head out of one of the alleys. “Pardon me a moment. Nature calls.” While everyone ate and drank under the scorching noon sun, I made my way over to the alley. “What’d you find?” I quietly asked.

“There’s a camp half way between here and the crevasse. The stallion from before met with a few others and stashed some equipment away. After they left, I went and teleported their gear as far away as I could manage, and dumped their blasting sand in a nearby river.”

“Did you find the map that was stolen?” Midnight shook his head, then I sighed and rubbed my brow. “On one hoof, you bought us some time and set them back. On the other, however, when they find their equipment missing, they’re going to start asking questions.” I was rather angry that he went against orders, but I couldn’t say so lest someone hear me. “Come on, let’s get back to the others. We should get out of here ASAP.”

“Atlas,” I said as Midnight and I approached the table. “Do you need to do anything else before we leave?”

“I would like to see if there’s any other maps and charts in town if that’s alright.”

“If it’s all the same to you, would you and Slipstream like to stay behind while I take the others back? I can come get you when you’re finished, and I can check with Celestia about you spending the week.”

“That sounds alright to me,” Atlas said. “Slipstream?”

“I don’t mind either way,” she nonchalantly shrugged.

“We’d better get going, then. We should be able to catch Celestia on break from court.” Despite the throng of ponies around, and minus Slipstream and Atlas, I teleported the rest of us back to the castle’s conference room.

“Alright,” I announced once we gathered our bearings, then stared Midnight down. “First off, Midnight, I told you to follow that stallion and find out what he was up to, not to tamper with his equipment.”

“I can understand your frustration, but I do have a reason for doing so,” he said.

“Please, explain,” I said curtly.

“They’re better off sourcing new equipment than looking through hundreds upon thousands of acres of forest to find the crates. If we can find out where they were getting their equipment from, then we can cut them off at the source.”

“Pray tell, what was in those crates of theirs?” I queried.

“The one that was open had machinery I hadn’t seen before, both cast and forged. The rest were still nailed shut. We need to be looking for blacksmiths that have shady business dealings,” Midnight finished.

“A fair assessment. I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt for now. What do you suppose were in the others?”

“I believe I can help with that,” Boreas said as she went to rifle around in her saddle bags. What she pulled out, however…

“Oh. My. God,” I balked. It was a lump of quartz the size of my hoof with veins of gold running through it, and streaks of something red and unidentifiable running through the quartz.

“They’re mining for gold underneath Mercy,” Boreas simply said. Midnight’s gaze was firmly glued to the lump of gem and precious metal in abject disbelief.

“OK, this… This is on a whole other level,” I said, taking a moment to let the sight of the gold sink in. I had a theory about the quartz and gold, but no idea what the red stuff snaking its way through the quartz was. Whatever it might’ve been, I doubted it was good news. “Here’s what I want to happen. Boreas, leave the gold here and go get Celestia.” She promptly left the room and galloped down the hall. “Midnight, I’m sending you back to Mercy on these orders: Return to their camp site and scout for the mine’s entrance. If the map stallion comes back and finds his equipment missing, try and follow him to the source. If you can, try and get ahold of the stolen map. After Celestia lowers the sun, return to the same spot we were at earlier and wait for me. Clear?”

“Yes, Princess.” And just like that, I sent him back to town.

“Is there anything you’d like me to do, Princess?” Firefly said.

“At the moment, we wait until Boreas returns with Celestia.” Which she did about fifteen seconds later by way of teleportation. Without saying a word, I telekinetically tossed the lump of quartz and gold to Celestia.

With wide eyes, Celestia scrutinized the quartz from multiple angles. “Where… did you get this?”

“Boreas found it. Inside the crevasse, correct?”

“There is a vein of quartz at the southern end, yes,” she said.

“Did you happen to find anything else?” Celestia pressed

“Unfortunately not. That chasm is about as deep as it long,” Boreas explained. “I didn’t have a lot of time to explore it.”

“Well, this is certainly a revelation,” Celestia breathed, then turned to me. “What do you make of this situation?”

“I’d hazard that the stolen map was needed to chart the area for gold deposits. Although, there’s a couple things that don’t make sense. Like how he knew where to find the map in the first place, and why it’s taken several years for anypony to think about exploring the crevasse.”

“Mercy is an earth pony town,” Firefly said. “They don’t have any resident pegasi to explore it, or those that passed through simply didn’t care to, and the map? I think somepony would’ve had to have prior knowledge to inform the stallion about it.”

“A reasonable assessment,” Celestia said approvingly. “Although, we shouldn’t rule out any other possibilities just yet. And where are Midnight, Slipstream, and Atlas?”

“We ran into the same stallion that broke into my room, so I had Midnight follow him back to a camp that had crates of equipment, which, at this point, we can all safely assume is for mining. After reporting in, I sent him back to watch for any activity. Slipstream is with Atlas, still in town. He said it’d take him a week to properly chart the entire chasm, and is wanting to know if it’d be OK to stay in town to do exactly that.”

With a raised eyebrow, Celestia continued to look over the crystal contemplatively. “That shan’t be a problem, although, I would like to speak with Atlas before the end of the day. Can you have him back before I lower the sun so he and I can discuss details? It would be a boon to update the maps.”

“That won’t be a problem, seeing how I have to return to Mercy and get Midnight anyway.”

Celestia was quiet for a while, transfixed by the quartz. “Since you’re here,” Celestia continued, “would you mind helping me out by looking over some of the scrolls that have accrued in your absence?”

I didn’t have anything else I needed to be doing between then and returning to Mercy, so… “Uhm, yeah, why not.” What I didn’t say was that I wanted a quick trip to the kitchen to confirm my suspicions about the corn.

“Thank you. Now if you don’t mind, I’m due back into the throne room.”

After she turned to leave, I almost forgot about it. “Celestia, the quartz? Boreas did find it, after all.”

She paused to look over her shoulder. “Oh yes, pardon me.” She levitated the rock over and into Boreas’ bags.

“Thank you, Princess.”

As Celestia left, I took Firefly and Boreas up to my room. “So, Boreas, what you going to do with that?”

“Hmmm, I’m not entirely sure.” She fished the gem out of her bag, and tossed it between her hooves a couple times, then paused to look over at Firefly with a smile. “Say, Firefly, do you think you can use your magic to melt the gold and pull it out?”

“I can certainly try. Would you mind if I kept the crystal?”

“Sure,” Boreas nodded, tossing it to Firefly.

After a moment, I began to feel the heat radiating off of Firefly’s horn. Very slowly, thin ribbons of molten gold began leaching out of every nook and cranny of the quartz, forming into a liquefied ball that floated like water in space. Firefly drew the excess heat out, then levitated the cooled, solid gold nugget over to Boreas, whose eyes shined at the sight.

“Oohhh,” Boreas cooed, her face split with a wide smile.

“Why not take it down to the treasury and see if the metalsmith will buy it off you?” I suggested. “Alternatively, I can talk them into turning it into gold coins and using any leftovers in some jewellery if you’d like.”

“Yeah, I’ll go do that! I’ll come get you if I can’t tempt them with a gold coin as payment,” Boreas chuckled.

As we turned to look at Firefly, Boreas and I had to do a double take at what we saw.

“Why… are you licking the quartz?” I said.

“Hmm? Oh, uh, that red stuff running through the quartz? Only the volcanic kind has that. It’s magical fire residue, so it’s like licking the most expensive caramel apple money can buy.”

“Heh, well, okay then, you do that.” I didn’t make it halfway to my desk before a thought occured. “Hold on, did I hear you correct when you said that’s volcanic quartz?”

“Yeah, why?”

Extremely fertile soil, circular mountain ranges, and now volcanic quartz? I quickly pulled the copy of the map that was stolen from its cubby, unfurled it, and took a long, hard look. “Firefly, Boreas, I don’t think we’re dealing with just a gold mine.”

I began pulling all the books and scrolls on gems and geography I could find from my bookshelves. Please, please don’t let me be right… I found the two books I was looking for, and I opened both side by side while Firefly curiously looked over my shoulder.

“What’s gotten you in a tizzy?” she asked.

I practically shoved the map in both their faces. “Alright you two, considering everything we know about Mercy, and given the quartz, what else do you notice?”

“I don’t…” Boreas began looking over the map with a knitted brow, then after a short while, it rose with the same realisation I had. “You have got to be kidding me, right?”

“Can you point out where the chasm is approximately?” I said.

“Right about… here.”

I looked to the area where her hoof pointed. “We need to tell Celestia about this, and now. I’m going to get her.”

“Wait!” Firefly shouted. “I have no idea what you two are gawking about, but Princess, I feel obligated to point out that you still look like a filly puked paint on you!”

I blinked and looked down at my pink forelegs. “Oh.” I quickly removed my peytral and broke the illusion, then teleported straight to the throne room.

I turned back to the crowd of petitioners and the two present and said; “I hope you’ll forgive me, but something important has just come up and I need to talk to Celestia.”

“We were barely about to talk, but I don’t mind waiting for a short while,” one of the mares said.

“Thank you, and I apologize for the interruption.” I whisked Celestia off to my room.

“Is everything alright, Luna?” she asked between sincerity and annoyance.

“This is going to be wild from start to finish, so I need you to listen carefully.” I cleared my throat to speak coherently. “After you left, Firefly pulled the gold out of the quartz and gave it to Boreas. After that, Firefly then began licking the magical fire residue off the quartz because it’s volcanic.” I showed her the map. “That’s not just a mountain range, Celestia. Mercy is sitting inside the caldera of a massive volcano.”

10| What The Future Holds

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“Are… you sure it’s a volcano?” Celestia dubiously asked.

With a roll of my eyes, I levitated over and opened one of the geography books, pointing out one of the paragraphs within. “A caldera is formed when the magma chamber under a volcano collapses when it dies, which is what the mountain range around Mercy is. I’d venture that the earthquake from several years ago was the result of unstable rock shifting around and collapsing inwards.”

Celestia took a glance at the book, considered what I had to say, and sighed. “As much as I enjoy a history lesson, Luna, I can’t remain here any longer because I still have those ponies waiting in court. I’d be happy to sit down with you afterwards and discuss everything in more detail while you take care of the scrolls that accumulated in your absence.”

“Wouldn’t something like this take precedence over sorting out other ponies problems? If that map stallion digs underneath Mercy, the town might collapse like it almost did from the earthquake!”

“An extreme scenario,” Celestia said dismissively.

“Within the realm of possibility!” I almost shouted, baffled that she ignore something like that.

“Luna, that’s enough!” Celestia boomed.

Everything went so quiet that I heard the trees rustling in the idle breeze outside.

“Fine,” I grumbled after a moment. “I’ll do your damned scrolls, then I’m going back to Mercy to warn the mayor about what’s happening.”

Without objecting, Celestia huffed to regain her composure a bit, then teleported back to the throne room. I turned back to Firefly as I closed the door.

“Sorry about that,” I said heavily.

“Eh, it’s cool,” Firefly shrugged indifferently. “Everypony has their spats, and you two are no exception.”

“True, I suppose. Anyway, take the afternoon off while I sort out the scrolls. If you run into Boreas, tell her she can have the rest of the day to herself. Come back an hour before sunset, then we’ll go back to Mercy and get the others. And before you go...” I added as we walked to the bedroom door. I activated the Lock spell, and the array emerged from within the wood. “Put your hoof on the keyhole.” Firefly did as I instructed despite her puzzled look, and her cutie mark bloomed from the array and sunk into it.

“What was that all about?” she asked.

“That spell locks all doors within the room it’s cast. If I’m not here and you need something, or need to leave me something where I can find it, then you can come and go as you please. Just be sure to let me know if you take something.”

“I’ll make a note of it if I do.” Firefly opened the door, and we saw Bastille walking up the hall.

“Starting your shift are we?” I asked as he took position to the right of my door.

“Sure am, marm,” he replied in his thick, token voice.

“Isn’t Veloce supposed to be with you?”

“Up here!”

Caught off guard by the sudden intrusion of the third voice, I looked towards the ceiling. Sure enough, the bat pony was hanging upside down from the rafters by her tail. I blinked and said; “What are you doing up there?”

“Would-be thieves are too busy looking left and right for things to hide behind and ponies to avoid. They don’t often think to look up. If they get brave and decide to take on Bastille, I can jump ‘em from above. They’d never expect it!”

“That’s good and all, but won’t the blood run to your head?” I said.

“Nah, a thestral’s vascular system is slightly different than a normal ponies; our blood vessels keep a more consistent flow so it doesn’t pool when we sleep upside down. I’m lucky because I don’t have to worry about my forelegs hitting me in the face when I do,” she finished with a giggle.

I had to grin at that. And with the addition of Bastille and Veloce’s signatures, having half a dozen top-tier guards able to access my room meant you’d have to be as dumb as a rock to break in. Since I re-calibrated the array after Celestia set it, nobody but me could activate it to add signatures.

Shortly after, I went down to the kitchen with the bag of corn I got from Harvest. To make a long story short, everyone within earshot hit the roof when the kernels began pinging off the sides of the pot. When I got back to my room with my bowl of popcorn and Luna’s favourite tea, one of the castle’s staff brought me the scrolls Celestia mentioned.

While I was taking care of them, time seemed to go by at a snail’s pace because I kept looking at the clock, counting down when I’d get to go back to Mercy. And you know what they say about clock watching. Finally, five o’clock came around. I heard a timely knock at my door and it clicked open, Firefly strolling in right on schedule.

“We ready to get this show on the road?” she asked.

“And… done!” I exhaled heavily with a flick of the quill over the last of the unfurled scrolls. “Glad I got that out the way. Give me a moment, and then we can go fetch the others.” I opened the door and told Bastille that we were going back to Mercy to get Midnight, Slipstream and Atlas in case Celestia came looking for me, and that I’d lower the moon if I was still in town.

Along with the saddlebags, I put the peytral back on I’d taken off earlier, and I was back to looking like a cotton candy reject.

While teleporting Firefly and myself back to town, I was aiming for the cafe we were at earlier. We made a sudden appearance mid air above a table and promptly crashed down on it, startling everyone around us, toppling the table and its contents. I nearly ended up getting skewered by some kebab skewers.

Everyone was staring at us, but the couple whose date (I’m assuming) we interrupted were none too happy judging by the scowls on their faces and food splattered everywhere.

“I uh, heh, sorry about that, folks,” I said sheepishly. Either I needed to fine-tune my teleportation, or the table was unintentionally moved in my way. I quickly righted the table, then fished out two gold coins from my bag to cover the food and drink I ruined. “Here, on me.” Then Firefly and I briskly cantered off towards Town Hall with as much of our dignity intact as possible.

“You sure know how to make an entrance,” Firefly dryly remarked, picking some pineapple out her mane and popping it in her mouth.

“Dude, gross,” I said, scrunching my nose as she swallowed.

“...What?” she replied, smacking her lips. “Still fresh.”

I rolled my eyes. “Anyway, Midnight wasn’t at the cafe to witness that spectacular failure, so we’ve got a bit of time before he shows up. In the meantime, let’s go have a chat with the mayor, then check if Atlas and Slipstream are still in the library.”

“Hmmm…” Firefly said contemplatively. “Mind if I suggest something?”

“You just ate some pineapple that got stuck in your mane. I’m not your judgemental skills are up to par,” I smirked.

“I think we should wait until Midnight shows up. We don’t know if the mayor is involved, and he even said that he remembers everyone. My suggestion is that Middy can use his invisibility to go with us, and when we leave, he can stay behind to see if the mayor tries warning any of his cronies. Potentially speaking, of course.”

“Despite the pineapple, that’s actually not a bad idea. Let’s check in on Slipstream and Atlas instead, then,” I said.

As Firefly and I approached Town Hall, we saw Atlas and Slipstream sitting on deck chairs Either side of Granite, smoking his cigar.

“Well hello you three,” I said as I went up the stairs.

“Howdy there, Corona,” Granite greeted with a polite tilt of his hat. “You come for your friends?”

“That I have, good sir.” I turned to Atlas. “How’d the day go?”

“Pretty well, all things considered. I’m ready to head back if you are.”

“Granite,” I began, “I just need to take these two back to work and I’ll be back to have a chat if you’ve got the time?”

“By all means,” he replied.

I was quick to whisk Atlas and Slipstream off to the castle, depositing them in the conference room for a discreet entrance back into the castle, and I returned to Granite momentarily. As Firefly and I were just about ready to talk to Granite, Midnight abruptly appeared right next to the stallion, much to the shock of Firefly and I. How he found us I had no idea, but at least he saved us the trouble of looking for him.

Noticing our expressions, Granite scanned around his surroundings, searching for whatever caught us by surprise before turning back to us. “Y’all look like you’ve just seen a ghost.”

I waved it off. “It’s nothing. Anyway, there’s something you and I need to have a chat about.”

“Ah got some time,” he stated, getting out of his chair. “If y’don’t mind, Ah just need t’have a slash first.”

I rolled my eyes at Granite’s crass statement as he went inside, and Midnight took the moment to update us briefly.

“Nothing to report, unfortunately. I waited at the site where the equipment was stashed, but they were a no-show.”

I tsked. “Bit of a downer, but we’ll get into that later. Right now I need you to follow us inside and remain hidden except to Firefly and I. We’re going to have a chat to the mayor, and we need you to spy on him during and after. We need to ascertain if he’s in kahoots with the map stallion. When we leave after our talk, give it an hour to see if he does anything suspicious.” I’d give Granite good reason to do so, too. “Meet up with Firefly here when you’re done.”

After a further couple minutes of waiting, Granite returned from down the hall and motioned for us to follow him. We went up a flight of stairs, to a door at the end of a hallway. Granite opened it up to reveal a more conservative looking office space that looked like Mr. Burn’s in The Simpsons. Firefly remained by my side while Midnight stood between Granite’s desk and the ticking grandfather clock in the corner of the right hand wall.

“Mind tellin’ me what this is all about?” Granite said, slipping into full-on business mode.

“I am here on official royal business on behalf of Princess Luna,” I said as diplomatically as I could.

Granite scoffed. “Y’all can forgive me if Ah don’t believe in ya. If y’are, then Ah’ll need more than just your word.”

“Oh, yes, I’ve got something quite convincing.” Instead of using my magic, I reached around the back of my head to undo the clasp of the peytral and pull it off, breaking the spell.

Granite’s eyes looked like they were going to pop out of his head. He was silent for several long seconds as he tried to fully comprehend the presence of the individual sitting before him. He lurched forward and began quickly fumbling around his desk in a vain attempt to tidy it up. “T-to what do Ah owe the pleasure of this’re visit, your highness?”

I smirked at the sudden change of character, but kept my cool. “Firstly, I need your word that nothing leaves this room. OK?”

“Yes ma’am!”

“Good. To the point, a while ago, there were some maps stolen from the castle by a rust-red pegasus stallion. He has green eyes, and a treasure map-esque looking cutie mark. Have you seen him around?” It was time to see if Granite was the honest type.

“Ah’ve seen him here and there. Makes plenty of trips to Powder Keg and the general store. Mind if Ah ask what this is about?”

I cleared my throat. “You see, your town is built in the caldera of a volcano. The earthquake several years ago created the chasm outside of town because of rock collapsing underground to fill a void in the magma chamber.” Granite raised an eyebrow at that, but didn’t say anything, so I took it as my queue to continue. “The maps that were stolen depicted this general area. Upon further investigation, we discovered gold deposits in the chasm.”

“Y’mean to tell me there’s been gold underneath our hooves all this time?” Granite said in wide-eyed disbelief.

“Amongst other things, yes.” Judging by his reaction, he didn’t know about the gold at the very least.

He blinked. “Would you mind elaboratin’, princess?”

“In a volcanic region such as this, and over millions and millions of years of intense heat and pressure, there are almost guaranteed to be other coveted precious metals and gems,” I said succinctly.

“Do you mean what Ah think you mean?” Granite replied, leaning forward in his chair.

Firefly turned to fix me a look of incredulity. “I think I’m in the same boat as Granite on this one, Luna.” Judging by Midnight’s stare, he was also equally interested.

“Diamonds,” I said. While that was true, I wanted to see if Granite would stay true to his word and keep our conversation to himself with some temptation. If not, Midnight would find out soon enough.

“Diamonds…” Granite said arily, leaning back into his chair.

“My main concern is this,” I continued. “Because of how the chasm was created, I believe that mining the area would prove catastrophic for everypony. The stallion who stole the maps wishes to mine underneath your town, invariably risking his life and that of everypony in your town. We seek your help in apprehending him and any accomplices.”

Granite slumped in his chair. “That right there’s a lot of information comin’ at me mighty fast, your highness. What Ah can do is tell the sheriff t’keep an eye out for ‘im, but we can’t arrest ‘im without evidence or probable cause.”

I remembered back to what Midnight told me earlier in the day. “Halfway between here and the crevasse is a campsite that had some mining equipment. Tomorrow, I can have one of my guards who has been there to accompany the sheriff, deputy, whoever, to the area to arrest anypony that shows up. You can understand my haste in the matter, right?” I said pressingly. I looked sideways to Midnight briefly, and he nodded approvingly at my suggestion.

“Sure thing, your majesty,” Granite said deferentially.

“Thank you for understanding,” I smiled. “If you don’t mind, I’m due back at the castle to raise the moon.”

“It’s been an honour to meet you, Princess, whether or not Ah knew who you were previously,” he added in embarrassment. “Y’all come back now, y’hear?” Granite said hopefully, waving farewell as we walked out the office.

I smiled in return. “Until next time, Granite. Thank you for being so helpful.”

After we got downstairs and out of earshot from anyone in the building, I asked Firefly; “Are you able to wait around for Midnight?”

“I’ve got enough magic for a return trip between the castle and town, so taking Middy shouldn’t be too big of an issue if he can’t manage the distance.”

“By the way, if Granite asks, I’ve given you the rest of the day off to go shopping. That’s your cover while you wait for Midnight. Report back to me by seven, quarter past at the latest.”

“Understood, princess.”

As I put the peytral back on and readied myself to go back to the castle for the umpteenth time that day, when I walked outside I began to witness the shadows from a few of the taller buildings gradually grow longer against the ground. Slightly puzzled, I looked to the sky and, sure enough, my confusion was abated as I saw that Celestia had already begun to lower the sun. Grumbling to myself for the poor timing, I quickly darted past Firefly, and into the library to lower the moon out of sight of everyone else. Hopefully Celestia wouldn’t notice my slip-up. With dinner not for another hour at least, I suddenly found myself with a bit of time on my hooves. Feeling pretty proud with myself about how I handled things for the day, I decided to wander through town for a short while.

A number of the shops had already closed, and those that were still open had a smattering of ponies browsing the dwindling wares and produce stands that remained. Sadly, I couldn’t find Harvest to get some more popcorn kernels, but there were a few of the stalls selling sweet things to the fillies and colts that were in the markets with their parents. I decided to see if Firefly’s caramel apples were as good as she made them out to be, so I bought myself one while I meandered through town to see what else was available to get.

And as coincidence would have it, I was walking up the market street when I saw Harvest with his saddlebags chock full of groceries buying the last bag of carrots from a farmer’s cart, so I decided to say hello.

“We meet again,” I said as I approached.

“Oh sh–!” Harvest made an abrupt about turn. “Oh, it’s you again, Corona. Sorry, you caught me off guard.”

I smiled warmly. “I didn’t mean to startle you. I was walking through town about to head home, spotted you, so thought I’d say a quick hello.”

“Speaking of if I may ask, you said you came through the forest to the north, so where is it you live exactly?” Harvest asked as he stuffed the carrots into his already full bags.

I was debating about being honest, but I decided telling the truth was for the best. “The Castle of the Two Sisters,” I said as discreetly as I could.

Harvest raised an intrigued eyebrow at that. “You don’t say? Have you met the princesses?”

I grinned slightly. “On a daily basis.”

“Y’know, I met Princess Luna once. Had to settle a case about a noble trying to buy up my land,” he said bitterly.

“Pray tell, what was he tryi–”

“Daddy, I got the potatoes!” an oh-so familiar voice chimed in.

I turned around, and… “Hayseed!” I exclaimed serendipitously.

Despite the sack of potatoes on his back, Hayseed gasped a mile-wide smile. “Lu–Corona!”

Harvest was beyond perplexed and looking between both of us. “Wait just a moment, how do you two know each other?”

That was a question as long as it was involved. Thankfully, I didn’t have to answer just yet, because Hayseed was poking Harvest and distracting him.

“Corona’s my friend!” he said. “Can we have her over for dinner? Oh pleasepleasepleasepleaseplease!”

I tried stifling a giggle behind a hoof, I really did.

“Son,” Harvest said to Hayseed, “I would very much like to know how you two met beforehand,” he said questioningly, giving me the same look that Ms. Abacus was. I couldn’t really blame him, I just hoped not to get an... unwanted reputation.

“If it’s all the same to you, I can explain shortly?” I wasn’t sure how subtle I was being, but I couldn’t really pull off my disguise when there was ponies still about and potentially create a commotion.

“Well… I suppose,” Harvest said tentatively. “If Hayseed says you’re his friend, I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt for now.”

Hayseed promptly started bouncing up and down.“Yaaaayyyyyy!”

Walking beside Harvest made the ten minute trek a bit tense as Hayseed lead me to his home, smiling, skipping and pronking all the way like he had too much sugar. I took the time to eat my caramel apple, realising just how justified Firefly was in scoffing them down like they were going out of fashion. Eventually, I spotted the house, fresh out of Hayseed’s dream the first time I met him. I jokingly wondered if any ghosts had turned up, ominously chanting; “Return the slaaaaabbbbb…” The similarities between the two houses were rather jarring.

“We’re here!” Hayseed exclaimed, ignoring the two stairs and jumping onto the deck, pushing open the creaky door and shouting down the hall. “Momma, daddy and I are home and we brought a guest!”

“Did your father pick up the groceries on the list I gave him?” a somewhat vexed, feminine voice called out from somewhere in the house.

“Sure did, hon! How’s the little one doing?” Harvest replied with equal volume, stepping through the first door to the left and into the kitchen as Hayseed went down the hall. I followed Hayseed, and he turned left into the second door into a spacious living room. The kitchen was separated by a countertop that was fixed against the wall to the left which doubled as a table.

However, my attention was drawn to the heavily pregnant unicorn mare sitting on a sofa against the right hand wall, under a window that was letting in the remainder of the evening sunlight. On that note, lowering and raising the moon essentially meant using my magic to facilitate the process. I don’t know why it didn’t happen naturally like it did on Earth, but, I digress. Her white aura held a pair of knitting needles, and the coffee table, pulled close to the sofa, held all manner of items an expecting mother would need without having to get up. There was also a large basket full of different coloured wool balls on the table from which the thread was being pulled into whatever she was knitting. Her almost matte black coat was tinted with purple highlights that shined in the evening light, and her vibrant purple mane faded to a scintillating blue.

“She’s doing fine, babe.” The mare paused her knitting as she looked up to me. “Oh, hello, who might you be?”

“This is my friend, Corona!” Hayseed said for me.

“Hello,” I said with a friendly wave. She gave me the same look Harvest and Ms. Abacus did. “What’s your name?” I asked despite the brief, awkward moment.

“My name’s Nebula.” The spiral galaxy of dotted white, purple and blue stars on her flank seemed to corroborate that. “Mind telling me how you met my little Hayseed?” Nebula asked pointedly, her voice taking on an almost defensive tone.

“Can I tell them?” Hayseed asked giddily, to which I nodded and winked. “That’s not Corona, it’s really Princess Luna!”

Harvest and Nebula shot me looks of thorough disbelief, and Nebula snorted skeptically before resuming her knitting as Harvest continued unpacking the groceries.

“Are you sure, Hayseed?” Harvest asked over his shoulder.

“You see,” I began, “I was doing my thing in the dream realm when I noticed that Hayseed was having a nightmare. One thing lead to another, and bing-bang-boom, here I am.”

“Prove it, then,” Nebula said, fixing me a challenging, yet friendly stare.

Without saying another word, I reached behind my head and undid the paytral’s clasp.

Nebula immediately stopped knitting, staring at me with eyes that looked like they were going to pop out her head. “Uhm, hun,” she said extremely slowly. “You’re going to want to turn around.”

“Yes dear, what is i—” Harvest went completely rigid when he turned around. For the second time that day, he dropped what he was holding as his jaw almost hit the floor in abject disbelief. ”Princess Luna is in my house?!?!”

“It would appear so,” Nebula added, slowly resuming her knitting as a smile formed on her muzzle at Harvest’s reaction.

“I can’t believe we’re hosting royalty of all things!” Harvest shouted once again, still staring. Meanwhile, Hayseed was sitting on his haunches and sniggering behind both his hooves, trying to keep himself from exploding with laughter at what just unfolded.

“Congratulations, by the way,” I said with a smile and a nod at Nebula’s stomach. “Colt or filly?”

“I wanna filly!” Hayseed adorably chirped.

“Harvest over there wants another colt, but I’ve got a feeling about this one,” Nebula said.

“How far along are you?” I asked.

“Ten months down, one more to go,” she said longingly, rubbing a foreleg over the bump.

I almost forgot that horses are pregnant for eleven months. I never wanted to carry a kid for nine months, let alone two extra. Part of the reason why I didn’t want eating, pooping, and cry factories of my own. It’s why I preferred to hang out with my friends on Earth, not that they were any better after we went bar-hopping.

“Are you staying for dinner?” Nebula asked.

“That was the plan, but I do have to be back at the castle in half an hour, sadly." After I said that, little Hayseed look like Bastion took his favourite toy away. "I would love to take a rain check, or even invite you to the castle as my guests.”

“What do you say about that, hon?” Nebula called over to Harvest.

“Babe, you’re in no position to travel that far, so maybe in a couple months after we’ve sold the farm,” he replied.

I balked at that. “You’re selling the farm?”

“Yeah,” Nebula sighed sadly. “With me unable to help, the work has been piling up, and the farm hands we’ve been hiring since I got pregnant haven’t been helpful or reliable.”

“Yeah,” Harvest added wistfully. “I can’t handle the workload of running a farm by myself, and after Hayseed’s little happening with the plough… When that noble tried running us off our land – and thank you for your help with that by the way, Princess – he and I had a long talk and he agreed to pay us a sum we could retire on. It would be a nice change of pace to settle down and raise our future son,” he finished with a smirk at Nebula.

“For the last time, it’s a filly!” she objected light-heartedly. “But yeah, he’s right. We’ve had a good run with this place, but circumstances have changed.”

“If it’s any consolation to you, I’d love to have you at the castle! The finest chefs, amazing scenery, the best doctors, and there’s even a small school for the colts and fillies while their parents work. How does that sound?” I almost sounded like The Godfather, making an offer they couldn’t refuse.

“Oh, could we?!” Hayseed beamed. “I’ve always wanted to go to the castle!”

Still knitting away, Nebula looked to up me contemplatively. “While that is an amazing offer, would you mind giving us some time to think it over?”

“Of course. I wouldn’t expect a split second decision after all,” I said.

“Thank you,” Nebula said gratefully. “If you’re not staying for dinner, how about some tea?”

“I’ve got twenty minutes to spare, thank you.”

“What’s your favourite?”

“Jasmine.” Rather, it was Luna’s, but it happened to be growing on me.

“You’re in luck,” she said. “Harvest, if you wouldn’t mind? And some juice for Hayseed, too.”

“Three cuppas and some juice coming right up!”

Talking to Nebula and Harvest provided quite beneficial. The money they got from selling off sections of farm, as Harvest said from when we first met, allowed him to support the farm for as long as he could. With that running out, it’s what drove him to sell the remaining land to the noble since he was becoming overencumbered with work. And then I found out that his farm and land wasn’t the only one being bought up. Various nobles from wealthy towns had been buying a lot of land from neighbouring farms, and having their own labour force do the work. Why? I had no idea, but I felt there was more to it than that.

By the time I looked at the clock, it was quarter to seven. I needed to get back to the castle before Midnight and Firefly did, then it was dinner time.

“I hate to break up the party,” I began as I put down my empty teacup, “but it’s time for me to go. I have some important business to take care of.”

“Awww,” Hayseed sadly chorused. “Can you come visit again?”

“I don’t see why not,” I said with a wink. “It’ll be a surprise, ok?”

That seemed to cheer him up a bit. “I like surprises!” he squeaked.

“Nebula, Harvest, thank you for having me, and good luck with the foal, too.”

“It’s been a privilege to have you, Princess,” Harvest said with a short bow.

“Please, call me Luna when we’re in good company. Formality is for on-the-job.”

“I never thought I’d see the day Princess Luna of all ponies would walk into our house and have tea with us,” Nebula giggled. “Have a good evening, Luna.”

“I’ll see you three, or should I say four, in the future.” To make my departure memorable, I made sure to leave behind sparkles of magic when I teleported back to my room. ...Right as I heard three knocks. Confused and impressed with the timing, I answered the door, but nobody was outside, not even Bastille.

I looked up to Veloce, and she looked back. “Did someone knock?”

“Nope! Been the only one here for the last ten minutes.”

“Where’d Bastille go?”

“Bathroom. Something about something he ate not agreeing with him.”

“I regret asking.” Veloce laughed at my discomfort, and I just rolled my eyes at her frolicsome joke. “Thanks anyway, though.”

When I closed the door and turned around, Boreas was staring at me through the large double doors with her forelegs cupped around her face like she was peering through a store window. I went over to let her in. “Yes?”

Boreas tilted her head at me, showing off her a gold ear piercing in her right ear, shaped like the crescent moon. “Notice anything new?”

I looked her up and down. “Nah, just some peeping tom trying to perv into my room,” I said with a roguish grin. Boreas tsked in return and rolled her eyes at that. “Nice earrings,” I finally admitted. “Did it hurt?”

“Well yeah, but it’s mostly gone now, just a dull ache that’ll go away soon enough. I hope you like the design choice. And look!” Boreas fished out five gold coins from… somewhere. “The metalsmith kept one coin and he let me have the rest!”

“How long were you waiting outside?” I impishly asked.

“A few minutes...”

“You knocked the second I showed up!”

“I was impatient to show you the earring!”

“Alright, fair enough,” I said.

“So, what else did you get up to today?” Boreas said.

“The mission, shall we say, proved fruitful in a few aspects. Now I’m waiting on Firefly and Midnight to return and report in. Until then, I’m just gonna unwind.”

“Fancy playing chess until dinner? You win, you get a gold coin. I win, I get one from you,” Boreas said with a rather overconfident grin.

“Just because you’ve got money, doesn’t mean you can go gambling it away. I’m got hundreds of years of experience, and you’re barely twenty!”

“Scared I’ll win?” Boreas waggled her eyebrows, and I met her challenging gaze.

“It. Is. ON!”

We played until ten past seven rolled around. I’m ashamed to admit she won every single match. At least it wasn’t my money I was losing out on. At that point, there was a knock at my door, and Firefly and Midnight let themselves in.

“How’d everything go?” I asked them out the corner of my eye, not fully taking my eyes off the chess board.

“Checkmate again!” Boreas declared victoriously, trapping my king with a knight.

“Damn it!” I grumbled as I forked over another coin. “That’s three games in a row!”

“Aww, did the century old princess lose to a mare barely out of her teens?” Firefly taunted.

“Bite me!” I returned, huffing indignantly. They all laughed at me, and I grumbled at that.

“Granite didn’t do anything out of the ordinary; he just kicked back and read a book for the entire time I was in his office,” Midnight said.

“And while I was waiting outside, I recognised the map stallion from your description,” Firefly added. “He was sitting at the cafe we were at talking to a smartly dressed unicorn.”

I raised an eyebrow at that. “What did he look like?”

“Black coat, silver mane, blue and white compass rose for a cutie mark, and he was wearing a suit vest with a pocket watch,” she said.

My eyes slowly widened as Firefly described the stallion. I knew who that was!

“Lumen!” I practically spat his name like poison.

“Who?” Boreas asked, pocketing the three gold coins into a coin purse with a smug grin.

“The same week my room was broken into, there was a land dispute between Harvest and Lumen. Lumen had been trying to run Harvest off his farm by planting crops, or letting the seeds blow over onto his land so Lumen could claim it,” I clarified.

“It didn’t work, did it?” Midnight said.

“I would have told him to take a long walk off a short pier,” Firefly giggled.

“No, it didn’t work.” Then my expression became sour. “This is just a hunch, but what if Lumen and the other nobles have been trying to legally buy up the land surrounding Mercy so they could mine it?”

“Seems logical,” Boreas agreed.

Midnight chimed in. “Are you going to tell Celestia?”

“Not until I’ve got the full story,” I replied. I didn’t want Celestia complicating things until I had the chance to sort them out. “We need to find out exactly which nobles have been buying up land, and who else is involved with the map stallion. Those stuffy nobles aren’t willing to get their hooves dirty with the work, so there must be others they’ve got on standby.”

“So, what do we do now?” Boreas said.

I looked at the time. A quarter past seven. “First, we have dinner. I’m hungry. Then, we get Bastille, Veloce, Comet, Ares, and update them afterwards. Tomorrow, we strike.”

11| Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels

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While I entertained the idea of returning to Mercy to take part in the next stage of the plan, Celestia was resolute with her idea of letting the guards handle it. I had to agree with her: What was the point of hiring someone to do a job if you were going to do it for them? That, and I didn’t want to find a mountain of paperwork waiting for me at the end of the day like the previous, so I handed things off to Comet so he could keep me apprised.

When it came to making the arrests of the aptly named Map Stallion (and, by association, Lumen), I thought it was a good idea to read up on some Equestrian law before jumping head first into arresting someone. Despite how far our rule extended, Celestia and I couldn’t waltz into any random town or village and arrest any old Tom, Dick, or Harry without a convincing reason. Similarly to Earth, I needed to make warrants stamped with Luna’s seal to prove the validity for each pony I wanted to apprehend. It was also a courtesy to present the warrant or warrants to the leader of the community we were making the arrest in. Given how tightly knit a lot of communities were, plucking someone off the street without good reason wasn’t a good idea, even if I was a princess who was presumed to know what she was doing.

After I figured out what I wanted to do, I gave Comet two jobs: to present Granite the warrants stamped with Luna’s seal to prove their validity, and to ask him for a list of any local nobles buying land. While Comet chased up any leads, Firefly hung around town in wait of Lumen and the Map Stallion while Midnight went back to the campsite for the same reason. As luck would have it, Mercy’s sheriff and deputy were unicorns, so one went with Middy and the other with Firefly to cover more more ground, and to aid in teleporting whoever showed up to Mercy’s jailhouse temporarily.

In trusting Comet, Midnight, and Firefly to do their jobs, that put my worries at ease so I could focus on Luna’s regular duties.

As far as court was concerned, I often felt as though it was a waste of my time tending to tedious bureaucracy and monotonous paperwork, as well as babysitting a wide variety of simple-minded individuals. I had wings for crying out loud! I could soar through the sky like a majestic bird! I had a horn that could bend the laws of physics and reality itself! So why the actual fuck was I stuck telling a noble she couldn’t impose a tax on a popular local swimming hole?

To be fair, I think that was just a bad day at the office. God only knows I got those on the odd occasion on Earth. Because I was handling the morning’s petitioners by myself since Celestia did it yesterday, Lunchtime couldn’t have come soon enough. By the time I got to the dining hall for some much needed coffee and food, Celestia was waiting for me like she’d just gotten out of the bath with her immaculately groomed mane and coat, while mine was slightly frazzled from the stress of dealing with idiocy all morning.

“How were the proceedings?” Celestia asked.

I sighed deeply and headbutted the table.

“That bad, huh?”

“Somepony tried to levy a tax on land that didn’t belong to them!” I exclaimed.

Thump, thump, thump, went my head.

Celestia rolled her eyes and giggled to herself. “Come now Luna, you’ll headbut a hole through the table.”

I sat up and brushed a lock of my mane from my face. “Ares has done that more often from falling asleep at his desk than I have! Anyway, this brings to light something I’ve been meaning to ask you.”

“Oh? And what might that be?”

“If one of us wants a day off, the other has to pick up the slack, and things are a bit draining as is between court, the paperwork, and the happenings in Mercy.” As far as I knew, I’d been picking up most of the slack. Celestia might’ve done the proceedings yesterday, but she still stuck me with the paperwork. “What I’m suggesting is we both hire an adjudicator to stand in now and then.”

Munching on her cornflakes while I helped myself to some food, Celestia actually seemed to properly consider what I had to say. “Hmmm, some extra time to myself does sound particularly nice…” Another mouthful of contemplative cereal chewing. “What would you do on your days to yourself?” she asked me.

“I want to get out there and just... fly! Fly to the top of Mt. Canterhorn and drop like a stone so I can feel the wind running through my mane!” I said with all deserved conviction. This was supposed to be a holiday for me, not so I could be shuffled from one world’s paperwork to the next’s.

“I have to agree with you on that one, Luna,” Celestia said, her eyes downcast. She sighed and drank some juice. “Alright, I’ll bite for now. We’ll each take on somepony to act in our stead with matters of the court.”

I rolled my eyes at that. “Oh please, it’s sitting in a chair for several hours telling stuffy nobles that no, you can’t monopolise the castle’s food supply, and no, you can’t knock down a wall of the castle to build a pool!”

Celestia blinked owlishly in disbelief. “That... actually happened?”

“The head chef is a son of one of the nobles, and said noble wanted me to sign over responsibility of stocking the food stores to him so he would have everypony pay him for the food instead!”

Celestia raised an eyebrow at me and smirked. “So why didn’t you? It would mean one less thing for us to worry about.”

I gave her the same answer I gave to the noble. “Not only is that exploitative, I’d go so far to call it profiteering. We don’t privatise food to make money.”

“Are you absolutely sure that’s what he would’ve done, Luna?”

Given the nature of rich people, I’m pretty sure he would’ve. Regardless, I said; “We’re getting off track here. Back to hiring adjudicators?”

“Yes yes, of course.” Celestia cleared her throat. “So we each hire somepony to act as one another’s representatives and train them to take care of minor aspects of our duties, freeing up our own schedules.”

“In a nutshell,” I replied. “Either that, or we could close court for the weekend, or at least one day.”

“Is that such a good idea?” Celestia said.

I snorted humorously. “That depends how you look at it. Can the nobles go a couple days without us telling them which end shit is supposed to come out of?”

“Luna!” Celestia chastised, despite breaking into a small fit of giggles a moment later. She took a few seconds to compose herself. “You are right with one thing, though; our schedules are long overdue for a change. What’s today?”

“Thursday,” I replied. “We can do it like this. Monday to Friday we open court from eight AM to five PM. On Saturday, we take care of the more important duties by appointment. You do the Saturday one week, then I’ll do the next, and then we both get Sundays to ourselves.”

Celestia sighed warmly and ruffled my mane, and I batted her hooves away like a younger sister should, smiling back up at her. “I am liking this idea more and more, Luna. Alright, so it shall be. You can take the afternoon to draft the notice that we’ll put on the throne room doors, but it’s something that we’ll have to start with next week.”

“Yeah, can’t randomly close your doors and leave everypony that shows up wandering around like chickens with their heads cut off,” I laughed.

“I’ll see you at dinner, then.” Celestia leaned down to wrap a wing around me in a hug, then gave me a peck on the forehead. She made her way to the throne room, and left me to my own devices for the rest of the day.

Drafting the notice and Celestia proofreading it later meant I had the vast majority of the afternoon to do whatever I wanted. Contradictory to what I had suggested and why, I went to the library afterwards to try and make another spell to assist with charting the chasm. I was taking already existing spell concepts and modifying them based on inspiration from movies and TV, and this particular one was inspired by the scanner probes from Prometheus. Unlike the film, having a fully 3D rendered map wouldn’t get me lost after the area was fully mapped.

Unicorn doctors had a kind of primitive way of analysing your body like an MRI would, but the spell needed a lot of fine tuning to be used as effectively. What I did was reverse the matrix to scan outward instead of inward, and amplify the power to cover a wider area. I then fed the scan results onto another parchment, designed to come up as a kind of 3D map thanks to a branch of magic called hard-light constructs.

The only problem I ran into was that I had little knowledge in the way of topographical charting and cartography, so I needed a resident expert to help finish the spell. Someone like Atlas or another pony that worked for him.

When I went to find someone to help me with just that, I opened the door as I went to leave and was surprised to see Firefly on the other side. “Oh, hello. Caught one of them already, have you?”

She blinked and looked me up and down. “Did I interrupt something?”

“Nothing important. What’d you need?”

“Well, I thought I’d stop by and report that neither stallion showed up to town or the campsite. Midnight suggested we stay in town overnight to maintain a presence if either of them show up,” Firefly stated.

“If those stallions are mining gold, keep an eye on places in which they’re liable to spend large quantities of it. Buying everypony drinks at the bar, surrounding themselves with mares at cat houses, etcetera,” I said.

“Sure can!” Firefly went to walk away, but paused and looked over her shoulder. “What’s a cat house?”

I face-hoofed. “You know, a brothel, whore house, that kind of thing. How do you not know?”

“I know what a brothel and a whore house is, just haven’t heard them called a cat house before. Ciao for now!” With a poof, Firefly was gone.

So long as I had someone outside my door to ward off any more would-be thieves, Midnight and Firefly could spend the night in Mercy so long as it was on official business, although Firefly seemed the type to go to a bar and drink everyone under the table because of her metabolism. With Atlas in Mercy for the week, I had to wait on him if I was going to finish my spell, or at least try and find someone who could help me polish it off.

As I sat at my desk thinking up new spell ideas and jotting them down in the journal Luna gave me, I wondered what she would think about my new spells after we swapped back.

And then that’s when I realised something extremely important.

My eyes widened in panic, and I began jerking my head left and right in a fruitless attempt to find an immediate answer to my problem. My hooves began crumpling the pages of the diary as I rifled through them to see if Luna left me a note of some kind, but to no avail.

I began banging my hooves on the desk, paying no mind as to who might hear me. “Goddamnit, Luna! What the fuck!?” That little shit never told me where the mirror she used to trade places was, let alone how to find it!

More knocks came from my door. Grumbling and muttering profanities, I threw it open. “What?” I demanded in annoyance.

Boreas immediately took a couple steps back, Ares doing the same. “Are you ok?” Boreas asked. “We heard a lot of shouting and screaming.”

I sat on my haunches and took a deep breath to calm myself enough to think of an answer. “Sorry about that,” I groaned. “I was trying out a new spell and wound up giving myself a bit of an electric shock.” To make the lie more convincing, I stretched and rotated my leg and wrist for show.

“Are you going to be ok? Can I get you anything?” Boreas asked.

“No, I just… I’ll be fine.” I tried giving the two of them a reassuring smile, but Ares didn’t seem to buy it. “Actually, I could go for a stiff drink. Is there any liquor around?” I needed a damn good drink after that revelation.

“Are you sure drinking is a good idea after an electric shock? It’ll mess with your heart,” Ares said matter-of-factly.

“Alicorn healing factor,” I said with a proud smile. I remember when I broke my arm in college, and that took six weeks to heal. Because of Equestrian magic, an adult earth pony can break a leg and be up and kicking, quite literally too, in a few weeks. Unicorns were the average at about a month, but pegasi take a longer due to their bones being hollow to make flying easier. A story Celestia told me in passing, she said it took her about a week to heal a broken foreleg. The only downside was a marginal decrease in magic power since latent magic aided in the healing.

“Alright,” Boreas sighed, “I’ll go see what’s in the cellar.”

“Maybe some wine instead of the hard stuff,” Ares said, levelling a gaze at me.

I didn’t need something weak, I wanted something strong! Boreas, not knowing what to make of my request and Ares’ suggestion, shrugged indifferently and began trotting down the hall.

“Alright, so why were you really shouting and screaming?” Ares asked, turning to face me once Boreas was out of sight.

I blinked at the unexpected question. “Because I accidentally gave myself an electric shock?”

“Nobody uses their own name when spouting profanities,” he said pointedly.

Shrugging off the question, I rolled my eyes and levitated over the parchment I was working on earlier. “I was working on increasing the power level of this spell matrix and got the spell wrong and wound up shocking myself.”

Ares looked it over for a few second before he too, shrugged. It appeared he couldn’t understand what I was working on, so at least my bluff paid off. “Alright, if you say so.”

“Have a good night, Ares,” I said politely before I closed the door. The thing about paranoia is that you get put on edge when someone mentions something about your secrets. Therefore, I had no idea if Ares was onto me, or if he genuinely thought shouting my own apparent name to the heavens was odd.

Wanting a distraction, I filled Luna’s luxuriously large bathtub with extra hot water and some aromatic oils and soaps while I waited for my booze to arrive. I needed both to melt this newly found stress away if I had any hope about how I would rationally approach trying to locate the mirror before Luna and I were due to swap back. Which, after I looked at the calendar, was in exactly two weeks. Did the bitch try and strand me in a land of magical horses, or did she simply forget? I know I did. Brooding on it wouldn’t do me any good, so I resigned myself to the tub for an hour to think more about my situation.

I just hope the next two weeks wouldn’t be too busy so I had time to look for the mirror.

During the night, I tried looking for Midnight’s and Firefly’s dreams so I could have a quick word with them, but I couldn’t find either until I was due to raise the moon, which hadn’t happened before. I made a mental note to ask them why that was when I saw them next.

Even though the next day was bitingly cold, my latent pegasi magic made it a lot more bearable. It aided in offsetting the temperature differential during high-altitude flight and prevented wings from icing over below a certain altitude. Despite that, I still put on a scarf to keep warm. It was a bonus that it made a young Luna look pretty cute too.

As I was walking to the dining hall, I happened across Veloce walking down the halls for breakfast too, who was wrapped up in a blanket like a little bat burrito. I giggle-snorted rather indignantly, much to the pony’s annoyance.

“Hey,” she objected, “us thestrals don’t have the same kind of magic pegasi do to keep the cold off of us! Our wings can freeze faster than you can say batsicle!”

I couldn’t get rid of my grin as we walked to breakfast.

There weren’t nearly as many petitioners as there were the previous day, so Celestia and I had quite a bit of spare time between us, further validating my point about having someone fill in for us when the amount of work was at an all time low. It was like that one time on Earth the office was full of people on a miserably rainy day, and you could count the number of people actually needed to take care of the work on one hand. I didn’t understand why Celestia was blind to something like that.

Around three o’clock, I’d draped myself over my throne seat like the letter M as my hind legs idly swayed back and forward in wait of the next petitioner while Celestia went to the restroom. Everything was so quiet I heard a lone pony walk up the hall towards the throne room before I saw them, so I quickly righted myself and sat up properly.

Firefly poked her head around the door and waved. “Hi! I can see you’re so busy you probably don’t have time for me,” she snarked, “but it behooves me to inform you I’ve apprehended the Map Stallion and he’s currently waiting on you at Mercy’s jailhouse.”

Next to me, Boreas frowned and narrowed her gaze at Firefly. “While on duty, please be more respectful to the Princess,” she said very evenly. “Do not let it happen again.”

I blinked, rather surprised how she said that. Regardless, as the current guard at my side, she was quite right to say that too.

“Wait here and I’ll go fetch Celestia,” I said to Firefly.

I quickly teleported to outside Celestia’s bedroom, where I found one of her guards standing outside. “Is Celestia in?” I asked.

“She is, Your Highness. Shall I fetch her for you?”

I wasn’t going to let the guard potentially wander in on Celestia mid-trickle. “I’ll do it. It’s important.”

“As you wish,” the mare replied.

I rapped a hard knock, then gave it a few seconds before entering. I opened the door, just in to catch Celestia walking out her ensuite.

“Something the matter?” she asked.

“Firefly’s apprehended the Map Stallion. I’m going to go over to Mercy and bring him back here. Would you mind watching over court while I do that? I shouldn’t be too long.”

“By all means,” she said approvingly. “It’s about time we brought him in for questioning.”

I teleported back down to the throne room to get Firefly, and moment later we were at the jailhouse. Inside, Sheriff Runic Gleam was waiting for us. He was a white, black and brown tabby-coated stallion specialising in shielding wards that kept prisoners inside their cells. You couldn’t get out unless the caster of the ward deactivated it himself.

“Afternoon, Princess,” Runic greeted with a tilt of his hat, snuffing his cigarette in the ashtray on his desk. “If you’ll follow me, I’ll take you to your stallion.”

“Much obliged,” I replied. Runic got up, grabbed the jailhouse keyring, and unlocked a door next to him that lead down a corridor lined with half a dozen cells each side. At the end of that hall was another door which he also used a key on, then deactivated the ward surrounding it. At the end on the far right was the stallion that broke into my room. Rather pathetic really. His mane was dishevelled, there were stains of god-knows-what on his coat, and he was sleeping on his side on a bed of straw. From the looks of it, he had a hard night out. All the cell contained was the straw bed, and two tin buckets. One with fresh water, and you don’t want to know what was in the other one.

“Found the guy in a bar, as you foretold, Princess, showing off a small sack of gold nuggets he must’ve mined,” Firefly stated.

“Where is the gold now?” I asked pointedly.

“Right here, Your Majesty,” Runic said, magicking a small sack out of nowhere and giving it to me. “Keep it as evidence if you must.”

I took it, then opened it to peer inside. My expression instantly lit up at the sight of all that gold, enough to make at least thirty to thirty-five gold coins. “For your help,” I said to Runic, levitating him enough nuggets that equated to about four or five coins. I teleported the rest back to my room to show Celestia later. Evidence or not, me being a first-hand witness was more than enough, so I had no use for it.

“Thank you very much, Princess,” he said gratefully.

As Runic began unlocking the cell, I turned to Firefly and said; “Where is Midnight now?”

“Back at the campsite with the deputy. He got a few hours sleep while the sheriff and I kept an eye on this drunk.”

“I’ll take him back to the castle so he can sleep off the rest of his hangover. Meanwhile, go see to Midnight. After I raise the moon, find Comet and come back to the castle.”

“Understood, Princess.”

I levitated the Map Stallion from the confines of his cell, and then teleported both of us into the castle’s dungeon. The guard manning the post, surprised to see me show up with someone in tow, immediately snapped to attention.

“Princess!” he exclaimed with a salute. “What brings you down here with…” His eyes hesitantly scanned the stallion in my aura. “...him?”

“If you could place him in a high security cell, that would be most appreciated. When he wakes up, get him some food and water, and something to bathe with. I’ll be down tomorrow morning to deal with him.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

The guard winced and levitated him from my hold, then took him off deeper into the dungeon. The kind of place that has no windows, but a single lamp hanging opposite the wall for light.

After that, I walked back up through the corridors to the throne room, where Celestia was looking over a scroll.

“Afternoon,” I greeted as I walked inside.

“How’d everything go?” she asked, looking over the top of the scroll in her aura.

“He’s currently in a cell sleeping off the tail end of a hangover.”

“Must’ve been drinking heavily if he’s still asleep after four,” Celestia snickered.

“Yeah, you should’ve seen him when I went to retrieve him from Mercy. Anyway, I’ll see to him tomorrow, and give him his sentence,” I said.

Celestia rolled up the scroll, placed it with a few others and gave me her attention. “And how do you plan on dealing with him?”

I sat down on my throne, and poured myself a cup of tea. “If you’d like, you can join me for his sentencing. Just so I’m not having to tell two different ponies the same thing twice.”

“I shall. Now, what are your plans for Lumen?”

“If he doesn’t show up by this evening, I’ll send him a personal summons for tomorrow. The immediate kind. I’ll take him down to the cell where the Map Stallion is, and then we can all have a nice little chat,” I said.

“I hope you’re not going to be too harsh,” Celestia said, fixing me a stern look. “I would like you to tell me what you’re going to say to them both. At the end of it, we still have to give your assailant the exile sendoff.”

I took a sip of tea, and munched on a biscuit. “The more the Map Stallion co-operates and divulges, the less time he’ll spend in the cell. Hopefully that’ll convince him to spill the beans about Lumen, too. At most, Lumen will get a sentence for conspiracy depending how much he’s involved, but the other guy will inevitably be exiled as per our chat on the night everything occured.”

“That sounds reasonable,” Celestia said. “Can’t have somepony that dangerous loose in this land. Now we just play the waiting game until he wakes up.”

“He’s been passed out since the early hours of the morning, so it shouldn’t be too long now,” I said hopefully. “He also had this on him.” Remembering the gold, I magicked the sack from my room and showed it to Celestia.

“Oh my,” she said once she looked inside.

“I gave Runic, the sheriff, some for his troubles, then when Midnight and Firefly return, I’ll give them a share as a bonus.”

“Hmm, a nice thought,” she smiled.

Sure enough, I didn’t have to wait long. After I lowered the moon, Midnight and Firefly knocked on my bedroom door half an hour later. Midnight looked absolutely shot for having nothing but three hours sleep in the last thirty-six hours. I found out that both he and Firefly stayed up all night waiting for the Map Stallion to show his face when he was in a bar the whole time. After I gave them both a share of the gold, I sent the rest down to the treasury to be minted and told them to get a good night’s rest.

As luck would have it, Comet came by and gave me a short list consisting of a half dozen names of nobles buying up land inside the caldera. And wouldn’t you know, Lumen’s name was on the list. That was when I discovered his surname was ‘Histoire’.

Shortly after, Ares knocked on my door, and I opened it to the same guard stallion I spoke to in the dungeon.

“Princess,” he bowed, “I’m here to inform you that the stallion in the cell has come around, and has been given some refreshments. What would you have me do with him in the meantime?”

“Nicely done,” I said approvingly. “Keep a close eye on him and make sure he doesn’t do anything else stupid.”

“If I may ask, what is it he’s done? If my superior officer asks, I need to give him an answer.”

I pondered the question for a moment. “Were you privy to the rumours last month about a break-in at the castle?”

“I heard about that, but only in passing.”

“Yeah, that’s the one that broke in. Stole a few of my belongings–”

The guard’s eyes widened.

"–and assaulted me.”

His jaw hit the floor.

“So yes, make sure he doesn’t go anywhere.”

“I shall pass on the information to my replacement come shift change. On your leave, I shall return to the dungeon.”

“Have a good evening, and make sure to report anything worth noting,” I said gratefully.

“Your Majesty,” he said in lieu of farewell, bowing slightly before cantering off back to the dungeon.

That night gave me enough time to mull over the finer details of what I was going to say to the Map Stallion and Lumen. There was always a sense of closure when someone that wronged you got what they deserved, but that feeling became even sweeter when it was you who’s handing them their just desserts. I also couldn’t deny that there was a semblance of revenge in handing those two their sentences.

Come morning, it was just as cold as the previous day, if not more so. The scarcity of petitioners again gave me a chance to write Lumen’s summons, thankful that Comet’s list had his surname so the pegasus courier had a complete name and address, the latter of which I obtained from the records of his visits.

During the day’s proceedings, Celestia dealt with the petitioners while I sat in my throne thinking up some spells I wanted to try and jotting them down so it looked like I was busying myself, as well as actually finishing off any paperwork so I had a completely clean work slate. While I kept an ear out and answered any questions put to me, I was in court partially to catch Lumen’s arrival.

As much as I loved bad weather making the workload scarce at work, it was annoying how you were often stuck with long periods of time with next to nothing to do. Come two o’clock, and in the absence of any petitioners, Celestia and I were discussing what we were going to do when Lumen arrived. I told her something I thought of to catch both stallions off guard, which she seemed to like a lot. A bit of a bait and switch, really. We were going at it for a solid twenty minutes when an oh so familiar face walked into the throne room.

“You requested my presence?” Lumen said with a proud grin.

“Ah, thank you for answering the summons,” Celestia said. “There have been some matters that have come to light that Luna and I need your input on.”

“It would be a pleasure to assist, Your Majesties,” Lumen replied, beaming widely. God, his smug levels were off the chart.

“You go on ahead, I’ll catch up,” I said as Celestia got up off the throne. When she and Lumen were out of sight, I turned to Midnight. “Did you catch our earlier conversation?”

With an ever so slight grin, Midnight winked. “Yes, Princess.”

“Come then, let’s meet them in the dungeon,” I replied in kind.

As I left the throne room, I instructed the two guards standing present outside to close the doors for the next twenty minutes, and to have anyone that comes looking to wait until we get back.

With Midnight in tow, I couldn’t wait to get down to business.

A couple minutes later, we both found ourselves walking up on Lumen and Celestia, waiting for us by the senior guard posted at the main entrance to the dungeon.

“So good of you to join us, Corona,” Celestia said.

Lumen, however, was looking quite perplexed. “Pardon me for asking, Princess, but who is she and why are we going into the dungeons?”

“All shall be revealed in due time, Lumen,” she replied.

The lack of what he was being told, combined with the fact that we had turned the corner into the secure section of the dungeon made Lumen increasingly antsy, like a smoker that needed a ciggie.

Eventually, we arrived at the Map Stallion’s cell, and I sat off to the side while Celestia took care of business. Midnight, however, could only be seen by Celestia and I. He was our insurance against Lumen if he tried anything.

Judging by the combined looks of Lumen and the cell’s occupant, they’d both been found out, but neither said anything for the moment.

“About time!” the Map Stallion exclaimed in exasperation, jumping forward against the bars. “I demand an explanation of what the hell I’m doing in here!”

“You are being charged with treason, theft, breaking and entering, and assault for the time being,” Celestia said. “Given the nature of whose room you broke into and subsequently assaulted, your crimes will amount to at least two years behind bars, upon which you will be exiled.”

“Bullshit! You got nothin’ on me! Cough up the proof and witnesses or let me out!”

All the while, I had a parchment and quill with me, writing down the stallion’s description all the way down to his compass rose cutie mark. Unlike Lumen’s white and blue version, this one was brown and green against his rust-red coat.

“Princess,” Lumen hesitantly spoke up. “I don’t understand why I am here, or what Corona there is doing.”

Celestia ignored Lumen’s question in favour for the Map Stallion’s continued third degree. “By the way, what’s your name? I don’t believe Luna caught it when you assaulted her.”

The stallion visibly blanched at that mention. “Why does that matter?” he said after a moment.

“It’ll help with the description Corona here is writing down,” Celestia clarified. “You see, if you accept the plea bargain I’m about to give you, you will spend considerably less time in the cell, potentially as little as two weeks or a month instead of two years. After that, you will be properly exiled. Corona is writing down your description and details so we can give them out to every town and city. That way we’ll know if you make a return within these borders.”

He was silent, fuming like an angry bull being stopped dead in his tracks. That was the look of utter defeat, and I loved it.

Unbeknownst to me at the time, Lumen was trying to back away from the situation unfolding before him, but was stopped by Midnight, whose invisibility spell flickered when Lumen bumped into him.

“You’re not going anywhere, pal,” Midnight said, giving Lumen a coaxing shove back to his original position.

“I demand to know what I am doing here!” Lumen indignantly demanded.

I waved to the Map Stallion. “Hi, you remember me, yeah? We first met at Powder Keg’s shop when you were buying those sacks of boom sand for your little mining project. What we want to know is why you were talking to Lumen here.”

“How the hell did you know about that?” he gasped. If he kept giving us answers like that, this thing could be over quite soon.

“Those ponies I was with? Princess Luna’s personal guards. We were in Mercy specifically to find you and bring you in for your crimes, and we saw you talking to Lumen here at one point,” I said.

“You mentioned a plea bargain. What’s in it for me?”

“Time off your two year sentence for each answer, so long as the information proves correct,” Celestia said.

“He’s one of the financiers,” the stallion said immediately. “We were discussing about the cost of replacing some equipment that vanished from our campsite.”

Midnight grinned rather proudly. Had he not done that to begin with, Firefly might not have spotted the two talking. Credit where credit was due.

“Shut up you idiot!” Lumen spat, glaring at his former accomplice.

“If I’m going down I’m taking you with me, asshole!”

I unrolled the end of the scroll further and levitated Comet’s list over to the bars of the cell. “How many others are financing your little project?” I asked.

“Alongside Lumen, Wintergreen and Lamplight are financing the whole operation. The other nobles are buying land for a cut of the profits.”

I kept jotting down all the information.

“That means you three will be getting time for conspiracy,” Celestia said to Lumen. “To the tune of about three months, after which you will have your title and land stripped from you during incarceration as punishment.”

“What?! You can’t do that to me!”

Celestia levelled a very scary gaze to Lumen. “Had you gone through the proper legal channels and obtained permits, none of us would be sitting here, your little friend wouldn’t be getting exiled or have a scar across his face, and we could all be enjoying a nice cup of tea at home by the fire, couldn’t we? You’ve made your choices, now you’re going to answer for them.”

“What I don’t understand is why they decided on a cloak and dagger operation,” I smirked. “Either way, they would’ve likely walked away with the vast majority of the profits, minus the fees of their operation and a tax cut to the crown. Now they don’t get diddly squat.”

Celestia turned her attention back to the stallion behind bars. “Why’d you break into my sister’s room?”

“Lumen paid me to steal the maps. We didn’t have the resources to chart the area ourselves, so he told me of a place where we could find some.”

Lumen, however, continued to grimace and groan with each revelation that implicated him.

“Six months,” Celestia said over her shoulder, to which Lumen groaned some more and began the humourously slow process of sliding down the wall in defeat.

“What what was your role in all of this?” she continued.

“Supervisor for the operation as well as messenger boy. Go here, do this, manage the work force, then I’d be as rich as the twats that got me into this position.”

“Don’t blame others for your poor choices,” I said. “Who are your work force, and where were you getting your equipment from?”

“A couple packs of diamond dogs. In exchange for a share, they’d be happy to do all the digging and manual labour. As far as the equipment goes, one of the other nobles was responsible for using his connection to source mining equipment, so I honestly don’t know.”

I had no idea what the hell diamond dogs were, but I was suddenly getting flashbacks to my mom’s David Bowie album that she used to play during long car rides. God I hated that thing.

“I believe I’ve gotten all that we came here for,” Celestia announced, turning away to walk back down the corridor.

“Compass,” a voice said, making me look up and Celestia turn back around. “My name is Compass.”

“It’s nice to make your acquaintance, Compass,” I said. “Too bad it couldn’t be under better circumstances.”

“No kidding,” he dryly replied. “Sorry if I was rude to you the other day. Lumen was putting the screws to me to get all the boom sand we could get our hooves on.”

“That apology doesn’t mean anything when you threatened to slit Luna’s throat,” I said, taking a few, intimidating steps forward.

“He did what?!” Celestia exclaimed.

“How in the actual fuck did you know about that?!” Compass demanded.

“Midnight, do the thing.” And just like that, I was sitting there in all my blue glory, making Compass and Lumen go wide-eyed with the most sincere look of utter disbelief. Compass may have had double vision, but he didn’t see that one coming.

“Aw shit,” Compass groaned, where he proceeded to noisily bang his head against the bars.

“I should add high treason and threats of murder to the list of your crimes, but I’m not sure it would matter at this point,” Celestia seethed, giving Compass a look that made him tremble. “Luna, if you wouldn’t mind finishing things up while I see to the throne room.”

When she teleported away, Lumen and Compass let out a sigh of relief. Honestly, I did too. There was no telling what she’d do to Compass if she lost her temper and snapped, so I was glad she had the maturity to step out and cool off.

“So… What happens now?” Lumen asked despondently.

“For one thing, you’re not leaving this dungeon. Midnight, show him to an anti-magic cell,” I said, waving Lumen off. Cells built specifically for unicorns were weaved with runes that dampened, but didn’t completely negate a unicorn’s magic. Cells for earth ponies had thicker bars and walls.

“Come on buddy, let’s go and find you someplace nice,” Midnight said. “Try anything fancy and I’ll put you next to Big Bubba.”

As Midnight lead Lumen away, I turned back to Compass. “Here’s what’s going to happen. I’ll be having an artist draw up a portrait to go along with your description. In the time it takes me to chase up the information you provided me, your poster will be mounted on the wall of seedy dive bars, kingdoms, and everywhere in between. Upon your exile, if you ever set foot in this country again, I will know about it.”

“I guess nothing I can say will make my position any better for me, will it?” Compass said rather bitterly.

“If it’s any consolation, I can let you pick where I teleport you to,” I offered. “The Undiscovered West, The Mysterious South, the Unknown North beyond Mt Everhoof, or the Gryphon territories in the east.”

“Your map makers need to get more creative with their naming,” Compass scoffed. “I’ll let you know when you get your business done. Now get lost so I can mope in peace.”

“Suit yourself,” I shrugged. I rolled up my scroll and tucked the quill inside, then made my way back up to my room. Idiot forgot to ask how long he was going to spend in the cell for being oh so helpful.

With all the details Compass provided, I had my work cut out for me in tying off loose ends for this whole debacle. I had nobles to question and sentence, packs of diamond dogs to locate and have a word with, not to mention figuring out who was making all that mining equipment that Midnight got rid of.

I could only hope and pray there was no more hiccups along the way, but things like that always have a way of going tits up.

12| R'n'R

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When the rest of the nobles received my summons, they immediately assumed it would be a good thing.

Those nobles proved to be as dumb as a sack of rocks.

Over the next few days, the other five nobles came to the castle one by one, and thanks to Compass’ testimony, Celestia and I indicted them all. Lamplight and Wintergreen were given three month sentences for being the main financiers for the mining operation. Lumen got six months for being the ringleader, and had his title and land stripped from him. The other three were given a month in the dungeon for partaking in the scheme, which would give them pause the next time they contemplated illegal activities.

But it didn’t quite end there.

Because Compass proved so helpful in rounding up the nobles, he got his exile send off that Celestia mentioned when the sentencing was all wrapped up, which was to do things in a more official capacity, as it would’ve been rather dictatorial to play judge, jury, and executioner. We gathered all seven ponies in the throne room, and read their individual crimes to them in front of an public audience while trying to get any remaining information out of them.

Even though I knew for a fact that one of them was getting the equipment from somewhere, they all played dumb and pretended it was someone else’s job.

“Lamplight told me that it was Lumen’s job!” Wintergreen had said.

“I heard that Wintergreen said Lamplight was in charge of the equipment!” Compass also offered.

You get the idea. I knew they were giving me the run-around because they knew their situation would get worse if they didn’t play dumb about what I didn’t know. The same thing was said for the diamond dogs too, but I reasoned that two large packs of dogs wouldn’t be too hard to locate.

After the proceedings, I’d sent a few pairs of guards to nearby towns to make inquiries with local blacksmiths to ascertain where the equipment was coming from, and to see if there were any packs of dogs around.

Since Comet was there to give his testimony about the break-in, we tried to find out who it was that knocked him out. Unless there was an eighth accomplice nobody had mentioned, we didn’t find out who it was, which begged the question: Who hit him? As the trial went on, I decided that little detail wasn’t important since their stint had been effectively dismantled.

With Compass somewhere in the middle of the Undiscovered West as per his request and the other nobles out of sight and out of mind, I could focus on locating the diamond dogs and sourcing where the mining equipment came from. When it came to connections, I only had Harvest and Mayor Granite. I wasn’t sure if it was a good idea to get Harvest involved with what was going on, but I was running out of options and needed all the help I could get my hands on. Or, to be more accurate, hooves.

Come Saturday, my day off since Celestia was handling the “by appointment” petitioner's, I had Midnight cast his Corona illusion on me again, then Boreas and I headed to Mercy for some business and pleasure, but mostly pleasure.

“So, remind me what we’re doing here?” Boreas asked once we arrived on the outskirts of town.

“Just need to have a word with the mayor, give something to Atlas, then we’ve got the day to ourselves,” I replied.

“At least we don’t have to worry about Compass and the nobles anymore,” Boreas added relievingly.

“Indeed,” I agreed. “At least we’ve put the brakes on their little operation, so to speak. Now it’s just a matter of making sure they can’t pick up where they left off once out of the cells.”

We arrived in town to find the busy hustle and bustle of the mid-morning market. Everyone was out in force, and we had to nimbly maneuver through the crowd to get to city hall. As I expected, Granite was sitting in his chair like when we first met, looking like he was asleep with a smoldering cigar hanging out of his mouth as ponies went in and out of the building.

“Hello again, mayor,” I said as Boreas and I walked up the stairs.

Granite slowly looked up to us, moving his ciger to the other corner of his mouth, then adjusted his hat so he could look at us better. “Hello again, Princess,” he said to us. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”

“Do you know of any blacksmiths in town?” I asked.

He raised an eyebrow. “Does this have to do with what’s been going on?”

“Just tying up some loose ends is all.”

“I believe the smithy is busy fixing various items for our out of towners. With all due respect, I’m not sure he has the time for you, but if you must know, his shop is in the north east corner of town, a few streets behind the main market.”

The idea was to check on that blacksmith myself, but I could send someone out to have a chat at a later date since he was busy. “Many thanks,” I replied as I fished out a scroll from my bag. I levitated it over to Granite, where he unfurled it to look at the array I drew.

“What’s this for?” he asked curiously.

“Instant messaging,” I replied absentmindedly.

Granite blinked owlishly. “I don’t… Pardon me? What’s ‘instant messaging’?”

“I well, it’s, uhm, you see…” I had to keep my composure as my brain screamed at my mouth for not thinking about what it was going to say. The real question is if I could explain cellphone technology to something that probably wouldn’t even understand such a thing. “You see, instant messaging is where you write as many words as you can fit on the parchment within the empty space of the circle, then tap this symbol to send it,” I said, pointing to a particular glyph. “It’s called ‘instant messaging’ because the message comes to me instantly, so if you find any diamond dogs in town, notify me in due time if you please.”

“Diamond dogs eh? Were they in league with your little pegasus friend?” he said.

“The dogs were to be the workforce for the mine. I was hoping they could be dissuaded from any further attempts on your town.”

“Alright, Ah can do that. Don’t want some mutts gallivanting around muh town and diggin’ up our land. So… If Ah see any of ‘em around, Ah just doodle on here and rub out this’re glyph?”

“Doodle, no. Write legibly, yes,” I grinned. “I was informed there would be at least two packs. If you see a large congregation of dogs, then notify me post haste.”

Granite folded the parchment and tucked it inside his hat, kicked up his legs on the banister and resumed his position. “It won’t be any problem, Princess. Y’all can count on me.”

“Much obliged,” I said. Before I left, I magicked the small sack of of Compass’ gold into Granite’s lap. “The leftover gold that that pegasus mined. Had it minted for you. Thought you should have it.”

Without looking up, Granite palmed the bag to gauge its weight. Or was it frogged, since horses have the frog of their hoof instead of a palm? Hell if I knew.

“Seems a little light if he had a mining operation,” Granite pointed out as he lifted his hat off, put the sack on top of his head, then donned the hat again.

“He spent some of it at the local bar. It should come back to you at some point,” I smirked.

That actually made Granite chuckle. “If anything is sure in life, it’s death and taxes.”

“Before I go, have you seen Atlas, the cartographer?”

“Left early this morning. He should be back mid-afternoon,”.

I gave Granite the parchment with the Scanner’s spell matrix. “Could you also give this to Atlas and inform him that Luna needs his assistance in completing it by the time he returns to the castle?”

Granite also tucked that scroll under his hat, and I jokingly thought he must he using British sci-fi technology to fit everything under there.“Shan’t be a problem.”

“Have a good day, Mayor,” I said as I stepped off the last step, Boreas keeping up the rear.

“What are we gonna do for the rest of the day?” my companion asked with a pep in her step.

“Get some hot food, then pay a visit to a friend of mine.” I wanted to see how Hayseed and Nebula were doing, and if Harvest was manning his stall, I had a small surprise for him. “How do some nuts sound?”

Boreas grinned up at me. “Too salty.”

“The local bar also serves food and drunks,” I said, remembering Compass’ state.

“Don’t you mean drinks?”

“Those too.”

Boreas giggle-snorted. “What’s the place called?”

“The Crazy Cock.”

“How about we get some candy apples? I want to see if they’re as good as Firefly says they are.”

“Got something against innuendo themed food and bars?” I playfully probed.

“Dirty jokes are one thing, stallions are another.”

I almost tripped over myself as my head snapped to look at Boreas. “You mean–”

“Yup. Part of the reason why I’m here.”

“What, in Mercy?”

Boreas tapped her nose at me. “A story for another day if it’s all the same to you. Now, where are those apples?”

I stopped walking and put my hoof on Boreas’ shoulder to stop and turn her to look at me proper. “Look, you know I’m your friend, so you can tell me anything and I won’t hold it against you. Alright?”

Boreas shifted uncomfortably, and I removed my hoof from her shoulder. “I know you’re my friend, that’s why I said what I did; because I trusted you not to freak out like a certain somepony did. It’s just… too many ears right now, you know?”

“Oh, I see,” I replied, clearing my throat. I turned my attention toward a large gathering of ponies around the cart I remembered buying my candied apple from last week. “Should be over here.”

“Dang it, the line’s way too big,” she said somewhat bitterly. “Looks like Firefly seems to be onto something, though.”

I looked over my shoulder for another food cart where the lines were shorter, and I spied Harvest doing his thing with a big grin. I fished out enough money from my bag for two apples each. “If you don’t mind waiting in line, I just saw someone I wanna have a quick word with.” I levitated the coins over to Boreas. “Enough for two each.”

“Thank you!” Boreas happily replied, then cantered to the back of the line.

With a smile on my face, I went over and stood in line to Harvest’s cart and waited. A couple minutes later, the pony in front of me departed with his goods as I stepped up.

“Hello, what can I get yo– oh!” He looked up from tidying the shelves. “It’s you, Lu- uh, Corona!”

“Hello again, Harvest,” I smiled. “Got anymore of that special corn?”

“Sure do!” He ducked under the bench and came up with a few sacks, nosing one forward for me and putting the other two with the other displays items. “Five copper, please.”

Like last time, I levitated the money into his little bag, plus a small sack of popcorn in front of him that I prepared earlier on.

“What’s this?” Harvest asked.

“Open it. I made it with the corn you gave me.” I wondered if he would be as surprised as the chefs at the castle. He pulled the top open, but rather than surprise, his brow knitted further in confusion. “Go on, eat it.”

Harvest cautiously lipped a few pieces into his mouth, then his expression lit up like the fourth of July. “This is amazing! What did you do to it?”

“Put a cup full in a pot, your choice of butter or oil, put the lid on. Shake occasionally, and when the popping stops, you got yourself a delicious little snack!” I said. Off to my right, I received a poke in my side.

“Excuse me, what is that stuff?” a mare asked with a curious sniff.

“Popped corn,” I replied. “Harvest here has the recipe. I’m sure he’ll give it to you if you ask nicely.”

She politely requested a couple pieces to try, and her reaction was immediate. “Oh my, I’ve never tasted anything like this!” the mare beamed, leaning over the counter. “You must give me all your popcorn, and the recipe!” Everyone within earshot had begun to crowd around Harvest and I at the mare’s reaction, peering over my shoulder to catch a look at the tasty new snack.

“Woah there everypony, there’s plenty to go around! Just form an orderly line!”

Because I had enough foresight something like that would happen, I put a stack of cards with instructions on how to cook the popcorn alongside some suggested toppings on the bench for Harvest to give out. “Would you mind if I paid Nebula and Hayseed an unexpected visit?”

“That’s fine with me, but I do have to warn you that Nebula took the opportunity to invite some of her mare friends and their kids over because I’m at the market.”

“Baby shower?” I queried.

“Just a get together. Now if I may, I’m about to be mobbed with ponies wanting your new ‘popcorn’ invention,” he said in playful annoyance.

“Until next time, Harvest,” I said as I departed.

“I’ll see you at the house if you’re still there!” He waved goodbye, then another pony took my place as the mosh pit for the popcorn began.

Three places from the front, Boreas was still patiently waiting in line for the apples when I joined her.

“Who was your friend?” she asked.

“You remember Harvest?”

“Firefly told me about him. One of the nobles tried buying his land eh?”

“Yup. And since Lumen has already paid for Harvest’s land with the intention of mining it, Lumen can’t do anything with it anymore! Harvest got richer and Lumen got poorer,” I laughed ironically.

“You mean they can’t get the permits even when they get out of jail?”

“I… Huh, guess I didn’t think of that. I’d have to discuss it with Celestia, though.”

That certainly was quite the revelation, something I thought about as Boreas and I walked to Harvest’s house while munching on our apples. Given that it was a weekend, Hayseed should be home from school.

The front door was wide open to let the breeze run through the house in the warm weather, so I rapped loudly on the doorframe so the occupants could hear me. “Hayseed, could you go see who that is, please?” Nebula said from within.

There was the little pitter patter of Hayseed’s hooves, and when he rounded the corner out of the lounge and looked down the hall to see me standing in the doorway, he beamed widely.

“Momma, it’s Luna!” Hayseed exclaimed, bouncing up and down. He ran up to me, grabbed me by the forehoof, and began dragging me into the house while I giggled at his enthusiasm.

Boreas was following behind, grinning at the sight as we were forcefully lead to the lounge. Nebula was reclining on the sofa with her knitting in her aura, and two other mares were sitting opposite her, all of whom were drinking tea and eating biscuits as their fillies played on the floor. They looked to be about Hayseed’s age.

“Hello again, Luna,” Nebula waved with a smile.

“Nice to see you too. Who are your friends here?”

“This is Marigold and Ritzy,” she said, pointing to the mares respectively. Marigold had a sun-yellow coat and orange mane with a flower cutie mark, and Ritzy had a coat as white as the clouds and a baby-blue mane with a folding fan as a cutie mark.

“Hello to you two,” I greeted politely, yet Marigold and Ritzy were giving me rather peculiar looks.

“Your name is Luna, like the princess?” Marigold blinked.

“My name is Luna because I am the princess,” I smirked.

Ritzy snorted disbelievingly and took a sip of tea while Nebula looked on, looking up to me as she kept her mirth between us. “You can’t be, because Princess Luna doesn’t leave the castle, at least not without guards surrounding her,” she said.

I shrugged the comment off, then removed my peytral. Marigold was mid-sip of her tea, and it began dribbling down her chin as she caught sight of me while Ritzy’s eyes just about popped out of her head.

“This is Boreas,” I said, stepping to the side to let her into view. “One of my guards. It’s our day off from working at the castle, so I thought I’d stop by and pay Nebula and Harvest a visit.”

“Harvest is at the market until the afternoon,” Nebula added.

“I actually saw him on the way here. He said you had company, so I thought I’d surprise everypony.”

One of the little fillies, staring at me to make sure I was real and not a dream, suddenly sprang to life and ran over to me, a smile splitting her face like the grand canyon.

“Daffodil, come back here!” Marigold chastised.

Marigold’s words went unheeded by Daffodil, who stared up at me in abject joy.

“Can I brush your mane?!” she blurted.

“You’ll have to forgive Daffodil, Your Majesty, she gets excited easily,” Marigold said, embarrassed by her daughter’s reaction to me.

“Don’t worry about it,” I waved dismissively. “And call me Luna. Nebula and Hayseed do, so you two can too.”

“Would you like some tea?” Nebula asked. “There’s extra cups in the top left kitchen cupboard.”

Daffodil kept staring up at me with that contagious smile, so I booped her on the nose and smiled back. “Some tea sounds lovely, but if you’ll excuse me for two seconds…” I nipped back to my room to grab my hairbrush, then reappeared back in the living room. “This is my hairbrush,” I said, levitating it to the filly, who looked at it in awe.

After I poured Boreas and I some tea, I pulled over a chair for Daffodil to sit on while I sat at the foot of it so the exuberant filly could live out her apparent dream of brushing a princess’ hair. As Hayseed drew on some scrap paper with crayons alongside the other filly whose name I didn’t catch, I wound up shooting the breeze with Nebula and her friends well into the afternoon.

“...And then he said; ‘No, this is Patrick!’” Raucous laughter filled the living room, but my joke (altered slightly to fit the world of ponies) went over the heads of the kids, all of whom kept minding their own business. Much to my serendipity, Daffodil actually did a better job of brushing my mane than I did in the mornings, and had since rejoined Hayseed and her other friend.

After the little conversation I had with Boreas earlier, she was rather quiet while everyone else talked. She did chip in with an off-hand joke now and then to get involved, but it would’ve been nice to get to know her a bit better since it was an ample opportunity.

“I really am pleasantly surprised at how well Daffodil brushed my mane,” I said to Marigold, who gave me a confused look while I bumped it up and down with a hoof.

“Really? Don’t you have ponies for that?” she said.

“You’d think so, but I brush my own hair every morning.” I leaned over to playfully nudge Marigold. “If Daffodil gets her cutie mark in mane brushing, send her my way and I’ll make her my personal mane stylist at the castle!”

“You… You’d actually do that?” Marigold blinked. “Give a little filly a job working for royalty?”

“When she grows up a bit more, of course,” I laughed. “On an semi-related note, I offered Nebula and Harvest a family suite at the castle for when they retire and Nebula has her foal.” And then I remembered the second scroll I prepared. I levitated it out of my bag and over to Nebula.

“A modified teleportation array?” Nebula ventured when she unfurled it, narrowing her gaze and leaning closer to read more carefully. “Oohhh, you altered the matrix to teleport itself to you after somepony has written on it!”

“Wow, you managed to pick that out?” She must’ve been well-read if she figured out exactly what it was for, given that I invented it not two days prior.

“You have to be an adept spellcaster to have a talent with astrology,” she said proudly.

“I give that to you in case you want to have your baby at the castle. Best doctors around and all. Or, knock on wood, if something were to go awry.” The truth of the matter was that I hoped the scroll would be used if the diamond dogs were to suddenly appear in town with less than desirable intentions. Despite that, I did want to make sure Nebula and her baby were safe.

“Thank you for the gesture, Luna, it means a lot,” Nebula beamed.

“Just looking out for a friend,” I replied.

“Honey, I’m home!” Harvest suddenly hollered from the main entrance as he began walking down the hall. He rounded the door a moment later to see us looking back him with a warm welcome.

“How was the markets, hon?” Nebula said.

“Thanks to Luna here, I got mobbed and ran out of that new corn I was growing,” he said, giving me a friendly glare out the corner of his eye.

“How did the princess manage to do that?” Ritzy asked.

“This,” Harvest said, holding a half empty sack of popcorn in the crook of his hoof. With curiosity on her face, Nebula levitated it from him as she kept her knitting going. “Luna calls it ‘popcorn’.”

“Popcorn?” Nebula said, as she tried a couple pieces. Her expression was the same as everyone else’s. “Girls, you must try this!”

Marigold and Ritzy tried a piece each, and their expressions said it all. “Why have I not heard of this before?!” Ritzy exclaimed.

“Because I only made it last week,” I mused. “Harvest can make you some more if you’d like. Just make sure to brush your teeth afterwards; the kernel skins tend to get stuck in your teeth.”

“Babe, look what Luna gave me,” Nebula said as she showed Harvest the parchment from earlier. “If I go into labour and you’re not around to help, heaven forbid, then I can just send her a message!”

“It’s nice to know that the princesses care so much about us,” he said gratefully.

“I do what I can, where I can.” I looked to Hayseed and tousled his mane. “Isn’t that right, little guy?”

“Luna makes sure I have good dreams,” he said, then moved into hug me. Marigold and Ritzy looked on fondly, then I glanced over at the clock.

“Do you have to be leaving soon?” Harvest asked.

“I’ve got some reports I need to look over,” I groaned. Namely, I wanted to check in with the guards I sent out to see if they made any progress with the equipment and the dogs.

“Uhm, Princess?” Ritzy hesitated. “I just wanted to say sorry if I came across as rude earlier…” she said, shamefully rubbing one foreleg with the other.

“Don’t think anything of it. You had no idea I was so forthcoming is all, so I don’t blame your for not believing me.”

“If I may ask,” Marigold said, “why aren’t you surrounded with guards?”

“Well, even though Boreas is off duty, she’s still a guard. If someone tried to have at me, she can intervene,” I said.

“But why do you have guards if you have the power to raise the moon, amongst other things?” Ritzy pointed out.

“That’s just it. If somepony tried attacking me, the potential of accidentally turning them into glue is there, if you catch my drift.” I didn’t want to say ‘kill’ in front of the little ones, so I made a morbid joke to get my point across. “If they prove worthy enough a foe to make it past my guards, then they’re fair game, but their main purpose is security at the castle.”

“Huh, I’ve always wondered about that for years,” Ritzy said arily.

“In any case, it’s been lovely meeting you all. If you see me again, don’t hesitate to say hello.” I gave Nebula a hug as best as her engorged stomach would allow, Hayseed was next, then I hoof bumped Harvest goodbye before teleporting back to my room.

“I gotta say, Luna, it’s nice seeing you get along with everypony,” Boreas softly smiled up at me.

“I don’t understand where the schtick about royalty having to be above everypony comes from,” I said distastefully. “Sure they might be leaders that everypony looks up to, but that doesn’t mean we don’t like having a good chin-wag over tea and biscuits.”

“A fair point. Now if I might be excused, I’ve got to get ready for my evening shift.”

“I’ll see you around,” I said. I closed the door after Boreas left, then turned my attention to a few scrolls that I noticed on my desk.

The first one was a report from two of the guards I sent to the closest town to the castle, detailing their inquiry to the blacksmith. That smithy hadn’t done business with, nor did he recognise any of the nobles from their descriptions, so I put it to the side in favour of the next one. That’s when I got a break.

For the desk of Her Majesty, Princess Luna.

As per your request of an inquiry into the town of Aes, we discovered that the small town has an abundance of supplies and the necessary skill and labour needed to cast and forge mining equipment. Workers obtain ore-rich rock from a nearby quarry dubbed ‘Rush Valley’, which is then taken to a foundry on the outskirts of town and smelted into ingots of varying sizes. Aes is more known for their high quality weapons and armour manufacturing, but will also indulge custom orders for whatever a client needs. The stallion at the main shop where we made our inquiry into recognised the description of one ‘Lamplight’, but none of the other six, and added that the aforementioned stallion brought in expertly drawn blueprints from which the parts were made.

As far as packs of diamond dogs go, due to the nature of items Aes is known to produce, their quarry and town is well armed to deter any thieves.

Signed, Corporal Pauldron and Sergeant Bloom.

Pleasantly surprised by the turn of events, I let out a hum of delight and made a mental reminder to thank the Corporal and Sergeant tomorrow.

As I unrolled the next scroll, I mused how I would’ve liked to see how expertly made the mining equipment was, or if we could’ve put it to good use.

For the desk of Her Majesty, Princess Luna.

Following your request into the village of Valley Forge, we noted that while the town does perform metallurgy, they do not have the equipment necessary to produce mining equipment. However, upon interviewing the owner at the town’s blacksmith shop, it was discovered that the owner had the knowledge to provide one ‘Lamplight’ with blueprints and recommended materials he would need to build a processing plant for gold. Unfortunately, subsequent inquiries into diamond dogs bore no fruit.

Signed, Sergeants Primer and Ratchet.

After I read the scrolls, I was debating whether or not to go down to the dungeons and pay Lamplight a visit and show hom those reports, and possibly make his sentence longer for lying to me, but I had nothing to gain from doing so. However, that didn’t mean I couldn’t demonstrate that I had the resources and manpower (ponypower?) needed to get something done and source out information. Hopefully that would intimidate Lumen and his accomplices enough that they’d be too scared to attempt any other illegal activities.

Since only three of the five pairs of guards had returned and given their report, I was anticipating something about dogs in the next two. Surely someone had to have seen two large packs of diamond dogs out and about, or at the very least seen someone matching the description of one of the nobles or Compass talking to them.

There was little I could do until the other four got back with their reports, so I pulled up a book that had some information on diamond dogs. Perhaps I’d glean something about them I missed previously? Habitat, diet, something that’d give me an idea of where they liked to congregate. In hindsight, I probably should’ve given the guards some idea of how to locate the dogs rather than send them on their way and hope something would turn up.

I mentally chastised myself for being so presumptuous, and I continued to read until I was due to lower the moon then have dinner, all the while looking forward to the next day. The following day was Sunday, and I had cleared my schedule for the entire day with the express purpose of flying until my wings couldn’t fly anymore.

13| Come Fly With Me

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Author's Notes:

OK people, just a few words before we get into the chapter. As of the publication of this chapter, Arc 1 is completed. I've accomplished everything I set out to do by this point in the story, so I want to move onto more in-depth and exploratory story elements. That means the next chapter might take a bit longer than usual just because I have to write out the outline for the next arc, then begin writing the chapter following this one.

And without further ado...

...We have more artwork!

Introducing fighty boi Bastille!

As a size comparison, here he is next to Boreas.

Bastille is the same size as Trouble Shoes and Rockhoof.

And here we have Comet!

So, funny story about Comet... When I was reading back on the story to get Comet's description for the artist, I realised I never got around to giving him one! Instead, I asked the artist if they'd like to design him from scratch for a bit extra, and they were more than happy to! And I absolutely loved how he turned out!

I've only got art for Midnight left to go. He's my OC and most of the art I have for him can be found on my main page, but I want to get him done in the same style as previous drawings to fit the overall design for the chracters I'm aiming for for the story.

Art by Seryph Song

I stood on the roof of the castle with wings at the ready, facing towards Mt. Canterhorn as the sun peeked over the trees to my right. As picturesque as a brochure of the tropics, the mountain was framed by the backdrop of the blue sky and fluffy white clouds, accented by golden hues of the radiant sun.

A wisp of wind blew by, and I smiled. With cocked legs and an almighty flap of my wings, I was off like a bullet.

Crisp spring air rippled through my mane and tail, as fresh as the dew on the grass beneath me and the leaves on the trees. I pumped my wings as hard as I could, rising above a low-laying cloud bank and pushing off on it to gain even more momentum, speeding towards my target as if I was driving down the freeway without a care in the world.

I had only one goal in sight: The summit of Mt Canterhorn.

I spied a lake longer than it was wide through the canopy of the Everfree forest, and I angled my wings down, tucking my legs against me. The body of water came closer and closer, and I levelled off mere inches above the mirror-like surface, letting my hooves skim across the top like a pebble on the flat ocean. I glided over the lake, banking left and right to allow the tips of my wings to break the surface, kicking up sprays of refreshing water against my coat. With that pleasant chill permeating me, I turned skyward and began climbing as high and as hard as I could with every determined pump.

As the muscles in my back started to protest from the exertion, I paused to level out and slow down slightly, letting the gentle breeze carry me towards my destination. From being so high up, I could see the horizon for miles around in all its splendour. Rivers and lakes dotted the landscape intermittently, and I could see an ocean hiding the rising sun in the distance. The sight of majestic, lush green forests, rolling foothills, and and the bleached white of snow capped mountains went uncontested by any photo I’ve ever seen, or the view from a plane.

It made me feel... alive.

I was gliding among the clouds without a care in the world. It was just me and the sky. Finally, a moment where I could fully appreciate and enjoy my little holiday.

As I flew through the open sky, the bottom of the sun broke free from the curvature of the horizon. It was about half an hour since I first took flight as the mountaintop grew ever closer, further reinforced by the chill in my wings from the altitude.

With the application of the Accelero spell I picked up from a book, I felt my speed increase twofold as I narrowed my eyes against the wind resistance, my gaze never leaving the spiked peak of the mountain. What would have taken a further twenty minutes was accomplished in ten thanks to the added speed.

As my destination came into view, I dispelled the spell and pulled back, throwing my wings forward to slow down as best I could before I became a pony princess pancake against the side of the mountain. I gently floated over to the toothpick thin spire of rock that was the tallest as far as the eye could see.

It was inevitable that a stupid idea crossed my mind, one that made me grin with juvenile humour.

Concentrating magic into my horn, I carved out a concave section of rock from the snowy peak, providing me a smooth surface on which to write. After all, if I was going to swap back by this time next week, I wanted to leave some sort of reminder that I was here. Perhaps someone would climb the mountain in the future and wonder what it meant? Luna would certainly know if she found it.

I carved three words into the rock with magic; Kate wuz here, followed by the date: 17/10/205AU (AU stood for After Unification, similarly to AD on Earth).

As I stood on a plateau a bit further down from the summit, overlooking the wider world in all it’s naturistic glory, it seriously made me appreciate that kind of pure, untainted nature. Waking up to chirping birds and breathing invigorating oxygen every day the last several weeks was a huge contrast to waking up to polluted air and honking cars from living in a crowded city, one that I wouldn’t take for granted when I got back home.

I think it was that epiphany which made me consider moving house to a more rural area. Perhaps a nice house in the middle of the countryside where I could go into the garden and pick fresh tomatoes off the vine for a salad, or an apple from the tree for a snack. It’d also save me some money instead of having to go to the supermarket if I ran out of something.

The longer I stood at the top of the mountain, the more resolute about the idea I became. Eventually, I spied a stray cloud casually drifting by, so I lazily flew over to and flopped down over it, letting the eco-friendly vehicle carry me back toward the castle with a little push of my magic.

Normally looking down to the ground from a height would be absolutely terrifying for some people, especially if you were sitting on a small platform thousands upon thousands of feet above ground with no form of security, but in my case, and considering how much of a good mood I was in as well as the fact I had that security, I felt daring. After an hour of mindlessly floating on the cloud completely relaxed, I stood up, folded my wings against my side, and dove head first off the cloud, streaking through the air like a comet trailing through the atmosphere as an aquamarine contrail streaked behind me.

The air friction was quick to build as I dove head first toward the ground at terminal velocity, and I could barely keep my eyes open to see where I was going as narrowed as they were. I suddenly unfurled my wings almost like a parachute with an audible womph! to slow my descent, the immediate strain on the back muscles screaming at me as though I’d forsaken them. Aiming for the edge of the lake I passed over earlier, I attempted the superhero touchdown but failed miserably. I misjudged my footing and tumbled over myself like a boulder down a hill, and I kept going until I landed in the lake with a splash. I had no idea if Luna could swim, and I hadn’t the chance to practice in her body, so I suddenly burst out of the water in a panic at that realisation and floundered for even footing, half crawling to the edge of the bank to pull myself up. I successfully did so, where I rolled onto my back spread-eagled, looking up at the sky with a mile wide grin on my face, wet like I’d just gotten out of the shower.

“Yeah!” I shouted to nobody in particular, throwing my forelegs up in the air in an exuberant cheer. I got up, and walked over to the edge of the lake for a drink, levitating a glob of water from that I sucked up through puckered lips.

Even though I probably wouldn’t get the chance to fly like that again, I had absolutely no regrets in my failed landing whatsoever. In retrospect, I wondered what would’ve happened if I had ditched Celestia, the castle, the nobles, and went off on my own adventure to discover lands unknown. Nothing good probably, then I most likely would have never made my way back home and Luna would’ve been stuck on Earth with no way home.

I shook those thoughts from my head and teleported myself back to my room for a nice hot shower. Even though there were a few scrolls on my desk for me, they could wait ten minutes. Or an hour. It was my day off, after all.

When I got out of the bathroom all nice and clean, I went to take a look at the scrolls as I dried my mane. Two of them were the last two reports about the inquiry concerning the mining equipment and the dogs, which were, unfortunately, a dead end. The one consolation was that I knew who and where the equipment was coming from, so I could pay the town of Aes a visit at some point during next week. The third was a report summary and actions taken by Celestia taking care of the “by appointment” petitioners which, apparently, went quite well.

Since Lamplight still had the blueprints in his possession, Celestia and I had them confiscated along with any and all paraphernalia relating to their operation. As a result, I wondered if we could use those same plans to build another machine and start our own mining operation. ‘Course, I’d need to run it by Harvest since it was his town and land, but I assumed it wouldn’t be an issue if we could come to an agreement about profits, labour, etcetera.

About an hour later after I finished drafting up a proposal, I had turned my efforts onto the journal I was writing for Luna when a knock came from my bedroom door, so I went to see who it was.

“Oh, Atlas!” I greeted when I opened the door. “How well did your survey turn out?”

“About as well as I could’ve hoped for, Princess,” he replied courteously, reaching into his saddle bags for two scrolls. He unfurled one, showing a detailed drawing of the chasm and its surroundings. “As you can see, we’ve completed the initial survey, so all that’s needed is to get this integrated with the rest of the maps.” He offered me the other scroll with an outstretched hoof. “Harvest also said you needed this done by today, so I looked it over and made a few corrections and changes to the best of my ability. I must say, it’s an interesting concept, but I do feel obligated to say that it’s more effective at subterranean complexes than land masses.”

I looked over the parchment, noting the corrections Atlas made. “That’s the idea. I have reason to believe the region is volcanic based off of some research, so this will help to ascertain how unstable the surrounding land mass is, if at all.”

“Oh yeah?” Atlas said with an air of intrigue.

“Since it is a prototype spell, I plan on testing it out to see if it’ll actually do what I designed it to do.”

“Do let me know of the results; it would be a boon to have something like this under our belts.”

“Have the rest of the day to yourself if you like. You can start on integrating the addition to the other maps tomorrow.”

“Ah, thank you very much, Princess,” Atlas bowed, happily cantering off and down the hall as I turned my attention to the spell.

Thinking back on how Luna neglected to tell me how to find the mirror, I had the time since then to think rationally about how I’d locate it. You’d think a mirror that doubled as a portal to another universe would be hard to find, or at least very well guarded, so I reason it could’ve been in one of two places: In the deepest part of the castle that would be off limits to anyone save Celestia and Luna, or hidden in plain sight as an inconspicuous looking vanity mirror. As a test run for the scanner spell, I’d have it scan the entirety of the castle to see if it turned up and chambers on the lower levels. If that failed, then I would’ve had to go hunting for every mirror in the castle with the hopes I’d find what I was looking for, which seemed unrealistic.

When I activated the spell, an dimly glowing ball of light emerged from within the matrix, and from my desk, the other rolled up parchment began glowing in response. I unfurled it and set it on the desk, and slowly, a contoured, 3D rendering of my room began to emerge from the array. I watched as beams of light washed over every surface, creating a scaled-down version of its surroundings.

While it was proving to be effective, I couldn’t have a ball of conspicuous magic floating all around the castle. I glanced over the guard’s roster above my desk to see if the person I wanted was posted outside my door, and much to my surprise, he was.

I went back over the door and opened it to poke my head out. “Midnight, a moment of your time, please?”

“Of course, Princess,” he said, walking into the room and stealing a glance at my floating handiwork.

“Could you cast a charm on this spell so it will go completely unnoticed by everypony, save you and myself?”

“That I can.” Midnight then fed magic into his horn, and it dissipated a moment later. “One of my more stronger See No spells. Might I inquire as to what it is you’re doing?”

“A simple experiment for a spell I made. Can’t have everypony wondering why there’s a random ball of magic floating around the castle.”

“Is there anything else, Your Highness?”

I thought about asking Midnight to fetch a courier to take the proposal I wrote to Granite, but then realised that a courier would take a full day to fly to Mercy and back again, where I could spare a few seconds to teleport there. “Not for the moment. You may return to your post.” Midnight bowed curtly and retreated through the door, followed by the ball of magic as it began its journey through the castle.

Even though I wanted to chat with Granite about picking up where Lumen and his gang left off, I’d be getting ahead of myself without a solid plan on what to do, as well as jumping the gun with my spell without knowing how well it would perform. While the scanner matrix did its thing, I grabbed the parchment with the other spell I was working on prior to the guard training and set out to find Firefly so she could be my little guinea pig for the test.

Unsurprisingly, I found her in the dining hall scarfing down about two lunches worth of food piled onto the same plate.

“I still have no idea where you put it all,” I said, rolling my eyes as I sat down across from Firefly.

“Hmmph?” Firefly mumbled with spaghetti strands hanging out of her overstuffed mouth. She gulped and swallowed the entire mouthful like an anime character wolfing down mountains of food. “I just got done training, so I need the extra food to top up my magic and energy,” she said, then guzzled down a jug of water.

“You’re going to eat us out of house and castle,” I snarked. “Anyway, I was wondering if you had some free time to help me with something?”

Firefly wiped the back of her hoof across her mouth. “Sure, what’d you need?”

“I need your help testing a spell I wrote.”

“What is it supposed to do?”

I smirked. “Do you like surprises?” If it worked the way I’d hoped it would, then she’d certainly be in for a surprise.

Firefly returned my smirk with a sly, intrigued grin. “Alright, I’ll bite. Shall we go outside?”

“I was planning on it,” I said as the two of us got up. We walked through the various halls in search for the main entrance which, when I thought about it, I hadn’t passed through since my stay. We managed to locate it in due time, the door leading out to a grand foyer which had some kind of planetary system sitting on a pedestal. The whole thing was carved from rock, and had a large stone ball as the centerpiece as well as five smaller planets surrounding it, attached to thick pieces of wire which were secured to a centre column, and apparently rotated like planets of a solar system.

But that wasn’t the strangest thing. The closer I got, I could sense an almighty amount of magic energy emanating from each stone ball, and they all had a different sensation; a fire of devotion; the warm embrace of a mother’s hug; a giddy sugar rush; the fullness of spirit; serendipity of accomplishment, and the relief of a weight being lifted off my shoulders.

“Do you feel that?” I asked Firefly.

“Feel what?” she said with a quizzical glance.

“The pedestal thingy. I can feel magic radiating out from it.”

Firefly turned to look at it with a cursory glance. “I recall Celestia mentioning it being some kind of protective ward for the castle. What it does or how it works, I don’t know.” She shrugged it off, but I kept looking at it over my shoulder as we continued walked to the main gate.

Stepping outside into the noon sun, we walked about a hundred metres from the castle before coming to a stop in the middle of a field of grass.

“Alright, so what do you need me for?” Firefly said.

I looked over the parchment I brought with me in concentration, then rolled it up as I drew three arrays stacked on top of one another with hard light magic. I’d decided to name it Mirror Water. I enlarged them enough to cover me from head to toe, then turned my attention to Firefly.

“Hit me with your best shot.”

Firefly blinked in disbelief. “I… What? You want me to try and cook you like a smoked fish or something?”

I rolled my eyes. “Firstly, you smoke fish with smoke, not fire. And yes, I want you to shoot a fireball at me.”

Shrugging, and figuring that she couldn’t get in trouble with someone that asked to have a fireball shot at them, Firefly gathered a ball of radiant red magic at the tip of her horn which then rocketed towards me like a cannonball.

If my spell had failed, I would’ve walked away with a couple minor burns at worst. Thankfully that wasn’t the case, and when the fireball contacted the array, it rebounded back instantly. Seeing that, Firefly’s eyes widened in abject disbelief, but she couldn’t react in time to deflect her own spell because of the speed, and it knocked her back several metres where she landed on her ass.

Groaning from the pain of the fall, Firefly picked herself up and fixed me a glare. “Hey! Why’d you do that?!”

“I told you you were in for a surprise, and you decided to play along,” I shrugged.

“Yeah, well…” she grumbled after the fact.

“If you eat fire, why didn’t you just eat your own magic?”

“What, eat my own magic? Are you crazy? That’s like eating breakfast and deciding you want to regurgitate it to have for lunch.”

“Dude, that’s gross,” I grimaced.

“Exactly my point. I might be completely immune to fire, but that’s not counting explosive force.”

“Anyway, thanks for your help. Glad to know that the spell worked the way I intended.”

“Hold on a sec,” Firefly interrupted. “Before you go, I wanna try something else.”

“What, getting knocked on your ass with your own magic again?” I joked.

“No!” she sheepishly interjected. “Try pointing the array away from you at an angle.”

Confused as to what she was on about, I obliged the request. Another fireball was sent my way, but instead of bouncing right back to Firefly, it rebounded off the array an angle and went soaring over the tops of the trees on the other side of ravine.

From craning my head looking at the fireball, I turned to look at Firefly with a dead even expression. “As handy as the angle of the array is to know, if your fireball causes a forest fire, you’re cleaning every toilet in the castle after you put out the fire.”

“Including yours?”

“Especially mine.”

“Dude, that’s gross.”

“Well? What are you waiting for? The eventual column of smoke to let you know where to go?”

“I hate you so much…” Firefly playfully spat.

“No you don’t,” I replied cheekily. “Besides, it was your own idea. Now git.”

As Firefly trudged off in the same direction her spell went to make sure it didn’t spark a blaze, I made my way back to the dining hall for some lunch of my own. Minus the fruit I snacked on before my flight, I hadn’t had much else to eat and was getting rather hungry.

Save for a couple of occasions, I didn’t see the scanner matrix at all much during the rest of the day, and I restrained myself from going into my room to watch the map of the castle slowly come to life. As fun as that would’ve been, I spent the rest of my time leading up to dinner simply poking around the library and enjoying the day, both outside and inside. Celestia really seemed to enjoy her free time too, if her great big grin and more playful attitude was anything to go by.

Come the conclusion of dinner, I briskly made my way to up my room in hopes of finding at least a partially completed map of the castle. What I found, however, blew me away. The 3D rendering of the castle was completed to a T, even though the ‘quality’ of the overall image was a bit grainy; Instead of the individual stone bricks making up the castle, there were just smooth walls. In the halls themselves, there were strange looking blobs that I assumed were pieces of furniture or other ponies that the matrix picked up. With that in mind, I made a note to exclude biological lifeforms from the spell’s formula, then there’d be less chance of skewed results, and maybe a higher quality scan.

I laid the parchment with the holographic map of the castle on the floor, and sat down on my haunches to study it.

The two most notable features were the east and west towers containing the bedrooms of Celestia and Luna. From there, staircases lead down and into hallways that ran parallel on opposite sides of the castle. The numerous straight and curved halls and passageways lead to various rooms and antechambers in the castle; the kitchen, throne room, dining hall, and even the castle’s powder magazine to name a few. However, the lower the matrix got, the rooms and halls began to dwindle as shown on the map. There was no apparent rhyme or reason as to why those passages jutted off at different angles, and at the end of one of those passages was a narrow tube that went straight down into nothing, presumably a spiral staircase of some description. My only question was; why would there be a staircase that lead to nowhere? Either it was exactly what I was looking for, or it was simply abandoned during construction.

The more I studied the map, there was one detail that took me longer to pick out than the rest. Where the rest of the passages were scanned and had noticeable features and definable surfaces, entrances and exits, there was one corridor on the lowest part of the castle, thirty metres at least under the dungeons that had no end to it, meaning the spell hadn’t finished scanning the corridor. Either it had run out of juice and simply died, or something was in its way. Whatever the case was, I intended to find out why.

Normally I would’ve teleported myself to the location, but it was an unspoken rule that you couldn’t teleport anywhere you either hadn’t been or didn’t have line of sight to, proximity teleportation notwithstanding.

Even though I was a princess in my own castle, ponies usually assumed I knew what I was doing and where I was going, thus wouldn’t ask questions. At least not too often. Nevertheless, that didn’t mean they wouldn’t gossip amongst themselves if they saw me going into areas less travelled all by myself. For all I knew, they’d assume that I was going into my secretly hidden kinky dungeon to flog disobedient ponies with promises of a... reward if they behaved better.

Regardless, I found that if I projected an air of confidence and kept my gaze forward, I was usually left alone. Even though I had the rendered 3D map with me while I walked through the castle using the most direct route, I could only stop to look at it and orientate myself when nobody was around, least they stop me and ask what I was doing. Even though I could’ve lied, it was more a case of other people minding their own business.

I wound up getting lost on a number of occasions, and had to wait until I was alone or find an empty room where I could use the map to get my bearings. As a result, it took me about an hour and a half after I lowered the moon to find the corridor the matrix was yet to scan. I went up a different corridor that was adjacent to the one I was after, and took a left at the top of a T junction. To my right was an antechamber at the end of a short corridor that was used as storage for equipment of some description that hadn’t seen use in decades judging by the amount of dust that covered everything.

The passage on my left was about half as long as the one on my right, and at the end of it I could see the matrix floating in mid air, as if it were a dog waiting at your front door to go outside. Curious as to why it had stopped and not come back to me when it was done like I’d programmed it to do, I used the Lumos light spell at the tip of my horn to look for any hint of what the cause was.

There weren’t any kind of keyholes, symbols, or visible signs of any kind on the wall to indicate what lay behind the blockage. I even tried pressing every brick up and down the corridor with my magic hoping that one of them would be a button to open the hidden door. Usually when there was a secret door on a hinge or on rollers, there’d usually be scratch marks, or general wear and tear from where the door has slid open, marring the floor or wall. Sadly, there was none of that, but it didn’t mean I was out of the woods. It did leave one of two options: the door slid away from me to open, or retracted into the wall.

As I knelt down to take a look at the floor, I blew some dust up and spied a very thin seam, like a crack under a door. Look once and you would’ve missed it, the kind of seam that would barely even fit a credit card. I huffed and puffed, clearing what was too coarse to have been normal dust, thus must’ve been stone dust from the door grinding open and shut.

But if there were no visible keyholes, buttons, symbols of any kind on the walls or door, how was I supposed to open the thing? Perhaps there’s something on the floor or roof? my logical self offered.

I looked the floor up and down the corridor, but no luck. The roof? I looked up, and there it was: A small hole with a wide opening that tapered off the further back it went, as if it were a perfect fit for my horn. And that’s when my eyes widened in realisation. Celestia and Luna would’ve designed the door to open strictly to their magical signatures, high enough off the ground that you’d have to fly up to stick your horn into it like a key, and we were the only ones capable of doing that.

I began hovering mid air, carefully trying to align my horn to the aptly dubbed keyhole, made no more easier by the fact that that I was constantly swaying to and fro. I managed to pop it in after about twenty awkward seconds, tapping my horn against the surrounding stone as if I was trying to unlock my apartment door after crawling home at 3am from the bar.

There was a distinctive schink when it popped in, and my horn lit up by itself, like the keyhole itself was trying to siphon magic from me. After a few seconds, the light around my horn died down and I landed on my ass on the floor, crossing my eyes and looking up to my horn as if that occurrence was the weirdest thing I’d seen.

There was a noise like a latch being clicked open, and the innocuous stone door began to slowly pull back, sliding into a cavity befitting of the stone slab, revealing a portal door more ancient looking than the one which served as my bedroom door. The wrought iron ring was rusted to hell and back, but still sturdy enough to pull on to open the door, and likewise with the braces and langettes holding the wood of the door in place. All in all, the door looked like it was the oldest thing in the castle, minus Celestia and Luna.

I grabbed the ring and rotated it to disengage the latch with a metallic thunk that echoed through the hall, and I couldn’t help but turn to see if there was anyone behind me that heard that. Shaking it off, I opened the door like I was opening a treasure chest, eyes widened in amazement and eager anticipation. As if the room had a mind of its own, several sconces lining the room lit themselves automatically, bathing the room in an eerie red glow as I looked upon the room with wonderment. The circular room was lined with shelves that fit the contours of the room, stacked with relics, books, pieces of armour, swords and other weapons, and scrolls that looked as though they were thousands of years old. I didn’t want to touch them for fear they’d crumple under my touch. In the middle of the room was a simple, nondescript desk and chair.

I set the door ajar so I could hopefully hear anyone walk up on me, and went further into the room, toward the object at the far end.

It looked like any other full-length mirror. Similar to the one I had in my room, it was mounted on a frame that was fixed into the wall directly opposite the door behind me, tilted down slightly that allowed you a proper look at yourself. The ovate mirror was set in a frame carved from an unknown type of wood with swirling patterns, painted with gold leaf and various inlaid gems in the centre of each swirl. To the right of that were three glass orbs in a box that looked exactly like the one that Luna gave me initially, further confirmed by the fact that the fourth space in the box holding them was empty.

Looking upon the orbs, I saw that one of them was less dusty than the rest, likely the one Luna originally used. I picked it up with my hooves, and was taken aback with shock that the mirror sprung to life and began swirling with a kaleidoscope of colours. Shortly thereafter, static began clearing away to give me a view of my living room.

And there was Luna, rubbing an eye with the back of her hand (or my hand, depending on your perspective) and looking like she’d just gone through the wringer. Her hair was stuck up at odd angles as if a wave of humid weather wafted through the apartment, and geezus, the clothes! She was still wearing the same tank top and pants I had on the same day we’d swapped, and she’d clearly tried putting on a bra and failed miserably. How did I know? Luna had put it on over the tank top. I put a hoof to my mouth and began giggle-snorting behind it, much to Luna’s bemusement.

“By all accounts, you are one week early,” Luna flatly stated, none too happy that I was laughing at her.

I cleared my throat and evened out my expression. “I’ve got a bone to pick with you, missy.”

Luna grinned like she knew exactly what I meant. “Pray tell, how did you locate the mirror?”

I was right after all! “So you did try to strand me here!”

“On the contrary, I rigged a teleport under the mattress of our bed that would take you to this room on the midnight of the final night.”

“...Oh,” I said sheepishly.

“In any case, how did you locate the room so quickly? I never left you any notes about it.”

“Since you were a dick and didn’t tell me where or how to find the mirror, I’m going to leave that surprise for when you come back,” I smirked.

“And what have you been doing, parading around in my body?” she slyly asked.

“Nothing like like what you’re implying, but I can’t help but notice your little predicament there,” I said, pointing at the bra on the outside of her shirt.

“You humans have the most unbearable mammary glands!” Luna promptly exclaimed. “I do not understand how you can parade yourselves around with these things on display,” she said, making a show of squeezing her/my boobs together.

“Breasts are literally lumps of external fat designed to contained milk for feeding infants. There’s nothing inherently sexual about them, thank you very much. Discussion of reproductive organs aside, I’ve come to ask for an extension.”

“Oh? Have you reduced the castle’s stallions to drooling messes going after you, and you want to relish in it a bit longer?”

Geez, how vain was Luna to assume something like that? “No, a few circumstances have arrived that I wish to see through. Not to worry, I’ve been keeping a detailed journal so that when you return, you can read up on what’s been going on so it’s like you never left.”

“Hmm, a smart move. Very well then; you can stay for as long as it takes you to finish your business.” At that moment, my cellphone decided to ring in the background. “Confound that infernal device, why won’t it stop?!”

“What, my phone? How many times has it been ringing?”

“I have no idea what a phone is,” Luna spat, “but whatever it is has been making noises several times!”

That made me remember something I wanted to try to see if it was possible. “Since you gave me the viewing orb through the mirror, are you able to pass the device through as well?”

Luna grumbled as the phone continued to ring. “That seems logical.” She reached forward to the coffee table, the last place I left my phone, picked it up and placed it to the mirror.

After a moment, it began to phase through, the ringing reverberating throughout the confined space I was in. Grimacing at the noise, I quickly used magic to answer the phone and placed it to my ear.

“Catherine! What the hell did you do to the files?! I’ve been trying to get ahold of you all day!” Jared’s voice boomed.

I was legitimately surprised that I could receive signal on my phone in Equestria. Was the signal somehow travelling through the mirror? “I don’t know what you’re talking about. After I finished them, you put them on your son’s desk.”

“Who the hell is this?” Jared demanded.

“This is Catherine. Is your memory that bad?”

“Why do you sound like you’ve been waltzing around with fancy schmucks?”

I shrugged out of habit. “Spent too much time around you, I suppose.”

“Why you little–! What the hell did you do with those files anyway?”

“Last I saw of them, I gave them to you.”

“I’ve got you on camera walking into Matthew’s office, so don’t lie about it.”

“Unless the camera shows those files, you don’t have much to go on.”

“So help me I will sue your ass if you don’t cough up those files!”

“I haven’t eaten them, that’s for sure. Maybe your new lapdog did?”

“This isn’t over, Catherine!” Click.

I pulled the phone away from my ear and laughed.

“What was that about?” Luna queried, “and what is that device?”

I pondered over the best way to explain the concept of a cellphone. “This device has the capability of accessing the vast majority of information known to my kind. I use it to look at pictures of cats and get into arguments with strangers on the internet.”

Luna cocked her head. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Laughing to myself, I slid the phone back through the portal. Luna gingerly held it between two fingers like it was a rotten piece of food, and put it back down on the coffee table. “By the way, I found a picture frame laying down in your bedroom.” She reached behind her and brought forth a photo. My mom, dad, and me in my early twenties, holding my baby brother.

I froze, and narrowed by gaze at Luna. “Put it back exactly how you found it,” I growled.

She was rather taken aback by my reaction. “But you all look so happy and adorable! Is that what a human baby looks like? I could pinch his cheeks all day long!” Luna practically squeed.

“Put it back!” I kept glowering at Luna for a few seconds longer before I sighed apologetically. “Look, I’m sorry. Do me a favour and slide it through the portal.”

Without saying another word, Luna very wisely did as she was told. Once I had it, I popped the back off and carefully slid out the photo, looking at it longingly as I stroked a hoof down it.

“Do you… Want to talk about it?”

I just shook my head. “The reason why I had it face down… It’s one of those things that you don’t want to remember, but you don’t want to forget. At least, that’s how I look at it.”

“I can understand that. I do apologize if I touched a sore spot with you.”

“It’s fine, I s’pose. Look, I gotta get going. Nobody knows I’m down here and I don’t want to appear missing if someone comes looking for me. I’ll see you later, yeah?”

“I bid thee farewell for the moment. I look forward to reading the journal,” Luna weakly smiled, trying to cast a ray of light on the situation.

“Have fun,” I waved back with equal enthusiasm. When I put the orb back into its box, the mirror shimmered and was back to looking like an ordinary mirror. I looked at the photo one more time, remembering back to that day fondly.

Mom had just gotten out of the hospital after having little Marcus. He was so small and cute, I couldn’t help but nickname him Marky-Mouse. A few days later, dad decided it would be a good idea to get a few professional photos taken, so we dressed up in our sunday best and went off to the photographers. It was one of the happiest moments of my life. An adorable brother, and loving parents that kept doting on the little guy.

Shaking my head to regain my princess-y composure, I tucked the photo under a wing and out of sight. However, when I turned around, my blood instantly turned to ice.

The door was wide open.

If someone had seen me, I sprinted out the door to try and catch whoever it was, but they seemed to be long gone by the time I darted around the corner. Using my magic, I hurriedly shut and locked the big door before I had to stick my horn back into the keyhole to shut the stone slab behind it.

I took a few heavy breaths to calm my beating heart as I thought about what to do next. Someone saw me, but how? They would’ve had to been following me at some point. Did they run off to go and tell Celestia? Or did the door just blow open somehow? I mentally scoffed at that. Silly Kate, there’s no wind all the way down here. I swore and spat under my breath for being careless. Had I properly shut the door like I should have, I would’ve heard someone trying to open it, but nope, I had to be the idiot and leave it open for the world to see what I was doing.

As relaxed as I could be, which was still quite tense from knowing that someone had seen me talking to myself, I teleported up to the kitchen for some food, then made an effort to casually walk back to my room without looking conspicuous. At least then If someone gave me a sideways look, and not the good kind, I might have been able to guess who saw me.

In any case, I got up to my room without a hitch.

“Evening, Princess,” Veloce greeted. “Somepony arrived a moment ago wanting to talk with you, so I sent them in to wait.”

I casually turned to look at Velo. Whoever saw me was in my room. Would they try and blackmail me? Rat me out to Celestia? Broadcast my secret to the wider kingdom? “Thank you,” I said curtly, walking into my room and closing the door behind me.

I felt the cool night air waft over me from the open doors that lead out to the dais, the curtains idly billowing about in the breeze. I carefully walked forward, deciding on how I was going to handle the mare in front of me.

“Boreas? Is everything OK?”

She kept her gaze locked skyward and shuffled about uneasily when she heard me.

“Catherine, was it?” she evenly asked.

“So you saw?” I said, walking up beside the mare and sitting down. She must’ve been around long enough to hear me talking to Jared.

“Mmhmm,” she nodded. “I spotted you walking into the lower levels with a map, so I followed you to see what you were doing. Imagine my surprise when I saw you talking to that… thing in the mirror.”

In a moment of silence, I looked to the sky alongside Boreas as I reflected on what to say. Do I lie and make up a story about how I was still Princess Luna? Since it was only me and Boreas in the room, do I threaten her into keeping silent? Do I make her… Disappear? If I carried through on that last option, no doubt even more questions would be raised that I couldn’t answer, and if someone else were listening in like Boreas was in the lower level, they’d tattle on me without a doubt. But then, I thought back to earlier in the day when Firefly and I were walking through the main foyer: The relief of a weight being lifted off my shoulders. I didn’t know what that sensation was supposed to mean at the time, but in that moment of silence, I decided it would be best for all if I was honest.

“I… I’m sorry that I betrayed your trust in me. Really, I am. It’s like having your world view of someone ripped out from under you, and you begin to question everything that you know. If it’s any consolation, I do have a very good explanation of what you saw.”

“Friends give each other a chance to explain themselves. That’s why I decided to get your side of the story instead of going straight to Celestia. We are friends, right?”

“Of course,” I smiled, trying to make Boreas feel like she was still in good company.

“Good,” she smiled back, pleased with my answer. “I’ll be honest about myself if you do the same. Deal?”

“Guess the cat’s out of the bag,” I dryly chuckled. “Here, I’ve got something to show you.” I was planning on putting the photo in the journal for safe keeping and so I could look at it from time to time, but now was just as good of an opportunity to show Boreas what I looked like.

I lifted my wing, using magic to bring out the photo. Boreas took it in her hoof, eyebrows raised. “So that’s what you look like?”

I pointed to the me in the photo. “I was twenty-two when this photo was taken, thirteen years ago. That’s my mom, dad, and baby brother.”

Boreas weakly smiled at the sight of my brother. “He looks so cute, like a newborn foal. What is your species called?”

“We’re called ‘humans’, or homo sapiens, and have been inhabiting our planet for about two-hundred thousand years.” I sighed and shook my head. “Look, I’m going to be honest. I expected you to be a lot more angrier than you are right now.”

“Oh, I’m beyond livid at this stage,” Boreas heaved, the anger evident in her shaky voice. “But you’re my friend. As betrayed as this revelation made me feel, I give all my friends the benefit of the doubt. I’m not going to jump to conclusions and make up misinformed ideas about your intentions. You’ve done good by me so far. It’s that which made me decide I’d give you a chance to explain yourself.”

I sighed again, ears flattening against my head in shame. “I’m… I’m sorry. For what it’s worth, I didn’t think I’d hurt anyone.” From there, I told Boreas the whole story. From me getting fired from my job, to when Luna showed up in my TV, the suggested bodily trade, I even showed her the journal I was keeping of my day-to-day activities. She deserved that much.

“That’s… That’s a lot of information to swallow,” Boreas admitted when I finally stopped talking.

“As far fetched as it may seem, it’s the truth. I promise you.”

“And you know what?” she said, looking up to me. “I believe you. I don’t know what it is about you that makes me want to trust you, but I believe you.”

“So… What happens now?” I tentatively ventured.

Boreas sighed heavily, her gaze downcast and ears flat against her head. “Despite everything I said, this is still a bit too much for me to handle right now. I…” She swallowed thickly, and I swore I heard the very distinct plip of a water droplet on stone. Without so much as another word, wiping the back of a hoof over eyes, she unceremoniously got up, cocked her legs and fanned her wings, and took off.

“Wait!” I hurriedly called out after her. “Where are you going?”

Hovering mid air, Boreas barely turned to look at me as she spoke. “I need to cool off before I say or do something I’ll regret. Like tell Celestia. I’ll be back in two days.” And just like that, she was gone.

Anger welled up in my core, and I started swearing under my breath about how my stupidity and carelessness potentially cost not only me a friend, but whoever else Boreas made friends with too. Not to mention a workmate.

The day started off about as awesome as I could have ever expected, and then, like a car running into a brick wall at a hundred kilometres an hour, crashed and burned, leaving me in the driver’s seat.

Arc II: The War of Attrition

View Online

14| The Oncoming Storm

View Online

When I woke up on Monday morning, it took me all of three seconds for my mind to catch up with the events of the previous day. I slowly exhaled a crestfallen sigh as I mentally chastised myself for being so careless for the Nth time. I couldn’t really blame Boreas for taking off either; despite my good intentions, that didn’t excuse my deceit.

Grumbling and frowning, I tossed off the blankets harder than necessary as I swung my legs over the side to get up, trudged off to lower the moon, then head to the washroom to make myself presentable for the day.

In light of Boreas’ departure, I needed to find someone to cover her Monday and Tuesday evening shifts of patrol duty while lying through my teeth about what happened. Well, perhaps a white lie instead. A sudden emergency that Boreas entrusted me to keep between the two of us sounded acceptable, and it’d likely keep anyone from further inquiry.

Finding someone to cover her shifts was relatively easy; Ares was stationed outside my bedroom door for his morning guard shift, so I had him cover Boreas’ Monday evening patrol while giving him time and a half for his efforts, then I tracked down and had Veloce cover the Tuesday shift.

After I had washed, done make-up, and put on the regalia, I made my way to breakfast. Celestia seemed to notice my morose expression when I sat down next to her, if her studious stare was anything to go by.

“Something the matter?” Celestia cautiously asked.

Internally, I rolled my eyes at the question. If only you knew… “Boreas came to see me last night. She… had a bit of an emergency to take care of, and won’t be back until Wednesday. I did, however, managed to procure replacements to cover her shifts on short notice.”

Celestia’s expression soured when she heard me utter ‘emergency’. “I hope everything turns out alright,” she said. “It must be serious for her to up and leave just like that.”

“Yeah, the news hit her like a ton of bricks,” I dryly replied with sarcastic undertones. I cleared my throat to steer the topic toward something more cheery. “On a lighter note, I’ve been meaning to ask you something. How would you like to pick up where Lumen and his cronies left off?”

Celestia paused for a moment to absorb what I said, then finished her mouthful before speaking. “Care to elaborate?”

“We have Lumen’s blueprints for the gold wash plant, and the means to reproduce it. Could we not continue his mining operation? Wait here a moment…” I nipped off to my room to get the draft I wrote for Granite, asking if the Crown could mine his town’s land, then went back to the dining hall where I gave it to Celestia.

Despite how short the draft was, Celestia took the time to read it over two or three times. “Hmmm… You do have something here, Luna. While I like the idea, this isn’t a decision that should be taken lightly. What you should’ve done instead of writing up a simple draft for a proposal is take the time to outline your plans: Where you’re getting your budget from and how you’re going to spend it; survey plans for the site you want to dig; a work force, and so on and so forth.”

I opened my mouth to respond, but it stuck in my throat when I realised Celestia was right. I leaned back in my chair and took a sip of coffee, savouring the aroma as I formulated a response to each of those questions. “You and I normally sign off on any money that comes and goes from the castle vault,” I began, “which means that, besides the overhead for running and maintaining this castle, there’s enough of a surplus that we could make an investment of this nature.

“The initial budget would be spent on the machine and the workforce, supplemented by subsequent profits after expenses. We already know where and from whom Lumen had the original pieces of the machine built, and while we don’t know the location of his original dig site, prospecting in an area apparently rife with precious metals and minerals should be a relatively easy task,” I pointed out.

With a knitted brow, Celestia magicked a quill and took note of my suggestions on the bottom half of the parchment, then rolled it up and made it and the quill disappear. “That’s the kind of research you should have done beforehand,” she said succinctly.

I narrowed my eyes at her. “I fail to see the point in outlining a plan had Granite said he didn’t want us mining there. The proposal was to see if he’d allow it.”

“As the rulers of the land, do we not have a right to its bounty?” Celestia challenged.

“As leaders of a nation, we should be the ones to set the example. It won't look good if we gallivant onto someone's land to do as we please," I said brusquely. It was tough to keep my voice down so I wasn’t chewing out Celestia in front of everyone present for behaving like one of the entitled nobles. To be fair, they probably got it from somewhere.

I cleared my throat and changed the subject. “Anyway, we have more pressing matters to attend to. Court is due to start in a few minutes.”

“Yes, let’s.”

I expectantly stared at Celestia for a moment. “...Can I have my letter back, please?”

“If you don’t mind, I’ll draw up a full plan for Granite to review and present it to him this coming Saturday.”

I didn’t want Celestia trying to pull the wool over Granite’s eyes, but I had an idea as to how I could make sure she didn’t. “Once you’ve drawn up and signed it so it’s an official document, present it to Granite to look over and sign, at which point I’ll also sign off on it.” That way Celestia couldn’t swap out one document for another, or otherwise try to somehow deceive Granite.

Celestia’s frown deepened; it seemed like she wanted to do just that. “Very well. Have it your way.”

“Good. Now, let’s make haste. Petitioners were already lining up when I passed by the throne room on my way here.”

It seemed the universe wanted to further punish me for accidentally revealing my secret to Boreas with more self-righteous nobles.

“So let me get this straight, Nimbus,” Celestia said to the noble. “Your accusations of assault and destruction of personal property are because you and Ozone here bumped into each other walking around a corner. This caused you to drop your, as you so aptly put it, “expensive, one-of-a-kind vase", which subsequently broke. What makes you think you should be collecting compensation for something as simple as an accident?”

“Your Highnesses,” Nimbus began, nudging forward a basket of broken shards of painted and intricately decorated white clay overlaid with gold leaf, “this commoner was responsible for causing the breakage. Had he looked where he was going, this would not have occured.”

“In this situation, blame goes both ways,” I interjected. “Ozone was merely minding his own business as he rounded the corner. Correct?” I said to the electric-blue pegasus stallion in question.

“My view was unobstructed by any kind of earthenware. I was simply caught off guard as Nimbus rounded the corner,” he said

I looked back to Nimbus with an exasperated sigh. “You should have taken precautions when transporting your vase. You don’t get to blame somepony else for you lack of foresight in the matter. I am ruling in favour of Ozone; he is under no obligations to replace the vase or reimburse you for the cost of. Dismissed.”

Nimbus looked positively horrified, then his expression began to darken. “I must protest the matter! I will not allow a commoner of all ponies to get away with this kind of crime!”

“Do not think you are better than somepony else because of your stature. If you’d like, I can make the two of you of equal rank,” I sneered, levelling a stern glare at Nimbus.

“You would elevate him to nobility?!”

“Quite the opposite, actually…”

“You’d do that to me?!”

“You are testing my patience. Test further and you’ll find out.” I looked down to my right. “Veloce, please escort this stallion out of my sight,” I ordered.

Nimbus’ ire was then directed at Velo. “You seriously hired a cripple as a guard?” he said with a contemptuous scoff. “I would’ve thought Royalty would be above such creatures!”

“Her training isn’t anything to scoff at, Nimbus,” I said as Veloce began to approach on the stallion with a firm, demanding demeanour. “You can find out how good it is by resisting.”

“Alright, alright!” he suddenly acquiesced, picking up the basket. Veloce walked behind Nimbus to escort him to the exit.

Stopping just shy of the double doors, Nimbus proceeded to place the basket on the floor, step over it, then kick it half way across the throne room, sending pieces of pottery flying all over the place before he broke off into a gallop down the hall as Veloce gave chase.

“Stop him!” I yelled at the top of my voice. What a complete and utter moron, I grumbled. I then had to close the throne room until the mess could be cleaned up so nobody accidentally cut the frog of their hooves.

When the flailing and protesting Nimbus was dragged back in by Bastille by the scruff of his neck, I gave him the choice of either cleaning it up himself, or spending time in a cell for disorderly behaviour until it was cleaned up. He was smart enough to choose the former.

While court was temporarily postponed, Celestia took the opportunity to catch up on a few court-related things that previous petitioners asked of us, so it was just me in the throne room with about four guards all watching Nimbus like a hawk pick as he picked up the shards of clay. Hopefully the lesson in humility would teach him a thing or two, but given the nature of snooty nobles, I somehow doubted that.

A few minutes after Nimbus had begun, Sergeant Ratchet walked into the throne room escorting a rather curious individual behind him; A golden-yellow pegasus stallion with white leg markings which extended up his leg, past the fetlock joint which made him look like he was wearing socks. His armoured breastplate bore the same emblem as the buckles on his saddlebags; a cloud overlapping a crossed sword and lightning bolt.

“A courier from the Kingdom of Clouds, Your Majesty,” Ratchet announced with a bow. My interest was piqued when I heard ‘Kingdom of Clouds’, so I made a mental note to look it up later on.

“Thank you, Sergeant. You may return to your post.” As Ratchet did so, I gave my attention to the newcomer, who, I might add, appeared rather striking. His colour scheme really complimented his light-red mane, and the gold trim on the white-painted breastplate really made everything pop.

“I have come with a message from our King for the one known as ‘Boreas’,” he announced.

“I do apologise, good sir, but Boreas has left on business and won’t be back until Wednesday. I would be more than happy to pass it along.”

“Normally I would prefer to deliver the missive myself, but since time is off the essence I will allow that this once. Just be sure she gets it; it’s important,” he curtly replied. He fished out a scroll sealed with a wax seal, the same one as the crest on his armour and bag’s buckles, and I levitated it from him and poofed it up to my desk for later.

“Thank you. Do you have any other business with us?” I asked.

“I only came to deliver the missive. I must be going.” And just like that, he turned tail and left. Despite his dashing looks, the unnamed stallion didn’t give me reason to think he was polite. He was all business.

Celestia walked back into the throne room, passing the courier on his way out and giving him a curious look; the stallion didn’t so much as give Celestia a passing glance, but he did stop to smirk at Nimbus for some reason.

“Who was that?” Celestia asked me once she took her seat.

“A courier delivering a message for Boreas,” I said.

“Think it has something to do with why she left?”

“I really don’t know, nor is it any of my business,” I replied. Not that it’s any of yours, either…

“I do hope everything works out for her in the end.”

“Same here, but only time will tell,” I mused, looking down at Nimbus. He did as good of a job picking up the pieces of vase as he did kicking them everywhere, considering it broke up into smaller pieces. The maids would give the floor a proper clean as they usually do to clean up after the traffic from the day to make sure nothing was left behind.

The rest of the day went as smoothly as could be expected from that kind of a start. It was like one of those days at work where everyone seems to somehow hang on by the skin of their teeth and keep it together for as long as mentally possible. Boreas was on my mind the entire time, too. I couldn’t help but wonder what she was doing and where she was at any one time. Despite my worry, Boreas said she’d be back in two days, which hopefully meant Tuesday evening. I just had to wait and hope for the best.

Truth be told, the wait wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it to be. Come night time, I had the distinct feeling Boreas was looking up at the moon as I rose it. It was comforting to have that deep-seated connection put my mind at ease. In a way, I supposed it was Boreas somehow telling me things would be alright, that she was doing fine and was in good company.

I was in a much better mood the following day. I don’t know why, but I felt a lot more confident that things between the two of us would work out in the end, and looked forward to seeing her again. In her time at the castle, she’d proven herself a worthy guard alongside the others, and I could look at her knowing we had one another’s backs if things would to go south.

However, as the day drew on and eventually came to a close, there was no sign of Boreas. I’d hoped she’d be back around the time I usually rose the moon, so I stayed out on the dais as long as I could looking for that tell-tale silvery streak of Boreas’ contrail.

It never came.

Hours came and went; From six in the evening to eight, through to ten and eventually midnight. It got to the point where I decided I couldn’t wait any longer, not unless I wanted to be exceptionally more tired and grouchy the following morning.

As I turned to walk back inside, I cast a forlorn glance over my shoulder, hoping that I’d finally catch sight of Boreas as she touched down on the platform. The only thing I saw was the idle twinkling of stars against the backdrop of the cloudless night sky. I swallowed a lump in my throat and hung my head, closed the doors to outside, then retired to bed until I had to lower the moon.

I had become accustomed to waking up pre-dawn, as if the moon was gently nudging my shoulder, telling me that it needed to be lowered.

My eyes flicked open and cast a glance around the still darkened room, so I pulled an oil lamp over to me and lit it with a match. When I lowered the lamp’s glass chimney to catch the flame and cast it across the room proper, the light caught something on the floor just forward of the doors to outside. Laying curled up in a ball with the scroll that had come for her tucked under a leg, Boreas was breathing gently, and I couldn’t help but smile.

It didn’t matter that she looked a bit dirty from not having washed in a couple days, I was immensely grateful that she chose to come back, and for that I smiled as I gingerly stepped over her to go outside to lower the moon and begin the day anew.

The sun began peeking over the hills to take the place of the moon as it disappeared below the horizon, and the soft chirp of birds drifted into my ears as the sun drowned out the light of the lamp I carried out, so I snuffed it and put it back. I kept facing forward to enjoy the sunrise and watch all the little critters spring to life to go about their own business, wondering when Boreas would wake.

My ears flicked back on reflex as I heard muted shuffling coming from behind, followed by soft hoof steps. I kept my gaze on the rising sun and the horizon.

“It’s good to have you back,” I said when the hoof steps stopped to my right. I turned my head to see Boreas also looking out on the sunrise with equal wonder in her eyes, and a small smile on her face.

“It’s good to be back,” she said after a moment, taking a deep breath of the morning petrichor.

I hesitated, my words like stones. “I… I just wanted to say–”

“It’s fine, I understand why you did what you did,” Boreas said, cutting me off. “You and Luna wanted to experience what it’d be like on one another’s world in each other’s bodies. It was in the best interest of both you and the real Luna to keep it a secret, least Celestia find out and take drastic measures.

“I took the time to think everything over carefully, and, well…” Sighing in thoughtful contemplation, Boreas rubbed one foreleg over the other. “I forgive you. Considering everything you’ve done for me and the others, and how well you’re handling the title and position Luna so willingly gave you, I think you deserve the benefit of the doubt for now.”

I let out a long held breath, escaping as a relieved sigh. “Thank you, really. It means a lot.”

“Don’t think you’re out of the woods quite yet,” Boreas added, looking up to me. “Just… don’t give me any reason to think that you’d betray my trust, and I won’t go to Celestia. You’re a good person, and I’d like to keep thinking that.”

A smiled formed on my mouth when she said that, and out of instinct and gratitude, I leaned forward to pull Boreas into a hug with a wing, also draping a foreleg over her withers as she returned the gesture in kind.

“...Friends?” Boreas hesitantly asked.

I hugged her tighter, smiling. “Friends.”

“On Sunday before I left,” Boreas began, pulling away from the hug, “I said that I’d be honest about myself if you did the same. As honest as I believe you to be, I took off before I could tell you about myself.” She walked back inside to pick up the scroll that got delivered, then joined me back outside. “I… have a big problem I need your help with.” Nudging the scroll to me, I picked it up and unfurled it.

Three days.

- B

My brow knitted in confusion as I looked to Boreas. “Who’s ‘B’?”

“That’s my father. His name is Belcusas. In the traditional language of my people, it means ‘Thunderclap’.”

“And your name?” I queried.

“The North Wind. What about yours; Catherine?”

“On my world, the name itself came from a civilisation we call the French. Its meaning is ‘pure’, or ‘clear’. Now, what is it you were saying?”

“Yes, right…” Boreas hung her head as her shoulders drooped. “I come from the Kingdom of Clouds. You’ve heard about it, right?”

“The courier who delivered the message mentioned the place, but I had no idea about it, so I had to look it up. Post-unification, which I also had to look up, there was a summit of leaders from the various kingdoms and cities that were spread across the land. The king at the time, Belfast, chose not to join the coalition, instead sequestering himself and the kingdom away.”

“What the history books don’t mention is why, which is also the same reason I ran away from home.”

My eyes shot open. “You ran away?” I echoed, just to make sure my ears weren’t deceiving me.

“I never once looked back or regretted my decision. The King treats the other mares like you or I treat money; something to be traded or given. When a mare is born into nobility or royalty, the more inherent value she has, and therefore the more she is worth. A daughter of the King fetches hundreds of gold pieces, while a peasant mare isn’t worth much more than a few copper pieces.”

I balked, beyond shocked and mortified. Who in their right mind would resign their own kind to nothing more than stock to be traded and bought?

“No disrespect, but where does that put you?” I asked.

From Boreas’ hung head, I saw a couple drops of water hit the stone. She rolled her shoulders back and steeled herself, looking up to me with bloodshot eyes as tears welled up in the corners of. “I… I…” Her voice was shaky and weak, not because she was uncertain of what she was going to say, more like she didn’t know how I would look at her after she said her piece.

“Remember when I told you I got my cutie mark because I was endlessly practicing knife throwing?” I just nodded. “My father wanted to sell me to one of his cohorts, a high-ranking noble, whose son had expressed interest in adding me to his harem. It was also his way of securing a title to the throne. Every mare born into nobility and-or royalty gets groomed to be the perfect housewife. I knew I was worth so much more than that; I wanted to show the mares of the kingdom that they are, too. I told my father I wanted to be one of his guards, but he just laughed me off and sent me to what he calls ‘Etiquette Training’.”

“Sounds like a fancy way of saying ‘indoctrination’,” I scoffed, scooting closer again to drape a comforting wing over Boreas’s withers as she spoke. I wanted her to know she could tell me anything and not be judged for it.

“Between etiquette training and my “duties as a mare”,” Boreas said with air quotes, sounding downright poisonous with those words, “every minute of time I spent was practicing, day in and day out. I stole one of my father’s knives as I said previously, and a lump of wood from the fireplace in the palace–”

My ears twitched when Boreas said ‘palace’, and I couldn’t help but interrupt. “Belcuses... The King… He’s your father, isn’t he?”

“–and just—” Boreas immediately shot me a look of wide-eyed disbelief, stalling out mid-sentence. Her demeanour slowly relaxed in defeat as she took a moment to compose herself.

“Yeah… He is. He’s one of the most dangerous individuals you will ever meet. Period. If he wants something, he’ll damn well get it, but I’ll get back to that in a moment.

“The best and most proud moment in my entire life was getting my cutie mark, so I went to rub it in my father’s face. He erupted with as much force as a volcano, and threatened to let my soon-to-be husband beat me into submission. Well, he was in for a huge surprise…”

I couldn’t help but crack a grin at that. “That much has to do with what you mentioned in Mercy a few weeks back?”

Boreas snickered and scoffed in contempt. “I screamed at him that I was gay and that I didn’t want to get married,” she then intoned, “and then he had a couple of his guards drag me off to be re-educated to how a mare is supposed to act in his eyes. I didn’t have the time to grab any of my personal belongings when I made the decision to run away a few hours later. I spent about a month in hiding, stealing food from farms I came across to feed myself. Eventually, I came into some honest, well-paid work as a guard for supply caravans. For the second time in my life, I was happy. Happy to know I was amongst other ponies who saw me as their equal; happy to know that it was possible for a mare to earn a living… I both loved and was good at what I did while knowing I could put the scare into the highway stallions that tried robbing my employers, throwing my knives in their direction, or into them if they weren’t careful.

“About a year after I ran away, I caught wind that Princesses Celestia and Luna, were hiring guards, and, well… Here I am.”

In the time we had been talking, the sun had broken free of the horizon thanks to Celestia, and would begin its daily journey across the sky. At that point, we were both being bathed in the sun’s radiant glow, as if to tell Boreas that she could begin life anew. “You’re in safe hands how, I promise. You don’t have to worry about your father ever again,” I softly reassured.

“The missive,” Boreas reminded me. “When did it arrive?”

I quirked my head. “Monday. Why?”

Boreas gasped as her ears pinned themselves to her head, and she began slinking back into my room like a scared, cornered animal. “Nononono–NO!”

“Woah there, calm down; what’s going on?”

“I-I was going to say I would leave again, ‘cause my father would rip this castle apart stone by stone to look for me! He’s found me, oh by the flames of Tartarus, I don’t know how, but he found me and he’s coming here today!”

I used a bit of magic to put the jittery, panicked Boreas on telekinetic lockdown for a brief second. “Just stop there for a moment. Take a deep breath. We can talk this through.” As I slowly released the mare, Boreas did as I instructed, gently exhaling a deep breath.

“I’m not going to let anything happen to you,” I encouraged. “As a Princess of Equestria, albeit a temporary one–” that earned me a half-hearted chuckle from Boreas “–I swear that I will do everything within my power to keep you safe from his clutches.”

Then, I surprised her with a boop on the nose. “In fact, I already have a plan in mind. Here’s what we’re going to do...”

15| Grand Chariot

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My plan was simple: If Belcusas would rip every brick from the castle in search for Boreas, I decided I’d give her to him, or at least someone who looked like her. I sent for Midnight, and once I informed him what was going on, had the stallion appear as Boreas complete with her gold, crescent moon ear piercing. Not only did it let everyone know that Boreas was back in town in a rather roundabout manner, it was Midnight’s morning shift in the throne room as my charge for the day anyway.

Since my room was warded to the teeth with enchantments—most of which I was testing—I told Boreas she was more than welcome to bunker down and stay safe until I could deal with her father. Of course, she could always ask Veloce, who I posted outside to keep an eye on her, to send for food and drink. Boreas was curious about reading the journal I was keeping for Luna, so I let her have at it for something to do.

By the time I went for breakfast after the events of that morning, most of the morning shift ponies had come and gone from the dining hall. Celestia, who had decided to wait for my appearance, was curious as to why I was late. It was just her and I for the most part, save for the maids cleaning up the dishes, so I could bring Celestia up to speed with everything without risking anyone listening in.

Celestia’s first thought was to postpone court for the entire day and put the castle into lock-down with every available guard posted at every conceivable entrance, exit, and window in wait for Belcusas. After some back and forth, we both agreed not to, as to avoid looking hostile. Not only that, we had more windows and doors than we did guards.

Given how much of an apparent obsession Belcusas had for Boreas, I wanted to deal with the situation as diplomatically as possible. That meant entertaining his company and acknowledging his request while being resolute in my decision that Boreas wasn’t going anywhere. Another reason why I had Midnight disguise as Boreas was to placate Belcusas to an extent, and to see if he’d try anything against someone he saw as his daughter, Celestia, and/or myself.

Once we got our game plan sorted out, Celestia and I postponed court for a short while to explain to our guards what was going on and how to handle the situation if things got out of hand, though that much was a last resort. We were playing it safe by covering our bases as best as we could manage on such short notice.

We had no idea what time on Wednesday Belcusas was going to show up since his letter didn’t give us any indication, so we were forced to play it by ear and accomodate his appearance as best as possible.

The morning’s proceedings went off without a hitch. Petitioners were dealt with, and before I realised how much time had passed in anticipation of Belcusas, it was lunchtime already. Instead of eating with Celestia, I went up to my room and brought Boreas and Veloce something to eat, and to give them both a bit of company. Boreas was still understandably anxious about her father showing up, and my company helped alleviate the stress she was feeling at the time.

Little did I know how eventful the whole afternoon would become.

Around the three o’clock mark, Celestia and I were in the middle of dealing with two warring families about a plot of land each claimed ownership over while at the same time denouncing the other’s claim. After listening to each side’s story, and before I could rule about simply dividing the plot in half, there was a commotion in the hallway leading up to the throne room, arguing becoming increasingly louder with proximity.

“You simply cannot stroll through the main gate without first requesting an audience with the Princesses!” a voice I recognised to be Sergeant Primer was shouting.

The staccato of militaristic hoofsteps in sync with one another trotted around the corner, and five ponies garbed in somewhat familiar armour strode in, stopping just forward of the steps leading up to the thrones, and followed by a rather irate and flustered Primer.

“Forgive me, Your Majesties,” Primer said with a deep, apologetic bow, “I was at my post when these pegasi wantonly walked by. I tried stopping them, but it was only said that they were expected.”

While the courier from Monday had a rather simplistic looking breastplate, the rest of these soldier-looking characters were decked out in full sets of armour so polished I could effectively use them as mirrors. Two of the pegasi bringing up the rear were holding guidon staves fixed with burgee flags bearing the same symbol the courier had; a crossed sword and thunderbolt with an overlaid cloud. Their armour looked more ceremonial than practical and covered much of their figure, so I couldn’t really discern what they looked like underneath.

The two other forward of them looked like proper soldiers; their armour sets looked like what mediaeval knights wore in combat: barbute helmets and mail coifs on their head, hauberk mail shirts which had holes for their wings, cuirass breastplates, and tassets on each of their legs. They held proper spears, and each had a sword sheathed at their side.

“It is quite alright, Sergeant. Wait outside a moment if you please,” I said. Primer bowed again and walked out while I looked the large, stocky and well-built leader up and down. “Belcusas, I assume?” He didn’t wear nearly as much armour, just a burgonet helmet and an intricately designed and decorated brigandine, which was typically a garment made from either leather or canvas with riveted steel plates. His dark yellow coat reminded me of a stained toilet bowl at a seedy dive-bar, and his mane was a bleached snow-white.

Made from twisted and knotted purpleheart wood inset with a large, light-blue crystal between gnarled fingers of wood at the end, Belcusas’ stave was something else entirely. I could sense an almighty amount of magic power emanating from it, and from Celestia's concerned and studious look, she could too.

Belcusas lowered his stave at “Boreas”. “I have come to reclaim some property,” he announced.

“So let me get this straight...” I deadpanned. “You and your soldiers come waltzing into this castle armed to the teeth, and expect an audience without abiding by our rules and laws?”

“I do not conform to regulations imposed by mares,” Belcusas spat. “Surrender Boreas to me, or I will take her myself.”

“First of all,” Celestia intoned angrily, “you and your soldiers must relinquish your weapons to the quartermaster for safekeeping if you want us to entertain your company, or you will be escorted from the premises. I will not tolerate such an act of blatant disrespect.”

Belcusas took a step forward, sneering at us. “I say again: I do not conform to regulations imposed by mares, nor do they have any right to judge a stallion. Once I have gotten what I have come for, I will be on my way.”

“Then Celestia and I have absolutely no desire to hear what you have to say.” I pointed a hoof at the door. “Please leave.”

“I am not going leaving this room without my daughter.” Belcusas affirmed his position with a bang of his stave against the floor, then sat on his haunches. His soldiers followed suit too.

I sighed and face-hoofed, rubbing my temple. What a complete tool... I thought. After a moment, I looked back up. “Look, you’re welcome to keep your armour, but your weapons are putting everyone in this room on edge, including the innocent civilians,” I said, pointing to the mare and stallion Celestia and I were talking to moments ago, both of whom looked torn between leaving, and grabbing a bucket of popcorn and sitting down to the show.

“All it’s telling them is you’ve come expecting a fight.” Mimicking Belcusas, I added; “I say again: You and your soldiers must surrender your weapons, or you will be escorted out.”

“If you so much as lay a hoof on my soldiers and I in an attempt to disarm or remove us, then you will be fought,” Belcusas vehemently declared.

I snorted derisively. “And what’s fighting going to accomplish? Take a look around; there are no weapons in this room. All we’re asking you to do is disarm as a gesture of good faith to us and everypony else.”

“Absolutely not. The Staff of Sacanas is my symbol of leadership as ruler of the Kingdom of Clouds. I refuse to relinquish it under any circumstance.”

I looked over to Celestia questioningly, and heard her give a low, unhappy growl. “Very well, then,” she seethed through gritted teeth. “You may keep you little stick, but our guards will hold your weapons. Agreed?”

Belcusas stared intently for several silent moments, internally debating whether or not he should take our highly advised suggestion on board and voluntarily act on it.

“My time is precious; I do not wish to waste it any further. Soldiers, relinquish your weapons if it’ll keep these mares from blowing a gasket.”

Brass, Celestia’s guard for the day, and the disguised Midnight walked forward as Belcusas’ soldiers began to unstrap their weapons. Careful not to let anyone touch him, Midnight took the weapons from one soldier with his magic, and Brass the other.

“Give them to Primer outside, and instruct him to take them to the quartermaster for the moment,” I said. I wasn’t about to have them both go all the way to the quartermaster and leave Celestia and I with that pissant of a stallion.

Midnight and Brass obliged, then returned to their places.

“Now, what was it you were after?” I said, clearing my throat as if the last five minutes of conversation never happened.

“I have come to take Boreas back home!” Belcusas boomed.

I had Belcusas right where I wanted him. “Originally, Boreas came to Celestia and I seeking asylum from you, and we granted it. As a citizen of Equestria by my official decree, I will not allow you to take Boreas. Her testimony of the events leading to her leaving home were most disturbing.”

“This is not up for debate in the slightest!” Belcusas got up and began walking towards Midnight, but I put up a barrier wall between them.

“Ah ah ah, I wouldn’t do that,” I said as if I was a mother scolding her child. “My guards are trained to react to any unwarranted physical contact.”

The stave began to crackle with electricity. “If you continue to hinder me, I will blow your tiny little castle from the face of this planet!”

I had to actively restrain myself from laughing at the sight of Belcusas’ anger-induced bulging neck veins despite the show of force.

“Don’t say I didn’t warn you,” I cautioned.

“Come, Boreas, we’re going home.” Belcusas made a grab for “Boreas’” foreleg to drag her off, and Midnight’s illusion suddenly dissipated. It was Belcusas’ expression of abject shock that made me with I had a camera.

“Boo!” Midnight exclaimed.

“What the-?!”

Midnight then ducked low and swept his hind legs wide under Belcusas to topple him, and before Belcusas could register what was going on, Midnight followed through with his motions and bucked the stallion halfway across the room, causing the stave to clatter to the floor in the process.

Celestia and I were pretty unphased, but everyone else was beyond shocked and surprised that Midnight just kicked the King. Even Belcusas’ soldiers were at a loss of what to do!

Grumbling with unbridled anger, Belcusas slowly picked himself up off the floor, reaching for the stave. Once he righted himself, pointed the stave directly at Midnight. Before he got the chance to unleash the stave’s magic, I managed to put a bubble shield around the tip of it in time, causing the spell being channeled to backfire, which sent Belcusas reeling back from the explosive feedback, making everyone in the room wince and cover their ears.

By this point, all non essential personnel wisely decided to hastily vacate the area in the exact opposite direction from the boom. Once again, Belcusas picked his then-charred self up from the floor and dusted himself off in the progress, his mane and coat looking like it had been statically charged from the spell he tried to cast.

“How… how dare you!” the piss-yellow stallion shouted.

“I warned you,” I said with a far too smug grin.

Belcusas pointed an accusing hoof. “You knew this would happen! You set me up!”

I rolled my eyes. “Duh.”

“Our business here is concluded,” Celestia announced. “You can leave of your own volition with any remaining dignity you might have, or I can kick you out myself.”

“Soldiers, I order you to–”

“If you so much as think about acting out against us when you were previously warned against your actions,” Celestia roared, her voice almost shaking the very foundation of the castle, “I will personally bring down the full might of the sun and evaporate every molecule of water in your entire kingdom!”

That seriously went from zero to one-hundred pretty fucking quickly. I was honestly scared at how discomposed Celestia made me feel with her bout of sudden anger.

Nobody dared speak out after Celestia’s outburst.

I swore I heard a pin drop somewhere in the castle.

Belcusas staggered a couple steps once he stood, looking like an extremely pissed off bull as if he was going to rampage through a china shop. He stared at us for several tense moments before he spoke. “This… this isn’t the last you’ll be hearing of me! I will be back!”

Says every bad guy once he’s had his ass handed to him on a silver platter, I laughed internally.

“Soldiers! We’re leaving.” Belcusas and his soldiers promptly turned tail and left, exiting the throne room where they were escorted by Primer to the Quartermaster to retrieve their gear.

I looked down to the mare and stallion I was speaking to before Belcusas stormed in. “Now, where were we?”

They looked between themselves.

“Halvsies?”

“Halvsies.”

The rest of the day went pretty smoothly, most likely because nobody wanted to risk pissing off Celestia and I after that display.

Most of the other petitioners decided to leave after Belcusas came through, which allowed Celestia and I to close court earlier than normal. I went straight up to my room afterwards to tell Boreas what went down, though she’d probably heard half of it.

I opened my bedroom door and stepped in, closing it behind me as Boreas closed the journal.

“How’d it go?” Boreas tentatively asked.

“Well, he threatened to blow up the castle for one thing, but overall, I don’t think he’s coming back,” I replied confidently.

Boreas winced, ears pinned to the sides of her head. “I don’t doubt that he could’ve…”

“What’s the magic of one pegasi and his little stick against two alicorns, eh?” I said with a grin and friendly elbow.

“My father’s latent pegasi magic is of a much higher calibre than the average pegasus,” Boreas began with a frown. “He can create tornadoes, maelstroms, and things of that nature. Not only is the Staff of Sacanas powerful in its own right, with it, he could hold his own against you or Celestia in a fight.”

“That... probably explained why he seemed eager for a fight,” I mused.

“I did say that my father gets what he wants one way or another. His conceited attitude is his biggest flaw as it is a strength. I wouldn’t be surprised if he brings his army with him when he comes back for me.”

I put a hoof under Boreas’ chin so I could tilt her head up to look me in the eye. “I’m willing to do whatever it takes to make sure you don’t go back.”

“It’s a little ridiculous to suggest that you’d go to war with another kingdom over me,” she said glumly.

“I agree that a line should be drawn at what constitutes ridiculous, but it gets to the point where things become less about you and more about Belcusas. I’m willing to do whatever it takes to not only keep you safe, but to make sure he can’t trample over anyone to get what he wants.”

Boreas dryly snickered and looked to the journal. “You said ‘anyone’ instead of ‘anypony’.”

Returning her mirth with a dry giggle of my own, I pulled Boreas into a hug. “It’s hard to completely change your vernacular, but I’ve been managing to keep up for the most part.”

Honestly, we needed that change in topic to lighten the mood. Even then, the point was still clear: I would do whatever it took to keep anyone out of harm’s way.

I had no idea that that be would put to the test tomorrow.

The following morning, I was startled awake at the asscrack of dawn by frantic pounding on my bedroom door.

It took me a moment to realise what the hell was going on before I angrily threw my blankets off, and stomped my way over to the door.

She-Devil Mode: Activated.

“Somebody better have fucking died if you’re waking me up this early!” I shouted as I threw open the door, revealing a clearly emotionally upset Veloce, fresh tears running down her face.

I suddenly regretted shouting.

“I uhm… I-I-I…” Velo stammered, all choked up.

I forced myself to take a deep breath so I could afford to deactivate She-Devil mode. “Sorry for shouting, Veloce. What’s going on if you’re waking me up this early?”

“I-it’s Midnight,” she swallowed thickly. “One of the patrols found him outside, tied to a pole, and, uhm… He’s hurt pretty bad...”

I blinked and shook my head, clearing any remaining sleep from my eyes to make sure I heard Veloce correctly. “What on earth for?”

She reached back under a wing, and pulled out an all too familiar medallion. When I caught sight of it, I growled. “Belcusas…”

“That was found stuck to him. My guess is Belcusas took revenge for what Midnight did to him yesterday. Radiant told me to come get you.”

I then teleported us both to the infirmary, much to the surprise of a few of the staff.

A nurse stopped in her tracks when she saw me, cocking her head. “Princess? What are you doing here?”

“I was told Midnight was admitted,” I said.

“Ah yes, of course. Follow me.” She lead Velo and I down the corridor and around a corner, where there were cots and beds set up. On one of them was Midnight.

Through the dim light of the oil lamps as I approached, I saw that his left hind leg was in a splint and hanging from a harness while the rest of him had bandages wrapped around his torso and right foreleg. An ice pack covered the left side of his face, swollen to the point he couldn’t even open his eye if he tried.

Soft hoofsteps approached from behind. “Princess…” I heard Radiant say sympathetically.

I turned to see her sobering expression. “How bad is it?”

Radiant stepped forward to tighten off and secure one of the bandages, then looked over a piece of parchment on a clipboard. “Broken hind leg, dislocated foreleg, two fractured ribs, and severe bruising and swelling to the face. Despite all that, I can assure you that he’ll live. Recovery will be several weeks at best.”

“Who found him?” I asked.

“About ten minutes ago, Anvil and Comet discovered him bound to a pole erected in front of the castle during their routine patrol around the castle’s perimetre. Veloce happened to cross paths as we were bringing him here, then offered to go tell you.”

“Does Celestia know about this?” I said, turning to look Midnight up and down again.

“Anvil should be bringing her up to speed as we speak, but everypony thought it more prudent for you to be here,” Radiant replied.

A moment of silence later, Celestia walked into the door, and sat down next to me.

“He’s stable for the moment, so I’ll leave you to it,” Radiant said, leaving the room with her clipboard in tow.

“I took the liberty of lowering the moon for you, Luna,” Celestia said, draping a wing over me and pulling me close.

“Thanks, I guess,” I said despondently. “What should we do now?”

“If Belcusas returns, we’ll make sure he answers for what he’s done,” Celestia stated resolutely. “We can’t let him get away with this, but we also can’t risk inciting a war if we storm his kingdom and drag him off to the dungeons.”

“The dungeons are too good for him,” I spat, anger creeping into my voice. “I ought to geld him with the most blunt knife I can find.”

“I can understand that you’re angry, but petty revenge isn’t going to solve anything.” After a moment of silence, Celestia added; “I’ll take care of the proceedings today. You take the day to sort things out for yourself and everypony else.”

I sighed a meager “thank you”.

She gave me a peck on the cheek as reassurance everything would be alright. “Just don’t do anything you’d wind up regretting later, like vigilante justice.”

“If Belcusas so much as shows his face around here, I’m gonna shove my hoof so far up his ass he’ll be flossing the shit from between his broken teeth with my fetlock,” I seethed. That earnt me a few sideways stares from a few ponies who were within earshot.

“Luna…” Celestia cautioned. “I don’t think Midnight would want you doing that.”

“I’m pretty sure he’d encourage it,” I growled.

Celestia sighed with exasperation, rubbing her brow. “I’m... going for breakfast. Would you like me to bring you anything?”

I shook my head. “I’ll be alright for now. I’ll eat soon.”

With one more kiss, Celestia left the room as quietly as she entered.

Sunlight had begun to peek through the half-drawn curtains, casting a sliver of light upon Midnight and revealing the extent of the stallion’s injuries that the lamps concealed in their relatively dim light. Even through the bandages that covered about a third of him, I could still make out heavy bruising that his dark blue coat wasn’t hiding too well.

Veloce, who was silent up until that point, decided to speak, though she did so rather softly. “What would you have me do, Princess?”

“Would you mind staying here to keep an eye on him for me, please?”

“I don’t have any shifts today, so of course I can.”

“I just need you to make sure nothing else happens to him,” I added after a moment. “Have you had breakfast yet?” Velo shook her head. “I’ll bring you something while I organise a roster change around Midnight’s situation.”

“Thank you, Princess.”

“Don’t worry about it,” I waved dismissively. “I’d feel more comfortable knowing you’re here to give him some company and keep him safe while Radiant does her thing. And uh, let’s just keep this on the down low for now. We don’t want everyone freaking out.”

Before I left the room, a thought had occurred to me. “Also, and when you get the time, can you find out how Belcusas broke into the castle?” I said over my shoulder. “It seems we still have holes in our security that need patching.”

“I’ll look into it, Princess.”

“Thank you, Velo. Really, thanks.”

With how much of a turn for the worse things took, I couldn’t think straight at all during breakfast. I was idly poking at the food on my plate disinterestedly, only bothering to eat what I wanted to while I tried to sort out what I was going to do. Even though Radiant said Midnight was stable and would live, the darker part of me wondered what I’d do to Belcusas if the worst case scenario came to pass. I likely wouldn’t have stopped beating on Belcusas if I could help it.

I only managed to eat about half my plate before I left to take Velo something to eat, and from there I went up to my room to figure out how I was going to change the roster around. I tried to be as fair with my guards as I could with how I created it in the first place. Since I was down to six guards with five shift slots to cover, I turned that into six by having everyone cover one of Midnight’s, and one of Velo’s so she could keep an eye on Midnight.

A few hours after I posted the new roster in the common room, it was only a matter of time before I got a knock on my bedroom door.

“Come in,” I said emptily, closing the spellbook I was reading as Boreas strolled in with an upset expression which mirrored Veloce’s from earlier.

“Ok, just stop right there,” I interrupted by holding up a hoof right as Boreas opened her mouth. “This is not your fault, I need you to realise that.”

“Yes it is!” she protested. “None of this would’ve happened had I just gone back!”

“And you want to go back home?” I pressed. “If you let Belcusas take you back, you would’ve been miserable for the rest of your life. Midnight will recover, Boreas. How certain are you to say that you would’ve lasted with your father, forced to marry a stallion you don’t care for?” I got out of my seat and walked over to the mare so I wasn’t shouting across the room, where I also closed the bedroom door so Firefly and Ares couldn’t hear us.

“As undesirable as the situation is, things are still in our favour. Both you and Middy are still with me, and it’s that I’m grateful for. Please, Boreas, don’t beat yourself up anymore. This isn’t about you any longer, it’s about how Belcusas treats others, and it’s that which I intend to fix.”

“How do you plan on that?” Boreas sniffled, wiping a foreleg over her nose.

“I doubted Belcusas would come back after yesterday, but considering what happened, it’s clear that he’s going to do whatever he can to get to you.” After a moment, I said; “Who told you what happened anyway?”

“I saw the roster change, asked around as to why Midnight has been taken off, and Comet told me when he came in to unwind after his shift.”

“I should remind everypony that it’s unprofessional to spread gossip about your co-workers,” I said distastefully.

“Heh, you said ‘everypony’ this time.”

I gave Boreas a playful nudge. “Hush, you.”

Another knock at the door.

“I’ll see myself out and let them in,” Boreas said, making for the door. Once she opened it, Ares poked his head in.

“Celestia is requesting your presence in the throne room. She said that a certain pegasus has arrived.”

I immediately used my magic to levitate Boreas back into the room. “Hey, what gives?!” she protested with flailing forelegs.

“You-know-who is back,” I said. “Could you please stay here until he’s gone?”

“Fine,” Boreas spat with an angry grumble, sitting on her haunches.

As I left, I turned to Ares and said; “Find two other pegasi and have them watch the platform outside my room. Come get me if Belcusas or any of his goons show up.”

Ares saluted. “As requested, Your Highness!”

He promptly left to procure other guards, so it was just Firefly there for the moment. I didn’t have anything to say to her, so I made my say through the castle until I got to the throne room. Why didn’t I teleport, you might ask? I mainly wanted to keep Belcusas waiting, and so I could think about what I was going to say and do.

The halls and corridors up to the throne room had been vacated, so I pushed open the door and walked in.

Belcusas and his entourage from yesterday were there, minus their weapons, naturally. I kept giving him the stink eye as I went to walk up to my throne.

“Did your friend learn his lesson?” Belcusas asked with a smug grin.

I promptly turned around, looked him dead in the eye, and spat in his face.

Belcusas’ soldiers went right to attention at that, and Belcusas himself was completely unmoving from the surprise of what just happened, but growled darkly. Celestia didn’t seem to care; as far as she was concerned, Belcusas had earned it.

“What is it going to take for you to relinquish Boreas to me?” he slowly asked, wiping the saliva off his face with a kerchief he pulled from under his armour.

“Boreas isn’t going anywhere, you mongrel,” I vehemently said.

“Such a pity; I would’ve hoped the sight of your friend would’ve convinced you otherwise.”

“Go sit on a cactus, Belcusas. In what part of your delusional mind do you think I’m going to hand over of my friends and guards after what you just did?” I stepped off the throne and walked down to him, where he promptly took a few steps back.

She-Devil Mode: Reactivated.

“Here’s what you’re going to do you waste of space. You and your little soldier boys are going to turn around and leave. If you ever, ever set foot in this land again, I’m going to have you thrown in a cold, dark cell in the bottom of the dungeon for ten. Whole. Yea—”

The throne room doors suddenly burst open and crashed against the wall with a boom as an almighty wall of fire wafted in.

“WHERE IS HE?!”

Wreathed in fire and leaving behind hoofprints of molten rock with each step, Firefly stared down Belcusas with the most deadly expression I would’ve ever seen. She was literally snorting smoke like a dragon, and I couldn’t tell where her mane ended and her flames began.

Celestia shot me a concerned look and said; “Aren’t you going to stop her, Luna?”

I looked Firefly over, to Celestia, back to Firefly, then back to Celestia. “You first.” I wasn’t going anywhere near Firefly in that state.

Belcusas’ guards quickly surrounded Firefly. “Hold her there until I’m finished my business,” he said confidently.

“I don’t think so, bucko!” The fires in all the sconces and torches along the walls and pillars began to slowly go out, and wisps of red energy began snaking their way over to Firefly as she sucked in every source of available fire in the room, but it wasn’t her horn she was taking it into.

Rearing her head back, she spewed forth a twisting column of fire at Belcusas’ guards, sending them crashing against opposite walls. Then, she turned her attention to Belcusas.

“I’m gonna turn you into a roast chicken, bird boy,” she said as her horn charged.

“You’d better watch what you do next, Firefly, or I’ll send your ass packing for insubordination!” I angrily scolded, giving her a cautionary stare.

For some reason, that made Belcusas grin like he’d already won. He looked up to Celestia and said; “Why don’t you tell these two why I’m here?”

Confused, Firefly and I looked to Celestia, who gave a crestfallen sign. “Belcusas invoked the pre-unification Challenge of Kingdoms.”

“Uhm, what the hell is that?” I blinked.

“You wouldn’t know, since you weren’t born when it was made, Luna. The both of you, actually.” Taking a breath, Celestia began to explain. “Before Unification, warring Kingdoms would often fight each other for resources and land, which partially lead to The Great Winter. After Princess Platinum, Clover the Clever, Commander Hurricane, Private Pansy, Chancellor Puddinghead, and Smart Cookie settled Equestria, a summit was held, whereby any kingdoms would join together under one flag when their princess would be of sufficient age to rule.”

I was more focused on the fact that someone named their kid “Puddinghead”.

“I was only a twelve year old filly who’d just gotten her cutie mark and wings at the time,” Celestia continued, “but, I digress. Belcusas’ ancestor was the ruler of the Kingdom of Clouds at the time, and any outlying Kingdoms that did not join the Coalition reserved the right to issue the Challenge of Kingdoms. Instead of using armies, the leaders of each kingdom would fight one another to minimise bloodshed.

“The rules are simple. The challenger declares his intent and stipulations upon victory, and the challengee responds accordingly. Challenger and challengee fights to the maiming. Whoever emerges victorious earns the right to whatever the other possesses under rulership.”

“Let me fight, Luna! I’ll roast him alive!” Firefly seethed at Belcusas.

Ignoring Firefly, Belcusas spoke into my ear. “Since you and your sister rule by diarchy, I get half when I defeat you. I take Boreas away, then I challenge Celestia for the other half.”

“You can’t be serious!” I exclaimed.

“I told you I’d get my daughter one way or another. Your kingdom and its mares will be the icing on the cake.” Like the deviant he was, Belcusas licked his lips at me. “Not only will I make an example out of your rude friend there, you, on the other hand, will make a fine wif—”

He didn’t get to finish that sentence before I uppercut the asshole straight up, where he slammed into the fifteen metre high ceiling and stayed there, gawking down at me.

Amplifying earth pony strength with unicorn magic is like getting struck by a shooting star.

“Awesome,” Firefly said after a moment, looking up as her flames began to die down.

I glared daggers at her. “Go back to the post you abandoned right now. I’ll deal with you later.”

I took off, flapping my wings as hard as I can and ignoring protests from Celestia. With a bubble around myself, I hit Belcusas head on and we crashed through the stone ceiling, where I blasted him with a beam of magic. He went spinning towards the ground still clutching his stave, but right at the last second, his wings flared open and he began peeling away from the ground, banking upwards and climbing higher and higher at an alarming rate.

With the application of Accelero, I was off like a rocket. I caught up to him just before a cloud bank with a roundhouse kick to his abdomen, then I fed even more magic into my punch, sending him plummeting to the ground, and kicking up a poof of dirt when he landed.

As angry as I could be, I kept my gaze on Belcusas as he picked his roughed-up self from the ground. The commotion had drawn a crowd, ponies leaning out of windows to look at the display, or walking outside to get a better look at the show.

“I’m not gonna lie, that actually hurt a little bit…” Belcusas stammered, dusting dirt, grass, and the odd pebble off himself.

He righted himself with as much dignity as he could, and pointed the stave right at me. “My turn.”

It erupted with an enormous amount of electrical energy and surged towards me like a thousand bolts of lightning. I only had enough reaction speed to throw up bubble shield, using it as an earth to dissipate the lightning. The lightning kept up a constant pressure against my shield; It was all I could to feed energy into my spell. Belcusas was trying to wear me down, but I had other plans.

Keeping the spell focused, I threw my wings down and leapt high, momentarily escaping the lightning to throw a bolt of magic at Belcusas. It went wide, kicking up dirt at his feet and forcing him to shield the dirt from his eyes with a forehoof. Then, I threw another, bigger cone of magic directly at Belcusas, but I knew what he was going to do in advance.

I flew directly into the middle of the swirling tornado of magic, straight down as Belcusas dissipated my beam with his staff. Caught completely off guard when he saw me exactly six inches from his face, I punched square in the middle of his chest and he went flying, right into the middle of a tree trunk and shaking a lot of the leaves loose.

He fell forward onto the ground, and picked himself up again. “This is beginning to get irritating,” the stallion seethed. Once more Belcusas pointed the stave at me, drawing in an even larger amount of energy. I was able to sense that just in the nick of time, and when he fired, I had managed to cast Mirror Water.

The exceedingly cold blast slammed into my spell, freezing the grass around and behind me for several metres. I managed to reflect what hit my spell, but by the time I looked back up to fire another beam, Belcusas was gone.

I was alerted to his presence with a hoof drive itself directly into the middle of my back, knocking the wind out of me and flattening me like a pancake. Momentarily stunned from the surprise attack, Belcusas took the chance to roll me over, a look of premature victory writ across his face.

“I win,” he said.

I wasn’t about to let him get one over on me that easily, so I cocked a hind leg and kicked Belcusas straight in the nuts.

His eyes just about popped out of his head as he reeled backwards, falling on his haunches with a foreleg clutching between his legs while the other held the staff.

“Cheap shot…” he said through clenched teeth

Even though I got him off me, the sudden look of rage in his eyes actually made me take a couple steps back.

The stave’s crystal began to glow brightly, enveloping Belcusas. Right before my eyes, all his cuts, scrapes, scuffs and bruises began to disappear.

Regenerative magic. I was in trouble.

Then, Belcusas launched himself at me. I barely reacted in time to duck under his lunge, where I took to the air as he gave chase. Despite my speed enchantment, he was gaining metres in seconds as the aura from the stave kept working it’s magic on Belcusas.

Boreas was right, he was using the stave’s magic to increase his own power! He’d been holding back the entire time!

I kept ducking low, teleporting behind, and trying to outmaneuver him, but to no avail. All the while, blasts of ice and snow from the stave streaked by me as I dodged left and right. I literally kept flying Belcusas in circles to buy some time to think up a plan, but by the time I finished what I was doing, a blast of ice struck me in the back and froze my wings, and I began falling the fifty meters onto the ground where I landed with a sickening crunch.

I slowly turned to see Belcusas flitting down on top of me as pain radiated out from my right wing.

“I will admit, you fought well,” Belcusas admitted, “though it pains me to say that to a mare.”

“This…” I coughed, “still isn’t over…”

“What are you talking about? I’ve won; your wing is broken. As per the rules, this means I am the victor!”

“Look around you, dumbass,” I smiled.

Belcusas looked around at the large and gathered crowd, noticing how they all were looking up at the sky. With that distinctive “uh oh” look across his face, Belcusas slowly began looking up too, right at the massive array I had drawn during our fight.

“How did you do that?! You had no time!” he roared.

The ground around him began to glow white, trapping him in a gravity spell.

“What is this?! I can’t move!”

“This is the sweet taste of victory, asshole!”

I teleported out of the way of the array as it reached critical mass, and a bullet storm of magic particles rained down like machine gun fire, violently peppering the ground and kicking up a massive cloud of dirt and detritus as I heard Belcusas roar in agony.

The shockwave made everyone around shield their eyes from the dirt and stone being thrown their way, and I’m fairly certain I heard cheers of encouragement from onlookers at my victorious display.

It took longer than I would’ve liked for the dirt to clear, but by the time it did, Belcusas’ piss-yellow coat had turned a distinctive brown from the amount of dirt coating him, and the stave had been knocked away, the stick having split in two while the crystal itself shattered into pieces of varying size. He was battered and bruised beyond recognition, cuts from sharp rocks that peppered him leaking several rivulets of crimson through his coat.

He groaned pitifully as I approached, my broken wing dangling down by my side. It definitely hurt, but was just as bearable. I honestly thought Belcusas would put up more of a fight than what he did in all honesty. From what Boreas told me, I think she was overstating his capabilities. Sure he had the staff, but it didn’t appear he knew how to fully utilise it. It seemed he got his reputation for being utterly ruthless in his leadership and using the staff for the intimidation factor.

I stared down at the stallion as he weakly shuffled around, causing small piles of dirt to slip off. Behind me, the sounds of metal-clad hoofsteps ran up to surround me. Belcusas’ soldiers. They stared down at him, and looked between us several times with aghast expressions.

“Your King has been defeated by a mare. Let this moment forever be a reminder that we females are not inferior as you think,” I said evenly to them. “Go back to your kingdom and spread the word.”

They gulped, then promptly took off.

I then picked up Belcusas with my magic, then without a word to anyone, teleported the two of us to the castle’s infirmary. I found a vacant cot, then magicked some rope from a storage room to tie Belcusas face-down onto the cot, his legs bound to the cot’s legs. For further reinforcement, I engraved miniature sigils on the metal legs where his hooves were secured, weaker versions of the gravity spell I used just before. Along with those and the rope, he wasn’t going anywhere.

When I looked up next, I saw a stallion nurse, clipboard on the floor, staring at me with an agape jaw.

“Treat this stallion’s wounds, and my broken wing if you please.”

Then, I plopped my sore ass down on a nearby cot and waited for the inevitable shitstorm to ensue.

A few hours later after the ice on my wings had been melted, the broken one had been bandaged, put in a splint and secured to my side. Belcusas had also been treated, then I followed through on my promise on his accommodations until he woke up from a combination of Radiant’s anesthesia so she could properly set his wings, and a sleep spell I cast so he couldn’t wake up until he was in his cell.

I hadn’t yet heard back from Belcusas’ soldiers yet, though I somehow didn’t think I would.

After the battle, there were ponies scrambling to talk to me while Radiant bandaged my wing, but Veloce, who was still looking after Midnight in the same room I teleported into, was quick to shoo them off, after which I told her all of what happened.

When I was finally ready to leave the infirmary, Celestia accomodated me to my room, and I had instructed Ares to look after Boreas so I could rest for the remainder of the afternoon.

“I… still don’t know how to react, Luna,” Celestia said when I flopped onto my bed on my stomach. “On one hoof you managed to hold your own against a tyrannical dictator, on the other, however, you goaded him into doing what he did. Had you just giv–”

“Stop right there, Celestia,” I snorted. “I know what you’re going to say, and I’m in the mood to smack you upside the face if you so much as utter those words.” I paused to let my words sink in, then I continued. “Make yourself useful and send Firefly in. When Belcusas wakes up, come get me. Now get lost so I can rest.” I waved Celestia off with a hoof.

“You could’ve killed him!” Celestia further protested.

I rolled my eyes. “And yet he’s still alive and breathing. I knew exactly how much magic I needed to feed into my spell to incapacitate him. Don’t treat me like I don’t know what I’m doing.”

Celestia just grumbled at that; she knew I was right, but wasn’t in the mood to press the issue. “What shall I do with the staff in the meantime?”

I thought on that as best as I could for a moment. “Have every single piece brought to my room. As far as I’m concerned, that stave rightfully belongs to Boreas now, and I want to try and repair it first.”

“You never said what you wanted from Belcusas if you won. Does your plan have something to do with what you have in mind right now?” Celestia queried.

“It has everything to do with my plan, which things seem to be going according to. Now I need to rest, so send in Firefly on your way out.”

Shaking her head and rolling her eyes with an exasperated sigh, Celestia reluctantly turned tail and left, sending in Firefly on her way out.

I pointed a hoof at the red mare as she entered. “You left your post earlier. Explain.”

“Belcusas almost killed Midnight!” Firefly defended.

“And what good would’ve storming the throne room, breaking the doors in the process, and melting the floor which has now got to be replaced have done, hmm?”

“I was going to–”

“Going to what, huh? Pick a fight with someone stronger than you and risk getting killed yourself? Undermine my authority? Which is what you did nonetheless… Fact of the matter is that you were the only one left to keep an eye on Boreas while Ares went for extra security. What if Boreas had been taken thanks to your negligence?”

“I…” Firefly stammered off, her ears going flat against her head as she looked down. “You’re right, I’m sorry. I was so hell bent on trying to avenge Midnight that I neglected to do my duty.”

I picked out a small length of parchment from my desk, dipped a quill in ink, and penned a small note. When I was done, I rolled it up and levitated it over to Firefly. “Go find Veloce and give her this. When she’s done reading it, you can read it too. As for the door and floor, the cost of fixing it is coming out of your paycheque. Just be glad I’m not giving you the boot.”

As much as Firefly wanted to protest, she wisely decided against doing so. She left without another word, note in tow. As for what it said, I told Velo that Firefly would be taking over her shifts while Firefly herself would be further punished by looking after Midnight until I saw fit otherwise.

With all that business taken care off, I finally managed the time to raise the moon. As much as I wanted to talk to Belcusas before the next day, my sleeping spell was a bit of a strong one, so I didn’t bank on him waking up until the following day. It also gave me an opportunity to give him a few choice dreams.

Dreams, I found out, are quite interesting to say the least, and not in the way you’d expect. Memories from your life’s experiences get stored inside your mind. The way I look at it, dreams are almost like a vivid hallucination which your brain pieces together seemingly nonsensical memories to form a “replay” of sorts, and it was me who could manipulate what and how you dream; In short, whatever dream you were having, I could follow it back to and manipulate the original memory to make you dream of what I saw fit.

I wasn’t going to give Belcusas any vicious nightmares or anything of that nature, no. I took memories of him and the society he lived in, and flipped it in its head to give him a taste of his own medicine. When he woke up, he’d know exactly what it would have been like to be a destitute stallion ruled by a tyrannical Queen.

16| Heaven and Earth

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After the previous day’s fight, I woke up feeling as though I was a stuffed toy that had been put through a tumble dryer. I should have either gotten Celestia to lower the moon that morning, or done so myself from the safety and comfort of bed, but instead of listening to my body’s cries for rest, I wound up rolling onto my broken wing as I moved to get up. Considering my healing factor, I didn’t know why everything was still hurting, so I went to see Radiant about it. She gave me a vial of medicine, and said to dilute it with some tea.

After having some breakfast and a couple small cups of tea with the medicine, I was in a much better position to go pay a visit to Belcusas. I didn’t head straight to the throne room for court because the roof was being repaired from when I punched through it, and the doors had to be taken off and all the hinges replaced while the stonemasons chipped off the melted rock of Firefly’s hoof prints, which were then smoothed over with mortar. Fortunately for Firefly she had savings to dip into to pay for the repairs, or I would’ve had to dock her paycheque.

I paused before the two sergeants standing sentinel outside the door leading to the dungeons. They nodded wordlessly, then one of them proceeded to open the wrought iron door while the other pulled on a chain to raise the portcullis some five metres or so down the corridor.

Accompanied by one of them, I proceeded to walk down the double wide corridors, sticking to the left until I arrived at Belcusas’ cell, which, ironically, was the same one that Compass occupied some time back. Belcusas was laying on the wall mounted cot with his back to me, and I knew he was awake because his ears twitched when I stopped outside.

“Good morning to you,” I said, sitting on my haunches.

Grumbling contemptuously, Belcusas looked over his shoulder at me. “I know it was you who tinkered with my dreams last night; everypony with half a brain knows you walk between the Here and There. Did you think that you’d sway me into behaving by your personal moral code?” He scoffed and rolled over to face me. “That I’d suddenly realise what you interpret as wrong would make me realise the supposed error of my rule? Mares,” he growled, proceeding to distastefully spit on the cell floor. “All you’d ever be good for is continuing my bloodline.”

“And yet you’re the one that got defeated in our fight.” I couldn’t help but smirk at that.

“What was it you told me yesterday? Oh yes; Go sit on a cactus!”

“Oh, you wound me so!” I dramatically replied, a hoof over my chest in feigned indignation. Composing myself, I cleared my throat. “In any case, I’m here to give you a sentence for your assault on my guard, and my demands for the victory in our fight.”

Belcusas visibly tensed when he realised I never stipulated what I wanted. “Name your price and get out of my sight,” he seethed.

“First is your sentence,” I said. “Since you willfully and mercilessly beat my friend, the severity of your crime would typically dictate about a five year sentence. But, I am not an unreasonable mare; five years being cooped up in a cell in a dank dungeon wouldn’t be the most pleasant experience.”

“Just get on with it!” Belcusas exclaimed with an exasperated roll of his eyes.

Obliging his ignoble request, I magicked two scrolls of parchment, a quill, and some ink. “I want two letters, the first declaring your official abdication, to denounce any and all claims your heirs might have to your throne, contingencies you would’ve put in place, and a sincere apology for my friend. If you choose to do this, then I will lower your time to as long as Midnight’s wounds take to heal, about six weeks at the best estimate.”

Belcusas suspiciously narrowed his eyes at me. “What if I refuse?”

I shrugged indifferently. “It really doesn’t matter if you refuse or not. As per the rules of the Challenge, I am entitled to everything in your kingdom. The fact that I still have your staff makes that an uncontested argument since you said it is a representation of your rulership. I simply want the documentation to make the process as seamless as possible, and having you write these letters boils down to how long you’re willing to spend in this cell.” I set the writing equipment against the far wall of the cell so Belcusas wouldn’t ‘accidentally’ tread on them.

I could tell by how he was looking from me to the quill and ink that he was torn between swallowing his pride and giving me want I asked for, or retaining what shred of dignity he had left by refusing. The only complication I’d have with his refusal was that the process of integrating the City of Clouds would take a bit longer that I would’ve liked.

Having concluded my business, I got up to leave, making sure the stallion could still hear me on my way out. I looked to the guard accompanying and said; “Belcusas gets breakfast at 10am, dinner at 7pm, a bucket of fresh water every day, and the other emptied as needed.”

“Of course, Princess,” he said.

I half expected Belcusas to rip and tear the parchment into tiny pieces as I left, but it seemed he wasn’t quite done.

“Wait!”

I stopped, and turned to look at him over my shoulder.

“What will you do with me once I am out of this forsaken cell?”

I sucked the inside of my cheek for a moment. It was a good question, one I honestly didn’t consider. After taking a minute to carefully, and I mean carefully consider it, I came to what I thought was a fair conclusion.

“As much as I want to keep you locked up for what you’ve done to the mares of your kingdom, Equestrian law states that Celestia and I cannot place the leader of a neighboring county on trial for breaking our laws when they were within their own territorial boundaries. I can only sentence you for your assault, but I will be back to banish you from the City when it becomes part of this country.”

I shivered a little. Talking to someone like Belcusas was not a pleasant experience, so I was quick to get out of the dungeon. There was just a cold, unending silence as I left, and I could almost feel the intensity of Belcusas’ hatred for me through his stare on my back.

As I made my way to my room unhindered, I couldn’t help but think on what would be happening in the City. No doubt that once word got out about Belcusas’ defeat, things would be going haywire and there’d be a mad dash for the throne, but without the staff, I didn’t think those claims would hold up. If I got my letters from Belcusas, I could follow through with my plan of declaring a union with the rest of Equestria. That way I could make sure none of the City’s mares would ever be mistreated ever again, and give Boreas some sense of closure about the whole situation.

In the meantime, I just opted for trying to repair the stave. Its broken state would have made things more difficult for me.

I closed the bedroom door and pulled the cloth bundle on my desk closer, unravelling it to reveal both halves of the staff and all the crystal fragments. Several small shards had splintered off from the main crystal, which was still relatively intact.

Once I took down as many notes about the staff I thought relevant; overall length, design, the wood it was made of, it took a few hours of trial and error in figuring out where all the shards went since there were so many that I had to fit together like a puzzle. When that was taken care of, there was the simple matter of activating the stave’s magic to repair itself. I was thankful all the shards had been retrieved, or I sincerely doubted fixing it would’ve been possible.

After a minute or so of fierce concentration, I was rewarded by a bright light that began to slowly emanate from the staff, which proceeded to envelop me too. Right before my eyes, all the shards began fixing themselves back onto the larger gem like a reverse slow motion window cracking, and the two halves of the staff’s wooden handle were knitted back together at the same time.

My feeling of accomplishment from fixing the Staff of Sacanas came second to how powerful I felt holding it once fixed. It made me wonder if magic items from Equestria would work on Earth, so I made a note to take an enchanted gem with me back home alongside back with the spellbook I had in mind.

As I was admiring my handiwork of the staff, a knock came from my door. I pulled it open with a bit of magic, and Celestia strode in. She looked me over briefly before turning her attention to the staff, then raised an intrigued eyebrow.

“I felt a magical surge come from your room, so I came to see what happened. Now I see it was the stave’s magical properties being restored since you apparently managed to fix it,” she said

I internally sighed when Celestia levitated a cushion over to to sit on. That only meant one thing: She wanted to talk.

“Luna, I... don’t think you should be putting yourself in dangerous situations like this anymore.”

I tilted my head. “But it was Belcusas who incited the fight, wasn’t it? He was literally asking for it.”

“I don’t want you to wind up dying. You should let me handle this sort of thing in the future. Impulsive actions are certain to lead to undesirable consequences.”

“And yet I walked away with a broken wing that will heal inside of a couple weeks,” I flippantly stated. “And with the staff fixed, I could just instantly heal my wing.”

Celestia took on a subtly angry, yet even tone. “You should be more concerned with the inner workings of the castle instead of investigating gold mines, volcanoes, foreign leaders, and ponies who break into your room, Luna. I am the older sister. What you did not only undermined my authority, but it also put yourself in danger. You have no idea what could have happened in that fight, or the consequences if you lost.”

“And by saying that, you’re undermining my authority as your equal in what’s supposed to be a diarchy, Celestia! Even if I lost and Belcusas challenged you, I know that you would have won your fight and rectified the situation. That’s the difference between us; I have confidence in someone else’s abilities that extends beyond my own. Do you honestly expect me to sit idly by while you reap the glory of being the only one to demonstrate their capabilities to deal with situations like this?”

“I am only doing my best to keep you safe, Luna,” Celestia said.

Who did Celestia think she was, telling me what I could and couldn’t do? Even though I could understand that she was trying to look out for me, she made me feel as though my efforts were going unappreciated, if they were needed at all. I needed to remain calm and rational if I was going to talk her down. “Celestia, you’re asking—no, telling me that all you want me to do it sit at my desk. You need to understand that what you’re saying isn’t going to be good for my leadership skills. What if something happens to you and I’m the only one around to handle things? I’m going to wind up running around like a chicken with its head cut off trying to keep things under control.”

I signed, looking up to Celestia through my bangs.

“I just... I’m trying to illustrate that you don’t give me credit where credit is due. If I can recognise that something is beyond my ability to handle, then I don’t think it’s unreasonable to say that I’d ask for help. I am going to prove to you that I can take responsibility for situations I find myself in by rectifying the immediate issue of the City of Clouds.”

Celestia took a long, hard look at me after I said that, and eventually got up off the cushion to walk forward and hug me. “You’re right, Luna. I’m sorry for not putting my trust in you.”

“How do those words taste?” I lightheartedly said.

“Like vinegar,” Celestia chuckled.

“Would… Would you mind taking care of the afternoon’s petitioners while I refine my plan? I can run it by you after you’re done.”

She gave me a peck on the cheek. “Of course, Lulu. On another note, have you spoken to Belcusas since yesterday?”

“I gave him a choice between a five year sentence that fit his crime, or aiding me with integrating the City with the rest of Equestria for a reduced sentence. If I don’t get what I asked for by the end of the day, he’s gone and dug his own grave.”

“Acceptable,” Celestia replied. “What of the deal you struck?”

“A letter declaring a formal abdication to absolve his monarchy, and an apology for Midnight,” I added. “I’m yet to work out how I’m going to minimise the eventual fallout, so I need some time to work on that. Hopefully I can get it done by Sunday.”

“I don’t see anything wrong with that,” Celestia said, levitating the cushion back to where she got it. “I’ll let you be for now, and I’m looking forward to see what your plan is.”

“Thank you. I’ll see you at dinner.” Celestia pulled back from the hug, allowing me to return my attention to the papers, books, and parchment scattered across my desk. The door clicked shut behind me, so I made a solid effort to draw up a fully detailed plan.

The biggest problem I faced with how to make the City of Clouds part of Equestria was not how to get everyone on board, there was bound to be opposition, but how to make the citizens think it was a good idea. The stallions that I presumed to follow Belcusas would be loyal to his cause since Belcusas gave them what they wanted. The proverbial do-do would hit the fan when I would rock up and tell them that; “No, you can’t do this anymore”. Forcing an entire kingdom to adopt and obey another country’s laws overnight would take a while to get used to, so I had my work cut out for me if I wanted to undo two-hundred years worth of indoctrination since unification.

I could only glean so much information by research and observation, and it went without saying that I was going in blind for the most part. Talking to Boreas would only provide me with limited perspective since she was one person on the side of the problem at hand, but could be very well worth it. Even a little bit of intel could provide me with enough insight so I didn’t make a complete idiot out of myself.

When I got back to my room, I mostly sat at my desk, sipped tea, and kept myself occupied until Boreas rotated off of her shift so I could talk to her. As far as I knew, Boreas was my only way to locate and get into the City, so I had to convince her to take me there and be my guide around.

I’d hoped that going back to the place she fled from wouldn’t do her any harm.

Three days later, my plan was finished and had been run by Celestia; I had dealt with the petitioners on Saturday, and even even though I was taking care of official business on my only day off for the whole week, I was actually looking forward to it. A city made of clouds that literally floated in the sky? Sign me the hell up!

On that particular morning, I stood outside my room with Boreas after I had lowered the moon. “So… Are you ready?” I asked, looking down to her. Though she was rather reluctant to return home, she had agreed to take me to the City since her father was no longer a threat, and there was also the fact that I had her back. Belcusas had also come through with the letters I asked of him, which meant the union of the City of Clouds and Equestria was a certainty. He also decided he’d try getting under my skin with Midnight’s apology letter by offering the stallion a hundred gold pieces, but since he’d become destitute after our duel, he expected me to pay up on his behalf. A passing comment about furious lesbian horse sex in his private bed chambers wiped the smug grin from his face pretty quickly.

“As ready as I’ll ever be,” Boreas stated with determination, flexing her wings.

“Good, so let’s get this over with.” I looked over to what was my injured wing, giving it another rotation. Radiant was against me using the staff to heal my wing for a number of reasons, namely that I was using an unknown variable to heal an injury, and outright refused to let me use it on Midnight without further testing. She was adamant that I wait the two weeks for my wing to heal so she knew I could handle flying with some physio, but I was just as adamant that I didn’t want the situation in the City to go from bad to worse because of a simple broken wing that I had an immediate solution to, so she begrudgingly gave me a full physical once I cast the spell and sent me on my way.

Alongside the staff secured to my side, I had a few provisions in my saddle bags for Boreas and I since she wanted to take as many of her things back to the castle as she could manage, provided they were still around.

I closed the double doors to my bedroom so all the enchantments could properly engage, then Boreas and I took off from the dais, flying north-west.

“How long did you say it would take to get there?” I asked.

“I didn’t, but it’s about a four hour flight. A lot of the ground-based pegasi tend to get vertigo at the altitude the City is located. My father really went out of his way to stay secluded.” Boreas looked over to me. “Think you’ll be able to handle it, Catherine?”

“Yeah, should do,” I replied after a moment. “I don’t mind if you want to use my real name, just… try to be discreet about it. If you’d like, my friends from when I was at school, and at work all called me ‘Kate’.”

“That won’t be a problem. I just don’t want to get confused as to who you are.”

“That’s fair,” I said. We didn’t say much after that, there was just this period of awkward silence as we kept flying, slowly increasing our altitude.

“What was school like on Earth?” Boreas asked after a while.

I couldn’t help but smile widely at the fond memories. “School on Earth is awesome, at least it was for me. Instead of one small building for a collection of colts and fillies as is the case in a lot of towns in Equestria, there are building complexes as big as the Castle of the Two Sisters that can hold anywhere from a few hundred, to a couple thousand people in classrooms, sometimes even more.”

Boreas’ expression soured slightly. “You can imagine what ‘school’ is like for mares in the City. Taught to—”

“Ah ah ah,” I chastised before she could launch into a rant. “That’s what we’re here to change. Let’s focus on what will be.”

“Yeah, I s’pose… Anyway, what kind of things did you get taught in school?” she asked, trying to sound excited.

I loved it when people asked questions; it showed me that they wanted to learn, and I was more than willing to help if I could. “In biology, we were taught that people who live at higher altitudes, such as mountain ranges and so on, have a higher red blood cell count. It allowed them to make better use of the oxygen they breathe, and getting rid of carbon dioxide more effective. The same could be said for the pegasi in the City.”

“Now that is the kind of stuff we should be learning about! Not how to–” Boreas caught herself about to go off again, but she cleared her throat and looked over to me. “Sorry, I’m still kinda anxious about returning after all this time.”

“I understand. We can keep talking if it’ll help keep you calmer.”

She smiled thankfully. “Yeah, I’d like that.”

And so we kept talking. I did my best to answer all of Boreas’ questions regarding Earth, but my favourite thing to talk about was the nuances in the English language. For example, the difference between a booty call and a butt dial, why ‘fat chance’ and ‘slim chance’ are the same, yet ‘wise guy’ and ‘wise man’ are opposites.

A couple hours into the flight, we were so high up I could see everything around me for at least a couple thousand miles, and let me tell you, it was a spectacular view, almost like flying in a commercial airliner if we were twice as high. At that point, I was beginning to get light headed, so Boreas and I took a break for a while to have a snack and acclimate ourselves a bit before continuing on.

An hour and a half later, I could finally see the City coming into view. It was an absolutely enormous cloud bank that could’ve passed for Mount Olympus from Greek mythology. It all looked like one homogenous building built from the very clouds themselves. Pillars of twisted white that looked like the City’s palace soared high into the sky, and from there the buildings grew smaller the further out from the palace you got.

But, as we got closer, something didn’t feel right, like we were being followed. I widened the space between my feathers to better feel the air currents between them, which confirmed my suspicion: there was a disturbance of flow from above and behind me.

“Luna, check your six,” Boreas suddenly said.

The fact that she used Luna’s name was cause for concern, so I looked over my shoulder and saw three pegasi wearing armour, flying above us. Soldiers from the City, I suspected.

“What do we do?” I cautiously asked.

“They’re soldiers that patrol the airspace around the City. Don’t make any sudden moves. Keep flying.”

About ten seconds after that, I felt a gust of air from above me as the three soldiers flew in front of Boreas and I, blocking our path. We thought it wise to stop.

The leader of the three narrowed his eyes at me, cautiously looking me up and down. His eyes widened when he saw the staff poking out from under my bags, then snapped back to me. “Are you the one who won the Challenge of Kingdoms?

“This is correct, which means you must know who I am.”

“You are Princess Luna of the Royal Equestrian crown,” he confirmed. “Tell me, what of our King? Rumours have been floating around…”

Heh, floating around, I mused. “Belcusas is currently in my dungeon for injustices committed against my subjects.”

“And what business do you have in the city?” the leader said.

“I won the challenge issued to me by your old King, which means the Kingdom and everything within currently belongs to me. As such, the City itself is now under the Crown Rule of the Equestrian Diarchy, making you subjects under its rule. Step aside and let me pass.”

They all snickered at me when I said that, and I realised it was because we were no longer on the ground.

“Sarge? What do we do now?” the pegasus on the left asked.

The sergeant was clearly less than pleased about having a mare as a ruler, growling as he spoke. “Let her through. I don’t like it anymore than you two, but this is out of our hooves to deal with. Continue the patrol.”

And just like that, they were off.

“I thought they would’ve put up more of a fight than that?” I asked rhetorically, turning to Boreas.

“They know better than to challenge the ruler of their kingdom, least they risk being exiled.”

“Did Belcusas really do that?” I asked as we continued flying towards the city.

“On more than one occasion, though usually for treasonous reasons. The worst punishment I’ve seen was when the palace’s financier was caught garnishing the Crown’s money to supplement his own salary.”

“Uh huh, and?”

“His forehooves were cut off at the fetlock as a message to everyone about what happens when you steal from the Crown.”

My mouth hung open in abject horror. Boreas didn’t say what happened to the guy after that, and I can’t say I wanted to know.

A short while later, we arrived at what I’d best describe as an airport for pegasi. A large section of cloud longer than it was wide jutted out from the side of the walled city, and I could see half a dozen pegasi each in two watchtowers of sorts, all of whom would have been paying attention to who was coming and going if the place wasn’t completely deserted. Two guard-looking ponies with spears were positioned either side of the half-opened gate that lead inside the City proper, which would have been as as wide as the ‘runway’ itself if fully open.

All eyes were on Boreas and I as we touched down, following us as we brazenly walked up to the gate. The two guards crossed their spears in front of us, but I was more confused as to why they would when they would’ve heard of the rumours.

“Let them pass,” someone from up in the left watchtower said down. “That’s your new Queen, private.”

I was surprised when I got called a Queen, but considering the title Belcusas held, it made sense I’d inherit it since I won our duel.

Queen Luna. I liked the sound of that. I wondered if I’d get to keep the title after I made the City part of Equestria.

The private glared at me and reluctantly withdrew his spear at the same time as his partner did. “No mare will ever be a queen to me,” he said distastefully.

I shrugged off that comment as I walked inside the gate, but it was only the tip of the iceberg for what was to come.

17| Don't Look Down

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I struggled to pull my wide-eyed gaze from the towering City before me as I stepped through the gate from the landing terrace. The clouds beneath my hooves felt as soft as marshmallows, and that was in the City’s outer streets where pegasi flitted to and fro; the floating cloud houses bobbed and swayed in the breeze, tethered to each other and the shops on the street below. I would’ve said the altitude stole my breath in that moment, but the experience was like walking into the TARDIS for the first time.

Pegasi passed by Boreas and I without noticing who we were initially, going about their Sunday shopping and whatever business they might’ve had. It was as busy as the markets at Mercy, which only added to the serendipity I was feeling.

“If this is what Heaven looks like, then someone kill me now,” I absentmindedly muttered with a grin, much to Boreas’ comically shocked expression.

“What?!” she exclaimed at that, perhaps a bit too loudly. That caused a few passer bys to cast sideways glances at the sudden vocalisation, and half a dozen of them gasped when they saw me.

“What the heck is a unicorn doing in the City?!” the nearest stallion to me exclaimed.

“A unicorn can’t walk on clouds!” a mare so studiously said.

“That’s not a unicorn, that’s Princess Luna of the Equestrian Kingdom!”

I didn’t anticipate the subsequent crowd of pegasi that formed a wall around Boreas and I, forcing us to take a couple steps back. Hushed murmurs and whispers of rumors about Belcusas and the fight began floating around the crowd as parents hid scared children behind them, while other curious colts and fillies were poking their heads out from behind the legs of the parents that were trying to keep them out of harm’s way. I expected to see stallions with mares hanging off them, but there didn’t seem to be anything of the sort, though that didn’t mean I wasn’t getting lusty stares and leering glances from a good few of them.

“Which way to the palace, Boreas?” I asked as I readied my wings to get away from the crowd.

“Follow me,” she stated, taking off with enough of a downdraft to make clothes billow in the wind. I took off after her, gaining as she slowed down enough for me to catch up.

“How did you find your reception?” Boreas asked with a chuckle at my expense.

“Rather overwhelming to be honest. I kinda envisioned that the pegasi would bow and part as they laid out a red carpet before me, as a wordless plea to let them be, given how Belcusas was,” I admitted.

“Well, you’re not wrong,” Boreas returned. “As much as he demanded admiration, he gave a lot of ponies good reason to stay out his way.”

We came upon the palace’s main gates in due time, and two armoured pegasi, complete with swords, spears, and wingblades narrowed their eyes at me as Boreas and I approached. “Step aside, please,” I politely asked.

They crossed their spears in front of the door.

“I need to get inside the palace. Remove your spears and open the doors, if you could,” I continued.

“Just because you bested our King in battle, that does not mean we hold loyalty to you,” one guard said.

“In the event King Belcusas is removed from power, control of the kingdom is transferred to his wife,” the other evenly stated.

Rolling my eyes, I reached into my bags to pull out the letters Belcusas wrote and just about shoved the papers in their arrogant faces. “If you know how to read, you’ll understand that Belcusas has forfeited any and all rights to his throne, absolved any contingencies he has, appointed me as ruler, and it’s that which makes me your queen now.”

To his comrade’s surprise, the guard on my left brazenly took his helmet off and dropped it, then let his spear fall to the ground. “You’re no queen of mine,” he sneered before taking off.

I didn’t expect him to up and quit his job just like that, but that was his choice and not my problem. I turned to the remaining guard. “Unlike your friend, you’ll still have a job if you choose to remain. What’s it going to be?”

As he withdrew his spear, I couldn’t help but notice a ghost of a smile on his face.

“Princess?” he said as he opened the door.

“Hmm? Yes?” I said to him.

“Unlike my uh, shall we say comrade, my loyalty is to the pegasi of this Kingdom, and not to the money I am being paid or the individual running it.”

I was taken aback by that, and I found myself nodding in approval. “Commendable attitude if I do say so.”

I got inside without any further problems, and I half expected the entranceway to be brimming with activity, but it was completely deserted for some reason.

The floor was softer than the time I laid on a giant sack of freshly picked cotton, and the interiors was as smooth and glossy as polished Roman marble. The grand staircase that hugged a cherub pegasi fountain—how a fountain worked at that altitude I had no idea—had perfect ninety-degree angled steps, and the rails were just as ornate. The entire place had a lot more decoration put into the sculpture of the clouds than I had expected. I had no idea it was even possible to mold clouds like that.

There was no need for superfluous lighting as natural sunlight streamed in through the windows, and permeated the clouds like angels descending from heaven. The decor was practically nil, and while I would’ve said that simplicity is effective, bleach-white everything was pretty bland.

“So, which way to the throne room?” I asked Boreas.

“The thing about cloud houses is that you can mold and add on and alter different rooms. I can take you the way I best remember, but it might’ve changed after I left.”

“Alright then, lead the way.” She lead me up the left of the staircase and through a door, and from there we began working our way through the maze of corridors. I always found that there was a sense of disorientation whenever I visited a new place, and given how isolated the City was, I relied on Boreas for direction as we walked through the palace.

Given how white everything was, I would’ve had difficulty navigating the place on my own. Every corridor we went down, and staircase we went up looked the same, like something straight out of an M.C Esther painting. The comfort of knowing where I was in the Castle of the Two Sisters came from familiarising myself with small details, like the chip off a brick at the end of the north corridor that told me I was near the library, or the bent nail that protruded from the rafters in the west corridor that said the kitchen was around the corner.

At the end of a corridor, we went up a staircase that ascended one of the palace’s many spires and towers like a lighthouse’s, and we arrived at a landing with a set of doors at the top. “Ah, here we go,” Boreas finally announced. Whereas the throne room doors back at the castle were five metres tall, made out of wood and iron and weighed a few tonnes each, the ones to Belcusas’ throne room were only about two metres tall and made out of water vapour.

The thing I had to learn the hard way was that you couldn’t simply walk through cloud doors, and I wound up walking smack into the doors to the throne “Oww,” I said as I rubbed my nose. “That wasn’t supposed to hurt.”

I looked to Boreas. “Why did that hurt?”

Boreas was holding her hoof over her face in a vain attempt to cover her giggling. “The enchantment on this room means only those of the royal bloodline can open the doors, almost like the spell you have on your room.”

She managed to pull her hoof away from her face long enough to oh so kindly open the doors.

The throne room was just as grand, if not bigger and more decorated than the one back at the castle. Wide windows were shrouded by thick, baby-blue drapes tied back against the wall, nesting against one another. Long banners that depicted what was the City’s coat of arms: the cloud, sword, and lightning bolt inlaid on a shield with a ribbon which weaved behind and in front of it were draped from every alabaster column. Also attached to each column were golden candelabras with unlit, fresh candles above intricately carved limestone statues of the City’s four former rulers in order; Belcusas, Dingir, Brittia, and finally, Belfast, the douchebag who started the whole thing.

Opposite each statue on the other side of the room sat pedestals with glass cases, showing off an item that represented each monarch and their rulership: Belcusas’ case for his staff was empty, then there was a sword with an obsidian-black blade; a golden, flat-top shield; then a sallet helmet with eight vertical slits down the visor.

A ruby red rug split the room in half, leading up to stairs that spanned the room wall to wall, which led up to and converged on the throne that sat atop a raised platform with massive vertical windows behind it that allowed an unadulterated view of the city below.

“This is amazing,” I beamed, turning to look at Boreas with a nod at the cases. “What do the other items do?”

“The sword drains magic power; I’ve never seen nor heard of anything that’s pierced the shield, and as for the helmet, that’s the only item which I’ve never seen removed from its case.”

It felt like there was an unseen force repelling me away from the sword the closer I got, as if it was a foreboding warning as opposed to a magic barrier. Something about a sword that drained magic energy was rather unsettling, moreso than the aura given off by the shield or helmet. I needed to look into putting them all somewhere safer that wasn’t in plain sight.

“I uhm… Kate?” Boreas asked, drawing my attention from the grandeur of the throne room. “Mind if I borrow the staff for a moment? There’s something I need to do.”

I was a little reluctant to give it to her, but I knew she wouldn’t intentionally hurt anyone with it, so I eventually unstrapped and handed it to her.

She wordlessly went over to face the statue of her father, and touched the stave’s crystal to the statue, and proceeded to do the same to the other three one by one. Almost instantly, they all fell through the cloud floor with a soft whump.

I blinked out of shock and immediately snatched the staff from her. “What’d you do that for?! They could hit someone!”

“Woah woah woah, let me explain. I know exactly where they’re going to land.”

“Enlighten me,” I replied sternly.

“The land directly under the City is owned by the ruling power. If anything falls to the ground, we can claim it with no repercussions for anyone who might’ve otherwise owned it.”

“And why, pray tell, did you do that to those statues?”

“Because,” Boreas began, looking over her shoulder to where the statues once were. “Their rein is over. For the first time in two hundred years, we can look forward to a future. Any kingdom in isolation will eventually crumble without trade routes, and potentially reducing itself to xenophobia.”

“That is... rather insightful,” I admitted.

I grumbled and shook my head to clear my thoughts, then began walking up to the throne where I planted my tush. My eyes instantly widened. “Oooooo, this is the best thing I have ever sat on!” A grin spread across my muzzle, and I wriggled around to feel just how comfortable the throne was. “I should replace my stone throne with a cloud throne! It’s soooo much more comfortable!”

Boreas was grinning up at me. “Yeah, clouds are pretty cozy. Sometimes I’ll sleep outside and under the stars on a cloud during a clear night.” She cleared her throat. “So, what’s the next step of your plan, Princess Luna?”

“Step One: Acquire throne. Step Two: Make a public address. Step Three: Profit.”

Boreas gave me a peculiar look. “Profit?”

“It’s an… inside joke on Earth. But Seriously, if things go according to plan, we can hold a consensus amongst the residents so they can decide what direction they want the City to go in, and then we closely monitor the situation thereafter. And as much as I hate to admit it, not knowing what kind of resistance we might expect puts me at a disadvantage of what to do if somepony makes things difficult.”

“That’s why you’re the Princess,” Boreas knowingly intoned.

“More to the point, is there a way I can make my speech to notify the entire Kingdom?” I said pointedly.

Boreas put a hoof to her chin as she mulled the question over. “Usually that kind of thing would require gathering the entire kingdom in one place and using a voice amplification spell. I’m not sure how everyone would react if you cast your voice over the entire city without any forewarning; ponies might think they’re being invaded.”

“An extreme reaction, but I can understand what you’re saying. Do you remember how your father would go about that?”

Her expression lit up. “Actually, I do! Take the staff and bang it on the topmost step on your right hand side.”

I cocked my head. “That seems an oddly specific thing to say,” I said as I proceeded to do exactly that.

After about ten seconds, a mare poked her head in through the doors and shyly made her way up to me. Her coat colour reminded me of a yellow rose, and her short, almost tomboy-ish chocolate-brown mane and short-cut tail made me appreciate her figure. And then it hit me: The absence of a long tail meant everyone was free to gaze upon her shapely flanks adorned with a cutie mark of a rolled scroll tied with a red ribbon, and her short mane meant she couldn’t hide behind it even if she wanted to. I suddenly felt sorry for the poor thing; she was eye candy for Belcusas.

“Y-you called, Your Majesty?” she squeaked out.

“Hello there,” I smiled, trying to sound as friendly as possible. “What’s your name?”

“My n-name is Asherah,” she replied just as timidly as before. “I am, er, was responsible for the scroll keeping of any records Belcusas ordered.” She tilted her cutie mark towards me. “Record keeping is my special talent.”

I put a hoof to my chin in thought for a moment. “I would like to make a public address to the entire city. Is that something you’re able to organize?”

“It is, Your Highness,” Asherah said with a short bow. “Not to disappoint, but it will take at least an hour or so to get everypony and everything ready.”

Considering that the short speech I had planned was going to make or break the future of the City, I could appreciate it taking that long to organize. “That won’t be a problem,” I said approvingly. I got up off the throne and began walking over to the timid mare, and sat down a few paces away from her so it didn’t feel like I was imposing on her personal space.

“Look, please understand that you don’t need to be frightened of me. I’m not the same kind of person that Belcusas was, and Boreas here can attest to that.” Boreas took a step forward when I glanced over to her.

“Asherah, even though my father branded me a traitor after my transgression, Princess Luna treated me as a friend and equal. I promise you, on my word for what it is worth, that Luna has everypony’s best interests at heart.” Boreas offered an upturned hoof, and Asherah looked hesitant for a moment before she placed hers upon Boreas’, letting a deep breath escape.

Convincing one pony to accept that I meant to do good was the first step in trying to convince everyone else, and that part of my plan seemed to go off without a hitch.

“When somepony abandons the Kingdom and its people, we can’t help but look down on them. I don’t hold any ill will against Boreas for leaving under duress; I respect that she did what she had to do. I would have done the same thing if Belcusas wasn’t keeping tabs on my family.” Asherah looked up to Boreas with a trusting smile. “Thank you, the both of you.”

Neither Boreas nor I got a chance to say anything before Asherah took off and sped out the door. As peculiar as that was, I just assumed she’d said what she needed to say.

“Would you mind if I went to see if there’s any of my old things still around?” Boreas asked after a moment.

“Go ahead. I’ll stay here and give the relics a new home in the castle’s vault, then wait for Asherah to return. You know where to find me if anything comes up.”

Boreas just gave me a nod as she trotted out the door.

After Boreas left, I recalled back to when she mentioned that the door was enchanted to only allow others of the royal bloodline through. I assumed that meant anyone related to Belcusas,. Given how he made his position with mares clear, I had no way of knowing how many pegasi that extended to. I ran my magic all over the confines of the throne room, and expectedly found a number of Solid Seals. They were well within my ability to rewrite, but instead of doing exactly that, I erased them all entirely and put in place ones that I trusted after I made a note of the spells. Then, I left the doors ajar so anyone that needed to find me, could.

Once that was out of the way, I turned my attention to the cases. Instead of teleporting out the items themselves, I also teleported the cases with the relics to the entrance of the vault one by one. Even though Boreas told me what the sword, shield, and helmet–or lack thereof–did, I had no way to ascertain what they were capable of until I could properly and safely study them. I had to hurry to open the vault door, put the cases inside, then get back to the Kingdom before someone found me gone.

Teleporting heavily enchanted items in bulky cases over large distances put a strain on my magic, moreso since the flight to the City, so I was content to kick back in the cushy cloud throne and snack on the food and drink I brought, and enjoy the view of the city from the balcony window behind me.

It was a short while after I polished off my canteen of water that I realised I had no idea where the facilities where, so I used the staff in the same manner as Boreas described earlier to send for someone.

I was somewhat surprised when Asherah turned up five minutes later. “Oh, I thought you were doing the thing I asked you to do earlier?”

“Oh, uhm, sorry, Your Majesty, but you did send for me?”

“Huh, so that one enchantment is just for you?” Apparently they rang like bells for certain individuals.

Asherah nodded. “The next one down is for the head chef in the kitchen, the third one to open and close the doors remotely, and the last one summons extra guards as needed.”

I thought it smart to create a method of calling someone so you weren’t sending a messenger, and with a grin that mirrored my inner eight year old, I began poking the third step with the staff. Open, shut, open, shut went the doors as Ashera looked at me as if I was the most immature person she’d met. Sometimes doing stupid things makes me happy for reasons I can’t explain.

“Queen Luna? Your Majesty? What did you want me for?” Asherah said after a while.

“Wha-?” I almost forgot about what I called her for. “Oh! Yes, would you mind taking me to Belcusas personal chambers? There is a matter that requires attention.”

“Of course, Your Highness. Please, follow me.” She politely bowed to usher me out the door, and I closed and locked it behind her. It was a good opportunity to test my enchantments on clouds to see how well they held up while I was gone.

The good thing about the cloud palace that differed from the castle, was that Asherah and I were able to fly from various spires and towers, a few of which held the War Room, Belcusas’ house, the armoury, and various others. Ashera lead me to a large tower next to the throne room some fifty metres away that was Belcusas’ house. There was a smaller balcony and railing that jutted out from the face of the tower, which mirrored the one outside the throne room we touched down. Asherah gestured to the double doors that were tall enough for me to comfortably pass through without risk of catching my horn.

“As requested, Your Highness.”

I had no idea what Boreas said about the throne room door also rang true for those doors, and I wound up smacking into another door for the second time that day.

“Princess Luna! Are you OK?!” Asherah rushed over to tend to me, but I held up a hoof to stop her while I rubbed my face with the other. Again.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Cloud houses will take some getting used to…”

“Do you need me to accompany you inside?”

Why Asherah would need to I had no idea, but then again, it was Belcusas’ house, and that came with all sorts of unwanted mental imagery. “No thank you, I’ll just be in and out.”

I had to use the staff to bypass the spells Belcusas had on the door, and I jokingly wondered how he would react if I completely destroyed his house to get on his nerves, but I didn’t want to once I saw what his place looked like.

It was like I walked into a penthouse suite at a five star hotel; the entire layout was as expansive as it looked expensive. The floor was made from tiled marble and gilded with white gold along the seams, and the rest of the furniture followed suit with copper, bronze, silver, and yellow gold inlays of the various poised statues and pristine pieces of furniture. I was dumbfounded at how opulent the place looked, not to mention rather disgusted at how greedy and obscenely rich Belcusas must’ve been to furnish his whole house like that, but the fact he was in a cell previously occupied by a drunk vagrant was beyond hilarious.

The entranceway was a passage of actual polished marble columns that was easily twice as tall as I was, and there was a different suit of armour sitting in between each column. The fourth mannequin, or... ponnequin I guess you could call it, that sat at the end was bare, where I realised I still had Belcusas’ brigantine at the castle.

An uncomfortable pressure reminded me of why I was here, but I was at a loss of where the restroom was. Forgoing gawking at the decor for the time being, I went straight for the first door I saw, one of about four and threw it open to find Belcusas’ bed right in front of me, but that wasn’t the only thing that caught my eye...

“Who the hell are you?!” I exclaimed at the sight of three yellow stars on the flank of a rather indecent mare.

The baby-blue pegasus that looked like a bucket of white paint had been spilled on her shot from between the tangle of bedsheets and pillows strewn about the place, staring at me with eyes as big as dinner plates like I was intruding on her privacy. Not entirely wrong, but that was besides the point.

“My name is Wish, and what in the name of the Gods are you doing in my bedroom?!” she demanded.

“Your bedroom!? This is my house now!”

“Just you wait until my husband finds out about this, he’ll–”

“Belcusas is your husband?!”

The mare blinked as if that was the most stupidest thing she’d ever heard. “He’s the King, I’m the Queen consort!”

Pausing with an unseen realisation, she began looking around and under the sheets, behind pillows, then fixed me with an accusatory gaze. “Where is Belcusas anyway? He’s been gone about four days now.” Her eyes narrowed at me. “Have you been sleeping with him?”

“What?! Me? Being dicked by that dumbass?! Hell no, I’ve got standards!”

“Watch your mouth!”

“Hah! I could say the same thing about you!”

“GUARDS!” the mare screamed at the top of her voice, and I then heard hoofsteps thundering like drum beats from behind me.

When I looked back, there were at least six guards standing in a semi circle around me. I had no idea where they came from in such a hurry.

“Escort this intruder from my sights and into the dungeon!” Wish bellowed.

The guards looked about each other sheepishly, torn between following the orders of their former queen, and their current one.

“We apologise, Your Excellency, but Queen Luna here has assumed control of the City after Belcusas lost the Challenge of Kingdoms,” one of the stallions said. “By all intents and purposes, we serve her now.”

I looked back to Wish, pondering my next move. “I do believe we can come to an agreement, here.”

It wound up taking me a lot longer to get to the bathroom than I wanted. By the time I was done and sorted out the situation with Wish, Boreas was waiting for me back in the throne room, and her bags were looking emptier than I thought they would be.

“Did... you find what you were looking for?” I tentatively asked.

Saddened, Boreas shook her head, wiping a hoof over an eye. “My room wasn’t where it used to be, and neither were my things. I don’t… At the least I hoped to get a painting of my mother she made for me when I was five, but I don’t know what my father did with it.”

I knew what it was like to have something that meant a lot ripped from you. My heart went out to Boreas. “What did she look like? There’s bound to be a version of it around here somewhere, or at least another one.”

She shook her head again. “No, it was just the one.” Swallowing thickly, Boreas struggled to continue. “I… I…”

It was impeccable timing that Asherah poked her head around the corner, and I beckoned her in with a wave of a hoof.

“Your Majesty, everypony is assembled. If you’d step outside behind you, the Kingdom is waiting for your address.”

“Ah, thank you, Asherah. On a different note, do you know if Belcusas had any sort of storage rooms around the place?” I asked, looking to Boreas. She struggled to keep her composure at the prospect of losing her mother’s painting.

Asherah nodded. “I have logs of what he keeps in the storage chambers. Was there something you need, My Queen?”

“Belcusas has misplaced a portrait of Boreas’ mother that used to be in her room. Could you help her find it?”

“Of course, Princess.” Asherah smiled warmly at Boreas. “I can help you find it at the very least.”

“Thank you, Asherah.” Boreas smiled weakly, and the two left the throne room to locate the painting.

I was never one for public speaking. Quite frankly, I would have rathered being in a box with spiders crawling over me than staring out at an entire kingdom delivering a speech that could change their lives. Anxiety really is a bitch.

Holding the staff, I stepped out onto the expansive dais that overlooked the kingdom, and was greeted by thousands of pairs of eyes all looking up at me. It’s now or never, I told myself as I steeled my posture like a ruler should as they address their subjects. I fed the voice amplification spell through the staff like a microphone.

“Some of you may have heard rumours circulating around the last few days. I can tell you beyond the shadow of a doubt that yes, I bested your King in combat. In accordance with the stipulations laid out, I am your Queen now, and I stand before you today to say that there will be changes.

“I was informed that Belcusas allowed mares to be bought and sold like property or treated as slaves, so henceforth, no more shall mares be treated in such a manner, as such actions are illegal in the eyes of the laws of Equestria by which this kingdom will be governed.”

I took a breath to continue, but someone erupted in a bout of anger, one of the more fancy dressed pegasi towards the front as opposed to the lower class citizens at the back.

“She’s trying to take our mares away!”

“I paid good money for my harem!” another roared, much to my shock and disbelief.

They were actually trying to justify slavery of all things! I needed to defuse the situation as fast as possible.

“At no point am I making any effort to dissolve relationships any of you might have with one another,” I said, scowling down at the agitated noble pegasi. “The point that I am illustrating is that you relied on Belcusas’ influence to retain proprietary ownership. It is by my decree that everypony is given equal rights to decide whether or not they chose to remain by your side or not.”

“You have no right to lead us if you do not share our beliefs and values!” another shouted with an accusatory point of a hoof.

“And if your values and beliefs hinge on disrespecting other creatures then you do not deserve to remain in my kingdom!” I countered.

A hushed murmur fell over the crowd, and the noble pegasi weren’t looking too happy, but what did that matter.

Seizing the opportunity before anyone else opened their mouth, I continued. “If anypony has any objections to this, or wishes to challenge my right to rule this kingdom, I will be holding an open court for anypony that wants to address any concerns, so I encourage you to come forward before I return to the Castle of the Two sisters at the end of today. Thank you for taking time out of your day to come and hear this address, and once again, I hope I can do right by everypony here.”

I dimmed the spell being funneled through the staff, then turned back inside to the throne room, exhaling a stress-laden breath. “That could have gone better,” I muttered to nobody in particular, rubbing my brow in frustration.

Literally a minute later after I sat down on the throne to prepare myself for what was about to come, a line had formed outside of the throne room, all the way down the hall, even up the staircase winding its way up the inside of the tower. I honestly had no idea where it ended.

The first four ponies wore expensive looking shoulder capes tied with gold silk tassels, rimmed with wool, and decorated with the Kingdom’s crest on the back. Their outfits looked like formal, mediaeval military attire, and each of them had a what looked like a rapier or some sort of fencing sword strapped to their side, and a dagger strapped to their left foreleg.

“Greetings, Your Highness,” the oldest stallion said, the corner of his nose curling in distaste as he adjusted his monocle. “I am Duke Thermal, and I represent the nobility of this Kingdom,” he added, gesturing to the three others behind him one at a time. “This is Lord Cumulus, Lord Fleetfeather, and Lord Nimbus.” Thermal himself had one too many chins, and a bandaged left wing. He probably sprained it flying his fat ass to the fridge. “I have come to protest your decision to take away the mares in our care.”

“Oh, you are mistaken,” I clarified. “My goal is to allow them the freedom of choice to as to whether or not they want to remain in your ‘care’.”

Thermal grinned darkly, looking behind him to his fellow nobles and representatives, all of whom shared the same creepy smile. “That would be an unwise decision, Princess, as these mares rely on our care, and they... return our kindness.”

“Are you familiar with Asherah?” I asked, getting a curt nod in return. “She mentioned that Belcusas kept tabs on her family. Would it be reasonable to assume he did so to keep her actions in check, and that you’re doing the same to the mares in your ‘care’?”

Thermal flinched. “I… I am merely suggesting that it would be better for everypony if the status quo went unchanged,” he said with gradually decreasing composure.

All I had to do was talk him down until he crumbled exactly how I wanted.

Scowling, I leaned closer. “If you have been fair and reasonable as to how you’ve been treating ‘your’ mares, then you have nothing to worry about. If they choose to leave, then they have every right to. If they chose to stay, that is up to them. If I find that you’ve been influencing their decision, then you will have me to answer to. Am I clear?”

Thermal’s expression narrowed on me, but I remained impassive.

“Crystal,” he eventually spat.

He turned to leave, but I wasn’t quite done.

“Thermal,” I called to him before he could depart. He stopped, didn’t turn around, but his ears did flick back. “Could you have all of your mares sent up in due time? I would like to talk to them.”

“Of course, Princess.” Thermal didn’t seem adjusted to my new title, but that didn’t matter; I had him exactly where I wanted him. One slip up, and I’d have the excuse I wanted to put him in the dungeon while the mares of his ill-gotten harem made their own decisions.

Thermal and his buddies left, muttering something amongst themselves, but I wasn’t interested as much as I should’ve been. Given how big the line to the throne was, I had my work cut out for me with what I needed to do.

A lot of the other ponies were mares who thanked me from freeing them from the oppression of Belcusas, who declared that a mare’s place was at the hooves of a stallion in doing whatever they asked, and encouraged stallions to take advantage of his declaration. To that end, I offered the hospitality of Celestia and myself at the Castle of the Two sisters if any mare felt the need arise. The stallions were a different story. Though some were disappointed that they couldn’t order somepony around, others were relieved that they were no longer obligated to uphold archaic laws that had no place in the modern world.

Boreas arrived back in due time, looking a lot happier than I thought she would be. I could see that her bags held a few things, most notably the frame of a small painting pressing against the inside of her bag. Seeing that I was rather busy addressing the concerns of the kingdom, she left to do her own thing after I told her what time I’d be done, but things were about to take a turn for the worse.

An hour before I was due back at the castle, I was becoming antsy in my seat as I waited for time to tick down. The throne was more than comfortable, so I didn’t exactly mind all that much. That was when I heard screaming from what sounded like half a dozen ponies rattle my ears from somewhere in the distance, catching everyone in the throne room off guard.

The guards themselves were looking around for the source, wondering what the hell happened, while the civilians began panicking at what the screaming could mean for them.

“Everypony, remain calm!” I ordered over the din of the gradually increasing panic. “Return to your homes, and I will see to this matter!” At least I had the excuse to close up shop early, but that wasn’t my immediate concern.

Mere seconds after I heard the first scream, three mares wearing what looked like sarees burst into the throne room. Panic was writ across their faces, and one garment on a bubblegum-pink mare had a hole in it, the edges of which looked too smooth to have been ripped, and a nasty looking flesh wound on a foreleg.

“M-m-my Queen!” a lime green mare stuttered, bowing deeply. “T-Thermal has one of o-our heard mates hostage!”

“What?!” I didn’t expect hostages to be taken on my first day as Queen. “Take me to her immediately! The rest of you can wait here with the guards.”

Not one to argue, two scared mares stayed put as their companion lead me to Thermal’s manor of a cloud house, and through a hole in a wall I assumed they made on their way out.

On a bed that could’ve easily fit half a dozen ponies mares, including Thermal with room to spare, and that was saying something given the stallion’s size, he had a hoof wrapped around the neck of a pinkish-white mare, his other holding a knife against her neck as her rear hooves kicked out, but they only collided with his kankled legs.

“Thermal!” I said sternly, earning the stallion’s attention. “Let her go now!”

“Why should I do that?” he snarled. “All I’ve ever known is being torn out from under me! There’s nothing left for me now, so I’m going to take away from you what you took away from me!”

“You’re just destroying lives out of spite, Thermal! If you do this, you’re just going to spend the rest of your life in the dungeon for taking somepony else’s!”

“So what?! I’m going to go down standing up for what I believe in!”

“And you want to die a martyr?” I asked, toning down the aggression in my voice. “There’s so much more to the world than what you have in your world. Let her go right now, and I’ll let you walk out of here in one piece. Nopony has to die here, Thermal.”

“I only have one wing, you cow! Do you think I can fly anywhere I want? My whole life has been this kingdom, and I’m not going to let you take it away from me!”

Thermal’s grip on his knife tightened, and his captive screamed bloody murder. As that happened, a blur shot through the hole in the wall and into Thermal, the momentum carrying him through to the next room. He dropped the knife on the bed in the process, and the mare scarpered away and into the embrace of the herd mate who lead me here.

Wondering what the hell exactly happened to Thermal, I poked my head through the hole in the cloud wall to see Boreas standing over him, just as relieved as I was.

“Just in the nick of time,” I said with a sigh of relief.

“I heard the screaming, and one of Thermal’s herd mares told me what happened when I got to the throne room,” Boreas replied. She looked down at the stallion, and poke him with a hoof. “So, what do you want to do with this fatass?” Thermal was unconscious and breathing, but would likely wake up with a wicked headache and a hoof-shaped bruise on his head.

“Stay here and keep an eye on him while I go fetch a couple guards to put him in a holding cell. We’ll take him back to the Castle so I can discuss with Celestia what to do,” I said. “When the guards arrive, come back to the throne room.”

As much as I wanted to call it a day early and get back to the castle before dinner, I had the immediate matter of Thermal’s herd mares to deal with. After I sent a couple guards to meet with Boreas so she could fill them in, I was able to sit down with the mares.

As it turns out, Thermal was trying to coach Maybell, Althena, Aisha, and Pyrrha into telling me they wanted to stay with him when one of them decided they want out, and that’s when things got ugly. I gave the four mares the option of whether to stay in the City, or come to the Castle of the Two sisters with me when I returned.

As it turned out, Althena and Aisha were sisters, the former older than the latter by four years, both of whom had been sold to Belcusas by their father, whom promptly jumped ship, then gave them to Thermal as gifts. They didn’t have anything left in the City, so they were eager to visit Equestria and do some soul searching.

Maybell and Pyrrha had been plucked from the outer district where the peasants largely resided. They didn’t have a home to go back to, so I was more than happy to take them back to the Castle and give them a home and a job.

After the incident with those four, I wondered if Thermal’s buddies would do the same to their mares at all, so when they all arrived from my earlier summons, I explained my position directly to them as the three Lords watched on. They didn’t have to make an immediate decision, I was just giving them more opportunity if they desired it.

To find out if they were denied their right to freedom of choice, I had Boreas remain behind for two days before she was due back to the Castle for work, to monitor the situation and come back with a report.

As the day drew to a close, I had missed dinner at the Castle, but managed to squeeze in the time to invite Asherah and the other mares outside to show them how I lowered. It was a sight they’d never forget.

I left Boreas in charge until I returned on Tuesday evening, and took the staff back with me. I put my own spells and Solid Seals in places that I thought needed them, so only Boreas, Asherah, and myself could come and go to certain areas. Even then, I knew who would come and go.

I wouldn’t say that the day turned out great considering the Thermal incident, but despite that, I went there to accomplish a goal I set for myself, and achieved it. As far as I was concerned, any day is a good day so long as people or ponies didn’t resort to martyrdom. And next week, I planned to return to the City on Saturday to get an update from Asherah, as well as make good on asking the citizens what else they wanted to see changed.

For once, I felt good for what was to come.

18| The Monster Below

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Monday was a more than welcome fresh start to a new week.

When I told Celestia what happened with Thermal in the City the previous day, her reaction was like she sat on something she wasn’t supposed to, and demanded life imprisonment for the stallion on four counts of attempted equicide. To say that she was angry was the grossest understatement of the century. I managed to stop Celestia’s guards dragging Thermal off by telling Celestia that I hadn’t integrated the City with Equestria, which meant the incident was within my jurisdiction and not Celestia’s.

When it came to dealing with Thermal, he told me that his bung wing was caused by muscle atrophy from an injury which never properly healed, and given how much he began to eat since he was unable to fly, I thought it redundant to exile him from the City since he couldn’t get back.

My initial sentence for Thermal was ten years in a cell with two hours a day allowed for supervised exercise (something he really needed), and if his behaviour was good enough, I was willing to let him out early and assign him community service until his ten years were served. Celestia wasn’t exactly happy, but then again, my decision, not hers.

Boreas returned as expected on Tuesday evening, but what I didn’t anticipate, but rather should’ve, was the fifty or so mares and stallions that turned up with her.

They all decided to make good on my offer to come to the Castle of the Two Sisters, and were largely mares who saw an opportunity to escape the City of Clouds after Belcusas’ downfall. A dozen stallions and their wives, all of whom did not share the same sentiment that most of the City’s Nobles and other stallions who took full advantage of Belcusas’ legislation. They all wanted to make a life of their own that didn’t revolve around a King that ruled using intimidation and fear. Some of them stayed overnight and paid for supplies before venturing out on their own, whereas others wanted to stick around and gain a sense of stability before deciding what to do.

Those that had the relevant job history were employed at the Castle on a trial basis, which was a boon since we needed the extra staff to help cope with the new arrivals. There were plenty of rooms to go around, married couples got a room of their own, whereas those who wanted to could share.

Expectedly, there were a few problems with all the new pegasi who had no idea how ground ponies worked. What I noticed quite quickly was that there were either pegasi who performed exceedingly well in their assigned jobs because it was something they were effectively forced into doing by Belcusas, the nobles, or husbands, then there were others who had never worked a day in their life and struggled to learn how to toast bread. There really wasn’t any inbetween.

Wednesday and Thursday saw the arrival of roughly ninety more mares, much to the chagrin of Celestia and myself. I underestimated how many would take me up on my offer by a wide margin.

Most of those mares were either escaping their arranged marriages and wanted to disappear from the City, and others were giving their spouses an ultimatum if they had the capacity to treat them with respect and dignity. If not, it was bye-bye.

Between organising the City, my duties at the Castle, studying the relics I brought back with me, and keeping tabs on all the new arrivals, I was quickly becoming overburdened with the amount of work I had inadvertently signed up for. Not only that, but the amount of ponies actually began to put a strain on the Castle’s supplies. As a result, we had to keep transporting food and water to replenish the rapidly depleting resources from nearby farms on short notice and pay a premium, which also meant money was being siphoned faster than it was being made.

We only had about a hundred and fifty spare rooms, excluding the suites reserved for foreign dignitaries when they visited, and they were being quickly snatched up. The maids and butlers responsible for the cleaning were being pushed to the limit; the chefs had to provide meals for an excess of four-hundred ponies, breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and there wasn’t enough entertainment to go around to keep everyone occupied.

I could understand the position the mares were being put in, but it was getting beyond the point of ridiculous. From the start of Monday until the Friday afternoon, we had burned through a months worth of supplies in two weeks, and we only had another two left. Not only that, but the staff physically could not keep up with the amount of work going on, and Celestia had begun to notice things going wrong. She had trusted that I could handle it, so I didn’t fully keep her in the loop about the entirety of what was going on. Celestia knocking on my door that Friday afternoon was the last straw for her.

“Come in,” I answered. Celestia let herself in, wearing a worn and stressed-out expression.

“Luna, we need to talk about the situation at hand,” Celestia said. “We can’t keep this up. We officially have no more rooms left, and barely two weeks worth of supplies to keep everypony sustained. As much as I hate to say it, you either need to send them home, or on their way.”

It was unfortunate that I found myself in that position. If I’d just sent them on their way, it’d look like I didn’t care enough to help. If I let them stay, the Castle would run out of supplies sooner or later, which would be unfair on everyone who lived and worked there. I chewed the inside of my cheek for a moment, and an idea came to mind. “If it’s a money issue, we still do have the means to reproduce Lumen’s gold processing plant and use it in a mining operation, as I’ve said before. Now would be a good time to put it to use.” I could almost see the gears turning in Celestia’s head. I just had to play my hand right.

“I’m not saying that’s a bad idea,” she sighed, “but we’re burning through supplies faster than we have the means to afford them. If we dip into the Castle’s funds, we’ll have a week or two of money left at best, though a bit more if we use our personal allowances.”

I had no idea I’d put us in that difficult of a position. “As much as I hate to admit it, yeah, you’re right. I’ll give the newcomers until Monday to get their affairs together. Does three days sound fair?”

“That’s not to say we can’t keep the pegasi that have been performing well in their new positions. I think it was Pyrrah, whose candle making skills have been quite useful. She’s made a number of new samples and scents that are to die for!” Celestia’s gleeful expression betrayed her seriousness, and it was as cute as it was funny.

“You can put Pyrrah on your payroll, if you’d like,” I smirked, “as well as anypony else that’s been performing well. The best I can do is refer the remaining pegasi to other towns and villages that best suit their endeavours.”

“Agreed,” Celestia said, pleased. “I’m glad we sorted that out. As for your plan regarding the gold, I think it’s time we took advantage of the situation.”

“I’ve been trying to get you to see it like that for weeks,” I said with a mockingly exasperated roll of my eyes. I pulled out all the copied notes (so the originals weren’t the only ones available) I’d accrued on Lumen, Wintergreen, Lamplight, and Compass, detailing their diagrams and blueprints for the machine, as well as the plot of land they were planning to operate on.

“This is everything I have on what they were up to. You can pay the metalsmiths at Aes for the components, like Lumen did, but have them brought to the Castle, I’ll take Atlas and a couple guards to go survey the canyon Lumen was going to set up shop. That cool with you?”

Celestia quirked an eyebrow. “‘Cool’... with me?” Seemed she wasn’t on terms with Earth lingo, but I couldn’t really blame her.

“Yes,” I replied tersely, but with a hint of mirth.

She chuckled to herself and grinned. “Yes, that is ‘cool’ with me.”

Celestia levitated the scrolls and parchment from me to look them over, and took the ones she needed before putting the rest back from where she saw me retrieve them. “Hopefully we can use the money we’d otherwise use to accommodate the pegasi, to operate the mine.”

“I’ll see you at dinner?” I said by way of goodbye.

“I hear the chefs are preparing your favourite, Luna,” Celestia knowingly intoned as she left.

I had no idea that Luna had a favourite meal, but I’ll be damned if I wasn’t looking forward to it.

On Saturday, I got up early instead of sleeping in so I could prepare myself for a long day of flying and surveying instead. With me I had Atlas, Veloce, Ares, and Boreas. Boreas insisted on coming along even though she wasn’t working, claiming that she wanted to go shopping in Mercy.

I also brought along my scanner matrix and respective jewel, plus a few extras that I planned to use to scan the area in the same way I used it to fully map the Castle. It was like I had my own version of the Marauders Map from Harry Potter. It would be immensely useful in mapping where all the gold deposits where so we could minimise the effort required in looking for them in the future.

We had a twenty minute layover in Mercy to recuperate after the two hour flight to hydrate and snack before Boreas went to do her own thing, at which point the rest of us flew another hour and a half to the crevasse on the other side of the south-east mountain range. Because Midnight was still recovering, all I could do with the disguise he gave me was get Celestia to rewrite the matrix so I was a pegasus instead of a unicorn. I still had a white coat and rainbow mane, though.

The giant crevasse had split the mangrove swamp which we landed in, in two, and stretched beyond the horizon to the north. The cliffs on both sides descended into nothing but an ominous black abyss. When I looked across the way, I couldn’t help but imagine how big of a bridge would need to be built to reach the other side, especially how wide it got the further up you went. I was surprised that Mercy wasn’t completely levelled during the immense seismic activity that would’ve created the chasm.

Waterfalls had been created when the ground split, deep enough that the water disappeared into a mist while the trees and their gnarly root systems hung over the cliffs for a few hundred feet, all entangled with one another. Not only that, but they’d actually taken root on the cliff face as well. Oddly beautiful as it was scary to look into.

“How was Lumen supposed to mine in the swamps?” Ares asked, peering over the cliff and into the void below. “This place is completely waterlogged.”

“Not all of it is,” Atlas said. “We’re at the southern end of the crevasse. There’s a basin further up which has been drained of water, causing some of the trees do die out. It would be the perfect place to set up a mine.”

“Then what are we doing this far south? Aren’t we supposed to be looking for gold deposits in that area?” Ares continued.

“You are absolutely correct,” I said in response to Ares’ oh so studious observation. “Our goal is to find out how much gold is in the area. We start south and move north until we get to that basin at noon. Then we start there and continue north, noting what we find.” I levitated him a stick with a piece of charcoal glued to the end of it–an improvised pencil–and a blank scroll. “Which will be your task for today.”

Keeping a straight face despite my sarcasm, Ares tucked both items in his bags for the moment.

The idea was to render as much of the crevasse as possible, then mark where on the 3D model of the area the gold deposits were. It was also a chance to test how much land mass, tunnels and such the matrix could render.

“What would you have me do, Princess?” Veloce asked.

Along with the parchment which I gave to Veloce and Atlas with another makeshift pencil, I picked out three jewels from my bag. I fed them magic the same way I used to map the castle along with some additional spells, then tossed them into the crevasse. Thankfully I brought spares in case one got broken, or we needed the extra jewels for such a giant crack.

“You and Atlas will fly ahead to meet Ares and I at the basin Atlas mentioned. When you get there, wait for us and use the time to make note of anything unusual that appears on the parchment, or worth mentioning when we arrive.”

“Will do, Princess,” Atlas said as he and Veloce flew off.

I dove into the chasm and asked Ares to at least try and find the bottom of the chasm. I needed to find out how deep it went and what else could be down there. Gold deposits - called lodes or veins - can be formed when heated liquid picks up gold-bearing rock and deposits it in new locations. I had no idea now long ago the volcano became extinct, but considering that the swamps had formed at the base of the outer caldera, I theorised that the waters which created the swamp had come from the volcano, making the area around the chasm an ideal location to mine for gold. Even dredging the swamp could’ve proven to be worthwhile.

The jewels I tossed earlier were magically tethered to float and follow after me. As long as I kept flying, they’d do their job.

I flew roughly a hundred metres or so below the surface, or where the mangroves and tree roots hadn’t quite managed to penetrate. I took my time too, so I didn’t accidentally pass anything I shouldn’t have. I kept an eye out for the basin Atlas mentioned by paying attention to landmarks above ground to see how far along I was and how much further I had to go before ducking back below ground.

About an hour of steady flying, I spied something that seemed out of place. The cliff face was mostly granite and basalt, but there was what looked like a pane of dirtied and crystallised frosted glass which stuck out like a sore thumb.

I ripped a heavy branch from a nearby tree, and tossed it through the rock. It shattered like glass, a curtain of roots and shrubbery slumping over the created hole as I heard the branch clatter down the hole endlessly.

Beyond was a tunnel leading deep underground. As much as I wanted to go explore, nobody knew where I was, nor was anyone around to accompany me, and I hadn’t seen much point to learn any light spells so I could investigate. All I could do was cover up the hole by pulling even more roots and shrubs to hide the entrance, mark it on my map, and continue on, but not before tossing a jewel inside. Hopefully that would shed some light on what was down there. Metaphorically speaking, of course.

The opposite side of the cliff was a similar story, but it had appeared that the mineral sheet had torn away and reformed thanks to mineral deposits from rain and the swamp running over the cliff face. I ripped another branch, and began using it as a club to break and chip away at the brittle substance. Pieces fell into the crevasse, enough so that my eyes widened in shock and disbelief when I saw what was embedded the behind the rock.

I used magic to rip my unexpected find loose to put it and a few smaller samples into my bag. Mapping the crevasse could wait, I had to hurry and meet the others.

Twenty minutes later, I had spied the basin with Veloce and Atlas sitting on a log and looking at the map of the crevasse as it rendered in real-time while Atlas was scribbling away on some parchment. My shadow must’ve alerted them, because Veloce looked up and gestured with a hoof at me, causing Atlas to look up too.

“Hello, Princess,” Atlas pleasantly greeted when I landed, but his smile was quickly erased from his face when he saw my serious expression. If only he knew what it was about. “I uh… How goes your search?”

I avoided the question. “Has Ares returned yet?”

“I haven’t seen him since we left you two a couple hours ago,” Veloce said. “Is everything alright? Did something happen to him?”

I decided to play along. “I don’t know. I haven’t heard from or seen him. I had him try and locate the bottom of the chasm if at all possible.”

“Should we inform Celestia and organise a search party?” Atlas offered. “If he’s been trapped, then you would need the extra help.”

“No,” I said with a shake of my head. “He’s stronger than you realise. If he doesn’t turn up in thirty minutes, then I’ll go get a few other guards and we’ll begin looking for him.”

Fortunately I didn’t need to drag the ruse on for longer than needed, because Ares turned up another ten minutes later, completely soaking wet.

Veloce, Atlas, and I were giving him peculiar looks. “How did you get so wet? What took you so long?” Veloce probed.

Ares shook himself of as much water as he could like a dog would, depositing the ruined parchment, makeshift pencil, and drenched saddlebags on the ground. “Princess Luna tasked me with locating the bottom of the chasm,” he stated bemusedly. “Unfortunately, I did. Several years worth of rain and water funneling into the crevasse has turned the bottom into an underground river. I had to dry my wings before I could regroup with the rest of you.”

“Luna said that something happened to you,” Veloce said, which earned me a less than pleased glare from the jet-black stallion.

“No I didn’t,” I said defensively. “I arrived before he did and said I hadn’t seen him.”

Ares shot me a glare. “In any case, I found a tunnel with something a little ways into it.” He upturned his bags, letting his water bottle, ruined lunch, and a three silver somethings the size of my hoof fell out.

Curious, I picked them up and turned them over in my magic. “What are these?” Curved like the bowl of a spoon and easily fitting inside the shoe of my hoof, they were a metallic silver in colour, curved at one end, and pointed at the other.

“If I may, Princess?” Ares said. I levitated two back to him and continued to inspect the third. “The tunnel inside which I found these is bigger than the throne room doors, completely smooth, round, and carved out of granite of all things, except there were no tool marks that I was familiar with.” He tapped one of the silvery things against one of his curved horns, where it made a distinct metallic clink.

“They’re steel,” he added.

“What the…” I tapped it against my horn to corroborate Ares’ story. He was indeed correct, but there was one thing that bothered me about them. “Steel is an alloy, isn’t it?”

“Yes… Yes it is,” Atlas said, intrigued. He got up off his stoop and came over to closely inspect the pieces of steel closer. “Which means it shouldn’t occur naturally.”

It was all kinds of confusing. We had something that shouldn’t occur in nature, yet its presence proved otherwise.

“Princess?” Veloce said. “I think I have a theory, but I don’t want to speculate until we get back to the castle.”

“That’s alright. In the meantime, I have something to show you all, too.” I reached into my bags and pulled out the rock I found, tossing it at Ares’ feet.

“Where in the name of all things holy did you find that?!” the stallion balked.

“That ruby is the size of my hoof!” Veloce exclaimed.

“By the gods above!” Atlas looked like he was going to have a heart attack.

“We don’t have anything that size in the castle’s main vault. It’s big enough that we could afford supplies for everypony at the castle for another week at the absolute least.” Which was exactly what I intended on doing with it: Give it to Celestia to tide us over so we had more time to find a permanent solution to our problem.

“Where did it even come from?” Atlas said, still bug-eyed at the sight of the ruby.

“I found it on the cliff face, opposite a hole that had been covered by some kind of a brittle rock,” I replied. “I tossed a jewel down there too.”

Atlas picked up the map and looked it over, enlarging the area I indicated I found it at. Portions of the chasm hadn’t been fully mapped since I had underestimated how many jewels I needed, which I wanted to rectify later. “Doesn’t look like anything out of the ordinary. Possibly just an underground cave system that was an old lava tube.”

“That has rubies inside it?” Veloce said pointedly.

The cave that I found differed from the one Ares found in that mine was a natural formation as opposed to something that looked like it was drilled out. In hindsight, I probably should’ve given Ares a jewel too. If his cave was artificial, I wanted to find out where it would lead to.

“Would you mind if I took the map back to the castle with me to study?” Atlas asked.

“Sure, just don’t lose it. Right now it’s the only one we have,” I said. “Why don’t you and Veloce meet us in Mercy while Ares and I continue up north? When we catch up, I’ll teleport us back to the castle.”

I didn’t expect it’d take longer than three or four hours for me and Ares to finish flying to the northern end of the crevasse, but I did underestimate how much of a literal and metaphorical rabbit hole it was. When we were done with that, I used all the jewels I brought with me in an attempt to autonomously chart the canyon like I did with the castle so they could fill in all the gaps where the initial scan failed. If there were any more holes that I had somehow missed, there was enough means for the jewels to chart them for me, provided the holes weren’t covered.

When Boreas met up with the four of us, her bags were overstuffed with goods, half of which I couldn’t recognise. “How did your little research party go?” she asked

“I found a gigantic ruby,” I said with a smirk.

With news like that, Boreas couldn’t take me seriously. “And I am Princess Celestia.”

“Then go finish your work instead of gallivanting around town you slackoff!” I playfully returned.

“Ok but seriously, what did you get up to?” Boreas asked again.

“I found a giant ruby,” I repeated.

“No you didn–”

“She really did,” Ares interrupted. “I’m sure she’ll show it to you when we get back to the castle instead of in the middle of a town full with other ponies.”

Little did they know I had plucked a few smaller pieces of ruby that were next to the larger chunk, roughly a quarter the size of a golf ball. As much as I wanted to give them to someone else, I couldn’t decide who, yet at the same time I thought it was selfish to keep all of them. Of course I wanted to keep at least one or two, to put into the keepsake box I had started to make that chronicled my experience in horseyland. And so I didn’t think I was insane when I woke up the next day to the inevitable realisation that it was all a dream and that I was going insane for having memories I couldn’t explain.

Existential musings aside, I thought it reasonable to give one to Ares as a bonus since I let Boreas keep the gold she found, and later used as a means to gamble and win more off of me, the cheeky lil’ bugger. I also wondered what I’d give my other guards when they tag along for weird and exploratory adventures. Diamonds? An entire town?

The ruby, and weird pieces of metal Ares found inside an unnaturally present hole proved that there was more of a story to the crevasse than I initially thought. Lumen and Compass had no idea what they were in for, and I was relieved that I found out about their scheme when I did before they came across the ruby before I did. I probably stopped the creation of an underground criminal organisation financed by precious gems and metals without realising it, but, I digress.

When we got back to the castle, the first thing I did was put one of the rubies inside my keepsake box, give one to Ares, and put the other three in a secure location that amounted to under my mattress. (And speaking of, I had rewritten the spell Luna hid under there so I couldn’t forget about changing back at the end of the agreed amount of time.)

As for the ruby Veloce exclaimed was the size of her hoof, I had her send for Celestia so the two of us could decide what to do with it.

“Veloce said you had something to show me, Luna,” Celestia said when I opened the door to let her in.

I levitated the big ruby from under the temporary, yet equally secure vault that was my pillow, and let it drop onto the mattress with a whump.

Celestia’s jaw was moving, but struggled to say anything as she gazed upon the uncut gem with utter disbelief. “I, uh... Where… Just, where?”

“Found it in the canyon. Thought I’d give it to you so you can put it to good use,” I said. “Could just give it to the metalsmiths in Aes as payment. Would you say no to something like that?”

“That is all kinds of convincing,” Celestia chuckled. “On another note, I went to speak with the metalsmiths. They would be happy to help us out, but were none too happy about remaking all the parts for the second time, and on such short notice.”

“Heh, I wouldn’t be either. Anyway, if we’re that short on money, we could always send a party to the crevasse to search for gold and other gems to tide us over,” I said. “Once we get the mine up and running, we should be set for a long time coming.”

And then the extra rubies came to mind. I levitated out the two remaining gems from my desk drawer, and gave one to Celestia. “I also found a few smaller samples, so here’s one for you, and I’ll keep the third.” One ruby I planned on selling when I got back to Earth, and the other one I wanted to get made into jewellery, so that accounted for all five pieces.

“Where did the other one go?” Celestia asked, believing I had found three.

“I gave it to Ares as a bonus.”

“Are you sure that was a good idea? A ruby that size is worth roughly a months worth of pay at his rank.”

“I let Boreas keep the gold she found as a bonus after she put in the effort to find it, so I don’t think it unfair that I gave Ares a gem after the effort he put in helping me at the chasm,” I replied.

“Hm, I suppose–”

Knock knock knock, went the bedroom door.

It was at that point I realised I needed to get an office; I didn’t want my bedroom to start turning into a parlour, considering I had started to accrue sensitive information and valuable artefacts.

“Ah, that must be Veloce,” Celestia chimed.

“I wasn’t expecting her until later,” I said.

“True, but she mentioned that she had something to show the both of us.”

Celestia let Veloce in, who I couldn’t help notice was looking a bit skittish and shifty-eyed. Cinched closed with string that had what looked like two sharp and pointed teeth on each end, Velo held a small pouch in her mouth.

“What do you have there?” I asked.

Veloce walked between Celestia and I to deposit the small pouch on my desk, where she opened it and upended the contents. I had no idea what any of that stuff was, but there were a few smaller items that seemed familiar, one of which was one of the pieces of metal Ares found that she wanted for some reason.

“I think I may know what made those metal scales,” Veloce said.

“Scales?” Celestia intoned, picking up the metal to scrutinise.

In response, Veloce nosed forward a few of the smaller, what I assumed to also be scales by their similarity in shape to the metal one, though those ones were blue and white. “Before I was born, my father and a few warriors were tasked with hunting down a dragon that was–”

My attention span stalled out at that word. “Woah woah woah, did you just say dragon?!”

“That’s what worries me, Princess. The scale that Ares found is huge, as big as your hoof, where as the scales my father took off the juvenile dragon after it was killed are no bigger than a small strawberry.”

Celestia was giving Veloce and I confused looks. “Luna… What aren’t you telling me?”

“I didn’t want to say anything until I had my facts straight,” I said. “But based off what Veloce is saying, I’m having a hard time believing that a dragon somehow made a tunnel in which Ares found these supposed scales.” I was also having a hard time believing that dragons even existed. Period. When the Chinese first found dinosaur bones, they thought those bones belonged to the dragons from their mythos, so I was hoping there was another explanation to what Veloce was telling me.

Then again, I was in a land full of talking creatures, so I wasn’t really in a position to doubt anything.

“So let me get this straight,” Celestia said, rubbing her brow with a hoof. “Ares located a tunnel, and inside he found this? And you, Veloce, are claiming that this, a steel scale, belongs to a dragon of all creatures, when you and I both know that dragons are extremely territorial beings who will likely kill anypony that tries taking something from their horde?”

All eyes suddenly turned to the ruby I gave Celestia, and I felt the mood shift immediately, with the mental image of everyone playing Hot Potato with the ruby so nobody had to deal with the dragon who it likely belonged to.

“What’s more,” Celestia continued, “the scales you’re showing us are usually composed of keratinized epidermis that forms the scales like other reptiles, not steel.”

“No disrespect, Princess Celestia, but I’m not saying you’re wrong, I just can’t explain why is all,” Veloce said.

“Did Ares mention how big the hole was?” Celestia said, turning to me.

“As round as the throne room doors are tall, completely smooth as if carved by experts, but not with tools that he recognised,” I said, adding in a bit of creative interpretation.

“And how big was this juvenile that your father slayed, Veloce?” Celestia asked.

“Assuming it was on all fours, twice as tall as you are, but three times as long including her tail.”

As much as I wanted to know how it was discovered the dragon was female, I decided against it.

“If the size of Ares’ scale is anything to go by, that would make the source an Elder Dragon, something which you simply do not see outside of the dragon lands,” Celestia replied.

I sincerely doubted that a dragon of all things was capable of somehow boring a hole that size, so I was on board with Celestia. It was easier to say that there was a magic which could easily cut through something as hard as granite. However, when I looked at Veloce, her downtrodden expression and flat ears, she seemed almost disheartened that Celestia and I didn’t believe her. Maybe there was more to the story of her father and the dragon which explained her conviction.

“Veloce, if you believe that there is a threat to our safety in that area, then you have my word that I will see this matter through to the end.” I looked at her with all deserved sincerity. There was no point having guards if you didn’t trust what they had to say.

“If you don’t mind my asking, what’s the full story with your father and the dragon?” I continued.

“There was a dragon living in a cave that would regularly steal our sheep, and other supplies.” The start to Veloce’s story seemed oddly familiar, but I couldn’t quite place it. “The village elder sent some warriors to kill it, one of whom was my father. Afterwards, they were allowed to take scales, claws and teeth as a sort of trophy. In my village, something like this is seen as a sort of protective, or good luck charm.”

Veloce perked up since I took the time to hear what she had to say, even if I was still sceptical of her story. It did explain a lot, though; she didn’t want anyone in the kingdom to be at risk in the same way that her village was.

“Thank you for sharing, Velo,” I smiled. “As a thought, why don’t you take the scale to the metalsmith to see what he can tell you about it? If scales grow with age, maybe he can tell us the dragon’s age, you think?”

“Yeah… Yeah! That’s a good idea!” She was quick to put everything back into the pouch, but shrank down and sheepishly looked up to me. “Say, you wouldn’t mind if I kept the scale, do you?”

I shrugged. “You’ll have to ask Ares. He’s the one who found them.”

“Alright then,” Veloce happily said as she trotted out the door.

Celestia shut the door behind Velo, and was quick to shoot me a disapproving glare. “Just what was that? Don’t tell me you actually believe that there’s a dragon running about!?”

“I believe that Veloce believes that there is a threat to the ponies of this kingdom, whatever it may be,” I simply said.

“So you’re going to waste time and resources looking into it?” Celestia seethed.

“No, I’m going to spend time and resources to ensure that the mining site is safe, and that there’s no creatures that would do harm to any of the ponies that trust us to keep them safe,” I replied as evenly as possible, trying to keep my cool. I didn’t understand why Celestia would still want to establish a mine, and staff it with workers and guards if something as big as an elder dragon could swoop in and eat everything and leave nothing behind. That is to say there was a dragon in the first place.

“If you don’t mind,” I continued, “I’d like to continue studying Dingir’s sword. If I find out something, I’ll be sure to let you know.”

“Very well then,” Celestia said with a huff, leaving without another word.

It was honestly amazing how stubborn and narrow-minded people could get, especially when presented with something that they don’t necessarily agree with. I didn’t believe that there was a dragon as much as an unknown threat For all I know those scales could have been there for years, even longer. Veloce made me realise that I should put more thought into inspecting the area for threats as well as what I originally went to the crevasse for. Besides, if Ares’ discovery was partially corroborated by Veloce’s story and the scales she showed me, then it was definitely worth looking into.

I just hoped I didn’t get swallowed alive.

19| The Descent

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In the week that followed Ares’ discovery of the scales, I spent a couple days trying to track down any research on dragons to figure out what would have created those scales, and how. Unfortunately, there was next to nothing valuable about dragons in the castle’s library, or in the books Celestia kept locked up in the secret vault. However, that didn’t mean my efforts were for nought.

The scant amount of documentation was due to the very rare native Equestrian dragon, a number of which had been hunted for sport, while others could’ve gone into hibernation for a century or two. Given that it was a female ice dragon Veloce’s father and fellow hunters went up against, I theorised that one was native to the arctic tundra of the Frozen North and wandered south, instead of the volcanic island of the Dragon Lands. In hindsight, I kinda felt sorry for the poor thing. She was likely lost, confused, and trying to feed herself when Velo’s father killed her.

Regarding the steel scale, the metal smiths were shocked when Velo brought it to them to examine. After they worked their literal and metaphorical magic, they discerned that it had a dozen layers to it, similarly to a laminated steel sword, except the quality of the steel in the scale was unlike anything they’d ever seen. Since there was no accurate way to say how often the layers were deposited, one year, a decade, a century, or even a millennium, my best and most reasonable guess was that an Elder Dragon could’ve been between twelve-hundred and twelve-thousand years old, and that was assuming the layers were an indication of age.

Based off of what Veloce said about the dragon being twice as tall as, and three times longer than Celestia, I used the scale Ares found to estimate the dragon it came from could have very well stood on its hind legs to look over top of the Castle of the Two Sisters as if it was a minor inconvenience. Something that huge in a country I was supposed to be looking after was absolutely terrifying. We also had no idea how long the scales were in that tunnel, and short of leading an expedition into there, had no way to know if the dragon was still around or not.

Still, it was worth the time to check out that tunnel to see what we could find. Maybe some awesome looking dragon skull I could put on the top of my throne to look like a badass, or more of the scales that I could have made into armour.

In the meantime, I wasn’t going to let anyone go to the chasm to fetch raw gems and precious metals without my guards there to supervise and keep them safe. Bastille, Comet, and Firefly - when she wasn’t looking after Midnight - were my go-to choices because they were strong fighters I could rely on if a dragon did make an appearance, but I was thankful that none did.

It was fortunate that the metalsmiths in Aes kept all the casting molds and die presses they made to custom build parts from scratch for the gold wash plant the first time around. They were more familiar with what they were doing the second time around, so reproducing the machine only took two weeks. Not only that, the equipment was of a higher grade because several improvements were made regarding mechanical function, parts used, and metal quality.

At the end of those two weeks, Celestia was getting ready to have the crates and parts sent over to the mining site for assembly, which was another week-long process to make sure everything slotted into place, and so adjustments could be made on site.

I decided that it would be ideal to check out the cave before the machine was assembled. Safety survey, dragon prevention and all that good stuff.

It was the Sunday afternoon before the third week was due to rollover, or the fourth week of my second, seven-and-a-half week term as Princess. As much as I wanted to bring Midnight with me so he could use his magic to make doppelgangers and confuse any scaly behemoths, his recovery time meant I was due back on Earth before he was out of bed. In his place I had Firefly, because I assumed that she would be able to eat dragon fire if one tried to roast us, and let’s not forget her affinity for light spells. There was Ares, because he knew where to go, and Veloce, because she was the only one in the castle that had knowledge of how to track and hunt dragons thanks to her father.

I made a copy of the map and took it with me, and cast a tracking spell on a gem to act as a beacon on the map, so any rescuers would know where to look for us. Atlas had the original map and would relay information to Comet in a worst case scenario. I just wanted to be prepared.

Most of the passages on the map were old lava tubes, big and small that simply ended, but a few burrowed deep into the earth like a rabbit’s warren. However, the one thing that caught us all off guard was the tunnel that Ares found. It just kept going, and going, twisting and turning like a slalom track, and was the only tunnel that was still in the process of being rendered. It was beyond terrifying to imagine what sort of eldritch horror lurked that far underground.

There were domed, roughly circular rooms at intermittent intervals along the unnatural tunnel, and a few of them had weird conical pyramids in the middle. All of that left me wondering what the heck kind of dragon digs underground tunnels and has steel scales.

I teleported myself, Firefly, Veloce, and Ares to the chasm, who took point to lead us to the tunnel’s entrance. Once he dove into the chasm, Veloce and I followed suit. About two seconds later, I remembered that Firefly couldn’t… well, fly, so I went back to to give her a bit of assistance.

“Piggy back?” I said, presenting my back to her.

“I, uhm…”

“Or do you want me to levitate you instead? Ares could give you a ride if you like.”

“Well, here’s the thing…”

“Hmm, I do recall a spell that gives non-pegasi wings,” I mused.

“I’m afraid of heights!” Firefly blurted.

I blinked and stared at her a moment. “I… Oh. Well, how did you pass the climbing obstacles in training?”

“Because I know how far I can fall without breaking anything,” Firefly sheepishly said, which raised more questions than it answered.

“Ares and I need you down there with us, so can you tough it out until we get to the cave?”

Firefly gulped and closed her eyes. “I’ve had my share of broken bones, so I think I can brave this.”

She almost passed out half way into the chasm, and so did Ares with the death grip she had on the poor guy, but when the three of us finally arrived at the mouth to the tunnel, she was able to catch her breath and take a drink of water to calm her nerves.

“I hate flying,” Firefly grumbled.

“It’s probably less about fearing heights, and more to do with the fear of being unable to prevent what’ll happen when you hit the ground,” I offered.

“Not helping!”

“Ladies,” Ares interjected patiently, “shall we continue?”

“Yes, right,” Firefly said with a cough. She lit her horn and formed a glowing ball of magic in front of our group to light our path the deeper we got.

Since thestrals typically lived in low-light conditions, Veloce’s eyes were better suited to help navigate the tunnel. Not only that, her ears could pick up and discern sounds better than a normal pony, so she and Firefly lead us into the cave while Ares stayed back with me.

The bottom of the tunnel was slightly flatter than the rest of the more tubular walls and ceiling, and being so tall and wide, the four of us could stand a couple metres apart with room to spare. All in all, it looked like the entrance to the Esa-ala cave system in Papua New Guinea, except that was naturally occuring.

According to Veloce, the scratches were reminiscent of tool marks as if it were cut with a pickaxe, except the pattern of the marks were horizontal looking at the walls and pointed deeper into the cave, as if whatever made them was moving forward. We found several more scales embedded in the cave walls the deeper we got and, getting curious, used one of them to see if it was the metal that made the marks on the walls. How was something softer than granite able to do the kind of damage I saw all around me?

By the time we heard it, we were so deep into the tunnel that only the immediate area around us was lit thanks to Firefly’s spell. Lasting a brief moment, a soft clicking noise echoed from deep within the tunnel, like a handful of coins being dropped into a pouch.

We all stopped dead in our tracks as the noise passed, ears twitching to and fro, especially Veloce’s.

“What was that?” Firefly squeaked.

“Definitely metallic,” Veloce said as she planted an ear against a wall. Her eyes widened. “Oh wow, the clicking is what you guys hear, but it’s… I want to say... creating vibrations in the earth?”

“Then whatever is down here seems to know we’re coming,” I said as I looked over the map. We were roughly a mile away from one of the large rooms, and two deep in the tunnel. “I want to try getting to this room shown on the map, then, we can get the heck out. Shouldn’t take much longer until we get to the first chamber.”

“With all do respect, Princess Luna, but I simply refuse to go deeper into the tunnel,” Veloce said, fear creeping into her voice.

“I can’t really blame you,” I replied. My anxiety was beginning to act up too; I wanted to get out of the tunnel as fast as possible. Something about being that far underground was deeply disturbing. “Come on, let’s get out of here, we’ve done what we came here to do.”

“Agreed,” Ares simply said.

I walked another ten metres before the ground underneath me gave out. I had no idea how far I fell before I hit the ground, or what happened after that. The next thing I knew, I was being roused by Ares and Firefly.

“Nnnnn, whadappened?” I said groggily, testing my limbs and wings to make sure nothing was broken.

“The floor of the tunnel was thin enough that enough weight in the right spot caused it to give way,” Firefly said. “Ares grabbed me and flew down to check on you.”

“Ughh… How long was I out?”

“About forty-five seconds,” Ares added.

“Is everything alright down there?” a voice called out from above. I trained my gaze up, seeing the hole I accidentally created was about sixty feet from where I landed.

“The princess is fine,” Firefly called up. “We’ll be up in a minute.”

“You uh, you should turn around and have a look at what you accidentally discovered,” Ares said, offering me a hoof so I could pull myself up.

I was in complete and utter shock and awe when I turned around.

In the middle of the underground room which wasn't on the map was a literal mountain of gems piled from floor to ceiling. There was just enough room to walk between the wall and the gems. Rubies, emeralds, nuggets of gold, silver, and platinum, as well as huge misshapen metal boulders of some description off to the side, but that wasn’t the only thing we noticed.

“Look, diamonds…” Firefly said arily, levitating one of the absurdly large gems from the pile to look over.

“You best put that right back this instant, little lady,” I said scornfully.

“It’s a pile of gems literally sitting here for the taking!” she objected.

“This is the horde of a dragon,” Ares said. “If you steal from one, the owner won’t hesitate to kill you to get it back.”

Right then, there was a small avalanche of gems from where Firefly extracted the diamond in the pile, putting us all on edge. It was like we were in a horror movie and Firefly’s recklessness alerted the axe wielding maniac to our position. Ares and I shot the mare an accusatory glance, strongly suggesting she put it back

“Hey guys, something’s coming!” Veloce echoed from above.

“Ah, heh,” Firefly sheepishly said as she put it back. “Yes, let’s go. This place gives me the creeps.” Luckily the pile didn’t collapse, or that would’ve meant being crushed and buried alive.

Ares and I flew back up top, but Firefly didn’t teleport herself back up for some reason. “Well, what are you waiting for?” I called down to her.

“I can’t teleport!” she exclaimed. Firefly lit her horn, but the spell quickly fizzled out.

I tried to teleport her up to us, but my spell also fizzled. Odd, that wasn’t supposed to happen. Then, I tried, and succeeded in levitating her up onto the ledge with us.

“What do you suppose that was all about?” Ares curiously asked.

“Why Firefly’s light spell and my levitation works down here, but teleportation doesn’t? No idea.” I heard several more gems clatter down the bigger pile, making my ears involuntarily twitch like I was prey being stalked.

“Tell me you didn’t try and sneak a gem,” I said to Firefly.

“If a dragon chases us to get the gem you stole back, I’m tripping you up to buy the rest of us some time,” Veloce sneered.

“That wasn’t me,” Firefly said, looking back down to the mountain of gems.

Then and there, I sensed a fifth presence that wasn’t Firefly, Veloce, Ares, or me. It was close, and getting closer like Veloce said a minute ago. Then, the same soft clicking sound from earlier reverberated around the room, ending just as quickly as it started.

“That sounds a lot closer than before. We should seriously get going,” Firefly snapped.

The clicking sound resonated again, and everyone froze. “That’s right on top of us!” Veloce hissed.

The tunnel began shaking around us, growing in intensity. The mountain of precious gems began to topple as cracks began spider-webbing all around the tunnel.

“Earthquake! Run!” I screamed.

We all began to haul ass back the way we came as chunks of rock began dropping to the floor with dull thuds, reverberating all around us.

Then, an unholy, deafening roar violently shook the cavern, knocking us off balance.

We quickly picked ourselves off the ground and I used a speed enchantment to give us an extra boost, running like bats out of hell.

“RUN!!!”

All around us the tunnel was collapsing, massive boulders and chunks of earth nearly sealing off our escape, forcing us to weave around them while my bubble shield protected us from falling debris. Firefly barely managed to keep her light source ahead of us so we weren’t tripping over anything.

Then, a chunk of the ceiling fell ahead of us, completely blocking our path.

“We’re cut off!” Ares shouted over the din of the cave-in.

“Ram the boulder!” I yelled ahead

“I’ll break my neck!” he screamed back.

“Trust me, just do it!”

I weaved a spell as we closed the distance, and fired it at Ares as he impacted the boulder. He successfully punched through to the other side, creating a big enough hole for the rest of us to follow after him.

“What was that?!” Ares bellowed.

“Piercing spell, just keep running!”

Ahead, a dull pinprick of light grew closer with each passing second. It was all we kept our focus on, sweet sweet daylight. I picked up Ares, Firefly, and Veloce with my magic and threw them clear of the tunnel as I leapt out, a cloud of rock dust billowing from within.

I immediately teleported us as far away as I could, which just so happened to be in the middle of the castle’s garden where Celestia was reclining on a cloud hammock, drinking from a coconut.

“Was that… a dragon?” Firefly breathlessly heaved as we all flopped onto the ground, paying no mind to the extremely confused and concerned Celestia.

“Yeah, it was,” I replied, gasping for air.

“Can somepony explain to me what in Tartarus just happened?!” Celestia not-so-patiently demanded, fixing all of us an intense glare.

“Dragon,” Ares wheezed, picking himself up off the ground and dusting dirt off of his coat.

“I didn’t expect one to be this close to home, quite literally too,” I added.

“Did you get a good look at it? How big it was, what it ate? Anything at all that will help us?” Celestia probed incessantly.

“All we know is that it has steel scales and somehow bores through solid rock,” Firefly stated.

“Au contraire,” Veloce said, “the tunnel had roughly the same diameter and circumference as the castle’s east tower.” She sat up on her haunches and shook herself of any dust and debris, and made sure there were no holes or tears in the webbing of her wings from the rocks. “It likely slithers in the same manner as a snake, which would explain the flatter portion of the cave, thus it probably doesn’t have any arms and legs, or wings if it lives underground.”

Ares stretched and cracked his joints. “There has been sightings of ground-dwelling forest dragons, flying sky serpent, and so on and so forth. I don’t think this is just another, garden-variety dragon.”

“Ares is right. Proper dragons have four limbs as well as wings,” Veloce said. “Wryverns have two legs and two wings, and then there’s wyrms: no legs or wings. It’s safe to say that we’re dealing with a Steel variant of an Earth Wyrm.”

“One that apparently causes earthquakes,” Firefly added. “By the way, what was that clicking we heard?”

“Some form of echolocation if I had to guess,” Veloce offered.

A small thunderclap from Celestia’s cloud startled all of us into looking at her. “Are you four going to keep ignoring me?”

I cleared my throat and put on my best professional demeanour despite looking like a shaggy tramp that lived underground. “We made educated guesses based off of observation, and we’ve come to the conclusion that there’s a steel earth wyrm living underneath the caldera.”

“At least you’re alright,” Celestia said thankfully, pausing in consideration and furrowing her brow as she settled back on her seat.”How dangerous do you think it is?”

I pulled down some cloud and shaped it into a big pillow to join Celestia, flopping onto it. “Considering that we were almost eaten alive, I’d say it’s pretty bad.”

Staring over the horizon, Celestia considered my question. “It’s too bad you didn’t get a good look at the dragon...”

“We were too busy running,” I said dryly, gesturing to everyone’s dishevelled state. “If we want to set up the mine, we’ll need somepony to deal with a dragon with thick steel scales that can cause earthquakes.”

“Dragon slayers cost a premium, and are few and far between, unfortunately.”

“Awww, I think I broke the tip of one of my horns,” Ares said randomly, drawing my attention as he poked at a piece of white and black bone which I saw was from his left horn.

I had no idea you could hire actual dragon slayers. Sounded like what Veloce’s dad did for a living, and that gave me an idea. “Firefly, Ares, take the rest of the day to yourselves. Have a drink, get cleaned up, and get ready for duty tomorrow. Veloce, stay here with me.”

“What for, Princess?” she said.

“Thank you, Princess,” Ares said, taking flight towards the castle as Firefly poofed away.

I turned back to Celestia and said; “If you can hold off constructing the machine and establishing the mine, I could look into hiring somepony to deal with the dragon.”

“Absolutely not,” Celestia said sternly. “We’re only getting by on the extra gems and minerals getting chipped out of the crevasse. We can’t afford to hire hunters of any kind.”

“Veloce’s father killed an ice dragon,” I said pointing at the mare in question.

“What are you suggesting? That we hire him?”

“Correct. Velo, how many dragons has your father dealt with?”

“A couple here and there. Usually juveniles,” she said.

“This is a prime opportunity. We can’t, in good conscience, set up a mine literally on the doorstep of a dragon,” I said.

“This is a sticky situation you’ve got us in, Luna,” Celestia grumbled.

“Allowing those pegasi mares to stay at the castle was a mistake that wound up biting us in the ass,” I admitted begrudgingly. “So give me the chance to set things straight.”

Celestia cleared her throat. “You’re still young and have got much to learn about being a princess. Alright then, you can fix this, but don’t be surprised if I step in at some point.”

And that was the pot calling the kettle black. “We would need to postpone things until I can sort this out.” I looked to Veloce and said; “Do you think you could arrange something with your father? If not, at the least he could point us in the right direction.”

“You misunderstand, Luna. You’ve got one week to have the situation completely seen to,” Celestia interrupted, “that’s when we’ll have the machine up and running. We are in no position to postpone things, especially if we’re lending money to dragon slayers,”

“A week?!” The main problem I had with that was how long it would take Veloce’s dad to actually get to the castle from wherever he was, or how long it would be until I could get a message to him.

“Within the next week, correct. You should go speak to Jackal, he’s the fastest flyer we have working as a courier,” Celestia added.

I was going to object, but held my tongue. “Alright then, I’ll have the situation sorted out by this time next week. Come on Velo, let’s get this figured out.”

I flew back up to my bedroom on the cloud like a magic carpet as Velo followed. When I got off, I sent the cloud back to float over Celestia, then zapped it with a bit of magic, causing the cloud to erupt with a bolt of lightning. I heard her scream all the way from my room. Take that for imposing an impossible deadline.

I decided to make myself scarce before Celestia tracked me down to enact her petty revenge.

20| The Butterfly Effect

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Five days.

I lifted my head from my desk, then let it drop back down.

Bang.

Nickering in frustration, I raised my head again, and let gravity take over.

Bang.

Inland from the North Lunar Ocean on the furthest western border of Equestria, nestled amongst the Smoky Mountain Highlands was a little village called Beinn Nèamh-Bhathais, which roughly translated to ‘Mountain of Heaven’, according to Veloce.

“Please stop hitting your head on the desk, Princess,” Veloce pleaded, flinching when I did it again.

“A five day flight to get there,” I groaned, sitting up properly.

Velo’s ears pinned against her head. “I’m sorry, Princess…”

“Oh, it’s not your fault,” I said as I pulled out the map of Equestria to look over. “I’m just trying to think of a way to get half a dozen hunters to the castle within a week when it takes ten days of travel.”

“The most obvious answer would be teleportation,” she offered.

I sucked the inside of my cheek and considered the idea. While it would be great to do some more travel in Equestria and record it in the journal, walking three weeks in both directions was out of the question, and I couldn’t very well fly ten days out my way and leave Celestia to run the castle, especially considering how delicate things were.

Then, the idea bulb went off in my head. I jumped to attention, startling Veloce as I brushed aside the mess on my desk to make a big enough space for a large sheet of parchment, then I levitated over a couple spell books from the shelves, rifling through them until I found what I was looking for.

“What are you doing?” Veloce asked, peering over my shoulder as I began to write out a spell.

“A complicated problem tends to invoke a complicated solution,” I began, keeping to scribbling over the parchment so I didn’t lose my train of thought. “Teleportation usually works based off of visual cues; where you’ve been, where you’re going, and so on and so forth. Since I haven’t been to your village, the spell I’m writing uses what’s called a Star Map. It takes into account the position of the stars at any given point in time and directs you to a specific location, often of the caster.”

Veloce seemed to pick up on what I was saying. “Like how sailors use the stars to judge their position at sea?”

“More or less,” I replied. “It’s more advanced and requires a lot more magic than normal teleportation, though I’m confident I can pull it off. I need a few hours to double, triple, and quadruple check the array so we don’t run the risk of sending your father to the opposite side of the world.”

“That… would be less than ideal, and would earn you the ire of quite a few ponies,” Veloce said with a bit of dry humour.

“Indeed,” I replied in kind. “In the meantime, see if you can locate Jackal. Tell him to come find me when I’m done writing the spell. I need him to leave first thing tomorrow morning.” I couldn’t afford something throwing a wrench in the works at that point. Since it was already late in the evening, Veloce’s father would arrive at the castle on Saturday at the earliest under ideal circumstances. Knowing my luck, that was unlikely to happen.

“By the way, I didn’t catch your father’s name,” I added. “I need to know so Jackal knows who to ask for.”

“Gilleasbuig, though most ponies just call him Gill,” Veloce said.

I wrote that down along with any other information I needed, then Velo left to relay my message to Jackal while I hurried to complete the spell.

I wound up pulling charts from the secret vault that had two atlases of constellations, one of which was about four-hundred years old and written by someone named Star Swirl, and the most recent one the real Luna had made about ten years ago. There were a number of differences, mostly due to the planet’s position and how it rotated over the centuries, but I don’t think the ponies would’ve known that at the time.

What I didn’t expect to find, however, were the several pages that detailed a star which burned so bright, it outshone the moon during the night and could be seen during the day, for three months. The event took place one hundred and nine years ago, which, according to some of Luna’s earliest journals she still kept, coincided with the time she got her cutie mark.

Even though the ponies had absolutely no idea what exactly happened with that one star, I knew enough to confidently say that Luna had gained her cutie mark when it had gone supernova. It made sense that Luna could use her latent connection with the stars and moon to feed spells which related to the heavens. I almost wanted to call it Heavenly Body Magic, but, I digress.

It took me a few hours to write out the spell, then I had to feed it mana I pulled from the stars and moon to charge it, considering natural evaporation, with enough energy that the spell would last until Jackal could get it to Gill. By the time that was said and done, it was approaching midnight. As much as I loathed taking that long, I only had myself to blame in the end.

Jackal found me as per Veloce’s instruction, bags filled with supplies and ready to go. I didn’t expect him to be ready then and there, but he probably figured the sooner he left, the better, considering the deadline. He told me he would fly a couple hours west to stay at an inn until dawn, then continue onwards until he reached Gill.

Come Monday, the crates of equipment for the gold machine were taken over to the mining site under Celestia’s supervision. While she was busy organising that, I was left with throne room duties. Out of spite against Celestia, I tried to enjoy myself at the expense of the petitioners by going for lunch five minutes early, and coming back five minutes late just because I could. Some days I wondered how such air-headed nobles and likeminded ponies managed to survive without someone telling them to breathe.

After all the crates arrived on time and in one piece, earth ponies from Mercy were contracted to dig the actual mine, and stockpiled ore during the machine’s construction. Pegasi gathered clouds as a water supply, and the unicorns from Aes who built and designed the machine focused on maintenance and construction. Celestia had the head of her guard, Cirrus - a strikingly handsome and capable pegasus - to supervise the site in her absence. Alongside Cirrus, I sent Ares and some privates from my half of the guard, the official excuse being security against anyone that would want to muscle in on the operation.

Politely put, I greatly disliked how secretive Celestia was being with the issue of the dragon. I believed that the workers had a right to know about something as dangerous as that, but Celestia didn’t want me saying anything because she needed the workers to stay. I honestly couldn’t fathom why she was being so careless; it was like my brain was a record and the needle was skipping whenever she spoke to me.

But what Celestia didn’t realise was that she’d given me the ammo to use against her if the dragon reared its ugly head. If I chose to publicly expose and call her out, I’d gain more credibility with the kingdom depending on how I played my cards. Credibility was the scale, and Celestia’s misdeed was the weight. For the sake of the ponies’ welfare, I hoped that didn’t come to pass.

The rest of the week went by relatively smoothly up until Friday. No incidents at the mine or with the machine, but I couldn't help but feel an impending doom on the horizon. It was as if the Devil himself was sitting on my shoulder, chuckling darkly in gleeful anticipation.

It was the Saturday that Jackal, Gill, and the rest of Gill’s posse was due to arrive. I had lowered the moon, then gone down to the dining hall for breakfast. Firefly and Bastille were sitting either side of me while Celestia was sitting opposite us, engaged in a conversation with Slipstream, one of her guards.

I got excited when a scroll popped into existence before me, but grumbled when it fell on top of my toast and jam. I counted myself lucky it didn’t land in the extra big mug of coffee.

Celestia noticed that and turned her attention to me. “Is that your Instant Message scroll, the one you sent with Jackal?” she asked, giving me an encouraging look.

“It is the I-M scroll,” I said with confusion, “but I didn’t send one with Jackal.” The only message I sent with him was to get Gill and company to the castle as soon as possible.

I had only given out two scrolls: one to Mayor Granite and one to Harvest. I was overcome with a disquieting sense of anxiety as I opened the scroll, expecting the worst.

Written in ink which had spilled across the scroll, I barely managed to make out the word "dogs"

Then, the second one landed in my breakfast. My unease grew tenfold as I unfurled it too. My heart sank into my stomach.

help

It was written in crayon.

“Luna,” Celestia asked carefully, “is everything alright?”

“Guards. Mercy. Now.” I immediately teleported Firefly and Bastille to the town square.

Wielding torches and crude mining weapons, an entire horde of bipedal canines were running through Mercy, chasing ponies young and old as screams and cries for helped rang out from every direction. Food from knocked over carts littered the streets, vendor stalls had been destroyed, thatched roofs were ablaze from thrown torches, and the sounds of windows breaking nearby rattled my thoughts.

“What the heck is going on?!” Firefly blurted.

“Watch out!” a voice called from behind, causing me to instinctively drop to the ground as a massive boulder flew over my head, colliding with a dog.

When I turned to look behind me, I was amazed to see Granite and his broken horn hurling chunks of earth at dogs like ballistae.

“Princess!” he exclaimed. “Dogs, kidnapping, slaves, mine, sorrygottago!” He ran off out of sight down an alley just as Celestia and an excess of a dozen guards teleported in, and were rather taken aback with all the commotion, but Celestia didn’t hesitate in dishing out orders.

“Pegasi, put out the fires; earth ponies, engage the dogs; unicorns, aid and evacuate the wounded!” She knew that we’d need more guards to deal with the dogs’ superior numbers, then teleported back to the castle for reinforcements.

While those guards dealt with the immediate situation, all heads present turned towards a deafening explosion from across town.

I was screaming internally Could this day get any worse?!

I teleported as close to the location of the boom as I could, and heard a familiar voice shouting obscenities and laughing maniacally.

“Come at me you mangey mongrels, no one tries kidnapping me and getting away with it! Ahahahahahaahaha!” Powder Keg ran from the smoking debris that was his shop and chasing half a dozen diamond dogs, all of whom had burnt and singed coats, yelping and running away from the mentally deranged zebra with their tails in between their legs.

Keg didn’t let up. He pulled a round clay pot out of a bag, lit a piece of string using his burning mane, then tossed it just short of the fleeing dogs. I realised exactly what it was when the string burned down, barely reacting in time to throw up a shield to protect us from the explosion and clay shrapnel while Firefly consumed the flames on reaction.

“Orders, Princess?!” Bastille shouted.

Overhead, the pegasi that had teleported in with Celestia were hastily gathering rain clouds, then bucking them to unleash a deluge to put out the fire. Down the street, I saw an earth pony guard swiftly despatch several dogs with strategically places punches and kicks while the unicorns ran from behind me levitating injured and bleeding ponies.

What the fuck happened here?

“Princess!” Bastille shouted more urgently this time, snapping me out of my daze, “now’s not the time to get flustered!”

I had to trust Celestia to get the town under control while I rescued Harvest and his family.

I then teleported us to the house’s front yard. “Bastille, door!” I shouted.

Bastille took off running as Firefly and I followed close behind. The burly stallion ran head first through the door like it was made of tissue paper, stepping to the side to allow me to barge into the house.

I heard Nebula cry out from the living room. “Don’t hurt my baby!”

I skidded through the door, to the sight of two huge dogs. The dog on the right held a shovel in one paw and Hayseed in the other by his hind legs, the poor guy thrashing about and screeching to be let go while Nebula’s rear hooves were kicking out, failing to gain traction on the floor in a futile effort to escape, the dog’s left arm around her neck while his other paw held a rusted knife against her throat. They were backed against the rear wall, and off to the left, I saw Harvest’s unconscious body lying limp on the floor. I had no idea what happened to him, but I was about to get a major crash course in hostage negotiations.

“Pony no move!” the dog holding Nebula snapped, his grip on the knife tightening. “No magic, or mare pony get it!”

Bastille, Firefly and I skidded to a halt. Bastille growled low with the handle of his hammer in his mouth, and I could feel heat building up around Firefly’s horn. I held out a foreleg to stop them from going any further, then looked back to give them both a subtle nod and a knowing wink.

“Lemme go you dumb dog!” Hayseed bravely hollered in spite of his situation.

I was internally rooting for the brave colt. You tell ‘em, Hayseed!

“What do you want?” I asked the dogs.

“Want leave, get little colt and go!” the one holding Hayseed said.

“I am not letting you take anyone!” I countered, sneering.

The dog with the knife pressed it into Nebula’s throat, threatening not only her, but her foal’s future. “Must take colt to Alpha, Alpha need pony worker!”

“Luna, please,” Nebula begged breathlessly, “don’t let them hurt us!”

I noticed the very subtle glow of Firefly’s magic on the dog’s knife. I trusted that Firefly and Bastille would deal with the dogs without hurting anyone. “Don’t worry, nobody’s getting hurt here today. Isn’t that right, Firefly?”

I couldn’t protect Nebula and Hayseed from the bright white light and loud bang of Firefly’s flashbang spell that momentarily blinded and disorientated them and the diamond dogs. There was a roar of pain from a dog and something crashing through the back wall. When Firefly’s spell wore off, the dog holding Nebula had let her go and she’d curled into the foetal position to protect her baby, his paws clawing at the molten metal of his knife that Firefly had flung in his face, only making his situation worse by getting the slag on his paws. The other had been knocked through the wall thanks to Bastille’s hammer, and laid motionless, splinters of wood all around, his chest crushed. Defused in a split second. I breathed a sigh of relief.

Hayseed, who’d been unceremoniously dropped on his head, began to pick himself up, rubbing his head in the process.

“Momma!” Hayseed called out, running over to her.

The knife dog was roaring in pain from the second degree burns over his face and paws, skin and fur singed from the cooling metal. I figured that Firefly would know a thing or two about burns, so I ordered her to deal with him as best she could while I turned my attention to Harvest. I rolled the stallion over, seeing he had a nasty bump on the head, probably from being clocked by that dog’s shovel. Nebula might’ve been suffering from shock, but I had no idea how bad Harvest’s injury was. “Firefly, Bastille, make sure Nebula is okay. I need to take Harvest to the castle’s infirmary immediately.”

Radiant wasn’t amused that I brought her another patient out of the blue, and was even less thrilled when I told her that she was going to be expecting a... fair few more. That gave her enough warning to scramble anyone she could manage at the time while I went back to Mercy.

Above all the commotion, I still heard Powder Keg tossing what I assumed to be his clay pot grenades, small booms reaching my ears from the outer limits of the town. I’d need to have a serious chat with that zebra about collateral damage, and then hire him at the castle. He might’ve been rather unhinged, but he damn well knew his stuff.

There were a lot more ponies and fighting back against the dogs, giving the guards more of an opportunity to help anyone who needed it. Damage control was a foregone conclusion at that point; Mercy had been rebuilt once before, and I’d be damned if I wasn’t going to help them rebuild again. The fires had been mostly put out, leaving smoldering roofs and partially gutted buildings billowing smoke. Earth ponies and pegasi guards were giving the dogs the what-for, chasing them out of town while the unicorns hastily escorted everyone out of town, and teleported wounded to the castle.

That’s when I saw the familiar form of my guard captain flying in the air. “Comet!” I shouted up to him. He noticed me and flew down. “Sit-rep!”

“The dogs have been almost driven out of town. Stragglers are being detained, and most ponies have been evacuated. I will have a full report by the ti–”

“Po-nays!” a voice boomed over the town. I heard heavy footsteps thunder from nearby, followed by a scared shitless Powder Keg running from the same direction.

“I’m nopeing the fuck outta here now!” he screamed as he shot by. He tripped over some wooden debris as a dog emerged from the smoke of a burning building. He was absolutely massive, three times the size of a normal dog and easily as big as Minos the minotaur. It was the Alpha.

Keg scrambled to his hooves as best he could, but to no avail. The Alpha picked Keg up by the scruff of his mane, brought his oversized shovel to bear, and swung like Babe Ruth, sending the zebra crashing through a nearby building.

Seeing someone so mercilessly beaten like that… I almost snapped. I grabbed the Alpha with my magic and flung him into the air like a ragdoll, and he landed against the ground with a colossal thud. I kept Alpha pinned to the ground, hovering over the mutt and staring daggers down at him.

“Comet, make sure the zebra is okay,” I ordered the captain, who obeyed without question. The Alpha was struggling valiantly. He was stronger than he let on too, for I was having mild difficulty keeping him restrained.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?!” I shouted at the canine, who tried to wrest his arm free to clobber me with his shovel.

“Po-nay have mine, other po-nay say Alpha could have gems, lots of gems!”

No time for diplomacy. I slogged the Alpha in the face. Hard. “Who? Was it Lumen? Wintergreen?”

“Alpha no tell, po-nee princess just hurt dog more!”

“I’m gonna do a lot more than hurt you if you don’t tell me exactly what you’re doing here, and who sent you!” I screamed in the his face, charging my horn with enough mana to vaporise the dog. It was only to put the screws to him really. To make my point clear, I bent his arm at an awkward angle, forcing the dog to drop his shovel, which I then kicked clear away from him.

“Aaaaaahhhhh, okay, Alpha tell! It was black pony, he come to dog and ask to dig, say Alpha could have lots of gems!” For someone as built and as buff as Alpha, I was slightly amused at how fast he caved.

Celestia picked a prime opportunity to teleport in, right before I could do anything I regretted. “Luna, what’s going on? Who is this?”

I kept my magical grip on Alpha. “Lumen contracted the diamond dog Alpha here to dig the mine we set up.”

Celestia glanced to me and then settled on the Alpha with a deadly piercing look. “Is this true? If anypony has died today in your failed takeover of this town, then so help me I’ll...”

“Princess Luna, over here!” I heard Comet call out from across the way.

“Restrain him,” I told Celestia before galloping over to Comet.

Laying in a pile of debris cradled in Comet’s forelegs, a piece of wood had pierced Powder Keg’s abdomen just below his ribs at an upward angle. He was paler than usual, and blood was dripping from the wood like a leaky faucet.

“I’m sorry, Luna. He’s lost too much blood,” Comet said solemnly, ears pinned against his head.

Meanwhile, Keg could barely move, though he did manage enough strength to turn his head to look at me. “T-tell, T-T-un–” he coughed and hacked a few times, crimson mixed in with his spittle. “T-Tundra, I, I, I’m s-s-orrr…”

His head unceremoniously slumped against Comet’s chest, the rest of his body falling limp.

If I didn’t want to beat the Alpha black and blue, I sure as hell did at that moment.

With a dark scowl on my face and rage in my eyes, I launched myself at the Alpha, but Celestia must’ve been watching me, as she managed to completely stop my momentum with her magic in an instant.

“Lemme at him,” I seethed through clenched teeth, “he killed Keg!”

“Then you’ll be no better than him, Luna!” Celestia snapped, her voice taking on a zero bullshit tone. Celestia’s magic was crazy strong. As well as keeping the Alpha completely immobilised, I couldn’t move a single damned muscle, no matter how much I tried. “Now calm down before I deal with you too!”

I was about to pop an artery if she didn’t let me go. “Calm down? Calm down!? He killed someone!”

Celestia was too fixated on me to notice my faux-pas. “He faces execution for what he’s done here today, is that not enough for you?”

I managed to relax my muscles slightly when she said that. An eye for an eye; it seemed only fair. Then, an ominous smirk etched its way on my face as I stared the Alpha down, thinking of the revenge I would get against Alpha and Lumen for Keg.

“You can let me down. I promise I won’t do anything stupid.” I could feel Celestia’s magical hold on me gradually lessen, and she eventually let me down to the ground. I stood in place, contemplating my next move. It wasn’t going to end well for Lumen and Alpha.

“Tie up Alpha, chain and ball, and whatever else. I don’t want him going anywhere. Put him in the cell next to Lumen’s. That bastard is going to cop a major ear full from me sooner than he expected.” I looked up to Celestia. “In the meantime, I need you to take care of things here while I go check up on the mine.”

“The mine is secure,” she said. “The unicorns there managed to fend off the dogs I assumed were sent to capture it.”

I swallowed a lump in my throat and looked over to where Comet and Powder Keg were. “Any others deceased, or injured?”

“The guards and I will make a full sweep of the town and escort anypony who are to the castle,” Celestia said, casting a forlorn look over her shoulder.

“I’ll meet you back at the castle.” I turned and walked over to Comet. “I need you to be my eyes and ears here while I need go and make sure Hayseed and his parents are alright.”

“Of course, Princess. What would you have me do with, you said his name was Keg?”

“I need to talk to the mayor about him once things have settled down. Maybe he’ll know more about who Tundra is, or where I can find them.” Given Keg’s eccentric nature, I had my doubts if anyone knew anything comprehensive about the stallion, or if it was just hearsay based on what people could figure out.

I left Celestia and Comet to do their jobs while I went back to check in on Nebula and Hayseed. I couldn’t help but grimace when I walked through the vaguely pony shaped hole Bastille left in his wake. I could feel the weight on Powder Keg’s death on my shoulders, causing me to slump slightly as I walked down the hall. For a once in a lifetime opportunity at a holiday on another planet, I never thought I’d have to tell someone news as bad as the death of someone they cared about. I had to wipe a tear from my eye; Keg told me to pass on a message with his dying breath and I’d be damned if Tundra, whoever they were, didn’t get that message.

“Firefly, Bastille?” I called through the house, my voice breaking a bit.

“In the living room, Princess,” Bastille called back.

I rounded the door into the room wearing a doleful expression, where I saw Bastille standing sentry while Nebula laid on the couch, taking it easy while Firefly was minding Hayseed to keep his attention. “How are you feeling, Nebula?”

Nebula smiled and looked up at me when I entered the room, but it quickly vanished and her face paled when she noted my expression. “Is everything alright, Luna? Please don’t tell me something happened to Harvest…”

“Oh no,” I said, waving off her concern. “He’s still unconscious when I took him to the castle, though I don’t know how long he’s going to be out.”

“Did something happen in town?” a concerned Bastille asked.

“A lot of things happened,” I spat, making everyone in the room flinch. I exhaled deeply, rubbing my brow. “Sorry, I… I didn’t mean to snap. It’s just that… Look, I’ll fill you guys in later, I need to take Nebula and Hayseed to the castle while Celestia wraps up business in town. In the meantime, you should go and help out.”

“Sure thing, Princess,” Firefly said simply, getting to her hooves. She and Bastille headed out the living room door as Nebula shifted around on the couch, hind legs moving to the floor as she tactfully rolled off the couch to stand up, but I wasn’t going to have any of that.

“Woah there, you sit right back down, I’m not–”

“It’s fine, really,” Nebula said with an exhausted huff, cutting me off. “I just want to get a couple things for myself and Harvest. Hayseed, can you pack a few things for the castle?”

“Okay momma!” the colt exclaimed, running out of the room as he screamed; “I get to go see daddy at the castle!” That kid’s spirit in the face of something saddening was truly something to behold.

I kept my eye on Nebula and followed her through the house to her bedroom. Rather, her and Harvest’s bedroom. The bed was in the middle of the room pressed up against the far wall under a set of outward opening windows with wooden window hatches. Either side of the bed were a set of bedside tables, and off to the right was a closet, which Nebula opened and began rifling around with her magic.

She pulled out a rather full looking bag, then a smaller, empty one which she then proceeded to fill with a few items; Harvest’s hat and signature battered vest, a couple small boxes, then my eyes widened when I saw the two pillows and the comforter from the bed shrink and fold before being placed into the bag.

“What… how did you just do that?” I balked.

“What, the thing with the pillows? It’s a spell I learned. Helps with packing things, heh.” She went to throw the bag over her back, but her legs buckles slightly.

“You’re a week late to give birth, Nebula, I’m not letting you carry a thing!” I grabbed it from her aura, but I wasn’t prepared for the weight of it, and it escaped my grasp and hit the floor with a thud. “What the heck is in here?!”

“Baby stuff,” Nebula said, rubbing the back of her head with mock embarrassment.

“Did you use that spell on this bag too?”

“I did. Want to learn it?”

“Seems like it’d come in useful,” I commented.

“Two steps: First, imagine you want to put a big thing inside a small thing.”

“Right, and the second?”

“And then you do it!”

I deadpanned. “You what?”

“Yeah, it’s the second point ponies tend to get stuck on.”

Despite the day going to complete shit, I couldn’t help give a good natured shake of my head at that.

“Hayseed, are you ready yet?” Nebula called.

I heard Hayseed trotting down the hall before he rounded the door, his saddlebags packed with things he either needed or wanted. It was hard to say what a kid thought they needed. “Come on, let’s go, buddy. I’ll take you and your mum to a room in the castle, then we can go see your dad.”

“I know daddy’s going to make it. He once fought off a manticore!” the colt proudly exclaimed.

I did a double take at that, then glanced over to Nebula for conformation. “It’s true,” she said. “One tried attacking me, but Harvest drove a pitchfork through its head.”

Considering what I’d read about manticores, I couldn’t help but be impressed at the size of Harvest’s balls to do something like that. Then again, I’d probably do whatever I could to protect someone I cared about too, just like my dad used to do.

Writing the report at the end of the day was a nightmare. I was still shocked from Powder Keg’s death, and had a hard time collecting myself as I wrote the report, though being numb for the rest of the day helped, but not in a healthy way. I saw it as a poor choice of words to say that it was fortunate nobody else died. I had to take statements from all the guards involved, Nebula, Hayseed, Granite, amongst many others. The injuries incurred from the diamond dog’s failed takeover amounted to first degree burns from the fires, cuts and deep lacerations from glass and wood, as well as broken bones. The most severe injury was a compound fracture.

Mercy itself was another story. The outlying farmsteads and fields went basically unscathed and were repairable, such as the damage to Nebula and Harvest’s house. Keg’s bombs and clay pot grenades ended up causing a lot more damage than I initially released, but he was hugely successful in driving back the dogs. All the burnt houses and damaged shops had to be pulled down and rebuilt, and that I estimated that would affected trade at Mercy for months. The buildings that had cosmetic damage were given temporary repairs so the town could at least do some business to make money for long term repairs.

The thing that really got under my skin, like an annoying parasite that I wanted to dig out, was that Celestia decided to keep working on the mine. The worst part? I couldn’t disagree with her either reasoning. We needed all the gold, silver, and gems we could get from the mine to pay for medical supplies, to import food from further afar than we normally would. Not to mention we would need to pay to have Mercy rebuilt

As I sat at my desk going over the accrued statements of everyone, I couldn’t help but feel that all this was my fault. If I had just left well enough alone and not stuck my nose into things, then maybe none of this would’ve happened. If I hadn’t arrested Lumen and his gang, then he and the dogs would be running a mine without having the casualty of destroying half a town. If I had just waited, then Celestia and I could’ve just captured the mine and confiscated the precious metals and gems. In a roundabout way, it was my fault Keg was dead. What sort of person would I be if I’d just end up forgetting about him when I went back to Earth? He had family out there, and I had every intention of finding them.

Back to business, Celestia put the Alpha dog in a cell next to Lumen’s so I could question them both when things quietened down. Radiant had her work cut out for her, that was for sure. Firefly helped the cause by using her magic to help with the burn victims, and even Celestia used some complex healing magic I didn’t know she had to help treat the more serious cases, the kind of spells that put a damper on her mana if you could believe it. I also used Luna’s sleep spell on ponies with more severe injuries so Radiant could anaesthetise and treat them. Since it was Celestia’s turn for solo court the following day, Saturday, I volunteered to stay up late to make sure all the injured and displaced were well looked after.

Once again to my dismay, the rooms in the castle were full to capacity, and we had to break out the camping equipment and bed rolls for those who chose to sleep under the stars, and it was the least I could do to make sure the pegasi cleared the sky that night so there was no rain or wind. I made an exception for Nebula and Hayseed, and let then stay in one of the luxury rooms usually reserved for visiting dignitaries and royalty from other nations/kingdoms.

It wasn’t until well into the night that I crawled into bed, lethargic, and completely drained of energy. I sighed miserably when I pulled the covers up. It was going to take months upon months of work to rebuild Mercy and get it up and running to where it was at the beginning of the day. I made a mental note to give detailed instructions to Luna for her return on how to handle things, something which I could take care of on Sunday.

But that was another issue in and of itself: going back to Earth. I was almost forced to put my faith in Luna and Celestia to keep things on track. Then there was Harvest, who tried defending his family, Hayseed, the brave and precocious little colt. I would be lucky to see Nebula’s baby before I left in two weeks, too.

But that was what memories are for. Something to cherish and hold close. Every day you meet new people, some of whom have profound effects on your life, and vice versa. Some of it good, some of it not so good, but all for the better.

The thing that stuck me in the heart was that nobody apart from Boreas knew who I really was, but that was okay, I liked to think I’d shown everyone the best side of me during my stay.

Saying goodbye to everyone and everything was going to be hard.

21| Infinite Regress

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A bedroom is supposed to be a sanctuary to sleep, be alone, and to otherwise unwind after a long, stressful day. I found it a bit counterproductive that I was using mine to handle everything work related; by the time I went back up to my room after having breakfast on Saturday morning, I found my desk piled with parchment and scrolls detailing expenditures, damage reports, accrued bills, debts owed, and various other incident reports, mostly relating to Mercy.

I really wanted to power through the work on my desk to have time to enjoy the rest of the weekend, but Celestia was more concerned how the previous day’s diamond dog invasion impacted her ‘little sister’, and despite my incessant insistence that I was fine and could manage things, she was adamant that I take the rest of the weekend to myself while she handled Saturday’s petitioners and related work.

Officially, I had my hooves tied, but there was a small loophole. Celestia said she didn’t want me working, she but didn’t say anything about studying! Wanting to continue studying more powerful and more useful incantations, I grabbed the spell I was working on, and took it up to the suite I let Nebula and Hayseed stay in; I felt like giving them a bit of company, and so I wasn’t being disturbed too much while I had some down time to study.

“Watcha doing?”

Having gotten so engrossed in writing out a complicates pell, I jumped in my seat at Hayseed’s sudden question, scratching my quill and ink halfway across the complicated array I was writing and clutched a hoof to my chest. “Hayseed!” I gasped, putting on a smile as I looked down to the colt sitting next to me. “Don’t frighten me like that!”

“I’m sorry,” he said, ears flattening against his head. “I just wanted to know what you were doing…”

I spun around to face him proper, tousling his mane to show I wasn’t mad at him. “It’s OK, I was just studying.”

“Come on Hayseed, let the Princess work,” Nebula playfully scolded.

I waved off her comment. “It’s fine, I needed to take a break anyway.”

“So what are you working on, if you don’t mind me asking?” Nebula said, knitting needles clacking away.

Shaking off the fatigue from sitting down for over two hours, I took the large parchment over to the mare so she could have a look. Her knitting slowed down as her eyes focused on the spell. “Gravity magic… Shrinking spells… Dark magic…” Her eyes widened and shot up to me. “What is this? Is dark magic even legal to use?”

“Any magic is perfectly legal to use, but don’t go stealing or, uh…” I looked to Hayseed a moment. “Un-aliving anyone. That’s illegal. Dark Magic is just the inverse form of Light Magic,” I explained cooly, rolling up the parchment and put it on the suite’s desk I was using. “The spell itself is an infinite gravity well; it allows the user to control the density of either magic or matter into a singularity for offensive or defensive purposes.”

“What’s a gravity well?” Hayseed asked.

Nebula chewed the inside of her cheek over how to explain it to her son. “You know how heavy a brick is? Now imagine the weight of two bricks the same size as the first put together. If you keep doing that, the brick will get heavier but the size will remain the same.”

“So it hurts more when you throw it?”

“Well, no,” I said with a small chuckle. “I can use it to make shields stronger by making the mana more dense. That way, anypony throwing bricks will get very tired very fast.”

Hayseed scrunched his face as if he’d just taken a bite out of a lemon, trying to understand what he’d been told.

“It’s alright, maybe I could teach you a thing or two about magic one day,” I said.

That made him perk up. “Really?! Princess Luna teaching me!?”

“When I’ve got some spare time, I don’t see why I can’t make the effort.”

Hayseed launched himself off the couch and latched his forelegs around my neck. “Luna is best Princess!”

I put a foreleg around him and pulled him closer, but the embrace didn’t last long. A few heavy thumps I recognised as Bastille’s knocking came from the suite’s door. I almost forgot that I had asked Radiant to come give Nebula a check up after what happened yesterday.

I reluctantly let Hayseed down with an “excuse me”, then went to open the door. On the other side were the two expected ponies.

“Greetings, Princess,” Radiant said with a short bow. “I’m here to give Nebula a check up, and to inform you that Harvest has woken. Fortunately, there won’t be any lasting damage. He’ll be alright in a couple days.”

“Daddy’s awake?!” Hayseed beamed.

“Would you like to go see him?” Radiant asked, tousling the colt’s mane with a smile. “While you do that, I can make sure mommy’s baby is OK.”

Before I knew what happened, Hayseed zoomed out the door, his little hooves skidding over the floor as he disappeared down the hall.

I looked at Nebula, and we both shared a small laugh at Hayseed’s expense. “I’d better go get him before he gets lost.”

I left Bastille with Nebula and Radiant while she did her thing. Not too far down the hall, I found Hayseed at a junction in the halls, trying to decide which way to go. I decided to teleport him to the infirmary, and found my nose curling at the unpleasant aroma of antiseptic and other remedies and medicines wafting around the room when we arrived. A nurse - who dropped a clipboard in shock at seeing her princess materialize before her - was quick to show us to Harvest’s cot, where he was lying, groggy and with a linen bandage wrapped around an ice pack on his head. He blinked a few times before realizing who we were.

“Hey buddy,” the stallion raspily said, reaching out with his forelegs toward Hayseed. The colt trotted over and embraced his dad, breathing a sigh of relief.

“How are you feeling, Daddy?” Hayseed asked.

“Things are a little fuzzy, but the nurse said I’d get better. How is your mum and the baby?”

“Momma’s fine.”

“That’s my boy, keeping her safe for me. Looks like you’re the stallion of the house now,” Harvest said with a prideful grin, a foreleg around his son’s withers.

Hayseed couldn’t help but beam at that, getting all misty-eyed as he leaned into his dad’s hug.

I didn’t say or do anything as they had their moment. Despite Mercy being half destroyed and numerous families displaced, the one consolation I had was that, like Harvest and Hayseed, everyone in the town still had each other.

My ears flicked back when I heard a set of hoofsteps coming up behind. I looked over my shoulder, seeing Radiant wearing a stern expression as she hurried to me. “Can I speak to you in private for a moment please, Princess?” Radiant asked. “Perhaps in Nebula’s room?”

“Excuse me a moment, Harvest,” I said. “Business calls.” I then teleported the two of us to the suite, where I discovered Nebula crying and sniffling.

I immediately went over to the mare and put a hoof behind her head as a comforting gesture. “Hey there, what’s the matter?” I said softly, trying to calm her down.

“R-R-Radiant said t-that–” She broke down with another bout of sobs, turning away from me.

“When I performed my exam,” Radiant said, “I discovered there is an anomaly that will make delivering the baby difficult. I…” Radiant paused, ears pinned against her head. “There’s a chance the foal or Nebula might not survive the delivery.”

My ears instinctively pinned themselves to the side of my head, and my gut dropped like a lead weight. “Why are you telling me this instead of Harvest?” I asked Radiant.

“Harvest isn’t in any shape to get out of bed right now, let alone help,” Radiant said matter-of-factly. “I thought it better to inform you.” She shook her head, swallowing a lump. “We’ll just have to wait for Nebula’s water to break and hope for the best.”

“What kind of anomaly is it, Radiant?” I asked.

“It’s easier if I just show you,” Radiant said as she pulled out a device that looked similar to the one used on me when I first woke up in the castle, except it had two stethoscope-like cups, and a circular gauge depicting a horn, wing, and hoof. “By measuring passive mana absorption during development, this device has a high accuracy at determining if a foal will be a unicorn, pegasus, or earth pony.” She put the probes either side of Nebula’s stomach, and my eyes just about bugged out of my head.

The needle of the device was dancing all over the place, aggressively vibrating between the unicorn and earth pony readouts, as if it couldn’t make up its mind.

“I’ve never come across something like this,” Radiant said.

“You said it’s an anomaly, Radiant, so you’ve got to know something.” I turned to Nebula. “Nebula, I know this may sound cold-hearted, but do you have any ideas on what might have caused this? Anything odd you might have eaten? Any spells someone cast on you?”

Nebula sobbed a few more times, managed a few deep, calming breaths, wiping her tears away with the back of her hoof. “I-I honestly don’t know… Well, there… there is something.”

I cocked my head. “What do you mean?”

Nebula took a long breath. “Twenty years ago, I woke up in the middle of a desert with nothing but a map and a full water canteen in my saddlebags. My memory was completely blank, as if someone had wiped it clean. But, things slowly came back to me over the weeks I kept walking. All I could remember from that time is my name, my talent, and my mother’s name, Aurora.

“Then, one day after wandering for several weeks, I stumbled upon Harvest’s farm. I saw all the delicious food he was growing, so I gorged myself on all the fruits and vegetables I could eat. He must’ve heard me, because he came out, shouting and waving a pitchfork at me. But then he saw my ribs through my coat, and realized I needed help.

“He took me into his home, and nursed me back to health.” Nebula sniffled again, wiping it on the back of her hoof. “I reasoned that there must’ve been a good reason why I can’t remember the first eighteen years of my life, so I moved forward to make a new one. I was so grateful for what Harvest had done to help me; one thing lead to another, and I just settled down with him, and eventually we had Hayseed without any sort of complication.”

Radiant and I were quiet for a long time after hearing that story. While it did give us some insight, it didn’t really do much in the way of explaining her situation.

“If... I may make a suggestion?” I carefully asked.

“Will it make me remember?” Nebula said hopefully, her expression lighting up a fraction.

“Maybe. Amnesia is your brain’s way of sealing off certain memories or experiences so it doesn’t overload with trauma. Memory Magic will allow me to sift through those experiences and see if I can find a cause and solution for your situation.”

“Are… are you sure that’s a good idea?” Nebula asked, nervously eying her stomach..

I figured it was best to be honest with her. “Nothing’s going to happen to your baby; I’m just going to put you to sleep, then enter your subconscious to see what I can find. The thing is, I have absolutely no way of knowing what I’ll come across, or what will happen to you if those memories are restored.”

“Can you… Is it possible to be selective about what memories you restore?” Nebula said.

I shook my head. “It’s all or nothing”

“OK,” she heaved with a sigh, “Let’s get this over with.”

“Princess, what if something goes wrong?” Radiant interjected as I leaned closer to Nebula.

“I’ll handle it. Try to avoid intervening unless absolutely necessary. Being startled awake is unpleasant enough, even more so during a spell like this.”

Leaning in close, I touched my lit horn to Nebula’s, and she promptly fell into a deep sleep. I increased the intensity of my spell, and soon followed after.

Memory Magic was a subclass of Dream Magic, Luna’s specialty, and since dreams are memories pieced together almost like pieces in a puzzle, I would be able to discover which pieces were missing and put them back in place. If anyone had intentionally put a spell on Nebula when she was eighteen, I had the ability to reverse it. However, if magic wasn’t involved, that left two possibilities: brain damage, which was practically impossible for me to fix, or there was a very, very good reason why her psyche refused to let her remember anything.

To begin, I started at the previous day when the dogs ran through town. Seeing how it all unfolded from Nebula’s point of view was an experience unlike anything you could imagine, yet there I was, listening to her pleas as the dogs began to pick her up… Quickly deciding the relative success on that memory, I took things back to a week. Much to my amusement, Nebula was knitting away, making her baby’s outfits as her magic manipulated pots and pans to prepare dinner from the other side of the room.

I went from a week to a month, then three months, and then six; skipping large chunks of time was a way to make sure the spell was working the way it was supposed to, since I hadn’t been that far deep in someone before.

Five years. Seven. Ten.

Everything was going smoothly, but I became nervous the deeper I got, simply because being that deep in someone’s psyche was uncharted territory; I could still see complete memories, but there were more and more hazy ones, fragments showing parties, trips, random dinners, and the like.

Fifteen. Seventeen. Eighteen.

I got to twenty, then I realized something wasn’t right; I could barely make out anything, just random fragments here and there, details that Nebula recounted to me earlier. But every time I tried to push my way deeper, I felt another kind magic looping my spell back into itself. It was like opening a door to a room, only the room you went into was the one you stepped out of. No matter how hard I tried, I kept getting pushed away. Something, or someone had stronger magic than I did, enough to cast an enchantment to completely seal off the first eighteen years of Nebula’s life.

I growled in frustration; I had come this far, and I wasn’t going to let myself be stopped by one spell! With magic channeling through my horn, I tried one last time.

Oh, how I should’ve taken the hint and backed off.

There was some kind of protective ward woven into the enchantment that violently ejected me from Nebula’s memories. From my kneeling on the floor in front of the mare, I was thrown across the room, crashing into a very expensive Saddle Arabian armoire as Nebula was knocked in the opposite direction against the wall.

“Oowww,” I groaned as Bastille rushed over to pick me out from the pile of mahogany. “Nebula, are you alri–”

I was cut off by Nebula’s high pitched shriek. She clutched a foreleg over her stomach and gasped as her eyes went wide as I heard the unmistakable sound of water dripping onto the floor.

“Her water broke!” Radiant shouted, rushing over to the mare, glaring at me.

Uh oh… “I’m, sorry, I don’t know what happened!”

That was the last thing Radiant needed to worry about. “I need you to teleport us to the infirmary now!”

I did exactly that without another word, leaving Bastille behind. Calling out for more help, Radiant had me put the gasping, writhing Nebula on a bed, where she hung some stirrups from hooks in the ceiling, while Radiant rushed over to a cupboard to pull out medical instruments.

“Sorry, Princess, but I need you to leave right now. I’ll send for you when things settle down,” Radiant blurted as she hastily filled a syringe.

I couldn’t blame Radiant for being short with me, so I teleported back to the suite, still in shock. I just sat in the middle of the room staring off into space, thinking about what the hell just happened. Had I accidentally sent Nebula into labor? The thought was too horrifying to contemplate, so I shoved it aside, deciding to focus on the other, more pressing question: Someone with stronger magic was actively blocking me from digging into Nebula’s memories. But who, and, more importantly, why?

“Princess?”

Bastille startled me out of my daydream. “Wha-huh?”

“Are you alright?” he asked, blinking in concern. “What happened?”

“I’m uh… not quite sure.” I shook myself of the shock and cleared my throat. “I... need some air. Yeah, that’s it. I’ll be in my room, on the dais if you need me. Resume your post for now.”

I was back in my room before Bastille left the suite. A quick shower was needed to straighten myself up, and wash out any remaining slivers of wood that got stuck in my coat and mane. I retrieved the spell I was working on from the suite, then levitated my desk outside to the dais so I could enjoy the mid-afternoon sun. Doing that reminded me of the time my mum told me to go play outside when I’d been playing video games on a sunny day. An hour later, she was less than amused to discover that I’d taken my TV and console outside, running the power cord out the window.

The ink that got all over the scroll had already dried by the time I got to it. As annoying as that was, I was thankful I’d been using parchment instead of paper, so I simply used a penknife to meticulously scratch off the spilt ink. Since parchment is made from animal skin, it can withstand many erasures of that nature.

A good couple hours doing that, I had the incomplete array tidied up, re-treated any scuffed areas with pumice stone, then I was in the middle of dusting with pounce powder to continue my work when I heard Boreas’ soft knocking coming from my door. I was miffed I didn’t get to make way on my spell, but I reasoned I had the rest of the day, then Sunday to get it done.

I suppressed a groan before making my way over to the door, and opening it. “You knocked?”

“I’ve been informed that Gill and crew plus Jackal have arrived. Jackal is currently resting. Should I invite them in, Princess?”

“Is Celestia still using the conference room?” I said.

“She’s currently busy with petitioners,” Boreas replied.

“If I may suggest the War Room, Your Majesty?” Bastille said. “It gets the least use out of all the other rooms.”

“Hmmm…” I tapped my chin a moment. The debacle with the dragon did seem to warrant the use of the War Room, but I was far from treating the situation as such. Why Celestia and Luna had one when there hadn’t been a war since post-unification I don’t know. “An excellent suggestion for an alternative, Bastille. Could you please accompany me to the war room while Boreas escorts Gill and company where they need to go?”

“On your leave, I will fetch them,” Boreas said.

“Once you’ve done that, could you send for Veloce to join us?”

“Of course, Princess.”

“Thank you. You’ll know where to find me.” From the map I made of the castle, I managed to teleport Bastille and I to the war room despite never having been there before. I was surprised that it was still kept in good nick for not having been used much, if at all.

With nothing better to do until dinner, I just sat around and waited for Gilleasbuig and his crew of dragon hunters to show up. Five minutes later, there was more knocking at the door.

“Enter!” I proclaimed as royally as I could.

Boreas opened the door, and half a dozen very well built thestral stallions strode in, with one of them stopping right before me as the others fell in line behind him.

“Gilleasbuig, I presume?” I said, looking the leader up and down.

“Aye, lassy. Or should I be callin’ ye Princess?” he replied in a deliciously thick accent. Hopefully it wouldn’t be too difficult to understand. He sported an aged, battle-worn physique with toned muscles, a mane of light blue, a silvery coat, and glistening emerald green eyes. If scars were stories, he had a lot of stories to tell.

“I would hope your arrival wasn’t too unpleasant?”

“Goin’ from mah village halfway o'er the land in an instant was jarrin’. Like getting up after rolling doon a hill, I just hud tae git mah bearings.”

I hoped that was a good thing. Was it?

“Yer feathered flyer friend said ye had a wee bit o’ a dragon problem?” the stallion continued.

“Ah yes, straight down to brass tacks.” With a business like clap, I teleported in a couple of the steel scales I collected from the cavern, and set them down on the table in front of us. “Take a seat if you don’t mind.”

Completely ignoring my last statement, all assembled thestrals began to huddle around Gill, looking over one another’s shoulders at the scales with rapt fascination. All eyes followed a scale as Gill picked it up, wordlessly turning it over to inspect from every conceivable angle. He went so far as to lick, bite, smell, then tap it against one of his fangs. I was rather perplexed, but who was I to question the experts?

Gill cracked an imperceptible grin before saying; “Where did ye find this?”

“Couple miles underground, in a canyon to the south-east.”

“Ye think it’s a wyrm?” one of the other thestral stallions said, only to be interrupted by more knocking at the door before he could continue.

The door inched open. “Luna, you sent for m– eeeeeeeeeeeeee, daddy!” Veloce screeched joyously, throwing herself across the room and colliding with her father, sending them both onto the floor.

“Well if it ain’t ma wee bonnie lass!” Gill was reduced from a stalwart professional dragon hunter to an affectionate marshmallow in under a second as he peppered his daughter with kisses. “How’s ya mum been, Vel?”

“Mum’s fine last I saw, and I send her letters every month. I’m working with Princess Luna now!”

“Well that explains how the lass heard o' me!”

“She took me, and a couple other guards underground to look for a dragon. I told her about what you did, and she decided to hire you!”

“Looks like I’ve taught ye well!” With a pat on Veloce’s back, Gil added; “Mind lettin’ me up so I c’n do mah job?”

With a slightly awkward giggle, Velo hopped off her dad, sitting beside him and beaming.

“Righty’o, then. Looks like a class o’ elder dragon, possibly a wyrm,” he said, turning the scale on its horizontal to look at the cross section. “Roughly nine-thousand year auld at the very least. Ah would jalouse it bides off a diet o' ore 'n' coal as opposed tae traditional fair.”

I blinked in confusion, looking to Veloce for the translation. “I caught the first part.”

“He says it eats metal and coal.”

“Did ye happen tae find a giant pile o' precious crystals?” Gill asked.

“Woah woah woah, backup a tick. You said it eats metal and coal?” Alongside the precious gems and metals, there could be a veritable treasure trove of valuables underneath that caldera!

“Aye lassy, that's what I said. Whatdo ye think an ice dragon eats?”

“Uhm, ice?”

“Nae, an aberdonian`s burd!” Gill retorted, earning a bout of raucous laughter from his companions.

I was at a complete loss for words. “I beg your pardon?”

“He means sheep,” Veloce intoned.

“Ye didnae answer if ye found a pile o' crystals.”

I face-hoofed. I could barely keep up with what Gill was saying. “Yes, I did,” I said impatiently. I only managed to pick out ‘pile’ and ‘crystals’. “Let me show you.” I pulled out the hard light map, unfurled the scroll and let it shimmer into appearance. I enlarged the section where I fell through the floor-slash-ceiling, and pointed out the similar sized rooms. “Each one had a giant pile, and some weird lumps of metal about your size.”

“Och sweet mercy, ye bolted right intae its nest,” Gill said with a heavy, almost hopeless exhale.

Hearing him say ‘nest’ made me go rigid. “I’m sorry, I what?!”

Veloce was in complete disbelief at what her dad said. “Daddy, are you sure that’s what those things were?”

“Aye, Ah'm positive. Different dragons lay different kinds o' eggs. This one just so happens tae lay steel eggs.” Taking a breath and clearing his throat, Gill then said; “Now whit's it y’ need us tae do?”

I took a deep breath and gathered my wits. Finally, back on track. “Celestia and I plan on establishing a mining front. Unbeknownst to us prior to doing so, it’s near this dragon’s den. Veloce tells me you’re in the business of draconic disposal services?”

“This dragon might be a muckle numpty, bit A'm sure tis nuttin’ we cannae handle. Right, lassies?”
The unanimous cheer of “Aye!” made me jump. I was glad I could make out the majority of what was said at that time.

“My main concern is that this dragon will do harm to the miners, so I need it removed.”
I cleared my throat. “I uh… Is there anything at all you can do?”

“‘Av ye tried talking tae it?”

“We were too busy running, daddy,” Velo piped up.

“And besides,” I added, “we don’t know if it can even understand us, let alone talk!”

“Th' princess is hauf right, lassie. Maist dragons kin flap thair gums, some dinnae bother, 'n' ithers ur just feral.”

“So if I’m understanding you correctly: some do, some don’t, and others are just a menace?”

“Aye. Noo we juist hae tae figure oot which.”

“And what if it’s feral?” I ventured.

“Kill it afore it kills ye.”

“Well that is reassuring.”

“Hmmm…” Gil sucked the inside of his cheek a moment. “Wid ye mind if Ah spoke tae mah daughter a moment?”

“By all means. If you need something, I’ll be in my room until dinner is served, and you’re welcome to join us, so have Veloce fetch me.”

“Cheers, Princess,” Gill said with a short bow.

“Oh, Luna! Daddy could help dragon-proof the castle and mine, and give tips and pointers.”

“Hmm…” It was a nice idea, and it would mean Jackal’s trip wouldn’t be in vain. “Gill, your thoughts?”

“A mighty fine idea! We c’n give ye a crash course in a' things dragon, even write ye a manual oan how tae deal with the numpties.”

I blinked for the Nth time. “I, uhm… What does ‘numpty’ mean?”

Before Gill could open his mouth Veloce said; “Usually one of two things, typically it’s an idiot.”

“...And the other?” I said tentatively.

“Trust me when I say you don’t want to know.”

“It’s vulgar, isn’t it?” I deadpanned.

“Yup,” she added with a sneaking grin.

“Oh. Well, anyway,” I said in a bid to change the topic. “Gill, we’re a bit short on space at the moment, but I think I can wrangle you and your friends some accommodations.”

“Much appreciated, but I think me 'n' the wee colts behin’ me will give the castle 'n' area a once o’er tae see what c’n be improved if ye dinnae mind me saying.”

“Great! I’ll set you up with my guard Captain, Comet, he’ll show you around. If you need anything in particular, just ask Comet to fill out the necessary requisition forms so I can keep track of everything.”

“Do ye have any writing material we could use?” Gill said.

“I can set you up with as much as you need. For now, here’s something to get you started,” I said as I teleported in some blank paper, quill, and ink.

“Jackie!” Gill hollered.

“Aye sir!” the rear most thestral exclaimed, making his way to the front. A few nicks and grazes on his dark green coat, light grey mane largely un-ruffled, he seemed to be a bit too clean cut compared to Gill. Probably a newbie.

“Grats, ye just won th' award for scribe t'day,” Gill said, shoving the things into the stallion’s chest. “C’n ye keep up, ye galoot?”

“Aye sir!” he said again.

“Veloce, would you mind escorting Gil and company to Comet and giving him the run-down?” I said.

“After that, I’ll organise accommodations, then dinner will be served.”

“Sure thing, Luna!” Velo said with a salute.

Looking at the clock on my way out, only about thirty minutes had passed. What a colourful half hour that was. Taking stock: Celestia was helping me out; I was getting some use out of Gill, even if it was the next best thing instead of permanent removal. Things were on track, but Murphy’s Law made me wonder when the next derailment was due.

And then I realised something I forgot. With my mind trying to keep up with and decipher what Gill was saying, I’d neglected to ask him about the ice dragon ashe I found, and where it could’ve come from. Regardless, there’d be plenty of time in the future to talk to him about it since he would be here a while. Gill having a career as a dragon hunter made me wonder how many ashes he’d accrued, and what he’d done with them over the years.

Considering the castle was still rather full, it took me less time than I had anticipated to find a spare room, something to be glad for. A couple unicorn staff turned the pair of bunk beds into triple bunks without the ladders, since thestrals can fly to the top and middle bunks.

As dinner crept closer while I worked on my spell, my thoughts bouncing back and forth between everything that was happening, one event kept coming to the forefront: Nebula. I hadn’t heard anything about her for hours, and that was worrying me. Still, I figured she was probably fine. After all, the Royal Palace employed some of the best doctors and nurses in all of Equestria. If a mare went into unexpected labor, there was no safer place to be.

Still, I was worried, telling myself again and again that Nebula was just fine.

She had to be.

22| Bootstrap

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I wished I could’ve stayed nestled under the warm covers of my luxuriously soft comforter well into the morning, followed by a delicious breakfast in bed, then a hot shower with aromatic soaps, and spent the rest of the day enjoying myself an otherwise lazy Sunday without worry. But alas, I only managed a couple hours of honest sleep because I was so worried about Nebula and the baby, my mind running a million miles a minute, thinking up multiple scenarios of what could’ve happened for the worst.

I sat up in bed with a huff, nerves as frayed as my hair. After the moon lowering and a hot shower, I went down to the dining hall for breakfast.

“How’re you holding up, Luna?” Boreas asked as she sat next to me.

“Like my nerves have been stretched out on a loom. Have you heard anything yet?”

“I just woke up for my rounds this morning, so no, but I can check when-”

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Veloce, wearing a big, toothy grin fly in and straight over to me.

“-my rounds if you like?”

“It happened!”

Boreas and I turned to look at Velo.

“I really hope that means what I think it does!” I said.

“Uh huh! Nebula gave birth last night, so Radiant had me come find you after you woke up!”

I practically squeed with delight.

“Oohhh, what does the baby look like?” Boreas said with just as much excitement.

“Calm down, don’t get your tail in a twist,” Velo said. “I didn’t see anything. I heard a lot of shouting and screaming, then Radiant came out looking like she was going to pass out.”

I sighed. “I feel so much better knowing nothing went wrong after what happened.”

“Wait, what happened?” Velo quirked.

“I, uh… I’ll fill you both in later, gonna be a bit busy today. I need to go see a rock about a town.”

“Who, Granite?” Boreas said.

“Yup, so unless anything else happens, have Celestia or Firefly get me.”

“Want me to come with you?” Velo asked.

“Don’t worry about it, you’ve been up all night on shift, so eat up and get some sleep.” Then, to Boreas, “I’ll see you when I get back. Have a good day.”

“You too. Just be careful,” the pegasus said.

“I’ll see you in the evening,” Velo said.

After I went up to my room to get my saddlebags strapped on, I teleported into the front yard of Nebula’s house. Even though the damage was within the realm of being repaired, Nebula, Harvest, and Hayseed wouldn’t be back for a good long while, so I decided to pick up a few extra things for everyone.

I walked through the hole in the door and over its splintered remains, following the hall into Harvest’s and Nebula’s room, then over to the closet. The doors opened with the flick of magic, parting garments which hung on hangers. As per Nebula’s directions, I immediately went for the floorboards, banging around to find one that was loose. Sure enough, the end of one sunk into the floor. Pulling it free, I saw a pair of old, beaten down saddlebags nestled in the crawlspace. Just by lifting them up, the bottom tore open from the meager weight, spilling their contents back into the crawlspace.

I moved the bags out of my view to see a raw, uncut lump of opaque, jet black crystal. Crystallography wasn’t my strong suit, so I put it aside for the moment, then picked through the other items that had fallen out: a dented tin water canteen missing its lid, and a decaying scroll.

Bingo.

I very gingerly unfurled the scroll and found myself studying a star map like the one I sent with Jackal, but vastly different in a number of areas. It had a level of detail that paled in comparison, the kind that would take me at least a month to reproduce at the skill level I had. Unfortunately, the bugs and rot had eaten through a fair bit of the writing, making any attempt at a reproduction nigh impossible.

Using a couple pieces of wood, I sandwiched the unfurled scroll between them, then wrapped it in some torn linen from the lounge. Repeated rolling and unfurling would cause it to crumble. Then, I collected all four items, putting them inside my bags. From there I grabbed Nebula’s knitting, some toys for Hayseed, and a few things for the baby that were left behind. I wasn’t sure what to bring back to Harvest besides his hat. He would want to pick out a few more thing soon since their visit is going to be longer than expected

Satisfied that I had found everything, I took some time to locate some scrap wood, nails, a hammer, and went about jury-rigging a fix for the holes in the door and living room wall before I left to meet Granite at Town Hall.

The worst thing Town Hall had suffered from the diamond dog fiasco was a couple of broken windows which had been boarded up. Other than that, there was minor cosmetic damage. Because the building was practically intact, the ponies whose houses and businesses were ruined had taken to using it as a temporary shelter, and a hub to trade supplies.

Gasps and whispers met my ears when I landed, hooves pointed in my direction. I’m not sure how many of the ponies had a sleepless night, but I could make an informed guess by how bedraggled they appeared. I put on a soft smile as I walked up the main street. For some, my smile and presence put them at ease. For others, they saw right through my attempt at consolation, turning back to dejectedly rummage through the remains of their homes and livelihood. I couldn’t help but sag when they did that; their princesses were supposed to be a beacon of hope, and they turned away like I let them down. It wasn’t entirely untrue either, which made it sting that much more.

I pushed aside Granite’s now-destroyed favourite chair as I walked inside. Up the stairs and down the hall until I got to the door that was hanging open by one hinge. Beyond that, Granite sat at his desk, cradling his hat like a foal, carefully trying to clean the dirt and fix the damage as a cigar burned in the corner of his mouth.

“Knock knock,” I said as I did exactly that, edging the door open further.

“Howdy there, Princess,” Granite said with a nod of his head, exhaling the smoke from his cigar through the broken window. “So what do Ah owe the pleasure this time ‘round?”

“Paying you a friendly visit to see how things are going, and to talk about Powder Keg. He wanted me to pass on a message to his next of kin, and I remember you saying something about remembering every single face that walks through the town.”

“Ah said every face that walks through them doors to Town Hall, but that’s besides the point.”

“Yes, well, can you help me?”

“Powder Keg arrived in town six months before Nebula did, going on twenty-one years ago,” Granite began with a dismissive wave, taking another draw on his cigar. “Never told me, or anyone Ah know of where he came from. Walked into town one day with nothin’ but the saddlebags on ‘is back. Set up the apothecary after a couple months, and has – was - running it and living in Mercy for the last two decades. Well, lived.”

My grimace at that statement turned into a glare when Granite chuckled at his own joke. “So you heard about that?” I said.

He seemed to deflate a bit, staring at the end of his cigar.. “It’s just… As much of a liability he was to the town considerin’ his namesake, Keg’s heart was always in the right place. Kind soul, head in the clouds sotra character.” Granite took another draw to steel his nerves, then tapped the ash. “But to answer your question, all Ah can tell you that he walked into town from the north-west. No idea how Nebula got to Harvest’s farm without passing through town, though.”

“Well, that does give me a starting point, thank you. If you can think of anything else that might be helpful, you know how to get in touch with me” I exhaled a long, stress-filled breath. “If you’ll excuse me, I’ve got more business I need to take care of.”

“Take care, Luna,” Granite said. “Oh! If it’ll help, maybe there’s something left in the remains of Keg’s shop?”

That made me perk up. “That’s… actually a really good idea.”

Once out of town hall, I took flight, thinking on what Granite told me: A lone drifter wandering into town, making ends meet until he had enough money to open and run his own store. The only reasonable north-west route into Mercy went through the Everfree forest. Going through the San Palomino Desert to the west would’ve been a bad decision because of the lack of water, though not impossible. Further north-west and Keg would’ve passed through either the Unicorn Range or Smokey Mountain Highlands, and the farthest he could’ve come from would’ve been somewhere around the North Lunar Ocean. Even further north was the arctic. I doubted he would’ve come from that area, but if Keg knew someone called Tundra, it would make sense.

It didn’t make the scope of my search any smaller, or easier.

I touched down in front of what remained of Keg’s shop a few minutes later. If there was anything at all to indicate where the zebra came from, it would’ve been sent flying half way across town, blown to bits in the explosion, or incinerated in the resulting fire. The building had been completely gutted from the inside out, causing supporting beams to collapse inwards. What little of contents remained consisted of a few burnt books, zebrican artefacts, shrapnel from clay pots and glass jars, and the severely mangled cast iron cauldron that had embedded itself in one of the collapsed support beams.

I began sifting through the bits and pieces to make sure I didn’t overlook anything. All the charred and broken pieces of wood I levitated to stack in the middle of the road, pieces of paper in one pile, as well as shards of clay and glass in another, and so on and so forth. Eventually, I had multiple piles of trash and a completely emptied building interior. My labour bore no fruit, and it seemed the more dead ends I ran into, the more red herrings I was eager to follow in hopes I’d catch a break. During my despondent musings, a gust of wind brushed against my coat, clearing some of the ash from the floor of the shop, prompting my eyes to widen.

A small area of wood in the back right corner of the shop seemed intact from the fire and explosion. I got closer, using a wing to brush away some more dust and ash. No burn marks, scratches, dents, or anything like that. When I touched my hoof to it, it felt significantly cooler than it had any right to be. Using a bit of magic, I lasered a hole three inches wider than the untouched area so I didn’t damage whatever was hidden underneath. After I tossed the chunk of wood off to the side, I peered inside.

My searching was rewarded by a small, steel cube.

Puzzled, I went to pick up the cube, but my magic fizzled before I could get a grip on it. Bewildered, I tried my hooves, but quickly dropped it like it was a hot ember. When I looked at the soft frog of my hoof, there was indeed a burn, but not the kind I was expecting. Frostbite.

“What the hell is this thing?” I wondered out loud. I couldn’t risk touching it, and magic didn’t work, so I used a piece of wood to poke and prod it, turning it over to see if there was some kind of latch or keyhole. Nada. It appeared to be a solid cube made out of some kind of magic-resistant material, welded shut. Someone went to a lot of trouble to keep whatever was inside contained. Firefly or Celestia might be able to open it, but did I want to risk opening a box that was supposed to be sealed shut? It was the only clue I had to find out where Keg came from. Using some torn pieces of burlap, I wrapped up the cube in a thick layer of material so it wouldn’t affect anything while in my bag and started back to the castle, the cold little cube poking me in the side the whole while.

Finally landing on the dais to my room, I entered, opening the main door to the hall, where Boreas and Bastille turned and looked at me.

“Where were you? Celestia’s been looking for you.” Boreas said.

“I was indisposed. Is everything alright?”

“Mostly, though she did want to talk about what happened to Nebula,” Boreas said.

“Well, tell her I’m back. And get me Firefly too. I have something they need to look at.” Closing the door, I removed my saddlebags and upturned them on the desk, letting the contents fall out, carefully unwrapping the cube, but keeping it on the burlap.

I heard a knock on my door, followed by Boreas opening it to let in Celestia and Firefly. Whatever Celestia was about to say died in her mouth when she saw the cube I had on my desk.

“What is that?”

“To make a long story short, I went to sift through what was left of Powder Keg’s belongings when I found this under the floor.” I said. “I thought you two would be the most qualified to open… whatever it is.”

Celestia narrowed her eyes at the object, creeping forward while Firefly remained where she was, wide-eyed and fixated on the cube like she couldn’t believe it existed.

“Somepony sealed something incredibly powerful inside a cube of dark stone, hoping it would never be found,” Celestia said.

“Yeah, Powder Keg. I was hoping it would lead me to his next of kin. Passing on the message he made with his dying breath is important to me.”

“Give me a moment,” Celestia said, and then she was gone with a poof of her magic.

“What do you think it is, Firefly?” I said, looking over at the mare who was as far away as could be. She seemed on edge about something, staring at the cube, but I couldn’t place why.

“I’m not one hundred percent sure,” she said. “Whoever welded the dark stone together couldn’t have used magic, since this much of it in one place would render even your magic useless against it. Looks like it was made in a forge the old fashioned way.”

“Would it be a good idea to open it, then?”

“I would say so. The cube prevents mana from escaping to keep whatever is inside, hidden. Whoever sealed it up didn’t want someone finding whatever is inside, so opening it shouldn’t be a problem.”

Celestia chose that moment to teleport back in, unfurling a rolled up sleeve of tools on my desk. “Now let’s see here,” she began, using a pair of blacksmith tongs to turn the cube over, and a ball peen hammer to tap on each surface. “Pure dark stone. Extremely magic resistant, and equally brittle. Steel alloy tools will crack it open like an egg.”

Firefly and I watched as Celestia went about chipping away a few corners of the cube. Every time a piece fell away, a waft of cold air made everyone in the room shiver. When enough had been chipped away, she pulled out a thick pointed awl, carefully using it to poke around to find a dimple in the metal. Satisfied, she struck the base of the awl with the hammer hard, causing fragments of dark stone to fly out while the bigger pieces fell inward.

Like the axiom of treasure hunting, we all craned our heard over the broken cube to see a small, glowing blue gem that radiated cold magic energy.

“Oh no,” Firefly said anxiously, taking a few steps back.

“What? What is it?” Celestia said. “Have you seen this before?”

“N-not that specifically, but, I… It… It’s a Dragon Ashe, Princesses.”

I cocked my head. “A what?”

Firefly was looking more scared by the minute. “Well, it’s no secret that dragons breathe fire, right?”

“...Right?” I said, urging her to go on.

“Based on what I’ve heard, when a fire-breathing dragon dies, it leaves behind the source of its magic energy: a Dragon Ashe. Extremely rare, almost unheard of, even. Anyone lucky enough to find one could likely buy out this castle from under you.”

“In all my two hundred years, I never thought I’d get to see one of these...” Celestia said in awe, using a different pair of tongs to pick up the jewel. A kaleidoscope of ice suddenly coated the end of the tongs, causing us all to flinch.

“Pray tell, how did you hear of them?” Celestia said.

“Last year, I heard rumours of one in a cave atop a mountain, and me being the pyromancer in my village, I went looking for it. Instead, I got blindsided by a gang of zebra bandits who used it against me.” Firefly shifted her hooves and looked away. “Let’s just say that a fire dragon ashe will burn almost anything it touches, and that one is cold, so it probably came from an ice dragon.”

“Then why would Powder Keg have it?” I wondered.

“I don’t know, but he must have had a very good reason,” Celestia said. “Luna, I’ll look this over tonight and let you know if I find out anything more about it. In the meantime, Radiant mentioned that Nebula asked you to fetch a map of some description. Did you find it?”

“Yes, right, just gimmie a sec…” As Celestia put the ashe back in the box, I pulled Nebula’s old saddlebags closer, upending them on the desk. Gem cluster, old scroll, and tin canteen all fell out.

“This is the scroll Nebula spoke of. It’s a star map, but it’s too weathered for me to make out. Do you think you could help with this too?” I said.

Celestia un-sandwiched the scroll from the two pieces of wood, and held it close for inspection. Eyes flicked over the parchment, narrowed, and then she levitated over a few books from my shelves to flick through briefly. “I can use a bit of restorative magic to make it easier for you to read, but this is more your area of expertise. Just give me a couple hours and I’ll come find you when I’m done.”

“Sure, that’s fine.. I’ll go do… something,” I said.

“Before you go, do you know what that crystal is?” Celestia said, holding it aloft with her magic.

“Not really. Found it in the bags with the other things. Find out what you can, and we can talk to Nebula once she’s able.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Celestia replied, settling down at my desk to get stuck in. “Before you go, could you please finish up the work I was doing in the conference room? There’s no petitioners scheduled for the rest of the afternoon. Just sign off on a few things, then I’ll see you at dinner.”

“Okey dokey,” I chimed in, turning to Firefly. “Anything else you want to add?”

“N-no, Princess…”

“That’s fine, go and enjoy the rest of your day. I’ll see you for your shift tomorrow.”

True to Celestia’s word, when I got to the conference room, there was a small stack of papers and parchment scrolls with a pot of ink and a couple quills laying on the large, oval desk. It took me a bit less than an hour to finish off the work, which was mostly to do with Mercy and where the money to fix the town was coming from. With the gold machine up and running for the most part, we’d begun to accrue a steady trickle of sustainable income to support the castle, its employees and inhabitants, with enough of a surplus to start rebuilding Mercy.

With nothing much to do until dinner with less than an hour and a half to go, I whipped back up to Nebula’s suite to grab the spell I was working on, then went to my room so I could continue working on it. Given how dangerous a black hole could be, I wanted to make sure its life span would last only as long as I’d feed magic into it before reaching critical mass. That would be bad.

As I was putting some small touch-ups to the spell, Celestia teleported in, rolling her shoulders. “I... think I’ve done my best to restore the scroll. It’s dinner soon, so you can start to figure it out afterwards.”

When she gave me the scroll, I saw that, while the holes were still there, a majority of the dirt and grime had been cleaned off, markings were clearly visible, and tensile strength had been restored.

“Thank you, Celestia. I should be able to figure out where she came from with this.”

Celestia raised an eyebrow. “Should be able to?”

“Information is missing because of the holes, and while you can’t restore something that isn’t there anymore, that doesn’t mean I don’t have a good chance. I’m seventy percent sure I can get something useful out of it.”

“I don’t mean to sound disrespectful, Luna, but with Nebula and the baby safe, why is there need for concern?”

“This isn’t just about Nebula and the baby. My point is, somepony did this to her. Somepony put a curse on Nebula and sealed off the first eighteen years of her life.”

“Are you absolutely sure it’s a curse?” Celestia asked skeptically.

“Mmhmm. Magic requires the use of one’s mana, but a curse relies on feeding off of the victim’s mana, and that’s how they last so long. Kinda like a parasitic spell. If the location on this map points to one place in particular, I can cross reference towns or cities in the area, and since this is a high-level memory-based curse, that would further isolate potential casters living in those towns, cities, or whatever.”

“I’m impressed you’ve thought that many steps in advance, Luna.”

“It pays to have contingencies in place. If something goes wrong, backtrack to figure out why. A problem can have many solutions, you just gotta find the right one.”

“Since you seem to have everything under control, I’m going to busy myself until dinner. See you then, sister.”

“Mmhmm, see you at dinner.”

My plan was simple. Create a hard-light rendering of the map, and all of the atlases I had. That was the easiest part, and it only took me until dinner to get that done. After I got some good food in me, I could tackle the tricky part.

Imagine watching a movie, and you have one picture of one frame from that movie. You can pause and rewind as much as you like, and the idea was to match that exact same frame from the exact scene it was from, only I was doing it with a map of the stars. Since I knew how far back I needed to ‘rewind’ them, it was a matter of using a hologram-style spell inside my room to find the geographic location on the map of the country. That was the hard part. With some of the necessary information missing, I couldn’t fully guarantee the accuracy of the end result.

I placed the big map on the floor, and fired a beam of magic at it. The entire floor was covered in a 2D map of Equestria, and then I just needed to-

knock knock knock

Oh goodie, more interruptions. I magicked the door open, and Veloce walked in.

“Hello, Princess, I just came - Oohhhhh, pretty. What are you doing?” she said, staring at the floor

“You have news for me?”

“Yup! Daddy said he needed a couple days to do some recon to. After that, I introduced him to Comet, because he wanted to evaluate the level of the castle’s security against dragons.”

My second pleasant surprise for the day. “Good job, Velo.”

She blinked, taken aback. “So… you’re not going to tell me what I should or shouldn't have done, that I’m supposed to go through you first?”

“Nope. I was probably going to tell you to do something along the lines of what you said anyway. You took the initiative and made that decision for yourself. Your job is using the resources available to you to do your job without always having to go through me.” I then grinned widely and said, “Because of that, I was able to afford the time to work on this spell. Wanna see?”

“Sure!”

My time to shine. And show off a little bit. “Alright, come stand next to me.”

Veloce walked right through the projection of the map over to me. “So, what are you doing exactly?”

I showed her the old, beaten up scroll, fired some magic at it, then, in conjunction with the rest of the maps from the star atlases, I fired a different beam at the roof. From the centrepoint, a purply-black shadow covered the room from top to bottom, even the floor. In the dark space, it was just me, Velo, the floor map of Equestria, and…

“Wow…” Velo breathed.

The stars of the night sky right above our heads.

“What is this?” she said.

“This is what the stars look like right now.” I lit my horn and the stars shifted. “And that was last week…” I did it again. “...that’s last month. Okay, looks like it works right.”

“And the answer to my question…?”

My horn grew brighter, and the stars began to streak across overhead. “Just watch. One year… Two years… Five years… Ten… Aaannnndd, that’s twenty!”

“What happened twenty years ago?”

“That is about the time Nebula’s earliest memories got sealed off. So now I just need to…” I materialised the rendering of the old scroll, holes and all, then floated it up to the ceiling. From there, all I needed to do was just slowly backtrack until I could find a match with the scroll.

Velo, looking on, said, “If that is… Then…”

“What do you notice?” I said.

“My dad would use the stars to navigate on long trips. The north star is missing on the little map.”

That was a very conflicting moment for me. “I’m ashamed to say I overlooked the simplest of details...” With that tidbit, I made the fix, and focused my magic until the north star was overhead.

“Centralised… Loading… One, two… Four, and there!” One by one, the stars blinked to match the map, and at the same time, I was able to fully reconstruct the scroll with the surrounding stars.

“March 22nd, 185AU.” I said. With one final touch, A pinprick of light popped up on the map of Equestria.

“So the marker is outside the crater’s rim, a little over a week away from Mercy,” Velo said. “Seems to fit with the rumours I”ve heard.”

I stared at the map owlishly. “I don’t understand. This was supposed to show the original location from which Nebula teleported, not where she ended up.”

“Try it again?”

I did, with the same result.

“Maybe you’ve got something wrong? Nebula wound up in Mercy twenty years ago, sure, but where was she before that?”

“That’s what I’m trying to figure out. I can only go back twenty years because that’s when her memories got sealed off, and pointless to go back even further. Twenty years from when she arrives in Mercy puts her at the present day.”

Velo kept looking at the map. “Something doesn’t feel right, but I can’t put my not-hoof on it. Anyway, what if you’ve got it back to front?” she continued. “I mean, Nebula told you what happened twenty years ago from her perspective.”

That came out of left field. “You mean that to say that, it could’ve happened twenty years from now?”

“I know it sounds ridiculous, but-”

“It is, but I’ll humour you. Let’s see what happens. Reversing spell… Calculating star positions from known patterns… 225AU, same date.” I looked at the map.

“Wait, what?” That couldn’t be right. I had it back to front. “What is this nonsense?”

“I… I’m just as confused as you are, Luna.”

The map marker showed the Frozen North as Nebula’s point of origin. “How the actual hell did she go from the Frozen North twenty years from now, to inside the caldera twenty years ago?”

“I… I don’t even know what to say...” Velo breathed.

“I did everything right, but something still went wrong...” I dropped the spell and erased all the projections.

“Maybe you just-”

“I did everything I could with everything I have at my disposal, and it still wasn’t good enough. Damn it!”

“What if-”

“We could play the ‘What If Game’ all sodding day, and it still won’t do us any good. Someone out there-”

“Princess!” Veloce said. “Put a sock in it!”

That made me stop and look at her. “Did… did you just tell me to shut up?”

“Yes…. Well, sorta. Listen, maps can be changed, and the stars can change position. Maybe your magic got the position just ever so slightly wrong, who knows? You’ve got most of the information right in front of you, but I’m confident to say you’re looking at it out of order.”

I sighed and rubbed my temple. “Sorry for shouting. I just-”

“It’s fine. Everypony gets frustrated. You just need to cool off and look at it in a different way.”

“You’re probably right, Velo.”

“If I were you, I’d be grateful that Nebula and the baby are okay.”

“Heh, funny. Celestia said the same thing. And don’t get me wrong, I genuinely am thankful, but I’m just beyond confused as to what the hell is going on with her. Nebula is literally missing eighteen years of her life.”

The thestral looked off to the side and rubbed the back of her neck. “Luna, if it’s not inappropriate, could I invite you out with some others? We’re planning on going to the next town over and have a drink. I mean, you don’t have to drink, I just thought-”

“It is a little bit, but I can’t blame you for asking. I could use some down time, truth be told.”

“Ah, heh… Perhaps something a little more appropriate?”

“What might that be?”

Veloce jumped forward and hugged me, just like she did with her dad. She was really soft and that made her super huggable, so I returned the gesture.

“Better?” she said, smiling.

“Much,” I said, sighing with a bit of relief.

“Alright, you wait here and I’ll go grab the others.” When Velo was half way out the door, she turned and said, “You know, I always wanted to hug the Princess Luna!”

“Just hurry up and go get everyone so we can get smashed already.”

She walked off laughing up and down the hall.

23| Dioscuri Equine

View Online

Still in the middle of toweling off my hair from my morning shower, my horn gave a little ping and spark. I left the bathroom and went to open my bedroom door.

“I’ll be right right with you,” I said to Radiant, who had her hoof raised and about to knock. I closed the door before she could say anything.

It’d been two whole days since I accidentally induced Nebula’s labour via violent trauma. I told myself it wasn’t my fault, but in a way, I was wrong. I should have done more research to figure out what was causing the memory blockage. Yet, I couldn’t have known that Nebula would have gotten jettisoned across the room. It was like the spell had an automatic defense. Whoever put that spell on Nebula knew full well what would happen, and I intended on getting to the bottom of it.

All nice and dried, I finished brushing myself down, sighed my troubles away, and then went to open the door to the waiting Radiant.

“How did you–”

“You walked through a low-level barrier I put up that tells me if somepony is coming up the hall. That way I don’t stab myself in the eye with my eyeliner brush if somepony knocks unexpectedly. Again.”

“Well, uh, fair enough. I stopped by because Midni… Midn...” Radiant tried stifling her yawn, she really did, but dear god, the bags under her eyes were basically dragging her eyelids down.

“Radiant, stop for a moment. When was the last time you slept?”

“I uh, t-two da-”

“Go to bed. That’s an order, Doctor. I can’t have you working on any patients in the state that you are. Today’s Friday, I have the weekend to myself, so you can update me on everything tomorrow.”

“But Midnight and Nebu-”

“Are doing just fine, right?” Radiant blinked drearily and nodded, and I sighed in relief. “That’s the best news you could give me right now, and honestly, it’s a weight off my shoulders.”

“But, I, uhm… Okay, Princess. You’re right.”

“Besides, I need to talk to the person that put Midnight in that position, that way I can make sure they’re not going to do anything to anypony else.”

“You talking about Boreas’ father?”

“Yes. Go to bed, Doc!”

“I - I’ll take my leave and get some rest.”

“Take care, Radiant, you did good.”

She smiled, yawned again, and turned to drag herself back down the tower. I was left wondering why she couldn’t have just gotten someone to deliver a message while I finished putting on my usual shoes, tiara, and peytral, then grabbed a pair of saddlebags that I’d put a few things in for Belcusas.

“Where are you going?” Veloce asked when I walked out the door. She looked me up and down, noticing the bags. “Your day off isn’t until tomorrow.”

“Come with me and find out.”

“Yes ma’am!” she saluted. “Bastille, keep watch.”

“Veloce, you do remember that I am your superior.”

“And that’s why the walking fortress should keep the Princesses personal quarters guarded.”

“Hm. A fair point. Carry on, second lieutenant.”

Oof.

I teleported Velo and I to the guarded entrance of the dungeon. The main door was sunk several feet into the masonry, and in case of a breach, a portcullis could be dropped to seal off the corridor that was big enough for the two of us to walk through it side by side. Though I could teleport in and out, I had to follow proper procedure for the most part so the guards knew who was coming and going.

Belcusas looked over his shoulder to me when he heard me coming. “To what do I owe the pleasure?” he grumbled.

“Good news!” i said. “My employee that you had beaten has recovered enough that he can start walking around again, so I figured I’d come down and let you go.” I didn’t know that specifically, but just the fact that he was doing fine was good enough for me.

Veloce did a double-take. “Princess, are you sure that’s a good idea?”

“I’d have to agree with your two-legged friend there. Why would you do that?”

“The most egregious thing you did to anyone in this country that I am currently aware of is what we would call grievous bodily harm. Even if you didn’t take part, you still allowed it to happen.”

Belcusas huffed, then reluctantly sat up to talk to me properly. “I already know what you’re getting at; I’ve done the time that fits the crime.”

Despite the stallion doing dirty by a lot of ponies in his kingdom, and the inevitable fallout from letting him go, I decided to give him a chance. That probably wasn’t the wisest decision after the fact, but unless Celestia or I could charge him for other crimes he committed while within our territory in the past, I really did have to let him go.

“The way I see it, you’ve got two choices, both of which result in you, hopefully, never becoming a problem again. First option is exile from this country. Basically, that involves me pointing you in a direction, telling you to walk, and keep walking, never to be ever seen again.”

“Does the second option involve my expeditious release from this mortal plane?” Belcusas deadpanned.

“Interesting way to put it, but no.” I leaned forward and smiled. “Come work for me.”

That made him pause, leering at me suspiciously. “Why should I want to work for you?”

“Few reasons. I can give you a place to stay, a means to a steady income, a bed, and all castle staff get at least one meal served to them in the main dining hall every day.”

Belcusas looked rather confused at that, like he couldn’t figure me out. “Why… W-why would you do that for me?”

“Look,” I sighed. “I just don’t want you to cause any more problems, doubly so for that misogyny you unashamedly showed off when you challenged me. Simple as that. If you can accomplish that and abide by our laws, then I can start to trust you. And just for clarification, you’re not to go back to your old kingdom. At all. So long as you live.”

He spent several long moments in silence, contemplating my offer.

“Are those... details negotiable at all?” Belcusas finally asked.

I quirked an eyebrow. “I’ll hear what you have to say.”

“Alright, I guess it’s time for me to swallow my pride… I ill take your offer of citizenship, Princess Luna. You beat me fair and square, and showed that you’re not one to trifle with. If it’s any consolation, I shan’t cause you any more trouble.” Belcusas let out a deep exhale. “However, if you want me to work for you, I would ask that you retrieve two items from my old kingdom.”

“Depends on what would you like.”

“My armor and sword. They are irreplaceable to me.”

“For as long as you use them for service to this land and its people, and I do mean all of them, I shall have them to you by the end of the week.”

With a flourish of the keys, I unlocked the cell and swung the door out. “Allow me to formally welcome you to the nation of Equestria, Belcusas. Now, come with me, I’ll show you to your new room.”

That caught him off guard and he balked quite hard. “What?! You got me a room in the castle already!?”

“Yup! Everything I’ve just given you has been for free, you would have been a right idiot to turn it down.”

After we got out of that wing’s dungeon, I started walking towards my tower with Belcusas in tow. Unlike the crowned-owned rooms for distinguished guests on the upper floors, the one I was taking Belcusas to wasn’t exactly big, and was more meant for personal guests.

“Velo, you can go back to your post,” I said.

“Nu-uh, I’m staying with you two. That’s why you hired me, Princess.”

“Velo, I can honestly say that Belcusas is not going to try anything. In the meantime, can you please find Boreas and have her retrieve the armour and sword?” I looked at Belcusas. “Assuming that they aren't under lock and key?”

“No, Boreas knows where they are.”

Veloce sighed. “Alright then. Not like I can go with her because I can walk on clouds…”

After Veloce took off, it was just me and Belcusas. “So, what’s your angle?” he asked as we kept walking through the halls.

“I promise you that I have absolutely no ulterior motive for doing any of this.”

“Hm.” He didn’t say anything else after that thoughtful hum. I wouldn’t put it past him to think otherwise.

At the opposite end of the corridor that lead up to my room, we came to an unassuming door. When Belcusas and I stopped in front of it, he looked up to me expectantly. “Well?” he asked.

From the saddlebags I had on, I pulled out a key attached to a lanyard, unlocked the door, opened it, then stepped to the side and gestured for Belcusas to go in. It was just a basic room with a bed, a desk which had several scrolls on it, and a nice, tall bookshelf.

“I’m honestly not sure what I expected,” Belcusas said as we walked inside.

I put the bags I was carrying on his new bed. “It is rather spartan, sorry that it doesn’t have a private kitchen, but there is a communal kitchen down the hall if you can cook. We serve breakfast for staff in the main dining hall at eight, and dinner at six for anyone that wants. Any questions?”

“Uhm, yeah… Did you know that I would accept your offer? This all seems like it was set up from the beginning.”

“I hoped you would, and I’m just glad you did, because I would hate to waste talent like yours. Oh yeah, I meant to say, nice cutie mark.” It was a cloud with three little snowflakes coming out of it. “Do you make it snow or something?”

“My talent is weather manipulation, and my affinity is ice.” Belcusas pointed at the bags I put on the bed. “What’s in those?”

“The bags are a gift, and contains everything you’ll need to get a fresh start. Some money, a few tools, a water bottle, all that good stuff.” I pulled out a little silver medallion attached to a small length of silk rope and hung it around his neck. “You’ll also need this; it’s a temporary formality, basically proof you work for me until I can get some of our armour and a uniform fitted for you.” I pointed at the several scrolls on the desk. “Citizenship papers, an employment contract, the job description for your position, and a dossier with some intel for the job I’m giving you. Now, I have some work I need to get done, so feel free to have a walk around the castle to familiarise yourself with the place. Go have a fly if you want. Nearest town that didn’t get razed is a two hour flight north-east. Have the scrolls to me by Monday.”

“You just... gave me all of this because I’m working for you, and now you’re giving me free roam to do whatever I want?” Belcusas really was confused, and judging by his demeanour, a little scared. “I’m having trouble figuring you out, and that’s what I don’t like about you; it makes me think you’re up to something.”

I sighed. “I’m not sure what to say that would convince you I’m not trying to do anything to you or for you that isn’t otherwise mutually beneficial for everypony involved. Just don’t cause me and mine any problems, and we’ll get along just fine.

“I just… Look, I get it. You don’t have the best reputation, and you’re wondering why I’m not using that against you.”

I shrugged. “Honestly, I have no reason to. If you have any problems, I’ll be in the throne room from nine-thirty to four today. Breakfast is in thirty minutes; would you like to join me?”

Belcusas’ stomach gave the quintessential growl.

“I’ll show you the way there,” I said. I tossed the key to Belcusas as I started to leave his room. He followed, closing the door behind him and locking it.

I saw him crack an almost imperceptibly small, grateful grin.

It took a few minutes of walking in awkward silence to get to the doors of the dining hall. To my pleasant surprise, Midnight, Firefly, and Ares were all in the middle of eating breakfast as we headed inside and took our seats, with Belcusas sitting next to me.

Something weird was in the air, and before anyone could pass comment about Belcusas, I said, “Somethi—”

Ares grunted angrily. “I fell over in a bog that something had clearly died in, and despite two piping hot baths with soap, I still can’t get the smell out.”

“It really happened,” Firefly said when I looked to her for confirmation. “We were doing our patrol on the incoming roads when someone on their way to the castle was robbed. Ares gave chase, and I had to pull him out of the mud. Thief is locked up. Forty-eight hours, was it?”

“Correct. Good job for both of you, and Ares, for your next bath, put a cup of vinegar and toss in a couple sliced lemons. It’ll help with the smell.”

“Thank you, princess,” he said.

“By the way,” Firefly said as he pointed at Belcusas, “what’s he doing here?”

“He did the time that fit the crime, so I let him out and invited him to breakfast,” I said.

Belcusas looked up to me. “Care to introduce your servants?”

“I ain’t no servant!” Firefly objected.

“Oh, uhm, right. That’s Firefly; resident pyromancer. This is Ares; he can headbutt you into next week. Midnight you’ve already met; he can make you see things that aren’t there. Boreas is probably sleeping in on her day off, Veloce you’ve met, so the only ones left are Bastille with the hammer, and Comet, my captain.”

“Hey, uh, Belcusas!” Firefly said. “Wanna have a fight later?”

“Uh, no.”

“Maybe tomorrow, then?”

“Why do you insist?”

“I still owe you an ass-whooping after what you did to Midnight!”

Other ponies started looking in our direction.

“You do not owe me anything, nor do I owe you. If anything, I should be apologising to Midnight, so put a lid on it!” Belcusas said.

“Why you–!”

“Look,“ Midnight said to Firefly, “you can best believe he and I are going to have some words later. You don’t have to like that he’s here; just ignore him.”

“Excuse me.” Belcusas suddenly got up from the table and hurried through the doors and out of sight. There were multiple whispers and pointed looks in our direction.

I turned and gave Firefly a thoroughly displeased glare. “If you scare off a guest of mine like that again, you best believe you and I will be having a chat. Just remember that you don’t have to talk to somepony you don’t like.”

Her ears flattened against her head, and she sank back in her chair. “I… I’m sorry, Princess. I stepped out of line, I’ll go and apologise.”

“Please do. Just don’t push your luck,” I said.

Despite the rocky start to the morning, the rest of the day went pretty well. Firefly didn’t manage to find Belcusas, but instead a note tacked to his door that he was going to the town I mentioned to buy himself some food. I honestly didn’t blame the guy; all he needed was some time to readjust and to find a place he could fit in.

Come six o’clock, Boreas knocked on my door. ‘“Good evening, Princess!” she said with a smile, walking in with a couple large and packed saddlebags, plus a sheathed sword. “I got the things you asked for.”

“Thank you, Boreas,” I said. “Sooo…” I rubbed the back of my head awkwardly. “Your thoughts about your father working for me?”

“I honestly don’t mind, and I really do mean that. Sure, he’s not the nicest pony I’ve met, but I’ll give you the same benefit of the doubt you gave me.”

I smiled. “Thanks for that.”

Despite her troubles and reservations, Boreas seemed a lot happier than normal. “I’ll be honest, Princess. I’m glad you gave my father the choice you did instead of executing or exiling him. He’s the only family I have left. I don’t like him that much, but… I don’t want to lose him either.” Her visage faltered a bit.

I got up from my desk and went to give Boreas a little hug. “I’m confident you’ll get back at least a few of the years you two missed out on.”

“Yeah…” Boreas perked back up. “That’s good. I’m honestly glad we’re going to have a chance to reconnect.”

We were interrupted by knocking at the door.

“Just a sec, please.” I went over to open the door and was surprised to see who stood before me. “Radiant? I thought I told you to go to sleep.”

“And I did, Princess,” she said. “For a blessed nine and a half hours, and I feel very refreshed, so I came to see you.”

Looking closer, I saw she seemed a lot more well rested and put together than she did that morning. More radiant, dare I say.

“I thought I’d come by to see if you had time to go see Nebula and her little one,” Radiant said, though not with a smile.

“Is everything alright?”

“Yes, but there are a few things I need to say with you and Nebula present. Harvest and Hayseed are there, too.”

“Is it about the anomalous mana readings from the other day?” I asked.

“Yes and no, it’ll be easier if I just show you. Would you mind teleporting us?”

I turned to Boreas, “You can leave all that stuff with me for now. I’ll give you extra pay since you did work for me on your day off.”

“Thank you, Luna!” And with that, Boreas trotted off out the door.

With a brief flash of light, Radiant and I were outside the infirmary before Boreas closed the door.

Radiant rubbed her brow and dragged a hoof down her face. “Sorry, I don’t think I’ll ever get used to being teleported.”

“Sorry, I should have warned you.”

She waved it off. “No worries.”

Radiant opened the door to the infirmary, leading me down a hall, and through one of the doors into a room that had four empty beds lined up against the wall. In the fourth one lay Nebula, who had looked like she’d run a marathon. Even though she looked as beat to hell as one would have expected after going through such a complicated ordeal, I did not expect her to look so utterly drained.

Off to the side, a frazzled and emotionally drained Harvest sat in a chair gingerly cradling a little bundle of blankets as Hayseed looked on with rapt wonder and delight. Both of them looked over to me when I walked in.

“Heeyyyy, Luna,” Nebula said drearily. She sounded like she was doped up on lots of drugs. Fun times.

“Hey, how’re you feeling?” I asked with a half smile.

“Sore, like I pushed out somepony like Bastille.”

I opened my mouth, but Nebula cut me off, “Look, before you say anything, I just want to say no hard feelings. It was just an accident. You couldn’t have known what would happen, okay?”

“I know, it’s just… I…” I sighed. “I was just worried I hurt you.”

Harvest decided to tactfully interrupt. “Hey, Luna, come say hi to little Gemini.” His eyes were bloodshot and misty looking. He looked like he’d been crying for two days straight.

I cautiously crept closer while Radiant stood off to the side, and Harvest folded down one corner of the blanket bundle so I could get a better look.

My heart skipped a beat, a smile formed on my face. I surreptitiously wiped my eyes. “Awwww, she’s so adorable!”

A tiny little Gemini was all wrapped up and fast asleep within the blankets. She had a similar tan coat colour to Harvest’s and Hayseed’s, and it looked like someone took Nebula’s coat colour on a painting palette and accidentally dropped it on the filly. Splotches of black and purple covered half the filly’s face and horn, her shoulders, back, front left and back right legs, and even where her cutie mark would be one day. Even her unusually long and frazzled, otherwise orangey-tan mane had streaks of black and purple through it.

Gemini stirred in her sleep when I got close, blinking up at me as she opened her eyes. That was the real shock.

One green eye, one red eye.

“I had the same reaction, too,” Nebula said. “Radiant said that it’s not unheard of for some foals to be born with different coloured eyes.”

“It’s just a quirk of nature that happens sometimes.” Radiant said. “It's benign, I promise you that.”

I knew that it’s called heterochromia, but did the ponies have that word too?

“Luna, Radiant also has something else to show you,” Nebula said.

I sat up rigidly and looked at Nebula, aghast. “Wait, another one?! Was that what caused the wacky reading, twins?!”

“No, no,” Nebula said with a chuckle followed by a wince. “Would make sense, though.”

Radiant stepped out the door a moment, then wheeled in a large cart, similar to a service trolley in a large kitchen. It had some kind of bulky machine composed of what looked like wires and crystals sticking out everywhere, and tied with twine to keep it from toppling over. It looked like the earlier device to read mana that radiant used, only this larger version looked like it was on steroids.

Radiant must’ve seen the look on my face.

“It’s perfectly safe, I promise you. Just doesn’t have a casing to keep everything in one place.” Then, she proceeded to gingerly take one of the filly’s splotched legs, and put a band around it like some kind of blood pressure monitor. The ring that would’ve gone around an adult unicorn’s horn sat on Gemini’s head with room to spare around the filly’s small horn.

“A different device than the one you used before?” I said.

“Yes, but it gives more accurate mana readings.” Radiant turned towards the device, turned a couple knobs, and two of the three gauges lit up like the fourth of july. They danced around a moment before settling on different positions. “Fifty-eight percent unicorn, and forty-two percent earth pony. Give or take, this machine is only a prototype.”

“Wait… What?” I said.

“Something like that isn’t unexpected. When a unicorn and earth pony like Harvest and Nebula have a foal, it’ll inherit mana traits from both parents. For example, Hayseed could have ninety-eight percent earth pony and two percent unicorn. Then, if he has a foal with a unicorn mare, statistically that baby is highly likely to be a unicorn. Ratios and inherited traits like that tend to dictate if a foal comes out one race or the other, as heavily varied as it is. I just didn’t expect it to turn out like… this.”

Radiant looked at me and sighed heavily before continuing. “That would make more sense if Gemini had a higher ratio of unicorn to earth pony, but she has two completely different types of mana co-existing in the same body. Over thirty years treating ponies and various other races, and this is the first case like this I’ve seen, or heard of, in my entire life. I don’t know what to make of it.”

“Is it something to be concerned about?” I said, looking at the baby.

As Radiant took off the band and horn ring from Gemini, she said, “To be on the safe side, I want to keep an eye on Nebula and Gemini for the next week before I send her home, with follow-up visits bi-monthly to monitor any changes. I need to do some research on what might have caused such a disproportionate distribution of mana. Other than that, she's perfectly healthy, albeit a very unique, little filly.”

Everyone else, for the most part, seemed to take everything in stride as Radiant explained herself. “How do you feel about all this?” I said to Nebula.

“Radiant also treats you and Celestia when you two are sick, right?”

I nodded. “Mmhmm.”

“If you trust her that much, then I do too. Gemini is a healthy little filly, and right now, that’s all that matters to me.” She looked at Harvest and Hayseed. “No, us.”

“Congratulations, Nebula, Harvest,” I beamed. I then lightly booped the too quiet Hayseed on the nose. “How does it feel to have a baby sister?”

He giggled and smiled up at me before turning his attention back to Gemini. “I’m gonna play with her a bunch when she can run!”

“That’s my little big boy,” Harvest said. I could almost feel the pride oozing off of him.

“I’m sorry to cut the visit short, but there’s a lot of work i still need to do. I will come by again when I’m done, okay?”

“Luna, you’ve helped us more than you know,” Nebula said. “You have my sincerest thanks, and I would welcome you back into our house at any time.”

I couldn’t help but blink away a couple tears as I walked over to Nebula, giving her a hug, followed by a small kiss on the forehead. “Nebula, Harvest, and Hayseed. Congratulations on the little addition to your family. I wish you all the best for the future.”

That earned me a raised eyebrow. “A blessing from the princess?” Nebula dipped her head slightly. “I’m honoured. Really.”

“I’ll uh, send in some food for everyone, alright?”

“That sounds lovely. Thank you,” Nebula said.

I tousled Hayseed’s mane softly. “I’ll see you three shortly.”

“You can even hold Gemini when you get back if you want,” Harvest said.

“Now it’s my turn to feel honoured,” I smiled. “I’ll be back soon!” I teleported into the kitchen to ask the chef to send up some wholesome, delicious food to Nebula’s room in the infirmary, then I popped myself into my chair at the dining table before dinner could be served.

“Whew,” I exclaimed with a heavy breath, “they’re okay.”

“Who’s okay?” Celestia asked, looking me up and down. “Did something happen that I should know about?”

I just shook my head and gave a relieved chuckle. “Nah. Nebula had her baby!”

“Oohhh, is it a colt or filly?!” Celestia exclaimed like it was the best thing ever, and let’s be honest, it kinda was.

“An adorable little unicorn filly,” I almost squeaked. “Her name is Gemini.”

“Are both Nebula and Gemini alright after what happened at Mercy? Harvest? Hayseed?”

“Everypony is as good as gold. Nebula is about as beat as you can imagine after what she’s been through lately. Harvest is fine, too, though he seemed a bit emotionally drained. Hayseed had a bit of a scare back at the house to say the least, but he’s been a real trooper despite everything.”

Celestia smiled warmly. It put me at ease. “Thanks to you and your initiatives, as well as the new guard hires, you’ve saved a lot of lives. Not only that, you usurped a king and gave Equestria new territory, dismantled an illegal mining operation, and then turned it into what’s becoming a very profitable endeavour. I’m proud of you, Luna. You’ve done good.”

Despite Celestia’s genuinely warm demeanour and pride for me, I could only manage a half smile. “Yeah…”

“You alright?” she asked.

“I’m fine, I suppose. I’ve just… Having to deal with all of that in such a short time span has left me feeling rather drained, both physically and emotionally. There’s been a few instances where I’ve teleported into my closet instead of my room because I didn’t have a clear head.”

Celestia wanted to laugh at that, I could tell, but instead she said, “There is still a lot of work to do, you know, right?”

“Thanks for the reminder,” I harrumphed.

“What I’m getting at is; I can give you a lighter workload for you to do at a more leisurely pace if that’s how you feel. There’s also a couple other things I’ve got lined up that I’m certain you’ll enjoy doing,” she said with a wink.

That made me perk up slightly. “Oh? Well, I’ll hold you to that. I still have no idea how to track down whoever Tundra is, either.”

“Off the top of my head, I’d check around the Frozen North. Logically speaking, it makes most sense considering the name. And with something as coveted as an ice dragon ashe, it should give you a good starting point.”

“That is true. What leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth is I haven’t been able to put any resources into actually doing so. Not only that, but actually sending resources and somepony to look for somepony else… somecreature… or whatever you want to say, that may or may not be alive.”

Celestia leaned forward and gave me a comforting pat on the shoulder. “I’m sure you’ll find a way. You have proven yourself a bit tenacious lately. You’ll be able to do it, I promise. It’ll just take time.”

“Yeah…” I felt an almost renewed sense of vigour at that, and sat upright. “Yeah, you’re right! I’m one of the most prominent creatures in this entire country! I’ve got connections all over the place! I can do almost anything if I try hard enough!”

“There you go,” Celestia gestured with an upturned hoof. “Feel better?”

I gave a toothy grin. “Perspective is everything with matters like this!”

“Indeed it is! If you’re still feeling drained, why don’t you unwind?”

I blinked at Celestia. “Again? Another day off?”

“Oh no no! I meant that to say that I’ve got things for you to do like I said before, just a lot less strenuous.” She wiped off her muzzle with a napkin, plopped it on her plate, then got up. “Come, I’ll explain what needs doing.”

Celestia teleported off, but since she didn’t tell me where she was going. I just sat there and drank some tea before she reappeared.

“Erm, right. My room?”

“What’ve we got here?” I asked once we finally made it to Celestia’s room. I went over to her desk and peered over her shoulder.

“Those scrolls,” Celestia began by gesturing to a small pile of scrolls, “are financial reports. Expenditures and funding, and so on. They go back six months. This one, however...” She levitated me the one she had open. “Is our projected budget for the next six months.”

That was a lot of money. “Alright, you got my attention. What do you need from me?” I said.

“Right now, we’re mining more gold, metals, and precious gems than we know what to do with, not to mention all the raw ore, rock, and clay we can use for building materials.”

I went bug-eyed. “Holy shit…”

Celestia clapped her hooves together. “So! What I need from you is to speak with the various masons and smiths in the surrounding villages and towns, etcetera, and come up with some building projects. Right now, we’re just one castle on the edge of the Everfree governing the wider Equestria. I plan on changing that.”

I found myself slowly nodding my head in approval. Celestia was effectively giving me free reign on these projects! However… “Let’s not get too ahead of ourselves right now. Sure, the mine is going great, but we don’t know how long it’s going to last. It could run dry in a year, ten, or fifty.”

On Earth, there were a large number of towns that had been deserted after whatever they were being mined for, ran dry. Mine rich in resources gets discovered, build a town nearby to accompany people and workers, mine runs out, and eventually, everyone moves on. Rinse and repeat.

“A fair point,” Celestia agreed. “To ensure we’ve got our bases covered, we should at least try to find a more secure means of income.”

“So, if I’m understanding you right, you want to build something that will attract a wide variety of creatures.”

“Precisely!”

“I’m guessing the long term goal is to create a city, or something like that?” I said.

“Yes, but not quite yet. Start with something small, like a stadium. That would mean we can host tournaments, festivals, fares, markets or bazaars, and it’d even give us a place to train new recruits. Point is this: It’s going to attract a lot of attention, investors, and even more money.”

Celestia was grinning like the Cheshire Cat with dollar signs in her eyes, and I couldn’t help but give a good-natured sigh. I could definitely get on board. “What do you think? Square, rectangle, circle, or oval?” she said.

“How about you leave that up to me? You’ve given me plenty to start with, so now it’s just a matter of compartmentalising everything.”

“Very well, then. I’ll leave you to it. If you don’t mind, I’ll take care of as much of the court side of things as I can, but I will have to send the overflow your way,” Celestia added.

“That… shouldn’t be a problem. Hopefully, anyway. Damn, I still need to hire a secretary or something like that. Anyway, I’ll see you later.”

I teleported back up to my room and grinned like a mad scientist.

There was absolutely no way in hell I wasn’t going to build a stadium like the Romans did. Hosting massive markets and epic tournaments was a great way to start small and aim big, because then it gives Celestia and I good traction to be able to expand into a massive city for every type of creature that wants to be a part of Equestria.

The Evil Paradox

by Alcatraz

Arc I: Genesis

1| Theophany

2| The Puppet Master

3| Counting Stars

4| Beginnings

5| The Hunt

6| Ulterior Motives

7| The North Wind

8| Magna Luna

9| A Town Called Mercy

10| What The Future Holds

11| Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels

12| R'n'R

13| Come Fly With Me

Arc II: The War of Attrition

14| The Oncoming Storm

15| Grand Chariot

16| Heaven and Earth

17| Don't Look Down

18| The Monster Below

19| The Descent

20| The Butterfly Effect

21| Infinite Regress

22| Bootstrap

23| Dioscuri Equine